Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-11-03

1t was certainly carelessness but poor Hon
phrey (how wildly he remembers it ALL felt soaely
tempted when he saw, las one might suppose
for he was too honest to count them-''no less
than LOCO guineas' crowded edgeways, 4" and it
was a help to his fidelity to believe that the trial
was intended by his master-his master, to whom,
when at the head Of the Mint, a Duchess all in
vain offered a bribo Of G6,000. At one period of
his life Sir Isaac gave some study to a~lchymy, and
we might suppose, from one of the sentences in
the letter to Frances Aston from which we have
already quoted, that he had thought of transmutl-
ton as n means of money making. lie recon-
mends his young friend to inquire on the continent
about transmutatiuns, these being the most lucif-
crous, and many times l~ucifeJoUS exI e%riments, too,
in philosophy
This letter, however, it must be remembered,
was written not long before his circumstance were
such as to give him some anxiety, and he was glad
to escape bis weekly payments as u member Of
the Royal Society. If ever he thought o fmoney-
making it was only to pay his frugal buttery
book and buy putty for his lenses and oranges
for his sister. lie gave away his money
without concern he was even offensive in
refused his purse. Think of Sir Isaac taking Il
handful of guincas at random out Of his pocket
and oiiereing it as u fec to a physician like Ches-
eden
We have not said anything Of the controversies
which brought Newton into contact with his fell
INV ilCIls iiiN IfuJ uo mlIilbNN0 W llc ltcl uilb
VIC must leave it to others to adinst all the micro
scope details of authorship and copywright which
these controversies involve. But it is impossible
to pass without apprehension the unfairuess with
which Newton treated his opponents IIuygens
and Ilooke, Leibnitz and Flamstood. 1t is just
retribution that Ncwton's corpuscular theory Of
light has s%uccumbcd before the undulatory theory
defended by ~lluygens and llooke that his law of
double refraclion has been displaced by that Of
lluygenS that his theory Of the infexiun of light
has been forgotten 10y llouke's; and that his meth
cd Of iiuxions, which raised the greatest din of all
has been supqlantoG 10y the different calculus of
Liebnitz. For one thing in these controversies we
may be proud of Newton. His jealousy was alb
surd, all generosity was forgotten but he never
descended to the atrocious frauds which Sisgraced
his opponents Bernoulli, Leibnitz and Wolf.
Such was Newton as Il man. Glorious in his in
tellect, with Il picty rather intellectual than deyo-
tional, he was a stole, for he had no feelings to
contend with. 1t is very saddening to find that
the two most splendid names which science can
boast Of belongs to men 50 deficient in their moral
natures as Lord Bacon and Sir Issue Newton. In
the former we find q positive moral %obliquity,
which would awaken pity were it not joined to 81
majestic an intellect that it eXcitGs terror and de
spair Of human nature. In the latter we find sim
ply a vacuum-iron intellect ON every side sur
rounding and maintaining the tremendous gal
within. We have no desire to moralize on the
fact. We have simply eudcavored to give a faith
ful representation Of Ne toms character, believing
that no possible good can result from the fulsom,
batteries which arc heaped on his name. Wher
the contemporaries Of Newton hailed him as god
they declared, in very brilliant phrase, that he wa.
not a man.