The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-27 00:00:00

LORD BROUGHAMS SPEECH.

Common-place, indeed, are the outward circum-
stances in the lives of the world's greatest bene-
factors. They mingle with the crowd, and their
contemporaries seldom learn to appreciate their
extraordinary excellence. Shakespeare, the poor
player ; Milton, the blind poet ; and Bacon, the
disgraced Chancellor, were not fully understood in
their day and generation. Yet their names cast
undying lustre upon the annals of England, and in
their works will be found some of the proudest
memorials of her fame. This is more particularly
the case with the labours Of Sir Isaac Newton, in
proncuncing whose eulogium at Grantham on
Tuesday last, Lord Brougham justly said :
" The consent of nations has declared that he is
chargeable with nothing like a follower's exaggera-
tion or local partiality, who pronounces the name
of Newton as that of the greatest genius ever be-
stowed by the bounty of Providence for instruct-
ing mankind on the frame of the universe, and
the laws by which it is governed." The young
philosopher found intervals of leisure from his
occupations of tending cattle at Woolsthoipe, -or
going to the market at Grantham, and devoted
himself to science, and more particularly the mathe-
matics, with wonderful diligence. Those who came
in contact with the youth little imagined that his
name was destined to become the most celebrated
on the roll of the earth's great spirits. Bishop
Attcnbury says " in the whole air of his face arid
make there was nothing of that penetrating saga-
city which appears in his compositions. e had
something rather languid in his look and manner,
which did not raise any good expectation in those
who did not know him."

Bacon and Newton are undoubtedly the most
illustrious names in the calendar of British worthies.
The former, as Schlegel says, " by carrying the
spirit of inquiry out of the verbal contentions of
the dead school, into the regions of experience,
above all, of life and nature, has become the father
of modern physics. He made and completed many
illustrious discoveries himself; of many more he
seems to have had a dim and imperfect foresight.
It is the work of ages to follow out the hints which
are dropped by such a spirit in the progress of its
excursions. By means of his rich and indefatigable
intellect, the whole sciences of experience have been
immeasurably enlarged, or rather they have been
entirssly regenerated; the common shape of mind—
nay, 1),-e may say, the common shape of life, in
modern Europe, has received a spark of new ani-
mation iram the inspiring touoh of this Prome-
theus.". !aeon's fame, like that of Newton, is uni-
versal. VieY not only by their labours and dis-
coveries enhirged the boundaries of science, raised
new standasetis, and opened out fresh minds of
intellectual svealth but they became the intel-
lectual parent:" of a long race of intellectual pro-
geny. Yet the `•e is a wide distinction between the
two philosophers and in the originality as well as
the extent of his Oiiscoveries Newton stands alone.
Lord Brougham, • with admirable sagacity, traces
this difference. " ri.h,R inductive system of Bacon,"
said Lord Broughan t, " had been, at least in its
practice, known to his- predecessors. Observations,
and even experiments, were not unknown to the
ancient philosophers, though mingled with gross
errors. In early time s, almost in the dark ages,
experimental inquiries had been carried on with
success by Friar Bacot', and that method actually
recommended in a treatise, as it was two centuries
later by Leonardo da Vinci ; and at the latter end
of the next century Gilbert examined the whole
subject of magnetic action entirely by experiments.
So that Lord Bacon's claim to be regarded as the
father of modern philosophy rests upon the im-
portant, the invaluable step of reducmg to a sys-
tem the method of investigation adopted by those
eminent men, generalising it, and extending its
application to all matters of contingent truth ; ex-
ploding the errors, the absurd dogmas, and fantas-
tic subtleties of the ancient schools ; above all con-
fining the subiect of our inquiry, and the manner of
conducting it -within the limits which our faculties
prescribe." Bacon, in fact, perfected and gathered
into a system that which had before existed in
a fragmentary state. But Newton boldly passed
the boundaries of science and discovery, winning the
most memorable triumphs ever gained by the human
mind. "The grand difference, then" Lord Brougham
remarked, " between one discovery or invention
and another is in degree rather than in kind ; the
degree in which a person, while he outstrips those
whom he comes after, also lives, as it were, before
his age. Nor can any doubt exist that in this re-
spect Newton stands at the head of all who have
extended the bounds of knowledge."
Newton was most undoubtedly indebted to the
diligence and researches of his predecessors ; till he
not only completed what they had commenced; but
made discoveries truly marvellous in their character.
" They stand out," as Lord Brougham asserted,
" prominent among all the other feats of scientifxs
research, stamped with the peculiarity of his intel-
lectual character. They were aware their great
author lived before his age, anticipating, in part,
what was long after wholly accomplished; and
thus unfolding some things which at the time
could be but imperfectly, others not at all, compre-
hended a and not rarely pointing out the path and
affording the means of treading it to the ascertain-
mcnts of truth then veiled in darkness. He not
only enlarged the actual dominion of knowledge,
penetrating to regions never before explored, and
taking with a firm hand undisputed possession, but
he showed how the bounds of the visible horizon
might be yet further extended, and enabled his
successors to occupy what he could only descry ; as
tite illustrious discoverer of the New World made
the inhabitants of the Old cast their eyes over lands
and seas far distant from those he had traversed;
lands and seas of which they could form to them-
selves no conception, any more than they had been
able to comprehend the course by which he led
them on his grand enterprise. In this achievement,
and in the qualities which alone made it possible—
inexhaustible fertility ofresources--patience unsub-
ducd—close meditation that could suffer no distrac-
tion—steady determination to pursue paths that
seemed all but hopeless, and unflinching courage to
declarc, the truths they led to, how far soever re-
moved from ordinary apprehension—in these cha-
racteristics of high and original genius we may be
permitted to compare the career of those great men.
But Columbus did not invent the mariner's cone-
- pass, as Newton did the instrument which guided
his course and enabled him to make, and his suc-
cessors to extend, his discoveries, by closely follow-
ing his directions in using it." The culogium,
though eloquent and glowing, is not exaggerated.
Lord Brougham is no mean authority on thse sub-
jects. He has himself explored in the direction
in which Newton achieved such victoriss, and can
speak from experience as to their actual merits.
The fame of Newton does not, however, rest
upon the homage paid by his admiring fellow-
countrymen. The value of his services to science
and ei.ilisation is acknowledged by the chief men
of every land. Lord Brougham gave an admirable
summary of the different testimonies borne by dis-
tinguished persons in his favour : " Nor let it he
imagined," said the noble lord, "that the feelings
excited by contemplating the achievements of this
great man are in any degree whatever the result
of national partiality, and confined to the country
which glories in having given him birth. The lan-
guage 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. Liebnitz, when
asked at the Royal table in Berlin his opinion of
Newton, said that 'taking mathematicians from the
beginning of the world to the time when Newton
lived, what he had done was much the better half.'
'The Principia will ever remain a monument of the
profound genius which revealed to us the greatest
law of the universe,' arc the words of La Place.
That work stands pre-eminent above all other pro-
ductions of the human mind.' The discovery of that
simple and general law, bythe greatness and variety
of the objects which its embraces, confers honour
upon the intellect of man.' Lagrange, we are told
by Delambre, was wont to describe Newton as the
greatest genius that,ever existed, but to add how
fortunate he was also, ' because there can only
once be found a system of the universe to establish.'
Never,' says the father of the Institute of France
—one filling a huge plsace-anolfnthe most eminent
of members—' Never,'
a s iq
establishedit
,was the supre-
macy of intellect so justlyinexperimental
drismo
efnultla3l-
confessed; in mathematical and
science without an equal and -without an example,
, combining the genius for both in its highestlegree.'
The Principia he terms the greatest
ever produced by the mind of man;' adding, in the
words of Halley, that a nearer approach to the
Divine nature as not been permitted to mortals.
In first giving to the world Newton's Method of
Fluxions,' says Fontenelle, Liebnitz did like Pro-
Metheus; 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 disengaged from
matter.' "
The list might be indefinitely prolonged, but
sufficient was adduced by the noble lord to show
that Newton's merits were fully appreciated by the
most eminent men of science in all parts of the
world. His fame was universal, and is only ap-
proached in extent by the discoveries and labours
upon which it is based. We have quoted at length
from Lord Brougham's admirable address, because
it is a wonderful effort for a statesman above four-
score years of age ; and no fairer or more eloquent
tribute was ever offered to the memory of the illus-
trious dead.
Recognition of merits so extraordinary may ap-
pear to have been long delayed. Yet during his

