The Kansas herald of freedom., 1858-10-23

and comprehensive, yet so plain, that they
both eaptivate and instruct the simple
The gratitude. too, which they inspire,
and the veneration with which they en-
circle his name, far from tending to OBJ
struct future Improvement, only proclaim
his disciples the Jealous because rational
followers of one whose example both en-
couraged and enabled his successors to
make further progress. How unlike the
blind devotion to a master which, for so
many ages of the modern world, para
lyzed the energies of the human mind!
Had we still paid that homage to a name, I'D
Which only God and nature Justly claim, .-..y
The Western seas 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 eyes,
Nor let it be imagined that the feelings,
excited by contemplating the achieve
ments of this great man, are in any de-
gree, 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
il equalled, perhaps exceeded, by that in
which other nations give utterance to
theirs not merely by the general voice,
but by the we'll considered and well-in-
formed judgment of the masters of SCI
ence. Leibnitz, when asked, at the Royal
table in Berlin, his opinion Of Newton,
said that, Taking mathematics from
the beginning of the world to the time
when Newton lived, what he had done
was much the better half The Princi-
pia will ever remain monument of the
profound genius which revealed to us the
greatest law of the universe are the
words of La Place. That work stands
pre-eminent above all other productions
of the human mind The discovery oil
that simple and general law, by the great
ness and variety of the objects which il
embraces, confers honor upon the intel
lect 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 g
system of the universe to establish
Never says the father of the Institute Of
France, one filling huge place among the
most eminent of members, Never says
NJ. Blot, was the supremacy of intellect
so Justly established and so fully confess.
ed !; in mathematical and in experiment
tai science without an equal, and without
an example, combining the genius fol
both in its highest degree.' The Princi.
pia he terms, the greatest work ever pro.
duced by the mind of man. adding, il
the words of Haley, that nearer ap.
proach to the Divine nature has not beer
permitted to mortals. In first giving tc
the world Newton's Method of Fluxions,
says Fontenelle, Leibnitz did like Pro.
metheus; he stole fire from Heaven to be-
stow it upon men, Does Newton,
HHopital asked, sleep and wake like
other men? l figure him to myself as {
celestial genius, entirely disengaged from
matter To so renowned benefactor o.
the world, thus exalted to the lofties
place by the common consent of all mel
-one whose life, without the intermis.
sion of an hour, was passed in the searcl
after truths the most important, and o
whose hands the human race had only re
ceived good, never evil-no memorial ha
been raised by those nations which erected
statues to tyrants and conquerors, th,
scourges of mankind, whose lives wer,
passed, not in the pursuit of truth, but tn,
practice of falsehood-across whose lips
if ever truth chanced to stray toward
some selfish end, it surely failed to Obtain
belief-who, to slake their insane thirs
of power or Of pre- eminence, trampled OF
all the rights and squandered the bloot
of their fellow-creatures whose course
like lightning, blasted while it dazzled
and who, reversing the Roman Emperor
noble regret, deemed the day lost that sav
the sun go down upon their forbearance
no victim deceived, or betrayed, or op
pressed. That the worshippers of sucl
pestilent genius should consecrate no out
| ward symbol Of the admiration they free
| ly confessed to the memory of the mos
illustrious of men, is not matter of won
der but that his own countrymen, justl
proud of having lived in his time, shoul
have left this duty to their successors, al
ter century and a half of professed ven
Grafton and lip homage, may well b
deemed strange. The inscription upo
the cathedral, the masterpiece of hi
celebrated friends architecture, may pos
sibly be applied in defence of this neg
lect If you seek for monument loo
around Ifyou seek for monument, lii
up your eyes to the Heavens, which sho'
forth his fame Nor, when we recollec
the Greek orators exclamation, that tn
whole earth is the monument of illustriou
men, can we stop short of declaring tbs
the Universe itself is Newton's. Yet, i
raising the statue which preserves his like
ness, near the place Of his birth, and o
the spot where his prodigious facultie
were unfolded and trained, we at ono
gratify our honest pride as citizens of th
, same State, and humbly testify our gratt
f full sense of Divine goodness which d.
signed to bestow upon our race one 6
, marvelously gifted to comprehend tt
works of infinite wisdom, and to make q
! his study of them the source of religion
contemplation, both philosophical an
, sublime.p Enthusiastic applause.
} H. The Mayor then presented to the mob
chairman a beautiful bound copy of New
toms PrinciPid. which his lordship a.
cepted, returning thanks for the presen
in few suitable remarks.
IEJf 1 i4 5--g'f4..
!, v.- Trra ,rd v.,v S,1ae,ou.