The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-25 00:00:00

928

The western sea 4 had been our utmost bound,
And poets still might dream the sun was drowned,
And all the stars that shine in southern skies
Had been admired by none but savage efes.
Nor let it be imagined that the feelings of wonder excited
by contemplating the achievements of this greet man
are in any degree whatever the result of national par-
tiality, and confined to the country which glories in
having given him birth. The language which expresses
her veneration is equalled, perhaps exceeded, by that in
which other nations give utterance to theirs; not merely
by the general voice, but by the well•considered and well-
informed judgment of the masters of science. Leibnitz,
when asked at the Boral table in Berlin his opinion of
Newton, said that, "taking mathematicians from the be-
ginning of the world to the time that Newton lived, what
be had done was much the better halt'." " The' Principle'
will ever remain a monument of the profound genius
which revealed to us the greatest law of the universe," are
the words of Laplace. " f hat work stands pre-eminent
above all the other productions of the human mind."
" The discovery of that simple and general law by the
greatness and the variety of the objects which it embraces
confers honour upon the intellect of man." Lagrange,
we are told by D'Alembert, was wont to describe
Newton as the greatest genius that ever existed,
bat to add how fortunate he was also, " because
there can only once be found a system of' the uni-
verse to establish." " Never," sass the father of the
Institute of France—one filling a high place among the
most eminent of its members—" never," says M. Biot,
" was the supremacy of intellect so justly established
and so fully confessed. In mathematical and in experi-
mental science without nn equal and without an example,
combining the genius for both in its highest degree."
The " Principia" he terms the greatest work ever pro-
duced by the mind of man, adding, in the words of
Halley, " that a nearer approach to the Divine nature
has not been permitted to mortals." "In first giving to
the world Newton's method of fiuxions," says Fonte-
nello, " Leibnitz did like Prometheus—he stole fire from
heaven to bestow it upon men." " Does Newton,"
L'Hopital asked, " sleep and wake like other men ? I
figure him to myself as a celestial genius, entirely ciis-
engaged from matter." fo so renowned a benefactor of
the world, thus exalted to the loftiest place by the com-
mon consent of all men—one whose life without the
intermission of an hour was passed in the search after
truths the most important, and at whose hands the
human race had only received good, never evil—no
memorial has been raised by those nations which ereeted
statues to the tyrants and conquerors, the scourges of
mankind, whose lives were passed, not in the pursuit of
truth, but the practice of falsehood; or across whose
lips, if truth ever chanced to stray towards some selfish
end, it surely failed to obtain belief; who, to slake their
insane thirst of power or of pre-eminence, trampled on
the rights and squandered the blood of their fellcw-
creatures ; whose course, like lightning, blasted while it
dazzled ; and who, reversing the Roman Emperor's noble
regret, deemed the day lost that saw the sun go down
upon their forbearance—no victim deceived, or betrayed,
or oppressed. That the worshippers of such pestilent
genius should consecrate to the memory of the most
illustrious of men no outward symbol of the admiration
they freely confessed, is not matter of wonder. But that
his own countrymen, justly proud of having lived in his
time, should have left this duty to their successors, after
a century and a half of profosaed veneration and lip
homage, may well be deemed strange. The inscription
upon the cathedral, masterpiece of his celebrated friend's
architecture, may possibly be applied in defence of this
neglect. "If you seek for a monument look around."
" If you eeek for a monument lift up Tour eyes to the
hea►ens which show forth his fame." Nor when we
recollect the Greek °tittles exclamation—" The whole
earth is the monument of illustrious men "—can we atop
short of declaring that the whole universe is Newton's.
Yet in raising the statue which preserves his likeness,
near the place of his birth, on the spot where his pro-
digions faculties were unfolded and tvaisecl, we at once
gratify our honest pride as eitisens of the same State,
and humbly testify our grateful sense of the Divine good.
nee* which deigned to bestow upon one race one so
marvellously gifted to comprehend the works of Infinite
Wisdom, and so piously resolved to mete all his study of
them the source of religious contemplations, both philu.
sophical and sublime.
At the conclusion of the noble and learned lord's
address he was presented by the mayor with a copy
of Newton's " Principia," and the invited visitors then
proceeded to the Exchange-rooms, where a substan-
tial dejeuner had been provided. The mayor
presided, and was supported by Lord Brottgliani,
the Bishop of Lincoln, and the gentlemen who have
been mentioned as present at the inauguration of the
statue.
At the conclusion of the repast, the usual loyal
toasts having been honoured, "The Bishop and
Clergy of the Diocese," " The Immortal Memory of
Newton," " The Health of Lord Brougham," " The
Health of Mr. Theed," and several other toasts, were
given.

RE-VACCINATION in the cases of sixty men of the
French army superinduced serious symptoms of a
typhoid and erysipelas nature to nine of them. M.
Laney in his report advises the Minister of War that
in future only a small number of men of a regiment
should be vaccinated at once, so that they may not be
forced to return immediately to their duty; that only
those de bonne volonte shall be vaccinated; that the
operation shoal only be performed in spring or
autumn, and not in the hot season ; that the le-
vaccinated should be kept quiet from work for a
week.