of the distance between their centres; and that their velocities of
mutual approach will be in the inverse ratio of their quantities o*
matter. Thus he grandly outlined the Universal Law. Verify
ing its truth by the motions of terrestrial bodies, then by those of
the moon and other secondary orbs, he finally embraced, in one
mighty generalization, the entire Solar System all the move
ments of all its bodies planets, satellites and comets explain
ing and harmonizing the many diverse and theretofore inexplica
ble phenomena.
Guided by the genius of Newton, we see sphere bound to
sphere, body to body, particle to particle, atom to mass, the min
utest part to the stupendous whole each to each, each to all,
and all to each in the mysterious bonds of a ceaseless, recipro
cal influence. An influence whose workings are shown to be
alike present in the globular dew-drop, or oblate-spheroidal earth ;
in the falling shower, or vast heaving ocean tides ; in the flying
thistle-down, or fixed, ponderous rock ;
in the swinging pendulum,
or time-measuring sun ;
in the varying and unequal moon, or
earth s slowly retrograding poles ;
in the uncertain meteor, or
oiazing comet wheeling swiftly away on its remote, yet determined
round. An influence, in fine, that may link system to system
through all the star-glowing firmament ; then firmament to iirma
LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 35
merit ; aye, firmament to firmament, again and again, till, con
verging home, it may be, to some ineffable centre, where more
presently dwells He who inhabiteth immensity, and where infini
tudes meet and eternities have their condux, and where around
move, in softest, swiftest measure, all the countless hosts that
crowd heaven s fathomless deeps.
And yet Newton, amid the loveliness and magnitude of Om
nipotence, lost not sight of the Almighty One. A secondary,
however universal, was not taken for the First Cause. An im
pressed force, however diffused and powerful, assumed not the
functions of the creating, giving Energy. Material beauties,
splendours, and sublimities, however rich in glory, and endless in
extent, concealed not the attributes of an intelligent Supreme.
From the depths of his own soul, through reason and the WORD,
he had risen, a priori, to God : from the heights of Omnipotence,
through the design and law of the builded universe, he proved </
posteriori, a Deity.
" I had," says he,
" an eye upon such prin
ciples as might work, with considering men, for the belief of a
Deity,"
in writing the PRINCIPIA ; at the conclusion whereof, he
teaches that " this most beautiful system of the sun, planets and
comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an
intelligent and powerful Being. And if the fixed stars are the
centres of other like systems, these, being forme 1 by the like
wise counsels, must be all subject to the dominion of One ; especially
since the light of the fixed stars is of the same nature with the
light of the sun, and from every system light passes into all other
systems : and lest the systems of the fixed stars should, by their
gravity, fall on each other mutually, he hath placed those systems
at immense distances one from another.
" This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world,
but as Lord over all
; and on account of his dominion he is wont,
to be called Lord God Travrowparwp or Universal Ruler ; for God
is a relative word, and has a respect to servants ; and Deity is
the dominion of God, not over his own body, as those imagine
who fancy God to be the soul of the world, but over servants.
The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect ;
but a being, however perfect, without dominion, cannot be said to
36 LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
be Lord God ; for we say, my God, your God, the God of Israel
the God of Gods, and Lord of Lords ; but we do not say, my
Eternal, your Eternal, the Eternal of Israel, the Eternal of Gods :
we do not say my Infinite, or my Perfect : these are titles which
have no respect to servants. The word God usually signifies
Lord ; but every Lord is not God. It is the dominion of a spir
itual Being which constitutes a God ;
a true, supreme, or imagi
nary dominion makes a true, supreme, or imaginary God. And
from his true dominion it follows that the true God is a living,
intelligent and powerful Being ; and from his other perfections,
that he is supreme or most perfect. He is eternal and in
finite, omnipotent and omniscient ; that is, his duration reaches
from eternity to eternity ; his presence from infinity to infinity ;
he governs all things and knows all things, that are or can be
done. He is not eternity or infinity, but eternal and infinite
;
he is not duration and space, but he endures and is present.
