Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/573

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
NEW
523
NEW

unfavourable to Newton and Miss Barton. In 1717, two years after the death of Halifax, Miss Barton married John Conduit, M.P., of Cranbury, who succeeded Newton as master of the mint. Her only daughter, Catherine Conduit, married Lord Lymington, from whom the noble family of Portsmouth are descended. At the court of George I. Sir Isaac was a great favourite. The princess of Wales, afterwards queen-consort of George II., and a correspondent of Leibnitz, delighted in his conversation, and we regret to say that the German philosopher took advantage of his position to address to the princess very grave charges against Newton and Locke. When the king heard of them he requested Newton to defend himself. Dr. Clarke undertook the task; and the controversy, which was carried on through the princess, was put an end to by the death of Leibnitz in 1716, after Dr. Clarke had returned his fifth answer to the fifth paper of Leibnitz. In conversing with the princess on the education of the royal family. Sir Isaac mentioned a new system of chronology which he had composed at Cambridge, and at her desire he drew up an account of it for her private use. The Abbé Conti having been permitted to take a copy of it, published it in Paris without the leave of the author, and with notes by Freret controverting some of its leading results. Sir Isaac replied to Freret, and was thus led to compose his "Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms," &c., which was published in 1728, after his death. In 1722, when Sir Isaac had entered his eightieth year, he was attacked with incontinence of urine, from which he slowly recovered. In 1724 the complaint returned, accompanied with stone; and after enjoying a few months of health he was seized in January, 1725, with a violent cough and inflammation of the lungs. A fit of the gout which supervened restored him to such a degree of health that he presided at the Royal Society on the 2nd March, 1726. The fatigue, however, which he underwent on this occasion brought on a painful illness, which turned out to be stone in the bladder. Under its severe paroxysms he never uttered a cry, preserving his usual cheerfulness and his faculties entire till within two days of his death. On the 18th March he became insensible, and expired at Kensington without pain on the morning of the 20th March, 1726, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. His body was removed to London on the 28th, and lay in state in the Jerusalem chamber, from which it was conveyed to Westminster abbey, and buried near the entrance to the choir on the left hand, where a monument was erected by his relatives in 1831. In 1831 a medal was struck in honour of him at the mint; and on the 4th February, 1755, a magnificent full-length statue of him in marble, by Roubilliac, was erected in the ante-chapel of Trinity college, at the expense of Dr. Robert Smith, professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy. In 1858 a colossal statue of him in bronze, by Mr. Theed, was erected by public subscription on St. Peter's hill, Grantham. The figure, in the act of lecturing, is twelve feet high, and weighs upwards of two tons, half of which in the shape of old cannon was contributed by government. The pedestal is fourteen feet high; and the statue looks down upon the road along which Sir Isaac must have walked on his way to school. This noble monument was inaugurated by Lord Brougham on the 21st September, 1858, in an eloquent oration which was translated into French. The personal estate of Sir Isaac Newton, worth about £32,000, was divided among his four nephews and four nieces of the half-blood, the grandchildren of his mother by the Rev. Mr. Smith. The family estates went to the heir-at-law, John Newton, who sold them in 1732 to Edmund Turnor, Esq. of Stoke Rocheford. The principal works of Sir Isaac Newton are his "Principia Philosophiæ Naturalis Mathematica;" his "Geometrica Analytica;" his "Treatise on Optics," published in 1705; his "Lectiones Opticæ," published after his death, and other works, which were collected by Bishop Horsley and published in five volumes 4to, under the title of Newtoni Opera quæ extant omnia; Lond., 1779 and 1782. This collection contains also his literary and theological works, namely, his "Chronology;" his "Observations on the Prophecies of Holy Writ, viz., Daniel and the Apocalypse," and his historical account of two notable corruptions of scripture. For more ample information respecting Sir Isaac Newton, see Sir David Brewster's Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, second edition, in 2 vols.; Edinburgh, 1860.—D. B.

