Sir Ifaac's principal refidence in town was at a houfe the corner of Long's-court, in St. Martin's street, Leicefter-fields, upon the roof of which he built a small obfervatory, that is still standing. He died at his lodgings in Pitt's-buildings, Kenfington, in the year 1726, at the age of eighty-five. reported, that a gentlemen found his eftate in that neighbourhood, him, one day, near Woolfthorpe, at his death, amounted only to in the character of a fhepherd's 1051. boy, reading a book of practical geometry; and that, upon afking him fome questions, he difcovered fome tokens of uncommon genius; that he applied to his mother, and ftrongly urged her to take the boy from the field, and give him the education of a scholar, offering to affift in his maintenance, if there fhould be occafion. It is not, however, probable, that, if fuch offer was made, it was ever accepted; for, in the rolls or records that are fometimes read at the Court-leets in Grantham, mention is made of Mr. Ayscough, Ifaac's maternal grandfather, as guardian or truftee of Ifaac Newton under age. It is therefore reasonable to believe, that Ifaac had a provifion under his mother's marriage fettlement; and that his grandfather, as his guardian or trustee, took care of his education. But, however this be, he was fent to the grammar-fchool, and, as is well known, afterwards purfued his academic ftudies in Trinity-College, Cambridge. His father died, probably, while he was yet a lad; for his mother married a fecond husband, the Rev. Mr. Smith, who was then rector of North Witham, a parifh that joins to Colterfworth; by whom he had a fon and feveral daughters, who afterwards intermarried with perfons of property and character, of the names of Barton and Conduit. The manor of Woolfthorpe, with fome other property, defcended to Sir Ifaac, upon the death of his grandfather Ayfcough, and he made fome purchases himself: but the whole was inconfiderable; for This account, however brief and imperfect, will confute many errors which the perfons who have undertaken to write the life of Sir Ifaac have fallen into. Some, indeed,, are fo grofs as to confute themfelves. The author of the Biogra phia Philofophica represents Sir Ifaac's father as the eldest son of a baronet; but, if this had been true, Sir Ifaac, who was the only child of his father, would have had an hereditary title. Neither is it true that the family of Sir Ifaac was opulent. The fon of his father's brother was a carpenter; his name was John Newton: he was afterwards gamekeeper to Sir Ifaac, and died at the age of fixty, in 1725. To Robert, the fon of this John, who was Sir Ifaac's fecond coufin,his real eftates, in the neighbourhood of Woolfthorpe, defcended upon his death, as his heir at law; but Robert was an illiterate and diffolute wretch, who very foon wafted his fubftance; and, falling down with a tobacco-pipe in his mouth when he was drunk, it broke in his throat, and put an end to his life, when he was about thirty years old, in in the year 1737. Sir Ifaac's perfonal eftate, which was very confiderable, was fhared among the children of his mother by her fecond marriage, and their defcendants. The temper of this great man is faid to have been fo equal and mild, that no accident could difturb it; and a remarkable inftance of it is authenticated by a perfon who is ftill living. Sir Ifaac had a favourite little dog, which he called Diamond; and, being one day called out of his ftudy into the next room, Diamond was left behind. When Sir Ifaac returned, having been abfent but a few minutes, he had the mortification to find, that Diamond having thrown down a lighted candle among fome papers, the nearly finished labour of many years was in flames, and almoft confumed to ashes. This lofs, as Sir Ifaac was then very far advanced in years, was irretrievable; yet, without once ftriking the dog, he only rebuked him with this exclamation, Oh! Diamond! Diamond! thou little knoweft the mischief thou haft done!' Sir Ifaac lived a bachelor; and, as the author was informed by a relation, often declared that he had never violated the laws of chastity. his panegyric on Sir Ifaac is true: that his mother was an Ayscough, fometimes written Afkew ; and that he was of an ancient family, whose ancestors were confiderable gentry: the famous Anne Afkew, in Fox's Martyrology, was of the fame family. His mother's brother, Ayfcough, a clergyman, grandfather of ny mother, was the perfon who infifted on his fifter's completing Ifaac's education at the univerfity, not according to the tradition mentioned in the poem of WenfleyDale, of a gentleman observing him in the field keeping fheep, but on the uncle's finding him in a hay-loft, at Grantham, working a mathematical problem. Of this clergyman, Ayscough, there are feveral defcendants, one of which is Mr.Thomas Ayscough, who has lived above 50 years at the banker's in Lombard-Street (formerly Braffey's, and now Lee and Ayton), with others who are still in being as well as myfelf. My mother's fifter, who attended him in his laft illness, and who was very much with him at other times, had told me, that when he had any ma thematical problems, or folutions, in his mind, he would never quit the fubject on any account. Dinner has been often three hours ready for him before he could be brought to table; that his man often said, when he has been getting up in a morning, he has fometimes begun to drefs, and with one leg in his breeches, fat down again on the bed, where he has remained for hours before he got his cloaths on; and my father has often told me that he was the most modest and bashful man that could be; and that in company he was never pofitive nor overbearing, even in those matters TH HE Marchionefs du Chatêlet, defcended of a very ancient family of Picardy, was born on the 17th of December, 1706. She was the daughter of Nicholas, Baron da Preuilly, and Anne de Frouillai. Among the women of her nation who have rendered themselves illuftrious, she is certainly entitled to the first rank. Before her, many of them had acquired reputation by agreeable romances, and by poetical pieces, in which there appeared the graces of wit, and the charms of fentiment. Several alfo, by applying them felves to the study of languages, by making their beauties to pafs into their own, and by enriching their verfions with valuable commentaries, had deferved well of the republic of letters. But very few of them, taking iuto their hands the compafs of Urania, had endeavoured to penetrate into the fecrets of nature, and to exercife themfelves in the abstract calculations of geometry. These