He endures forever and is everywhere present ; and by existing
always and everywhere, he constitutes duration and space. Since
every particle of space is always, and every indivisible moment
of duration is everywhere, certainly the Maker and Lord of things
cannot be never and nowhere. Every soul that has perception
is, though in different times and different organs of sense and mo
tion, still the same indivisible person. There are given succes
sive parts in duration, co-existent parts in space, but neither the
one nor the other in the person of a man, or his thinking
principle ; and much less can they be found in the thinking sub
stance of God. Every man. so far as he is a thing that has j:erceptiori,
is one and the same man during his whole life, in all and
each of his organs of sense. God is one and the same God, al
ways and everywhere. He is omnipresent, not virtually only,
but also substantially ; for virtue cannot subsist without sub
stance. In him are all things contained and moved ; yet neither
affects the other ; God suffers nothing from the motion of bodies ;
bodies find no resistance from the omnipresence of God. It is
allowed by all that the Supreme God exists necessarily ; and by
the same necessity he exists always and everywhere. Whence
also he is all similar, all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all powei
LIFE CF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 37
to perceive, to understand, and to act ; but in a manner not at all
human, in a manner not at all corporeal, in a manner utterly un
known to us. As a blind man has no idea of colours, so have we
no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and
understands all things. He is utterly void of all body, and bodily
figure, and can therefore neither be seen, nor heard, nor touched ;
nor ought he to be worshipped under the representation of any
corporeal thing. We have ideas of his attributes, but what the
real substance of anything is we know not. In bodies we see
only their figures and colours, we hear only the sounds, we touch
only their outward surfaces, we smell only the smells, and taste
only the savours ; but their inward substances are not to be known,
either by our senses, or by any reflex act of our minds : much
less, then, have we any idea of the substance of God. We know
him only by his most wise and excellent contrivances of things,
and final causes ; we admire him for his perfections ; but we rev
erence and adore him on account of his dominion ; for we adore
him as his servants ; and a god without dominion, providence, and
final causes, is nothing else but Fate and Nature. Blind meta
physical necessity, which is certainly the same always and every
where, could produce no variety of things. All that diversity of
natural things which we find suited to different times and places
could arise from nothing but the ideas and will of a Being neces
sarily existing."
Thus, the diligent student of science, the earnest seeker of
truth, led, as through the courts of a sacred Temple, wherein, at
each step, new wonders meet the eye, till, as a crowning grace,
they stand before a Holy of Holies, and learn that all science and
all truth are one which hath its beginning and its end in the
knowledge of Him whose glory the heavens declare, and whose
handiwork the firmament showeth forth.
The introduction of the pure and lofty doctrines of the PRINCIPIA
was perseveringly resisted. Descartes, with his system of
vortices, had sown plausibly to the imagination, and error had
struck down deeply, and shot up luxuriantly, not only in the
popular, but in the scientific mind. Besides the idea in itself so
simple and so grand that the great masses of the planets were
38 LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
suspended in empty space, and retained in their orbits by an in
visible influence residing in the sun was to the ignorant a thing
inconceivable, and to the learned a revival of the occult qualities
of the ancient physics. This remark applies particularly to the
continent. Leibnitz misapprehended ; Huygens in part rejected ;
John Bernouilli opposed ; and Fontenelle never received the doc
trines of the PRINCIPIA. So that, the saying of Voltaire is prob
ably true, that though Newton survived the publication of his
great work more than forty years, yet, at the time of his death,
lie had not above twenty followers out of England.
But in England, the reception of our author s philosophy was
rapid and triumphant. His own labours, while Lucasian Pro
fessor ; those of his successors in that Chair Whiston and
Saunderson ; those of Dr. Samuel Clarke, Dr. Laughton, Roger
Cotes, and Dr. Bentley ; the experimental lectures of Dr. Keill
and Desaguliers ; the early and powerful exertions of David
Gregory at Edinburgh, and of his brother James Gregory at St.
