Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-12-23
Mlisftllarreoms.
The Boyhood of sir Isaac Newton.

Sir Isaac Newton was the greatest ofmod
ern philosophers and mechanics. When
he was born, Dec. %. 1912. three months
after his fathers death, he was so small
and feeble that no one supposed he would
live day but the weak infant grew to be
healthy. robust man, who lived until he
was eighty-four years old. He began to
invent or contriye machines and to show
his taste for mechanics, in early childhood.
He inherited some property from his IA
Their, and his mother. who had married a
second time. sent him to the best schools
and to the University of Cambridge. AZ
school he soon showed his natural taste
he amused himself with little saws. hatch
cts, hammers and different tools. and
when his companions were at play spent
his time in making machines and toys.
He made wooden clock when he was
twelve years old, and the model Of wind
mill. and in his mill he put mouse.
which he called his miller. and which
turned the wheels by running around its
cage. He made water-clock four feet
high, and a cart with four wheels. not un-
like velocipede, in which he could drive
himself by turning a windlass.
His love Of mechanics often interrupted
his studies at school, and he was some
times making clocks and carriages when
he ought to have been constituting Latin
and Greek. But his mind was so active
that he easily caught up again with his
fellow scholars, and was always fond
of every kind of knowledge. He
taught the school-boys how to make
paper kites; he made paper lanterns by
which to 90 to school in the dark winter
mornings; and sometimes at night he
would alarm the whole country round by
raising his kites in the air with paper
lantern attached TO the tail they would
shine like meteors in the distance. and the
country people, at that time very igno-
rant, would fancy them omens of evil. and
celestial lights.
He was never idle for II moment. He
learned to draw and sketch he made lit
lie tables and sideboards for the children
10 play with he watched the motions Of
the sun by means Of pegs he had fixed in
the wall of the house where he lived,
and marked every hour.
At last, when he was about sixteen, his
mother placed him in charge of farm,
and every Saturday he went with ser
want to Grantham market to sell his corn
and vegetables. But the affairs of the
farm did not prosper; the young philoso-
pher hid himself away in "A room in "A
garnet which he hired. studying mechanics
and inventing water wheel or new
model. while the sheep wandered away
in the field. and the cattle devoured his
corn.
Next he went to Cambridge University,
and became a famous scholar. AT the age
Of twenty -four he began his study of the
spectrum. as philosophers call that bril-
liant picture Of the colors of the rainbow,
which is shown by the suns rays shining
through three sided piece of glass called
n prism. II is one of the most beautiful
objects in science or nature, and Newton's
study of its splendid colors led to his
greatest discoveries in optics, or the sci
ence Of the sight. In our own time the
use of the prism and its spectrum has
shown us of what the sun and moon are
composed.
One day As Newton sat musing in his
garden at his retired country home, an APP
pie fell from tree to the ground
great idea ut once arose in his mind. and
he conceived the plan of the universe and
of the law of gravitation, as it is called.
He was the first to discover that famous
law. He showed that the heavier body
always attracts the lighter; that as the APP
pie falls to the earth. so the earth is drawn
toward the sun; that all the planets feel
the law of gravitation, and that all the
universe seems to obey one will Newton
soon became the most famous of living
philosophers. But at the same time he
was the most modest of men; he never
knew that he had done anything more
than others. nor felt that he was any more
studious or busy. Yet he never ceased To
show. even in late old age. the same love
for mechanical pursuits and the study of
nature he had shown when a boy His
most famous work. the Principal. proving
the law of gravitaiion and the motion of
the planets. appeared in 1867. He made
beautiful prisms of glass and other sub
stances, and the fine rejecting telescopes.
the best that were yet known. lie wrote
valuable histories and works. He was al
ways devout Christian and scholar. He
died in 1927. and was buried in West
minister Abbey.
Thus the puny babe that was scarcely
thought worth the care of his nurses be-
came an active and healthy boy and man,
with the clearest mind of his time. lie
was stout. ruddy. healthy. and never. it is
said. lost tooth, But he preserved his
health by avoiding all that was hurttul.
He WAS philosopher at twelve years old.
and the world owes much of its progress
to Newton's well-spent childhood -H"r-
per's Tonng People.