Since one of the most celebrated
Historians of Antiquity doubted
wether it was worth while to
write an account of the Roman
Empire, even when it was at
the highest pitch of its glory;
it may perhaps be thought a
waste of time, &a low a dry and
unaffecting employment to compile
the life of a private man, spent
in speculation, & in the exercise
of those silent virtues wchwhich,
however delightfull to the
possessor, afford but little
entertainment in the description,
& are not so apt to enterta strike
a vulgar reader as the
tumultuary scenes of pomp &
action. But sure I am or it is highly probablethat
if he who makes the subject of
the present discourse had flourished
in those times of wchwhich he has left so valuable a treatise,
his life would probably have made as
shining a figure in the works
of the famous Biographer as
the greatest Heroes, with this
only difference that it would
not have been so easie to have
found a Parallell for since that
author told his Imperial Pupil
had he thought his relation of
the exploits & actions of the
Greek & Roman Captains but
an imperfect because
Fortune had so great a share
in them, & therefore added a
distinct treatise of their sayings
& speeches thought he had given but an imperfect Idea of the Greek & Roman Captains by the recitalreciting of their military actions & exploits in wchwhich fortune had so great a share because Fortune so often turns the Die of war & therefore addressed to his Imperial pupil a distinct treatise of their speeches & discourses as the more sincere and true picture of virtuous agents beingsthe productions of their understanding mind as the more true & lively image of their better part; it is not to be
imagined he would have omitted
to deliver down to Posterity some account of such
sublime productions dis discoveries as do
honour to Humane Nature, &
of wchwhich the Inventor might have
said without vain glory
In these Fortune had no part.
And But Why should not the mind of
man be as well pleased in
tracing the progress of Reason
in one of our own species &,
in contemplating the heigth
of knowledge, that particle of
Divinity or it it is capable of attaining,
as in following a Conqueror
throuthrough a field of blood & confusion.
A life wchwhich was one continued
scene series of studymental labour, patience
humility temperance meekness
humanity beneficence & piety & piety
without any tincture of vice,
exhibits an example wchwhich is
more universally beneficial beneficial &
imitable & beneficial than the
atchievements of a Cesar or
the triumphs of an Alexander.
Nor can it be thought unbeco
ming What can be more becoming an intelligent being,
than to enquire into the increase of Natural discoveries & the enlargement of the our powers, to consider the various revo
lutions in the Com̄mmonwealth of Knowledge the Period of one Hypothesis System &
the rise of another; a new Theorya new system to inquire into the increase of Natural
discoveries & the inlargement
of the powers of our species mankind; to
follow travell with those speculative Conque
rors who have extended the
limits of humane science & opened new
worlds to our understanding;
& to pay a due homage &
reverence to the great Deliverers
who freed mankind us mankind from the
bondage darkness of ignorance of Error & Ignorance.
ThouThough wee should look around the present
age & even go far back into the past, difficult would it be to find
an instance of a more exalted
virtue, or of one who penetrated
farther into the works of the
Divine Author of Nature or and laid
a more
lasting & universal Empire in
Philosophy than as SrSir Isaac Newton.
He was born upon Christmas
day in the year 1642, near
three months after the death of his Father 5 so that he is another instance
of the an accidental observation which has
been often made, tho without tho it can have no foundation in reason or the nature of things that posthu
mous children Mahomet – {vide } frequently prove
most extraordinary persons, [nor
will the remark be of less
weight, if with the names of
Cesar & Nassau that of
Newton be hereafter cited
upon this occasion] or [& does not add less weight to the observation than Cesar & Nassau]
Is not this paragraph better left out?[That there may be no contention
hereafter
the birth of this Homer of
Philosophy, let me take notice that] He was born at the
Mannor house of his family
at Wolstrope in the parish of
Costerworth in the County of Lincoln wchwhich lies six miles South of Grantham, in the great road
from London to the North, it
lies on the West side of the
valley of the River Witham in a very wholesome air & beautifull country 6 which rises near it, it has
a fine prospect Eastward, the
air is in a very wholesome air & the
country about it beautifull.