Andrew s, tended to diffuse widely in England and Scotland a
knowledge of, and taste for the truths of the PRINCIPIA. Indeed,
its mathematical doctrines constituted, from the first, a regular
part of academical instruction ; while its physical truths, given to
the public in popular lectures, illustrated by experiments, had,
before the lapse of twenty ) ( ar.s, become familiar to, and adopted
by the general mind. Pemberton s popular
" View of Sir Isaac
Newton s Philosophy" was published, in 1728 ; and the year after
ward, an English translation of the PRINCIPIA, and System of the
World, by Andrew Motte. And since that period, the labours of
Le Seur and Jacquier, of Thorpe, of Jebb, of Wright and others
have greatly contributed to display the most hidden treasures of
the PRINCIPIA.
About the time of the publication of the Principia, James II.,
bent on re-establishing the Romish Faith, had, among other ille
gal acts, ordered by mandamus, the University of Cambridge to
confer the degree of Master of Arts upon an ignorant monk.
Obedience to this mandate was resolutely refused. Newton was
one of the nine delegates chosen to defend the independence of
the University. They appeared before the High Court ; and
LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 39
successfully : the king abandoned his design. The prominent
part which our author took in these proceedings, and his eminence
in the scientific world, induced his proposal as one of the parlia
mentary representatives of the University. He was elected, in
1688, and sat in the Convention Parliament till its dissolution.
After the first year, however, he seems to have given little or no
attention to his parliamentary duties, being seldom absent from
the University till his appointment in the Mint, in 1695.
Newton began his theological researches sometime previous to
1691 ;
in the prime of his years, and in the matured vigour of
his intellectual powers. From his youth, as we have seen, he
had devoted himself with an activity the most unceasing, and an
energy almost superhuman to the discovery of physical truth
;
giving to Philosophy a new foundation, and to Science a new
temple. To pass on, then, from the consideration of the material,
more directly to that of the spiritual, was a natural, nay, with so
large and devout a soul, a necessary advance. The Bible was to
him of inestimable worth. In the elastic freedom, which a pure
and unswerving faith in Him of Nazareth gives, his mighty facul
ties enjoyed the only completest scope for development. His
original endowment, however great, combined with a studious
application, however profound, would never, without this libera
tion from the dominion of passion and sense, have enabled him to
attain to that wondrous concentration and grasp of intellect, for
which Fame has as yet assigned him no equal. Gratefully he
owned, therefore, the same Author in the Book of Nature and the
Book of Revelation. These were to him as drops of the same
unfathomable ocean ; as outrayings of the same inner splendour ;
as tones of the same ineffable voice ;
as segments of the same
infinite curve. "With great joy he had found himself enabled to
proclaim, as an interpreter, from the hieroglyphs of Creation, the
existence of a God : and now, with greater joy, and in the fulness
of his knowledge, and in the fulness of his strength, he laboured
to make clear, from the utterances of the inspired Word, the far
mightier confirmations of a Supreme Good, in all its glorious
amplitude of Being and of Attribute ; and to bring the infallible
workings thereof plainly home to the understandings and the
40 LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
affections of his fellow-men ; and finally to add the weight of his
own testimony in favour of that Religion, whose truth is now. in
deed, " girded with the iron and the rock of a ponderous and co
lossal demonstration."