NEWTON, John, an English mathematician, was born at Oundle in Northamptonshire in 1622, and died at Ross in Herefordshire on the 25th of December, 1678. He was rector of Ross, and one of the chaplains of King Charles II. He wrote a voluminous collection of treatises on various branches of mathematics, of high authority in their day.—W. J. M. R.

NEWTON, John, the well-known divine and writer on spiritual experience, was born in London, 24th July, 1722, o.s. His father was master of a ship in the Mediterranean trade, and his pious mother instilled religious truth into his youthful mind with great assiduity and tenderness. She died, indeed, when her only child was seven years of age; but the germs implanted by her, though they long lay dormant, produced abundant fruit in subsequent years. The youth was at school only two years between his eighth and his tenth years, but he had made considerable progress under maternal tuition. In his eleventh year he went on board his father's ship, and made five successive voyages to the Mediterranean. Having made a voyage to Venice afterwards as a common seaman, on his return he was impressed on board the Harwich at the Nore, and, by his father's influence, was rated as a midshipman. Here began, as himself says, "my awfully mad career," and he became "a medley of religion, philosophy, and indolence." While the ship lay at Plymouth he deserted, but was caught, flogged, and degraded. He was discharged at Madeira, and entered another ship bound for Sierra Leone. He remained on the coast of Africa for some time, and so vile had he become that even the negroes shunned him. The trader with whom he lived so starved and abused him, that it is a wonder that he survived the treatment. He changed his residence, but was still a swearing profligate—"the white man had grown black." The dangers and deliverances of his return voyage tended, however, to sober him, and to produce serious reflections. In 1748 he sailed in a slaver for the west coast of Africa; and on his coming back he married a young lady in Kent, to whom he had been romantically attached for years, and for whom as his wife his love had ever a fresh glow and tenderness. Rising at length to own a vessel himself, he made several voyages in the slave-trade, though he was now relishing the classics, and religious convictions were growing upon him. Relinquishing this nefarious traffic in human flesh, he became in 1755 tide-surveyor of the port of Liverpool. After being about three years in that situation he turned his thoughts to the ministry; and having made some preparations both in classics and theology, he applied in 1758 for ordination to Dr. Gilbert, archbishop of York, but was pointedly refused. He then applied himself to evangelical labours in Liverpool, and had some thoughts of becoming a dissenter. In 1764 the curacy of Olney being proposed to him he was ordained deacon at Buckden by Dr. Green, bishop of Lincoln, Lord Dartmouth having strongly recommended the unacademic and abnormal candidate. In this curacy Newton laboured sixteen years, and out of his intimacy with the poet Cowper, residing in the neighbourhood, sprung that remarkable volume of sacred poetry the Olney Hymns. Newton's evangelical influence on Scott, the well-known commentator, was also signally exercised during his residence at Olney. Mr. Thornton of London supplied the good curate with money for charities, giving him in all about £3000. The same gentleman presented him in 1779 to the rectory of the united parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth, and St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, in Lombard Street, London. In this wider sphere Newton laboured with growing acceptance and usefulness to the close of his life. His mental powers began to be impaired some years before his death, which took place on the 21st December, 1807, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. John Newton's principal works are his Sermons and Letters, which breathe a devout and heavenly spirit. As if to show his fitness for the sacred office, he had published a volume of sermons in Liverpool before he took orders. He specially excelled in clear statements of the great truths of the gospel, and in minute delineations of christian experience. His conversation was ever of a hallowed and heavenly tone—his motive being, in the spirit of his Master, to "commend" that Master to all with whom he came into contact. In his own marvellous change he felt the might of divine grace, and never ceased extolling its power and patience. His career was one of single-hearted benevolence, the rule of his life being thus expressed by himself, "If as I go home a child has dropped a halfpenny, and if by giving it another I can wipe away its tears, I feel I have done something." His various works have been often reprinted, especially his "Cardiphonia," and his Life, which was often told by himself, was written by Richard Cecil.—J. E.

NEWTON, Richard, was born in 1676 at Yardley Chase,