The Sun.
London, England, 1837-07-04 00:00:00

NATIONAL MONUMENT IN LONDON

TO NEWTON.

The following is the petition presented to the House of
Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer :
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Empire,

in Parliament assembled.

The petition of .ThomasgteelC, Esq., of Lough-O'Con-
nell, in the county of Clare, and of Magdalene College,
Cambridge, a Member of the London Astronomical, and

Civil Engineers' Societies,
Respectfully showeth—That when petitioner was in
London under the order of a Committee of your Honour.
able House in the year 1824 (the Shanno❑ Navigation
Committee), for the purpose of giving evidence with respect
to the state of navigation of the river Shannon, its lakes,
and estuaries, and navigable tributaries, he republished the
following letter, marked A, and published the letter marked
B, in some of the London papers.
(A.)
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Magdalen College, Cambridge, October 15, 1825.
Sir—lf there be any name which more than another has
done honour to England, it is the name of Sir Isaac Newton ;
and I beg permission to suggest, through the medium of
your paper, the means of erecting a monument to him in
London, not unworthy of the nation and of his memory,
When travelling through Italy I was powerfully struck
by the unique situation and the singular appearance of the
primitive chapel of Assisi, dedicated to St. Francis.
As you enter the porch of the great Franciscan church
you view before you this small cottage-like chapel standing
directly under the dome, and perfectly isolated.
Now, Sir, among the many splendid improvements which
are making in the capital, would it not be a noble, and, per-
haps, the most appropriate national monument which could
be erected, if an azure hemispherical dome, or what would
be better, a portion of sphere greater than a hemisphere,
supported on a massive base, were to be reared like that of
Assisi over the house and observatory of the writer of the
Pr incipia
The house might be fitted up in such a manner as to
contain a council chamber and library for the Astronomical
Society ; and it is, perhaps, not unworthy of being re-
marked, that it is not more than two hundred yards distant
from the University Club-house.

Protected by the means which I have described, from
the dilapidating influence of rains and winds, the venerable
edifice in which Newton studied, or, perhaps, to speak more
properly, was inspired ; that "palace of the soul" might
stand fast for ages, a British monument more sublime than
the Pyramids, through remote antiquity and vastness be
combined to create their interest.

I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient humble
servant, ******

(B.)
TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE TIMES.
Royal Astronomical Society's Rooms, Lonion,
June 23, 1834.

Stu—Permit me to solicit a republication with my name,
of a letter which I wrote anonymously some years ago from
Cambridge, and which you did me the honour of publishing
in the Times. _ _

_ .
I feel confident that you will give the aid of your potent
journal to prevent the house and observatory of Newton
from being tumbled into a heap of rubbish to make way
for new buildings. _ _ •

I have been informed that when this house was a hotel,
a Frenchman, enthusiastically devoted to mathematical
science, took delight for several years in having the Obser-
tory as a study.
Now, Sir, assuredly a very pure, and refined, and en-
nobling delight this must have been, for it must have acted
as a constant force generating lofty sentiment, to be con-
stantly reminded that " auinii vi grope Divina," a mere
mortal man could have achieved such triumphs in the re-
gions of knowledge.
How sublimely potent is the working of that instrument
of Newton's invention, that mystical calculus, that meta-
physical talisman,
" Won from the void and formless infinite"
of intellectual being—the gorgeous talisman of the fluxional
ealeulus.
The feeling of the Frenchman must have been, indeed,
elevating, as he sat in his study ; for who is it that will op-
pose the edict on the marble tablet to the memory of New-
ton, in the sanctuary of England, Westminster Abbey ?
"6 Sibi gratulentur mortales,
Tale tamtumque extitisse,
lIUMANI GENERIS DECUS."

If you comply with my request, I shall republish some
lithographic prints from my drawings, in illustration of my
design ; and shall publish along with them the whole of that
magnificent Latin inscription from which I have quoted.
The body of Newton has long since mouldered into dust,
and earth, and ashes, and these arc not different from the
dust, and earth, and ashes of the other great men of Eng-
land, who repose around his sepulchre.
But that " airy hall," the observatory, which I now again,
for the second time, call upon England to save from ruin,
was the ethereal citadel, from whence, while he lived, the
spirit of Newton made incursions into the abyss of celestial
space—the empyrean, " the blue serene," the hyaline of
heaven ; and in its flight made, as if it had taken to itself,
" the wings of the morning," it seemed as it were almost to
disindentify itself from its human essence, and to blend with
those superior existences described by Milton, those " pure
intelligential substances, with thoughts which wander through
eternity !"
I have the honour to be, Sir, your m-,st obedient humb:o
servant,

THOMAS STEELE.
A member of the Cambridge Senate, and o
the London Astronomical and Civil En.
gineers' Societies.

Petitioner further most respectfully takes leave to show,
that at one of the meetings of the General Committee of
the British Association held last August in the Royal Irish