His work, entitled, OBSERVATIONS UPON THE PROPHECIES OF
HOLY WRIT, PARTICULARLY THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL AND THE
APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN, first published in London, in 1733 4to.
consists of two parts : the one devoted to the Prophecies oi
Daniel, and the other to the Apocalypse of St. John. In the first
part, he treats concerning the compilers of the books of the Old
Testament ; of the prophetic language ; of the vision of the
four beasts ; of the kingdoms represented by the feet of the
image composed of iron and clay ; of the ten kingdoms repre
sented by the ten horns of the beast ; of the eleventh horn of
Daniel s fourth beast ; of the power which should change times
and laws ; of the kingdoms represented in Daniel by the ram
and he-goat ; of the prophecy of the seventy weeks ; of the
times of the birth and passion of Christ ; of the prophecy of the
Scripture of Truth ; of the king who doeth according to his will,
and magnified himself above every god, and honoured Mahuzzims,
and regarded not the desire of women ; of the Mahuzzim, hon
oured by the king who doeth according to his will. In the sec
ond part, he treats of the time when the Apocalypse was written ,
of the scene of the vision, and the relation which the Apocalypse
has to the book of the law of Moses, and to the worship of God
in the temple ; of the relation which the Apocalypse has to the
prophecies of Daniel, and of the subject of the prophecy itself
Newton regards the prophecies as given, not for the gratification
of man s curiosity, by enabling him to foreknow ; but for his con
viction that the world is governed by Providence, by witnessing
their fulfilment. Enough of prophecy, he thinks, has already
been fulfilled to afford the diligent seeker abundant evidence of
God s providence. The whole work is marked by profound
erudition, sagacity and argument.
And not less learning, penetration and masterly reasoning are
conspicuous in his HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF Two NOTABLE
CORRUPTIONS OF SCRIPTURES IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND. This
LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 41
Treatise, first accurately published in Dr. Horsley s edition of his
works, relates to two texts : the one, 1 Epistle of St. John v. 7 ;
the other, 1 Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy iii. 16. As this
work had the effect to deprive the advocates of the doctrine of
the Trinity of two leading texts, Newton has been looked upon
as an Arian ; but there is absolutely nothing in his writings to
warrant such a conclusion.
His regaining theological works consist of the LEXICON PROPHETICUM,
which was left incomplete ;
a Latin Dissertation on
the sacred cubit of the Jews, which was translated into English,
and published, in 1737. among the Miscellaneous Works of John
Greaves ; and FOUR LETTERS addressed to Dr. Bentlty, contain
ing some arguments in proof of a Deity. These Letters were
dated respectively : 10th December, 1692 ; 17th January, 1693 ;
25th February, 1693; and llth February, 1693 the fourth
bearing an earlier date than the third. The best faculties and
the profoundest acquirements of our author are convincingly
manifest in these lucid and powerful compositions. They were
published in 1756, and reviewed by Dr. Samuel Johnson.
Newton s religious writings are distinguished by their absolute
freedom from prejudice. Everywhere, throughout them, there
glows the genuine nobleness of soul. To his whole life, indeed,
we may here fitly extend the same observation. He was most
richly imbued with the very spirit of the Scriptures which he so
delighted to study and to meditate upon. His was a piety, so
fervent, so sincere and practical, that it rose up like a holy incense
from every thought and act. His a benevolence that not only
willed, but endeavoured the best for all. His a philanthropy
that held in the embracings of its love every brother-man.
His a toleration of the largest and the truest ; condemning per
secution in every, even its mildest form ; and kindly encouraging
each striving after excellence : .1 toleration that came not of
indifference for the immoral and the impious met with their
quick rebuke but a toleration that came of the wise humbleness
and the Christian charity, which see, in the nothingness of self
and the almightiness of TRUTH, no praise for the ablest, and no
blame for th^ feeblest in their strugglings upward to light and life.
42 LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON,
Tn the winter of 1691-2, on returning from chapel, one morn
ing, Newton foima tnat a favourite little dog, called Diamond,
had overturned a lighted taper on his desk, and that several pa
pers containing the results of certain optical experiments, were
nearly consumed. His only exclamation, on perceiving his loss,
was, " Oh Diamond, Diamond, little knowest thou the mischiel
thou hast done," Dr. Brewster, in his life of our author, gives the
following extract from the manuscript Diary of Mr. Abraham De
La Pryme. a student in the University at the time of this oc
currence.
