This book, in which a new system of Natural Philosophy was constructed upon the most sublime geometry, did not at first meet with all the applause which it was one day justly to receive. Des Cartes had, at that time, gained full possession of the human mind. His Philosophy was indeed the creature of a fine imagination, gaily dressed in a tempting metaphorical stile; he had given her likewise some of Nature's true features, and painted the rest to a seeming of her likeness; while whatever she uttered appeared to be easily understood. Hence, the world, in general, resented the attempt to awaken them out of so pleasing a dream.

On the other hand, Newton had with unparallelled sagacity pursued Nature up to her most secret abodes; and anxious rather to demonstrate her residence to others, than to point out the way by which he had arrived at it himself, had finished his piece with that elegant conciseness, which justly gained the ancients universal esteem. The consequences, indeed, flow with such rapidity from the principles, that the reader is often left to supply a long chain to connect them. It required, therefore, some time before the world could understand it: the best mathematicians were obliged to study it with care; and those of a lower class durst not venture upon it, till encouraged by the testimonies of the learned. When, however, it's worth be

quoque facta hypothesi. Flinc alienam coacti sumus gerere perso

nam.

Cæterùm latis à Summis Pontificibus contra telluris motum Decretis nos obsequi profitemur!! Ah! imprudent Galileo!

The select portions of the Principia' published at Cambridge in 1765 by Jebb, &c. cum notis variorum, and the late Bishop Horsley's edition of all Newton's works, in 5 vols. 4to. in 1784, ought here also to be mentioned,

came sufficiently known, nothing was to be heard from all quarters, but one general shout of admiration.*

"Does Mr. Newton eat, or drink, or sleep like other men?" said the Marquis l'Hôpital, one of the most illustrious men of the age, to the English who visited him; " I represent him to myself as a celestial genius, entirely disengaged from matter."

In the midst of these profound researches, just before his Principia' went to the press, the privileges of the University being attacked by James II., who had sent a mandamus to admit Father Francis (an ignorant Benedictine monk) to the degree of M.A., Newton appeared among their most hearty vindicators, and was accordingly appointed one of the Delegates to the High Commission Court; where the defence they made was so unexpected, that his Majesty thought proper to drop the affair. After this, he was chosen one of the University-representatives in the Convention Parliament in 1688, in which he sate till it's dissolution.

Charles Montagu, subsequently Earl of Halifax, sat likewise for the first time in that assembly; and, having been educated at the same college, and therefore well knowing Newton's abilities, upon undertaking the great work of re-coining the money, as Chancellor of the Exchequer obtained for him, in 1696, the office of Warden of the Mint. This post enabled him to render signal services to the nation in that important affair; and three years afterward, he was

To this Dr. S. Clarke's version of the Physics' of Rohault, though that author was a Cartesian, did not a little contribute. See his Life.

appointed Master of the Mint, a place worth nearly 1500l. per ann., which he held till his death.

Upon this promotion he appointed Mr. Whiston, M. A. of Clare Hall, his deputy in the mathematical professorship at Cambridge, gave him the full profits of the place, and eventually procured him to be chosen his successor.

The Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris having this year, by a new regulation, agreed to admit foreigners into that Society, Mr. Newton was immediately elected a member.

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In 1699, he edited Dr. Barrow's Optical Lectures,' in quarto.

In 1703, he was chosen President of the Royal Society; and retained that honourable station to the time of his death.

In 1704, he published, at London, his Optics; or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions, and Colours of Light.' He had been occasionally employed for thirty years, in bringing the experiments to a satisfactory degree of certainty. In reality, this seems to have been his favourite invention.

In the speculations of Infinite Series and Fluxions, as also in his demonstrations of the power of Gravity as affecting the Solar System, there had been some distant hints given by others before him: whereas, in discovering that a ray of light was separable into different particles, each having a different refrangibility and a peculiar colour; that rays falling in the same angle of incidence have alternate fits of reflexion and refraction; that bodies are rendered transparent by the minuteness, and opaque by the largeness, of their pores; and that the most transparent body, by great

attenuation, becomes less pervious in all these, which made up his New Theory of Light and Colours,' he was entirely the first inventor: and, as the subject is of the most delicate nature, he thought it necessary to be himself likewise the last finisher of it.

But his assiduous researches for so many years were far from being exclusively confined to the subject of Light on the contrary, they seemed to comprehend all that we know of natural bodies. He had discovered, that there was a mutual action at a distance between light and other substances; by which the reflexions and refractions, as well as the inflexions, of the former were constantly produced. To ascer tain the force and extent of this principle long engaged his thoughts, and after all by it's extreme subtilty eluded even his penetration. Though unsuccessful, however, in his inquiries, he gave the best directions possible for their future prosecution, and furnished abundant matter to animate the pursuit. He has, indeed, laid open a way of passing from optics to an entire system of physics; and, if we look upon his Queries' as containing the history of a great man's first thoughts, even in that view alone they must appear highly entertaining and curious.

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He was most anxious, that their true meaning should be rightly understood; which was, to furnish motives to farther investigations, without presuming to determine any thing themselves: and, when Dr. Freind, a few years afterward, published his Lectures in Chemistry,' and in explaining the phenomena of chemical experiments assumed that attraction as a principle which in the Queries' was only started as a conjecture, Newton complained of the circumstance as an injury. Upon the same account, in the

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advertisement prefixed to the Optics,' he expressed a desire that the volume might not be translated into Latin without his consent; and, when Dr. Clarke (who, to prevent others, immediately undertook it with his approbation) presented to him the manuscript, he was so much pleased with it's elegance and fidelity, that he gave him 500l. in acknowledgement of his service.*

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The first edition of Newton's Optics was accompanied with his 'Quadrature of Curves by his New Analysis;' to which he subjoined An Enumeration of the Lines of the Third Order,' both comprehended under the following title, 'Tractatus duo de Speciebus et Magnitudine Figurarum Curvilinearum.' This was the first appearance, in print, of his Method of Fluxions. It was apparently finished upon the plan of his original intention in 1671. He had declined at that time to publish it, on account of a controversy, and it unfortunately proved the occasion of drawing him into one at present.

In 1705, Queen Anne conferred upon him the honour of knighthood.

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In 1707, Mr. Whiston, by his permission, published his algebraical lectures, under the title of Arithmetica Universalis, sive de Compositione et Resolutione Arithmetica Liber:' and from this edition it was translated into English by Mr. Ralphson.†

* This translation was printed at London in 1706, and as a second edition of the original with improvements appeared in 1718, re-printed in 1719. Mr. Peter Coste translated it into French from the second edition, in two volumes, 12mo., which were again published at Paris in 1722.

† A second edition having been printed by the author with improvements, under the care of Mr. Machin, Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College and Secretary to the Royal So