CH. XX. DEATH OF NEWTON. 171 



known to mankind ! He loved to seek out new laws, but he 

 was more anxious to collect facts and to make sure that he 

 was right, than eager to publish his conclusions. It was the 

 truth he loved, and not the fame which it brought. His 

 patience and perseverance were unbounded ; he was never 

 in a hurry, but turned a subject over and over in his mind 

 for years together, seizing upon every new light shed upon 

 it, and waiting patiently for more. And through all his 

 lal)Ours he looked reverently up to the One Great Light 

 whose guiding power he loved to trace and to acknowledge 

 in all the wonders of the universe. He died in 1727 at 

 eighty-five years of age, and was buried in Westminster 

 Abbey, his pall being borne by the first nobles of the land. 



Chief Works consulted. — Newton's 'Optics,' 1721 ; Ganot's 

 •Physics;' Rossiter's 'Physics;' Brewster's 'Encyclopaedia,' art. 

 * Optics ; ' Herschel's ' Familiar Lectures.' 