The Mannour of is of a considerable
extent & holds court Leet
& Court Baron & by the
copies of the Rolls appears
to have been for many gene
rations in the family of
the Newtons, who stiled
themselves Lords of the Mannour
of Mortimer in the parishes
or precincts of Wolstrope &
Costerworth in the Soak of
Grantham in the County of
Lincoln. SrSir Isaac was descended
from the elder branch of the
family of SrSir Iohn Michael Newton
BarttBaronet & KtKnight of the Bath. The com̄mmon Ancestor
to them both was Iohn
Newton of Westby in the
parish of Basingthorp in 7 the County of Lincoln whose
forefathers came thither from
Lancashire. He had four sons
Iohn Thomas Richard & William;
Iohn the eldest who died in
1553 X was SrSir Isaac's Great
Grandfather's father, he bought
an estate at Wolstrope of
Michael Newton of Kirk Stoke
in the same County & removed
his children from Westby thither,
where his posterity have
continued ever since. William
the youngest was SrSir Iohn
Michael Newton's Great Grandfather's
father & went from Westby to
Gunnerby in the same County
where he (married the widow
of Richard Hicson of that place,
whose son by her first husband
left his half brother Thomas
Newton a very considerable
estate in land, wchwhich) laid the 8 foundation of these great
possessions that are now so
worthily enjoyed by that family,
& to a great part of wchwhich SrSir
Isaac Newton would haue
been heir at law if SrSir Iohn
Michael Newton's Grandfather had died
without children. I haue
not dwelt so long on this
article out of a vain & false
notion that the advantage of
birth can could add any glory to
SrSir Isaac Newton, but to do
justice to the honourable
family who are of the same
blood with him, & to whose
name he has given a dignity
& lustre above the proudest
titles, & a duration wchwhich does
not depend upon a frail &
precarious succession.
His mother was Hannah
the daughter of Iames Aiscough 9. of Market Overton in the County
of Rutland; a family formerly
of great consideration in those
parts [one of wchwhich built great
Paunton steeple, a curious
fabrick between Grantham &
Colsterworth where was the old
Roman city Causennis] Her
mother was of the antient
family of the Bliths of
Stranson in the County of
Lincoln
she was on both sides of a
fair & honourable extraction
but what was of much more
consequence to her son, she
was a woman of so extraordi
nary an understanding &
virtue & goodness that those
who beleive the Tradux animæ
& can think that a soul like
SrSir Isaac Newton's could be
formed by any thing less than 10 the immediate operation of a
divine Creator, might be apt to ascribe to her some many of those extraordinary qualities with wchwhich it was endowed – to ascribe it to her. She continued a widow several years & employed her tme in educating her son & dispensing around her little province the widow's mite of those Christian offices of humanity & benevolence wchwhich in country retirements make a whole neighbourhood happy ** or and & send up to heaven an odour of sweet smell at the same time that they warm & cherish all within the reach of their influence — & at the same time that they cherish & warm all within the reach of their influence, send up to heaven an odour of sweet smell [& a sacrifice, wchwhich from such hands is as acceptable & well pleasing as the Hecatombs of Princes] Her amiable character induced Mr Barnabas Smith, who was rector of North Witham near Wolstrope & had lived unmarried till he was turned 11 of fifty, to send a neighbour to make proposals to her: thouthough she had no reason to distrust her own strength & prudence, she would not treat with him personally, upon a concern where the often fallin wchwhich passion generally bears so great a sway, but referred him to her brother Aiscough who was Rector of Burton Cogles in Lincolnshire. Mr Smith besides his Rectory had near £500 pr anm.per annum in land wchwhich are luxury was carried wchwhich in those days was a plentifull estate, so that Mr Aiscough soon signified his approbation of so advantageous a match, but she would not consent till Mr Smith had previously settled some of his land upon her son Newton; or leave this out[wchwhich was] a strong instance of the care & love she had of her son by her first husband, the reverse of wchwhich is too often seen in widows upon such occasions
12
She lived with had one son & two daughters by Mr Smith and lived with him at North Witham till the year 1689 when he died & then she returned to Wolstrope. In the year 1689 her son by Mr Smith was taken ill at Stamford of a malignant feauer & she went thither to attend him, he recovered, but she out of her great tenderness changing beds with him caught his distemper & died. [She left by Mr Smith one son & two daughters Benjamin Mary & Hannah. Benjamin married BishopMary was married to Tho.Thomas Pilkington
13