lifetime Sir Isaac Newton's transcendant services
were to a certain extent appreciated, and some of
the first men of the age paid homage to his sur-
passing genius.. Far and wide his renown has
since travelled, and the philosopher's narae has be-
come a household word with the learned of all
lands. Something like a national monument was,
however, required, and this has at length been
erected in his native county. The inauguration on
Tuesday last of the statue at Grantham leaves no-
thing to be desired on that point. Amid the scenes
of his youth and early labours the memorial is raised
and a more fitting place could scarcely have been
selected. The ceremony was an ovation in every
sense of the word, and the tributes of affectionate
reverence which it has called forth prove satisfac-
torily enough that the memory of Sir Isaac Newton
is treasured as it ought to be byhis admiring coun-
trymen. The fame that is truly precious is said to
ripen in the obscurity of the tomb. If the English
people have allowed 130 years to elapse since the
death of " the greatest genius of the human race"
before erecting their memorial it must not be sup-
posed that they remained during that long interval
unmindful of his important services, or were insen-
sible to his manifest superiority over the thinkers
and philosophers of every age and clime. They
believed that Sir Isaac Newton's discoveries
and works constituted hiss noblest monument, and
imagined that one whose name was upon every
tongue scarcely required another tribute. We re-
joice, however, that what might seem to some an
omission has been supplied, for most assuredly
amongst those who have benefited mankind by their
discoveries Sir Isaac Newton stands pre-eminent.
His philosophy ennobled man and raised him nearer
to his Divine Maker.—.Aferning Herald.