The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-11-15
NO. 1853.
From the London Times.
MEMOIRS OF SIR ISAAC MENTIONS


1t is not that their lives are uneyentful. We
have memoirs of poets, novelists, historians,
divines-al teeming with interest, although the
incidents which the biographer has to relate
are scarcely more important than those which
worthy DIR. Primrose thought it beneath him
to chronicle, when his family in the vicarage
moved from the blue room to the brown ROOM
and back again from the brown room to the
blue room. The life of Samuel johnson was
uneventful, and vet his biography is the finest
in the language. But we have no memoir Of a
man of science that has proved of deep and
lasting interest, unless we except the autobiog
raphy of Benjamin Franklin.
The fact is, that the more completely man
dovotes himsef to science, he becomes the less
social being; the less, therefore, a man, and
the more philosophical instrument. Aud as
we do not suppose that memoirs of Babbage's
calculating machine would be very entertain
ing, so neither is the biography of man whose
life has passed into an algebraical formula,
and whose thoughts are ever intent upon r.
! that terrible unknown. I" Does Mr. Newton
eat, drink. or s,e,.,c Ike other menu" well might
the Marquis de pHopitsiir 2sk l represent
aim to myself as celestial geiH ES,re a. i,S'
disengaged from matter"
Sir David Brewster has Just published an
elaborate biography of Newton, to show that
he is entitled not only to the admiration which
the whole world accords him, but also TO the
love of our hearts. He has done his best to
place Sir Isaac in a good light. He has, in
short, written two large volumes to illustrate
| one line written by Pope
God said, Let Newton be- aud all was light"
After a careful persual Of this heightened
panegyric, we are forced to the conclusion that
Sir David is good Christian and bad biog.
] a. -
was almost god, in his heart he was scarcely
a man.
Sir David has been engaged on the life of
Newton for twenty-five years, and in all that
time he has not been able to arrange his mate
rails with conference greater than that of an
almanac, where we learn that Sir Robert Peel
was born four days before Queen Victoria was
married, and her Majesty was married a couple
of days before Lady Jane GREY was beheaded.
he suddenly dashes forward twenty wears. then
back thirty, forward again ten, back two or
three, forward a century, and so to and fro.
till the bewildered reader gives up in despair
the task of following the authors chronology.
and is almost content to believe that Sir Isaac
was knighted when schoolboy, and that in
his last days he turned alchymist.
This fault is fatal to biograph.r. and all
the scientific attainments, ali the lucid exposi-
ton, all the brilliant writing of Sir David
Brewster, cannot retrieve it. Besides which,
he writes with pariiality that, while it wins
our affection for his goodness, DESTROYS our re-
spect tor his opinion. 1t is right to speak with
reverence for the dead let the memory of
Newton be sacred but so also should the
memories Of Huygens and Hooke, Leibnetz
and FlaInsteed, at whose expense Sir David
Brewster has exalted Newton. We are quite
sure that the author is not aware how much he
has been influenced by partiality, and we shall
therefore give single example of his special
pleading In favor of Sir Isaac. 1t was reported
that Newton had called Sir Hans Sloane, the
Secretary of the Royal Society, "a tricking
fellow" and "a villain" 1t does not much
matter whether the report was true or false,
only Sir David imagines that there were no
such terms in Newton's vocabulary. when
he was lrritated at the conduct of Flamsteed
ne could not command a hdrsker term than
that of puppy."-See p. 239
We turn to page 239, and read Flamsteed's
account of the affair. He called me many
hard names; puppy ,cds the most innocent of
them" And why should Sir David 90 thus out
of his way to show that Newton could not use
hard word? We, indeed, doubt very much
whether he ever called Sir Hans Sloane "a
tricking fellow and "a van;" but we do
not think that the man who, when a schoolboy,
fought his companion in the church-yard, and
rubbed his nose against the wall; who told
flamsteed to hold his tongue, ard called him a
puppy; and who addressed some fellows of st.
Johns, when he saw them examining haunted
house, "Oh, ye fools!" was incapable, as Sir
David suPposes, of employing such terms. OF
what avail! Is all this veneering? 1t only de-
teats It's purpose. Excessive praise always
results in excessive depreciation. This has
happened once already in the case of Newton.
His partisans in the Royal Society had lauded
his intellect SO vehemently, and his claims over
foreigners so unfairly, that as a natural conse-
quence, the foreigners took advantage of
moment of weakness, and pronounced him mad.
The elaborate life of Newton, contributed by
M. Blot to the Geographic Universelle, is written
throughout on the assumption that from his
forty-ffth year, when the little dog Diamond"
is said to have upset the candle and burnt his
papers, to the day of his death, his mighty in.
tellect was obscured. Sir David has satisfac.
torily disproved the insanity of Newton, but he
need not wonder if the iioatry of which he sets
the example should call forth imputations
equally injurious. Why should not the truth
be spoken about Newton With all our venera-
ton Tor his name, we have no sympathy with |
those who think they honor him by denying his /
faults, and who seem TO us to Je guilty of the |
folly of those divines who explain away the |
talsehood of one Scripture saint, and ont and |
out defend another for cheating his father and |
robbing his brother.
The common idea of Newton is very vague. /
In writing to the earliest Of his biographers, |
Pope expressed desire to have some "memoirs
and character of him as private man." The |
desire might still be expressed. We have no
intimacy with Newton. Few persons. if asked |
to describe the character of the man. could saw
more than this-that he was exceedingly alb.
sent, and that he was imperturbable almost to
insipidity, perhaps quoting as AN illustration of
the latter characteristic the apocryphal story of
the philosopher and his little dog Diamond"
Inns is not saying much, and yet the half of it
IS incorrect. The contemporaries of Newton
describe him as anything but imperturbable on
certain occasions. Locke declared that he
was :" nice man to deal WITH" but i" "a little
TOO apt to raise in himself suspicious where
there Is no ground" Flamsteed always "found
him insidious, ambitious, and excessively
covetous OF praise, and impatient of contradic-
.ion."
Winston describes him as equally iupatient
and of the most fearful, cautious, and suspi
'ious temper that he ever knew. D'Alembert
Sives the French idea Of him, when he SAYS
In England, people were content with New
ons being the greatest genius of his age; in
rance, one would have also wished him To he
unable. Ii Newton was really unamiable, it
vas chiefly negative unamiability. He was
lnsocial, he was reserved, he was absent. he
vas silent; in the course of five years, mis- acc.
etary, Humphrey Newton, never saw him laugh
mt once, and that once it was impossible 10
comprehend why; worst of all to a Frenchman,
lie had none of the graces-could not, ike Fon
enelle, begin treatise on astronomy bv ,aln.
ing lady, and comparing the beauty of dav
blonde, and the beauty of night to bru
cite. The only nnalit;aa Z " NLu