Hannah was married to Rob.Robert Barton a younger brother son of the Bartons of Brigstock in Northamptonshire who had possessed a considerable estate there several hundred years, he was nearly related to the Earl of Rockingham the Lord Griffin SrSir Ieffrey Palmer & many other honourable families in that neighbourhood, SrSir Isaac's half brother & sisters left several children, eight of wchwhich were living at SrSir Isaac's decease & inherited his personal estate] The children by Mr Smith did not lessen the love of SrSir Isaac's mother for him, for thouthough she was an indulgent parent to them all, & gave so fatal a proof of it in one instance, SrSir Isaac was always deservedly distinguished 14 & when she died had much the greatest share of her real & personal estate, wchwhich together with his paternal inheritance enabled him not only to follow his studies & indulge his insatiable passion of searching thoroughly into the works of Nature by making experiments upon all the varieties of matter, but to exercise early that disposition of charity & liberality wchwhich he gratified so abundantly in his latter days. Since Plutarch angry with for not the name of the mother of 5. b. Plut. p. 266 that standing pattern of Biography seems to complainscomplain of those who omitted to tell Posterity to record to tell Posterity the names of the Mothers of Nicias & Demosthenes Phormio Thras Cullis & Theramenes & highly com̄mmends Plato & Antisthenes for recording & observes that Plato & Antisthenes did not think it below them to record the names of the preceptor & nurse of Alcibiades, I flatter my self I shall be excused 15 for taking this notice of her who gave birth & education to one, about whom in aftertimes some perhaps may be as curious & inquisitive as Plutarch that author Plutarch tells Cato's plays when a boy 443. 6. b was about his countrymen; & hope that the precept & practice of that great author that inimitable standing pattern of this kind of writing will justify countenance my descending upon other occasions into particulars wchwhich might seem minute & trivial if they were not supported justified by such an authority & such a subject.
SrSir I. N. told me he had often heard from his mother that when he was born he was was so little they could have put him into a quart pot, not above half the bigness much below very much less than below the usual size of children & so unlikely to live that two women who were sent to My lady Packenham at North Witham a neighbour for something 16 for him sate down on a stile by the way, & said saying the one to the other the one to the other they need not make haste, for the child would certainly be dead before they could get back. He for some time wore a bolster round his neck to keep support his head upon his shoulders –
This weak & unpromising habit of body in his first infancy he had in com̄mmon with Des-Cartes Father Paul Mr Pope & many other of those superiour Geniuses mortales Inventors * who are strong instances of the ill policy as well as inhumanity of that barbarous law of Lycurgus wchwhich seems calculated rather for the brute creation than a society of reasonable beings & would have deprived the world of so many extraordinary lights wchwhich have proved of the greatest service & ornament honour to their countries [as if the extraordinary portion of spirits wchwhich animates such forward souls overpowered & oppressed the young matter & soft tender substance wchwhich cloathes them.] SrSir Isaac went to two little day schools at Killingworth & Stoke till he was 12 years old & then was sent to Grantham where he boarded with Mr 17 Clarke an Apothecary – The school had then about 80 scholars & was under the care of Mr Stokes who was excellently well qualified for such a province not only by his learning but by a benevolent heart & a large share of natural affection wchwhich made him look upon his scholars as his own family, [& take a pleasure in all the wearisome offices of that laborious function] or & make all the wearisome offices of that painfull function a labour of Love – stet. SrSir Isaac was placed in the lowermost form & continued very negligent till (as he often told me) the following accident incident reclaimed him. When he was the last in the lowermost class but one, the boy next above him as they were going to school, gave him a kick inon his belly wchwhich put him to a great deal of pain, as soon as the school was over 18 he challenged the boy to fight, & they went out together into the Church yard, [the school master's son came to them whilst they were fighting & clapped one on the back & winked at the other to encourage them both.] stetThouThough SrSir Isaac was not so lusty as his antagonist he had so much more spirit & resolution that he beat him till he declared he would fight no more, [upon wchwhich the school master's son bad him use him SrSir Isaac treat the other like a Coward & rub his nose against the wall & accordingly SrSir Isaac pulled him along by the ears & thrust his face against the side of the Church.] Not content with this bodily victory he could not rest till he had got above him in the school, & thouthough before he never minded 19 his book (as you may beleive