In 1703, he was chosen president of the Royal Society; and without introducing the slightest reflection on present or past times, it may be affirmed that this office was never so respectably filled. He had previously been elected a member of the royal Academy of Sciences at Paris; for the French, notwithstanding the predilection natural to every nation in favour of its own heroes and philosophers, soon relinquished the fanciful philosophy of their countryman Descartes, for the solid principles of Newton.

In

Since he had discovered the heterogeneous mixture of light, and the production of colours thus formed, much of his time had been employed in perfecting and ascertaining the theory on which his discovery was founded. In fact, this seems to have been his favourite invention; and he spent no less than thirty years in verifying his own experiments. At last his Optics appeared, in 1704; and in this science he stands unrivalled and alone. his fluxions, and his principle of gravity as applied to the solar system, there had been some obscure hints from others but in dissecting a ray of light into its primary constituent particles, which then admitted of no further separation; in the discovery of the different refrangibility of these particles when thus separated; and, in short, in the whole mystery of optics which he developed; he was at once the original inventor and the finisher. To gether with his Optics he published his Fluxions, which had also long engaged his attention. From his aversion to literary disputes, he concealed this latter discovery so long, that Leibnitz attempted to claim the merit of the original invention; but in this he was completely foiled by the zeal and industry of Newton's friends.

Queen Anne, as a testimony of her approbation of his exalted merit, conferred the honour of knighthood on Newton, in 1705: and during the reign of George the First, he received the most flattering attentions from Caroline princess of Wales; who, having a taste for phi

losophical inquiries, courted his conversation with amiable condescension, and was often heard to declare that she considered herself happy in living in the same age with sir Isaac Newton.

The princess obtained from him a copy of a chronological work which he had drawn up for his own amusement, but with no design of committing it to the press. Probably with a view to extend his fame, she allowed a transcript to be taken in confidence; but a person who surreptitiously obtained possession of this treasure, printed it in France, and involved our philosopher in some disputes, which it had been the whole study of his life to shun. Yet even Newton could not expect to extinguish envy before the grave: he felt himself attacked more than once; but the shaft which was aimed at him generally recoiled on the assailant, or fell pointless to the ground.

After enjoying a settled and uniform state of health, the result of temperance and regularity, to the age of eighty, sir Isaac began to be afflicted with a disorder which was afterwards found to be incurable; and the attacks of which were sometimes so violent, that large drops of sweat followed each other down his face. Under these afflicting circumstances, his character as a philosopher and as a Christian was equally conspicuous. Not a murmur escaped from his lips: he dissembled the acutest feelings of pain; and in the intervals of ease, displayed all the cheerfulness and good humour which had ever been the constant residents of his breast. Nature being at last worn out, he resigned his breath in the eighty-fifth year of his age; and was honoured with a splendid funeral and a monument in Westminster-abbey.

Sir Isaac Newton was of a middling stature, and towards the decline of life disposed to corpulency. His countenance was venerably pleasing, but discovered little of hat penetrating sagacity which marked his compositions.

He never had occasion to use spectacles, and it is said that he lost only one tooth during his life.

In contemplating the various excellences of his profound genius; sagacity, penetration, energy of mind, and diligence, seem to vie with each other, so that it is difficult to say for which of those endowments he was most conspicuous: yet with unaffected modesty, he disclaimed all singular pretensions to superior talents; and observed to one of his friends, who was complimenting him on his sublime discoveries, that if he had done any thing in science worthy of notice, it was owing to patient industry of thinking, rather than to extraordinary sagacity above other men. "I keep," said he, "the subject constantly before me; and wait till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light." Unvarying and unwearied attention, indeed, to any object, will in time accomplish great things; but no perseverance, without an uncommon share of original genius, could form a Newton.

His temper is said to have been remarkably mild and equable, and incapable of being ruffled by ordinary accidents. He was such a lover of peace, that he regretted whatever disturbed it as the greatest calamity that could befall him. When some objections were started to his theory of light and colours, he thus expressed his concern: "I blamed my own imprudence in parting with so real a blessing as my quiet, to run after a shadow." In short, his magnanimity was such, that he would rather have lost the credit of the most sublime discoveries ever made by man, than have risked that tranquillity of mind which to a philosopher is certainly the highest charm of life.

He spent the prime of his days in those abstruse investigations which have immortalized his name, under the shade of academic bowers; but so little was he tinctured with peculiarity of taste or manners, that no sooner was he removed to the Mint, than he devoted his chief at

tention to the duties of his station, and thenceforward regarded mathematics and philosophy as only secondary objects. Happily, however, for his country and mankind, he had nearly exhausted the subjects of his research by what he had previously performed; and he therefore turned to new avocations with less reluctance.

His unaffected modesty was one of the most remarkable features of his extraordinary character; and seldom indeed is eminent worth or genius found without a considerable share of this amiable quality. He put himself on a level with every company. No singularities, natural or affected, distinguished him from other men; and the sharp eye of censoriousness could never charge him with the vanity of assumed superiority.

Though attached to the church of England, he was averse to persecution of any kind. In his correct and enlightened opinion, the real schismatics were the vicious and the profane. Yet this liberal mode of thinking did not arise from any predilection for natural religion: on the contrary, he was deeply and seriously impressed with the truth of Revelation; and he studied the Bible longer, and with more intense application, than any other book.

Sir Isaac was economical and frugal from principle, but was guilty of no meanness in accumulating wealth; and there are instances of his generosity, when fortune had put it in his power to be liberal. When circumstances

required it, he indulged in expense with a good grace; but he had no taste for that ostentatious sort of magnificence which little minds think a mark of importance. He wanted no external show to set off his solid merit; and his character being really great, he had no affectation of appearing wiser or better than other men.

Sir Isaac Newton never entered into the marriage state, nor perhaps had he leisure to think of it. During the flower of his years, he was immersed in those abstracted speculations in which the passions have little share; and

he was afterwards engaged in an important employment, and sufficiently occupied with company, so that he appears scarcely to have felt the want of domestic endearments. Indeed, a person who would pursue his studies occasionally three hours after his dinner was on the table, or sit for as long a time half-drest on going to bed or getting up in the morning, with his mind wholly absorbed in speculation, would have found matrimony an incumbrance. It has been said too, and perhaps with truth, that his exemption from the entanglements of love, and from a taste for wine, was the great secondary means of his successful attainments in knowledge.

ROBERT WALPOLE,

EARL OF ORFORD.

Born 1674.-Died 1745.

From 25th Charles II., to 18th George II. THERE must surely be some latent fascination in power, "to vulgar souls unknown;" else where is the man who would be ambitious to support the office of prime minister for the space of twenty years; harassed by its duties, absorbed in political intrigues, exposed to the malignity of opponents, and often traduced by his country for perhaps really prudent and meritorious services? The subject of the present article made a conspicuous figure in the councils of two sovereigns, and long directed the machine of state; he appears, however, neither to deserve all the panegyric that has been lavished on him by his friends, nor all the obloquy aimed at him by his

enemies.

The family of Walpole had flourished for ages in the county of Norfolk, and was of considerable note. Robert was born at Houghton, and educated on the foundation at Eton; whence he was elected to King's college, Cam