SIR ISAAC NEWTON. THE principal entrance into the choir of Westminster Abbey is decorated with two stately monuments, of which, the one to the left hand commemorates the illustrious Newton. Upon an elevated sarcophagus is placed a recumbent statue, with the right arm supported by four thick volumes, which are inscribed DIVINITY, CHRONOLOGY, OPTICS, PHIL: PRIN: MATH:; and with the left arm pointing to a scroll, which is upheld at his feet by winged cherubs. The back ground is occupied by a lofty pyramid, near the apex of which projects a large globe, traced with the course of a comet, which appeared in 1680. Upon this globe is a figure of Astronomy; and along the front of the sarcophagus below, appears a basso-relievo, emblematical of the various discoveries for which Newton has become celebrated. Among these, a representation of the sun weighed in a steelyard, has been commended for ingenuity by the admirers of a curious idea. A Latin epitaph is cut upon the pedestal, which may be thus translated: * Here is Buried ISAAC NEWTON, Knight, Who, by a strength of mind almost divine, * H. S. E. ISAACUS NEWTON, Eques Auratus, Planetarum Motus, Figuras, Cometarum Semitas, Oceanique Estus, The Paths of Comets, the tides of the Sea, And, what no other scholar had previously imagined, In his expositions of Nature, Antiquity, and the Holy Scriptures, He vindicated by his Philosophy the Majesty of a God mighty and good, And expressed the simplicity of the Evangelist in his manners. Mortals rejoice That there has existed such and so great AN ORNAMENT OF THE HUMAN RACE! He was born on the 25th of December, 1642, and died on the 20th of November, 1726. The manor of Woolsthorpe, in the parish of Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, was the birth-place of Newton. He was an only child his mother had been left a widow about three months be fore he was born, and subsequently entered into a second mar riage; but seems under all circumstances to have discharged her duty to him with exemplary care. Being sent to the grammar. school of Grantham, the pregnancy of his mind and particular bent of his genius soon became conspicuous. He furnished himself Sua Mathesi faciem præferente, Sedulus, sagax, fidus, Interpres Dei O. M. Majestatem Philosophiâ asseruit, Sibi gratulentur Mortales Tale tantumque exstitisse HUMANI GENERIS DECUS L Nat. XXV. Dec. A.D. MDCXLII. Obiit XX Nov. A.D.MDCCXXVI, 2 with a set of carpenter's tools, and was continually occupied in making little knick-knacks, which were much prized by his companions for neatness and ingenuity. He was fond of drawing, and used to amuse himself by taking portraits of the scholars: but the most curious anecdote of his boyhood is one which describes him in the act of rudely determining the force of the wind, by comparing how much farther he could leap with it than against it. After passing through the course of study taught at Grantham, his mother took him home, and proposed that, as his father had done, and the ancestors of his family before him for nearly three centuries, so he too should live upon his estate, which was then valued at about 1207. a-year, and cultivate it himself. To this plan he acceded, but, in all probability, with very little ardour; for we are told, that having occasion to go to a neighbouring market soon after he became a farmer, he left his business undone, and for awhile could no where be found. At last some one happened to go into a hayloft, and there young Newton was discovered, abstracted in a mathematical problem, which he was working on the wall. This accident determined his friends that he was fit for something higher than sowing and reaping, and accordingly, at the suggestion of a maternal uncle, who was a clergyman in the vicinity, he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, in his eighteenth year. Newton was now in his proper sphere, and the rapidity with which he developed the extraordinary powers of his mind, far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of his friends. From Euclid, whom he comprehended with ease, but did not minutely analyze, he was impelled by the fashion of the day to investigate the pages of Des Cartes, and then studied Kepler's Optics, and Dr. Wallis's Arithmetica Infinitorum. Upon this latter work it has been conjectured that he already began to found the 'New Method of Infinite Series and Fluxions,' which originally appeared in Latin, but subsequently became better known by the translation of Mr. Colson, published in 1736. Taking up his degree of B. A. in 1664, he turned his thoughts to the improvement of telescopes. From the experiments which he was henceforward induced to make for this purpose, resulted his 'New Theory of Light and Colours,' in which he proved that light |