said he, by my being the last in the form) he from that time began to follow it with great application, he had several contests with his adversary, got his place & lost it again & then retrieved it again, till at length he not only kept his ground over him but continued rising till he was the first in the school. This which is a very particular instance of the truth of that saying of the Poet that there is some foundation for the maxim Vexatio dat intellectum; Wee must be irritated & stirred before wee can feel or know our own strength of soul as well as body. Resentment first rowzed this great spirit, & Emulation that inward spring wchwhich operates with so much more violence force than the faint impulse of tame instruction 20 [urged thisthe young Athlete to give upon upon this in this sphere humble scene an early omen of his future triumphs upon a higher another theater] or. [not only urged the school boy to gain a compleat victory in this humble scene but was the first occasion of his exerting & improving those faculties wchwhich afterwards upon a higher Theater carried the Philosopher beyond all that had gone before him & far out of the reach of any competition] He soon made himself Master of his Pen, & not only wrote variety of hands some samples of wchwhich are still in the family being but made a good proficiency in ✝ drawing ✝ in an old pockett book in wchwhich he has writt his name & the date of the year 1659 there are several rules for drawing & making colours ——, wchwhich he learned as he did every thing else, by dint of his own inclination & by observing nature. The wall of the chamber where he lay at Grantham was a few years ago still full of figures of birds beasts men & ships well designed, & several persons remember many of his drawings both from pictures & the life, particularly the heads of K. C.King Charles the 1st Dr Donne & his worthy schoolmaster Mr Stokes. His natural 21 curiosity & inquisitive temper put him upon observing the composition of the medicines & the whole business of the shop where he lived, wchwhich gave his mind the first turn to Chymistry & an early inclination to that mistress [wchwhich jilts so many but proved a convenient handmaid to him in his other great designs] or [wchwhich he courted afterwards with so much success & wchwhich proved so convenient a hand maid to him in his other great designs –. If ever he entred into the usual sports of his companions it was with a farther view than the meer mechanical part of them & he exercised his mind at the same time with his body, the following instance of wchwhich he often told himself He used to say one of the first experiments he made was on the day of the great storm when Oliuer Cromwell died (at wchwhich time SrSir Isaac was entred into his sixteenth year) he jumped first with the wind & then against it & 22 measuring his leap both ways & afterwards comparing it with his leap in a calm he, by a sort the of rule of three computed the vis of the storm; * * & when his companions seemed surprized at his saying that wind was a foot stronger than any he had known before, he would carry them to this place & shew them the measure & marks of his several leaps ☉ ☉ but this cast turn of mind appeared much more eminently in his strong propensity to mechanicks wchwhich was his first passion & favourite inclination amusement. & favourite amusement. Mrs Vincent who was daughter in law to Mr Clark at Grantham where SrSir Isaac boarded & lived lodged & boarded lived there in the same house with him several years & is still living died but lately sayssaid he spent most of his time when out of the school in making knick knacks & models in wood of several kinds, for wchwhich purpose he had got little saws hatchets ham̄mmers & a whole shop full compleat sett of of tools wchwhich he used handled with great dexterity; he would often make 23 little tables & cupboards & other and utensils for her & her play fellows to sett their babies & trinkets upon, nor was he less usefull to his schoolfellows making for whom he made lanthorns of crumpled paper & Kites, he was particularly very exact in setting the proportions of the latter & finding out the proper places where the strings were to be fastened. * in He already began to search out & observe & observing what form body or curve would find the least resistance from a fluid the air in a fluid Mrs Vincent remembered particularly a cart he made with four wheels in wchwhich he would sit & by turning a windlass or capstern about make it carry him whither he pleased xx Hannover 10. Decr.Decembre 1716. MonrMonsieur Leibnitz a travaillé pendant toute sa vie a inventer des machines qui n'ont pas reussi. Il a voulu faire une espece de moulin a vent pour les mines un carrosse qui tire sans chevaux &c —
The Abbot Conti says in one of his letters to SrSir Isaac from HanrHanover after Leibnitz's death that he imployed himself to the last in makeing such machines without bringing any of them to perfection. Fontenelle in his Eloge says the same thing.
