have a transcript of it upon the same condition, he felt himself unable to deny her request.

Notwithstanding this promise Conti, who had always affected to show a particular friendship for Newton, immediately upon his arrival in France dispersed copies of it, and procured an antiquary to translate it into French, and to draw up a confutation of it. This was printed at Paris in 1727; after which, a copy of the translation unaccompanied by the remarks, under the title of Abrégé de Chronologie de M. le Chevalier Newton, fait par lui-même, et traduit sur le manuscrit Anglois,' was delivered, as a present from the printer to the author, in order to obtain his consent to the publication; and, though he expressly withheld it, the whole was, nevertheless, published in the same year.

Upon this, Sir Isaac printed, in the Philosophical Transactions (xxxiv. No. 316.) Remarks upon the Observations made on a Chronological Index of Sir Isaac Newton, translated into French by the Observator, and published at Paris.*

About the year 1722, this incomparable man, then in the eightieth year of his age, was seized with an incontinence of urine, which as supposed to proceed from the stone in the bladder, was deemed incurable. By the help of a strict regimen however, and other precautions which till then he never had found it

Of this paper a French translation appeared at Paris in 1726, with a Letter of Conti's in answer to it. In the same year, likewise, were published in the same city, by Father Souciet, some Dissertations upon the Chronological Index ;' which were answered by Dr. Halley, in the Phil. Trans. No. 379.

necessary to observe, he procured great intervals of of ease during the remaining five years of his life; though severe paroxysms would, occasionally, cause large drops of sweat to run down his face.

Under these circumstances, he was never heard to express the least impatience: on the contrary, as soon as he had a moment's ease, he would smile and talk with his usual cheerfulness. Till this time, he had always read and written several hours in a day; but he was now obliged to rely upon Mr. Conduit, who had married his niece, for the discharge of his office in the Mint.

On Saturday morning March 18, 1726, he read the newspapers, and discoursed a long time with Dr. Mead, his physician, in the perfect possession of all his senses and his understanding; but that night he lost them all, and died without recovering them on the Monday following.

His body lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, and, on the twenty eighth of March, was conveyed to Westminster Abbey, the Lord Chancellor, the Dukes of Montrose and Roxburgh, and the Earls of Pembroke, Sussex, and Macclesfield holding up the pall. The corpse was interred at the entrance into the choir, on the left hand, where a stately monument was erected to his memory with the following elegant inscription:

H. S. E..

ISAACUS NEWTON, Eques Auratus,
Qui animi vi propè divinâ
Planetarum motus, figuras,

Cometarum semitas, Oceanique æstus,
Sua mathesi facem præferente,
Primus demonstravit.

Radiorum lucis dissimilitudines,

Colorumque inde nascentium proprietates,
Quas nemo antea vel suspicatus erat, pervestigavit.
Naturæ, Antiquitatis, S. Scripturæ
Sedulus, sagax, fidus interpres,

Dei Opt. Max. majestatem philosophia asseruit,
Evangelii simplicitatem moribus expressit.

Sibi gratulentur mortales, tale tantumque extitisse
HUMANI GENERIS DECUS.
Natus xxv. Decemb. MDCXLII.

Obiit xx. Mart. MDCCXXVI.

In his own illustrious College, worthy of such a son, beside pictures, &c., was erected in the antichapel, at the expense of Dr. Robert Smith, Master, a most admirable piece of statuary executed by Roubiliac in white marble; representing the Philosopher standing on a pedestal, in a gown of the most graceful drapery, with a prism in his hands, his eyes directed upward in abstracted meditation. The inscription, from the third book of Lucretius, is

Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit.*

Near the foot of this statue rest Cotes, † Bentley,

This statue is well described in the following lines:

Hark! where the organ, full and clear,

With loud hosannas charms the ear;

Behold a prism within his hands,

Absorb'd in thought great NEWTON stands!
Such was his brow and look serene,
His serious gait and musing mien,
When taught on eagle-wings to fly,
He traced the wonders of the sky;
The chambers of the sun explored,

Where tints of thousand hues were stored.'

†The inscription upon this eminent man, who died at the early age of thirty four, and of whom Newton himself pro

and Porson.

Other memorials of him are scattered

over nearly the whole surface of contemporary literature. Mr Pope's tribute is subjoined:

Nature, and Nature's Laws, lay hid in night:
God said, "Let NEWTON be;" and all was light.'
He elsewhere says of the Angels, that they
• Admired such wisdom in a human shape,
And show'd a NEWTON, as we show an ape.' *

nounced, "Ah! if Cotes had lived, we should have known something!" is too elegant to be omitted:

H. S. E.

Rogerus Roberti Filius Cotes
Hujus Collegii S. Trinitatis Socius,
Et Astronomia et Experimentalis
Philosophia Professor Plumianus:
Qui, immatura morte præreptus,
Pauca quidem ingenii sui
Pignora reliquit,

Sed egregia, sed admiranda,
Ex intimis Matheseos penetralibus
Felici solertia tum primùm eruta;
Post magnum illum Newtonum,
Societatis hujus spes altera,
Et decus gemellum :

Cui, ad summam doctrinæ laudem,
Omnes morum virtutumque dotes
In cumulum accesserunt;

Eò magis spectabiles admirabilesque,

Quòd in formoso corpore

Gratiores venirent.

Natus Burbagii,

In agro Leicestriensi,

Jul. x. MDCLXXXII.

Obiit Jan. v. MDCCXVI.

Other Epitaphio-idal Inscriptions were:

Approach, ye wise of soul, with awe divine;

'Tis NEWTON's name that consecrates this shrine!

With regard to his person, he was of a middling stature, and in the latter part of his life somewhat inclined to corpulence. His countenance was pleasing and venerable at the same time, especially when he took off his peruke, and showed his white hair,

And,

That sun of knowledge, whose meridian ray
Kindled the gloom of Nature into day:
That soul of science, that unbounded mind,
That genius which ennobled human kind;
Confess'd supreme of men, his country's pride,
And half esteem'd an Angel-till he died!
Who in the eye of Heaven like Enoch stood,

And through the paths of knowledge walk'd with God:
Whose fame extends, a sea without a shore;

Who but forsook one world, to know the laws of more.'

'More than his name were less-'Twould seem to fear
He, who increased Heaven's fame, could want it here.
Yes: when the sun he lighted up shall fade,
And all the worlds he first found are decay'd;
Then void and waste eternity shall lie,

And Time and NEWTON's name together die.'

Dr. Bentley, also, wrote a Latin inscription for his great fellow-collegian, which will be given at the end of his Life; Thomson inscribed, to the Genius of his dejected Country,' as he would have him called, a poem, for the science contained in which he was indebted to the assistance of a more learned friend and Mr. Hollis subjoined to his fine Mezzotinto print of Newton (now scarce) the following passage from Voltaire's Letter accompanying his Ode sur la mort de Mme. de Bareith :' Les Italiens, ces peuples ingenieux, ont craint de penser. Les Français n'ont osé penser qu'à dernier. Les Anglais, qui ont volé jusqu'au ciel parce qu'on ne leur a point coupé les ailes, sont devenus les precepteurs des nations. Nous leur devons tout depuis les loix primitives de la Gravitation, depuis la calcul de l'Infini et la connaissance precise de la Lumiere si vainement combattue, jusqu'à la nouvelle Charue et à l'insertion de la Petite Verole combattues

encore.