Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1909-09-24
"A Romance
ofPro9ress
By ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE
ISAAC NEWTON-The Man Who
Turned Accidents to Account

Good Dame Newton, farmers wild
ow, of Woolstrop, England. was in
despair at the stupidity Of her only
son, Isaac. To the horror of all the
neighbors the lad could not grasp the
first principles of farming. He neg
lected his work in the fields, failed to
show any interest in crops and was
forever sneaking off into corners to
read some book on science or me-
chanics. He had picked up a taste
for such matters at the Grantham
Grammar school, and they weaned
him away from all concern about his
mothers thriving farm. He took to
devising mechanical toys in off hours,
and even constructed a couple of sun
dials.
Isaac actually wanted to be a
scholar. A scholar, to the simple farm
folk, meant man in tattered, rusty
gown, who was glad enough to eat
the crust of charity and who accom-
plished no good in life. Yet for such
miserable career Isaac begged leave
to throw away an assured future as
prosperous farmer. And at last
worn down by his pleadings, the moth
er consented. At IS, in 1860, Newton
went to Cambridge university. There
he promptly went mathematic-mad.
He discovered the binomial theorem
and worked out the processes since
employed as "Differential and Integ
raj Calculus" Before he reached the
age of 81 he was professor of mathe-
mates at Trinity college.
Then the plague swept England, a
scourging epidemic that wasted whole
communities, paralyzed trade and
progress, and killed men, women and
children like flies. The dead were
carried out of the cities each day by
the hundred carloads. knowledge of
medicine and of
discovers At1rao- sanitation was
ZION or GraVlta- limited and the
ton" o,,+hroo1, oo,,1d ro+
be checked. The colleges closed
their doors. Newton, deprived for the
time of occupation, returned to the
Woolstrop farm.
There, in enforced idleness, he
spent many weeks. One day, as he
sat under a tree in his mothers
orchard, an apple fell to the ground,
grazing his head as it passed. New
ton started up from the doze into
which he had drifted. The fall of the
apple set him to thinking. Why had
it fallen? When it had become de
tached from the limb why did it drop
downward? Why did it not hang in
air or fall in some other direction?
What mysterious force drew all de-
tached bodies to the earth as a mag.
net draws particles of steel? Since
the days of Adam apples had tumbled
earthward. Yet no one except New
ton had troubled to consider the rea-
son. The idle scholar set to work on
the problem offered by this accident.
And the result of this study was the
discovery of the great fact known as
THE Attraction of Gravitation." Next
he sought to connect this new discov-
cred attraction" with the force which
holds planets to their orbits and pre-
vents them from whizzing off into
space. Calico, years before, had
proven that a falling body drops 16
feet the first second and with arith-
metically increased force for every
subsequent second. Using this
knowledge, Newton began to calculate
the force necessary to hold the moon
to its orbit around the earth This, in
spite of many dreary disappointments,
he succeeded, after 16 years struggle,
In doing.
He again startled the world and
made for himself new foes by discov-
ering that rays Of white light were
not single in color, but were made
up of countless rays of many colored
light. From this followed a fresh
working out Of the theory of the rain
bow and a mastery treatise on OPP
tics.
Then came the heaviest misfortune
of Newton's life. For 20 years he
had been at work on a scientific dis
covery and had at last worked it to a
completion. All the papers represent
ing that 20 years of labor lay one
m evening on his
Work OF Twenty studvtable Hispe
Years Destroyed. spaniel Diamond,
leaped upon the table, and while frisk-
ing there upset one of the candles.
Before Newton could run to the res
Cue the precious papers were a
undecipherable mass of
ashes. Instead of flying into a rage
Of bemoaning the loss he lifted the
cur gently to the
ground. saying only:
"Oh, Diamond, you little know
what mischief you have done"
Then he set calmly to work on the
20-year task again. But the shock
proved too much for his overstrained
nerves. He broke down mentally and
To make matters worse
he was practically penniless.
But with tardy generosity the gov
came to his relief. He was
appointed warden of the royal mint,
and so well did ne discharge his
duties that, in 1896, he was promoted
to the Office of mint master. Queen
Anne, in 1705, made him knight.
Thus England was spared the eternal
disgrace of allowing her greatest
scientist to starve.
In 1927, at the age of IS, Newton
lied. At his deathbed some fellow
scientists spoke in high praise of the
lying mans profound wisdom.
"Wisdom?" echoed Newton II
EEL like child who, wandering along
he shores of the boundless seas Of
earning, has merely picked up a few
.iny shells"
lCopyrighted.)