24
He was very diligent in observing the shadows of the sun in the yard of the house where he boarded, & used to drive pegs against the wall to mark the hours & half hours, wchwhich by degrees he made so exact that the family generally consulted Isaac's Dial as it was com̄mmonly called; is this not as well left outeven to the time of his death he retained this custom of making observations in the rooms he cheifly used where the shade of the sun fell, & when he had an opportunity of doing that hardly ever looked upon his watch. For within doors he made a water clock out of an old box, it was four feet high & of a proportionable breadth, it had a dial plate at the top with figures of the hours, the index to wchwhich was 25 turned by a piece of wood wchwhich either fell or rose by the dropping of the water, this stood always in the room where he lay & he took care every morning to supply it with it's proper quantity of water, it was left in the house long after SrSir Isaac went to the University & is still talked of at Grantham I find in a little paper book wchwhich he used when at school a rule for making such a Clepsydra. & Gassendus in the short History of Astronomy before his life of Tycho Brahe takes notice, that the first steps & advances made towards it by the Chaldæans & Egyptians were the measuring the motions of the heavenly bodies by the droppings of water 26 & by the shadow of the Sun, so that SrSir Isaac by a natural instinct impulse fell in his childhood upon the same rude rude methods wchwhich were taken by the first inventors of Astronomy in the infancy of that Science; he began where the art it self did, but made a much swifter progress, [& by the discoveries of a few years contributed more towards bringing it nearer perfection than had been done by the united labours of many all the ages before him.] A new windmill happening to be sett up near Grantham SrSir Isaac's imitating spirit was soon excited & by frequently prying into the fabric of it whilst the workmen were about it he made such a model as of it wchwhich was allowed to be as clean & curious 27 a piece of workmanship as the original, he would sometimes sett it upon the top of the house where he lodged, & cloath it with sail cloth so that the wind would readily take it & he had contrived the inside in such a manner that he could make a mouse turn it; sometimes by tying a string to the tail of the Mouse & pulling it, the mouse would go forward by way of resistance in a sort of turnspit wheel & so make the Mill go, & at other times he would put a little corn above the Wheel & the mouse would turn the one wheel by endeavouring to get at the other corn, he called the Mouse his Miller & would joke upon [his eating up the corn]. or upon his taking more than his toll. Thus early did this Father of experimental 28 Philosophy make even his sports & amusements subservient to that great design, betimes accustom & habituate his nerves & muscles to correspond & keep pace with his imagination, & form a pliableness & activity in his corporeal organs at the same time that he unfolded & enlarged the faculties of his soul. The Author of that excellent work the History of the Royal Society observes that when Plato enjoined his Scholars to begin with Geometry, he designed they should handle material things & grow familiar with visible objects before they entred on the retired speculations of more abstracted sciences; a lesson wchwhich SrSir Isaac put very soon in practice He very soon put in practice the lesson wchwhich Plato gave his scholars to begin with Geometry handle material things & grow familiar with visible objects before they entred on the retired speculations of more abstracted sciences, and trained up & prepared his mind – 29 he began to train up & prepare his mind for intellectual discoveries by making mechanicks & sensible substances the subject of his first studies & observations, & from marking the shadow of the sun on a wall & poizing a paper Kite in the air & contriving a clock & a mill, raised at length his thoughts to measure the heavens & to weigh the Sun & the Planets as it were in scales & the Sun, in a balance, Isaiah – c - 40 - v - 12 - & to unlock & disclose all the secret springs & wonderful mechanism of the vast Fabrick of Nature. When SrSir Isaac had been about 4 years at Grantham school his mother took him home to try if he would follow country affairs & the 30 manage most of his own estate & for that purpose put him under the care & instruction of a trusty & intelligent servant. It