5 
able to penetrate into, but his pains, his diligence at these set 
times made me think he aimed at something beyond the reach 
of human art and industry. I cannot say I ever saw him 
drink either wine, ale, or beer, excepting at meals, and then 
but very sparingly. He very rarely went to dine in the hall, 
except on some public days, and then if he was not minded, 
would go very carelessly, with shoes down at heels, stockings 
untied, surplice on, and his head scarcely combed 
When he has sometimes taken a turn or two (in his garden) he 
has made a sudden stand, turned himself about, run up y e 
stairs like another Archimedes, fall to write on his desk 
standing without giving himself the leisure to draw a chair 
to sit down upon His brick furnaces, pro re nata, 
he made and altered himself without troubling a brick- 
layer He very seldom sat by the fire 
He never slept in the day time that I perceived : I believe he 
grudged y e short time he spent in eating and sleeping 
His bed maker in a morning has sometimes found both din- 
ner and supper scarcely tasted, which the old woman has 
very pleasantly and mumpingly gone away with 
His thoughts were his books ; though he had a large study 
seldom consulted with them. When he was about 30 years 
years of age his grey hairs was very comely, and his smiling 
countenance made him so much the more graceful.” 
Surely, Dr. Crompton contended, none of the engraved 
portraits of Newton represents the great Newton of those 
years. The conceited, double-chinned Kneller’s of 1710-20, 
give no idea of him. Dr. C. then exhibited an admirable 
engraving by Mr. Oldham Barlow,* of the recently recovered 
portrait of Newton, painted by Kneller in 1689, and asked 
whether it did not fulfil every required condition? Eyes 
capable of penetrating into the heart of things — a brow that 
could measure the universe — a face “full of Godlike reason” 
and in its intensity and force indicating a very beagle of 
* Of Victoria Road, Kensington, London. 