" 1692. February, 3. What I heard to-day I must relate.
There is one Mr. Newton (whom I have very oft seen), Fellow
of Trinity College, that is mighty famous for his learning, being a
most excellent mathematician, philosopher, divine, &c. He has
been Fellow of the Royal Society these many years ; and among
other very learned books and tracts, he:
s written one upon the mathe
matical principles of philosophy, which has given him a mighty
name, he having received, especially from Scotland, abundance of
congratulatory letters for the same ; but of all the books he ever
wrote, there was one of colours and light, established upon thou
sands of experiments which he had been twenty years of making,
and which had cost him many hundreds of pounds. This book
which he vaiued so much, and which was so much talked of, had
the ill luck to perish, and be utterly lost just when the learned
author was almost at pitting a conclusion at the same, after this
manner : In a winter s morning, leaving it among his other papers
on his study table while he went to chapel, the candle, which he
had unfortunately left burning there, too, catched hold by some
means of other papers, and they fired the aforesaid book, and ut
terly consumed it and several other valuable writings ;
arid which
is most wonderful did no further mischief. But when Mr. New
ton came from chapel, and had seen what was done, every one
thought he would have run mad, he was so troubled thereat that
he was not himself for a month after. A long account of this his
system of colours you may find in the Transactions of the Royal
Society, which he had sent up to them long before this sad mis
chance happened unto him."
LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 43
It will be borne in mind that all of Newton s theological wri
tings, with the exception of the Letters to Dr. Bentley, were
composed before this event which, we must conclude, from
Pryme s words, produced a serious impression upon our author for
about a month. But M. Biot, in his Life of Newton, relying on a
memorandum contained in a small manuscript Journal of Huygens,
declares this occurrence to have caused a deran-gement of New
ton s intellect. M. Blot s opinions and deductions, however, as
well as those of La Place, upon this subject, were based upon
erroneous data, and have been overthrown by the clearest proof.
There is not, in fact, the least evidence that Newton s reason was,
for a single moment, dethroned ; on the contrary, the testimony
is conclusive that he was, at all times, perfectly capable of carry
ing on his mathematical, metaphysical and astronomical inquiries.
Loss of sleep, loss of appetite, and irritated nerves will disturb
somewhat the equanimity of the most serene ; and an act done, or
language employed, under such temporary discomposure, is not a
just criterion of the general tone and strength of a man s mind.
As to the accident itself, we may suppose, whatever might have
been its precise nature, that it greatly distressed him, and, still
further, that its shock may have originated the train of nervous
derangements, which afflicted him, more or less, for two years
afterward. Yet, during this very period of ill health, we find him
putting forth his highest powers. In 1692, he prepared for, and
transmitted to Dr. Wallis the first proposition of the Treatise on
Quadratures, with examples of it in first, second and third flux
ions. He investigated, in the same year, the subject of haloes ;
making and recording numerous and important observations rela
tive thereto. Those profound and beautiful Letters to Dr. Bentley
were written at the close of this and the beginning of the next
year. In October, 1693, Locke, who was then about publishing a
second edition of his work on the Human Understanding, request
ed Newton to reconsider his opinions on innate ideas. And in
1694, he was zealously occupied in perfecting his lunar theory ;
visiting Flamstead, at the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, in
September, and obtaining a series of lunar observations ; and
14 LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
commencing, in October, a correspondence with that distinguished
practical Astronomer, which continued till 1698.
We now arrive at the period when Newton permanently with
drew from the seclusion of a collegiate, and entered upon a more
active and public life. He was appointed Warden of the Mint,
in 1695, through the influence of Charles Montague, Chancellor
of the Exchequer, and afterward Earl of Halifax. The current
roin of the nation had been adulterated and debased, and Mon
tague undertook a re-coinage. Our author s mathematical and
chemical knowledge proved eminently useful in accomplishing