has often been observed that there is a biass in Nature wchwhich determines men to follow that wchwhich they are most capable of, * or That happy abundance of animal spirits [the same vivida vis] wchwhich qualifies the soul to arrive at any excellency, bends & directs all it's faculties to the pursuit of that perfection for wchwhich they are peculiarly adapted, & it is no wonder a mind so vigorous & aspiring as SrSir Isaac's was not to be kept under or diverted from it's proper objects by so low an employment. When any business called him to Grantham he would leaue the 31 servant to manage what was to be done & slip away to his old lodging & entertain himself there with a book till it was time to return home & instead of over looking the corn or cattle or giving directions giving directions about any work that was going on forward in the farm he would sit under a tree with a book, or go to a running stream & make wheels in imitation of over & undershot mills & many other Hydrostatical experiments, wchwhich he would often be so intent upon as to forget his dinner. His Governour soon gave up all hopes of one who was so extravagantly idle as to neglect his meals & made frequent complaints of his pupil, but his old Master 32 Mr Stokes who knew his worth pressed his mother not to bury such hopefull talents but to fitt him for the University in wchwhich he was seconded by Mr Aiscough who easily prevailed to haue him sent again to Grantham school. for His Genius He now began to mount upwards apace & to shine out with more strength, he & as he told me himself excelled particularly in making verses verses * * that * wchwhich is generally the first blossom of a fine Genius as he told me himself with some sort of pleasure wchwhich I took the more notice of his mentioning this particular because in his later days he often expressed a contempt a dislike of for Poetry, ⊛ ⊛ not unlike Plato who thouthough he had addicted himself to Poetry in his younger days would not in his serious years allow even Homer a place in his Com̄mmonwealth – 5. Vol. of Cicero's Epistles p. 625 – – nor is it a wonder can it be wondered that one who for so many years had used accustomed his mind 33 to reject all Hypotheses & admitt nothing but truth & demonstration should contract a distaste for [those the productions whose very essence of Fancy & Fiction]. or the productions of Fancy & Fiction – In everything he undertook he discovered an application equal to the pregnancy of his parts & exceeded the most sanguine expectations his master had conceived of him; Therethere is a tradition at Grantham that when this favourite disciple was to leave him the good old man with the pride of a father put him in the most conspicuous place in the school & with tears in his eyes made a speech in his praise to excite the other boys to follow his example; well might he have applyed applying to him that passage 34 in Virgil I decus I nostrum. Mr Aiscough had been himself of Trinity College in Cambridge & Dr Babington who was uncle to Mrs Vincent & whose friendship SrSir IsaacIsaac's mother could depend upon was then a senior fellow there wchwhich determined her SrSir Isaac's mother to send him to that University & College where he was admitted the 5th of Iune 1660 being then in the 18th year of his age. Having now brought him out of the shade & obscurity into an open Horizon & a more spacious field; Let me before he takes his rise & soars to those heigths where so few can follow him, stop a while to consider how far others had gone before him, what glimmering rays glimpses lamps were held out to light him he had to 35 light him [throuthrough those myriads of worlds wchwhich he travelled over] What ground was given him to stand upon [whilst he turned the spheres & unravelledlaid open all the motions of the Universe] & where he had no guide, found no place to rest the soal of his foot upon, but was rapt carried upwards by a divine Energy, into throuthrough the boundless expanse of Nature, the frame of wchwhich it had not from the beginning entered into the heart of man to conceive – –
Here follows a state of Philosophy & an account of the prevailing notions of the Mundane System, Comets, the Moon Tides Colours &c before SrSir I N discovered
Boyle – Harvey Wren &c
discoveries
36)
Having given this retrospect of the prevailing Hypotheses wchwhich prevailed before SrSir I. N. appeared – Let me now proceed to shew how soon he struck out new paths & with what Giant Steps he advanced to those heights where Philosophy now stands ——