NEWTON. 
tliat resolution. It is true, the public was 
thereby a gainer; that book, which is in- 
deed no more than a corollary of some pro- 
positions in the first, being originally drawn 
up in the popular way, with a design to 
publish it in that form; whereas he was 
now convinced that it would be best, not 
to let it go abroad without a strict demon- 
stration. 
In contemplating his genius, it presently 
becomes a doubt which of these endow- 
ments had the greatest share, sagacity, 
penetration, strength, or diligence; and 
after all, the mark that seems most to dis- 
tinguish it is, that he himself made the 
justest estimation of it, declaring, tliat if 
he had done the world any service, it was 
due to nothing but industry and patient 
thought ; that he kept the subject of con- 
sideration constantly before him, and wait- 
ed till the first dawning opened gradually, 
by little and little, into a full and clear 
light. It is said, that when he had any 
matliematical problems or solutions in his 
mind, he would never quit the subject on 
any account. And his servant has said, 
when he has been getting up in a morning 
he has sometimes begun to dress, and with 
one leg in his breeches sat down again on 
the bed, where he has remained for hours 
before he has got his clothes on : and that 
dinner has been often three hours ready 
for him before he could be brought to 
table. Upon this head several little anec- 
dotes are related ; among which is the fol- 
lowing. Dr. Stukely coming in accidentally 
one day, when Newton’s dinner was left 
for him upon the table, covered up, as 
usual, to keep it warm till he could find it 
convenient to come to table; the doctor, 
lifting the cover found under it a chicken, 
which he presently ate, putting the bones 
in the dish, and replacing the cover. Some 
time after Newton came into the room, 
and after the usual compliments sat down 
to his dinner ; but on taking up the cover 
and seeing only the bones of the fowl left, 
he observed with some little surprise, “ I 
thought I had not dined, but I now find 
that I have.” 
After all, notwithstanding his anxious 
care to avoid every occasion of breaking 
his intense application to study, he was at 
a great distance from being steeped in phi- 
losophy. On the contrary, he could lay 
aside his thoughts, tliough engaged in the 
most intricate researches, when his other 
affairs required his attention : and, as soon 
as he had leisure, resume the subject at the 
point where he had left off. This he seems 
to have done not so much by any extraor- 
dinary strength of memory, as by the force 
of his inventive faculty, to which every 
thing opened itself again with ease, if no- 
thing intervened to ruffle him. The readi- 
ness of his invention made him not think of 
putting his memory much to the trial; but 
this was the oflfepring of a vigorous intense- 
ness of thought, out of which he was but a 
common man. He spent therefore the prime 
of his age in those abstruse researches, 
when his situation in a college gave him 
leisure, and while study was his proper 
business. But as soon as he was removed 
to the Mint, he applied himself chiefly to 
the duties of tliat office; and so far quitted 
mathematics and philosophy, as not to en- 
gage in any pursuits of either kind after- 
wards. 
Dr. Pemberton observes, that though his 
memory was much decayed, in the last 
years of his life, yet he perfectly understood 
his own writings, contrary to what I had 
formerly heard, says the Doctor, in discourse 
from many persons. This opiuion of theirs 
might arise perhaps from his not being al- 
ways ready at speaking on these subjects, 
when it might be expected he should. But 
on this head it may be observed, that great 
geniuses are often liable to be absent, not 
only in relation to common life, but with 
regard, to some of the parts of science that 
they are best informed of ; inventors seem 
to treasure up in their minds what they 
have found out, after another manner than 
those do the same things who have not this 
inventive faculty. The former, when they 
have occasion to produce their knowledge, 
are in some measure obliged immediately to 
investigate part of what they want ; and 
for this they are not equally fit at all times ; 
from whence it has often happened, that 
such as retain things chiefly by means of a 
very strong memory, have appeared off- 
hand more expert than the discoverers 
themselves. 
It was evidently owing to the same in- 
ventive faculty that Newton, as this writer 
found, had read fewer of the modern ma- 
thematicians than one could have ex- 
pected ; his own prodigious invention rea- 
dily supplying him with what he might have 
occasion for in the pursuit of any subject 
he undertook. However he often censured 
the handling of geometrical subjects of al- 
gebraic calculations ; and his book of Alge- 
bra, he called by the name of Universal 
Arithmetic, in opposition to the injudicious 