were referved for the Marchionefs du Chatelet, and by compofing works on fubjects, which unfold themselves only to men of rare genius, fhe has claffed herself with the greatest philofophers, and may be faid to have rivalled Leibnitz and Newton. But a tafte for the abftract fci ences was not the only one the poffeffed. She had cultivated polite learning with as much ardour as fuccefs, and had confecrated her earlier years to the study of the ancients. Virgil was the author for whom the feemed to have the greatest admiration. She was never fatisfied with reading over the Æneid; he had even begun to tranflate it. What a pity that the did not finish it; we should then have had an excellent tranflation of that masterly poem. The beft French authors had also attracted her attention; and he had got by heart all the most beautiful paffages in them. She was particularly ftruck with harmonious verfes: but her delicate ear was hurt with those which had only the merit of mediocrity. Öther living languages had likewife excited her curiofity; fhe could read Taffo and Milton with facility. But it was of her own language that fhe had chiefly ftudied the propriety; and the left fome manufcript remarks in relation to it, which would not have difgraced the celebrated Marfais. The purity with which all her works are written, is an infallible proof that she knew it to the buttom. Whatever recalled to her the perfections of nature gave her pleasure. The fine arts, which are to be confidered as imitations of nature, were no lefs agreeable to her than eloquence and poetry. Mufic had particular charms for her; born with fenfibility, the could not but feel all the power of harmony. Thefe acquifitions ferved as a light to conduct her into the obfcure field of metaphyfical inquiry. Leibnitz, that ingenious and pro D 3 found found philofopher, was the guide, by whofe affiftance her first steps were made in this difficult career. But, if she had obligations to him, they were amply repaid by the light which the threw upon his writings. His philofophy, often unintelligible, the explained in a work intitled, Inftitutions, of phyfic.' If this work merits the higheft praife for its perfpicuity and method, the difcourfe which precedes it must be confidered as a mafterpiece of eloquence and reafoning. It is to her fon that she addreffes it; fhe inculcates, as a duty indifpenfable, the obligation under which parents lie to watch over the education of their children; the invites him to exercife the dawn of his reason, and to preferve himself from that ignorance which is fo common in high life. It is neceffary,' faid fhe, that you accuftom yourfelf to early habits of thinking and of finding a fatisfaction within your own mind; you will thence experience, during the courfe of your life,the refources and confolation which are furnished by ftudy; and will know, that it leads to happiness and to pleasure.' She advised him to apply himfelf chiefly to natural philofophy or phyfics; the fketched out to him the plan he was to follow, in the leffons the gave him in it; and enumerated the obligations for which this fcience is indebted to the philofophers who have appeared fince Descartes. In calling his attention to the fyftem of that great man, and to that of Newton, fhe fails not to remark the fierce difputes to which they gave rife; and exhorts him not give way to the spirit of party,' which is unfriendly to the difcovery of truth. It is, continues fhe, highly improper and abfurd, that a national affair fhould have been made of the opinions of Newton and Defcartes. When the queftion is about a book of philo. fophy, it is, furely, of little confequence to its merit, whether the author be an Englishman, a German, or a Frenchman.' It happens too frequently, that men in the judgments they pronounce of books, direct themfelves by idle prepoffeffions, or the characters of their authors. The Marchionefs also recommends it to her fon not to carry to idolatry the respect which is due to great men. From these precepts fhe procceds to speak of Leibnitz, and of the ideas of this philofopher on the fubject of metaphyfics. But, perhaps, in the mention the has made of him, the fomewhat forgets the rule the had been inculcating, and expreffes too high an admiration. This flight fault is the only one that he has committed in this difcourfe, which comprehends much ufeful instruction, and a beautiful analysis of the work, to which it is an introduction. The fciences, which lead out of the road to truth, are not made for those who are impatient to arrive at it. The Marchioness du Chatelet fought for it with too much ardour, and with too many advantages, to lofe much time in the chimeras of metaphyfics. When she had become acquainted with Newton, he abandoned Leib. nitz. The luminous doctrines of the former had more charms for her, than the hesitation and uncertainty of the latter. After hav ing by the most perfevering study rendered his writings familiar to her, fhe was feized with the defire of of procuring to herself the highest reputation: and the engaged in an undertaking, the most important, furely, that ever was attempted by a woman. Newton, by publishing his works in the Latin language, had written only for a few men of learning the Marchionefs, by tranflating into French his Principia, and by adorning it with her excellent commentaries, wrote for all the world. By this arduous talk, the advanced her own glory, affifted the cause of literature, and Spread perhaps the celebrity of Newton. In her tranflation, fhe fometimes improves upon the method of her author, and fometimes rectifies his mistakes. But her commentary is fuperior to her tranflation. It confifts of two parts, and is preceded by a rapid hiftorical fketch of aftronomy from the time of Pythagoras to her own age. The firft part comprehends an expofition and illuftration of the principal phænomena in the fyftem of the world. The second is employed in an analytical folution of the principal problems which have relation to this fyftem. It is alfo in this part of her work that the Marchionefs has explained feveral famous theorems, with an evidence that nearly amounts to de. monftration. When we attend to the ungainly appearance of the fubjects the has treated, and to the vivacity, the grace, and the delicacy fo natural to her fex, our aftonishment is mixed with admiration. It is not to be denied, that the was indebted to the inftructions of M. Clairaut. She had fcarcely finished a chapter of her commen tary,when the made hafte to fubmit it to his judgment. But he was But thofe, who only knew the D4 This |