with him no mean talent of his own. Of the opinions which were provoked by such a mass of profound thought and immense penetration, one anecdote may supply an idea :-the Marquis de l'Hopital, himself a clever mathematician, is said, in speaking of the work, to have asked an Englishman-Does Monsieur Newton eat, drink, and sleep, like other mortals? To me he appears a celestial genius, entirely disengaged from matter.'

During the course of the same year, Newton availed himself of another source of popularity, by taking a forward part in the proceedings through which the University of Cambridge resisted the mandamus by which James the II. endeavoured to procure a degree of M. A. for the Benedictine Father Francis. He was soon after returned to the House of Commons for the University, and retained his seat until the Convention Parliament was dissolved. In 1696 he was patronised by Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax, who procured for him the appointment of Warden in the Mint, of which establishment he rose to be Master in the course of three years. Upon first undertaking this new avocation he resigned his Professorship of Mathematics, in favour of the eccentric Whiston, and established himself in a house in Leicesterstreet, Leicester Fields, where the emoluments of his office, which amounted to 1200l. a year, enabled him to live with ease and dignity. In 1702 he was elected President of the Royal Society, and during the course of the following year published his 'Optics, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions, and Colours of Light.' This was his favourite work; he had allotted the occasional labours of no less than thirty years to verify the experiments upon which it was founded, and it was fully entitled to all the honours of his partiality: for in this science it has been justly remarked that he stands solitary and pre-eminent. In his Fluxions,' which formed a compendium to the Treatise on Optics, and also in the principle of gravity by which he resolved the solar system, hints were borrowed, and facts adopted from others; but in dissecting the particles which compose a ray of light; in showing that they admitted of no farther distinction, and in discovering the peculiar refrangibility into which the particles thus separated diverged; he revealed all the mysteries in the science of light, and completed all the knowledge to be attained of its beauties. It is here observable that

Leibnitz, presuming on the modesty of Newton's disposition, and his known aversion to literary disputes, had the boldness to put in a claim for the merit of being the original inventor of the 'Fluxions' just mentioned: but the usurpation was speedily resented, and now constitutes a most disgusting proof of ingratitude and illiberality. In deciding these rival pretensions, Fontenelle paid an elegant compliment to our countryman, 'If,' said he, Newton was the first to make the discovery, and Leibnitz the first to publish it, the German only resembled Prometheus, who stole fire from heaven to communicate it to mortals.'

The profound labours by which Newton earned his fame have here been faintly recapitulated, and the honours with which it was crowned are now to be noticed. Queen Anne distinguished him by particular notice, and gave him his knighthood in 1705. During the following reign favours more gracious awaited him; for Caroline, Princess of Wales, having a taste for philosophical pursuits, frequently courted his society, and used to make a boast of being born in the same age with him. It was to this princess that he communicated the manuscript of a chronological work, which he had composed for his private satisfaction, but did not intend to publish. Her Royal Highness, however, thinking highly of the performance, and being anxious to extend his reputation, permitted a copy to be taken, which was soon after surreptitiously printed in Paris, with the name of another author. The man who perpetrated this daring piracy was the Abbe Conti, and he had the confidence to justify his conduct, by pretending that some alterations which he introduced ma terially improved the volume. A literary dispute was excited by the circumstance, which raged with some passion, and though it greatly mortified Newton, established his right to the work.

From the time of his appointment in the Mint, Newton devoted himself so assiduously to the duties of his office, that philosophy became almost a secondary object with him. Fortunately, however, for the world, he seems to have fully developed every discovery that occurred to his penetrating imagination. His manner of living was regular, temperate, and frugal to a nicety; he enjoyed a capital state of health up to the period of his eightieth year, but at that date a urinal suppression began to

affect him, which was soon found to be incurable. This disorder occasioned the most poignant sufferings, and ultimately put au end to his days, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. His obsesequies were solemnised with considerable pomp; the body lay in state at the Jerusalem Chamber, and was escorted into Westminster Abbey by a long train of exalted admirers, amongst whom two dukes and three earls supported the pall. His stature was moderate, thin in youth, but rather corpulent in old age. The expression of his countenance was pleasing and venerable, but indicative in no marked degree of that profound sagacity which enhanced his works. Old as he lived to be, he never was obliged to wear spectacles, and, as is said, only lost one tooth.

His private character was eminently philosophical: patience, modesty, and indefatigability distinguished his thoughts, his writings, and his actions, with peculiar charms and the happiest success. In the decline of his life he was subjected to fits of pain so intense, that large drops of perspiration would run down his face while they lasted. Yet he never complained, never stopped the study, or broke up the company with which he might happen to be engaged at the moment, but as soon as the paroxysm ceased, talked or read on with alacrity. He had a favourite dog, which he used to call Diamond, and one evening as the animal was wantoning about his study, it knocked down a candie, and set fire to a heap of manuscript calculations, upon which he had been employed for years. The loss was irretrieva ble, but the resigned philosopher only exclaimed with simplicity, 'Ah, Diamond, Diamond, you little know what mischief you've been doing. Of his mental abstraction, and indifference to the common course of things, anecdotes the most amusing are recited. He would sometimes rise at his usual hour, but sit thinking for half the day, on the side of his bed, with his clothes half on. Superior in a manner to the wants of nature, he has been known, when occupied with an idea, to go for a day without food, and at other times, when he did obey the summons to a meal, he would · sit down to the table, but forgetting what he came for, leave the dishes untouched before him for hours together.

The ample task of expatiating upon the high order of his discoveries, and reviewing his publications, is superseded by the

vulgar fact, that his systems are universally received throughout the civilised world, and his observations are the theses upon which other professors expatiate. Editions and translations of his works have been made and published in all the modern tongues, and various countries of Europe and America; but the best that has appeared in England, was given by Bishop Howly, in 5 volumes, royal 4to. during the year 1781.

HOWARD, EARL OF NOTTINGHAM, K.B.

THE reign of Elizabeth, Queen of England, though darkened by the fury of religious persecution, and in general scandalously sullied by a heartless system of policy, which was pursued through constant crime, and completed in frequent bloodshed, presents, nevertheless, many passages replete with brilliant deeds, and national improvement. First on the list of eminent claims which the character of her administration possesses to the gratitude of posterity, are the ineasures which she successfully adopted for the advancement of our naval strength. It was reserved for her honour to carry the fame of the British fleet far beyond the reputation which the most popular of her predecessors had been able to attain for it, and the many glorious exploits which confirmed the wisdom of those designs shed an atoning lustre over the story of less enlightened views, and less generous deeds. To her reign we stand indebted for that great contingent source of maritimal strength, the establishment of the East India Company; she appropriated particular forests for ship-building, and was the first to found the manufacture of gunpowder in England; she built a naval fortress on the Medway, encreased the number, and raised the pay of her seamen; she encouraged the intrepid For

bisher to make three attempts at a North-west Passage to China; patronised the fearless Drake in his voyage round the world; and finally, in reward for those talents which led to his ever memorable destruction of the Spanish Armada, created the noble subject of this sketch Earl of Nottingham.

Born in the year 1536, the Honourable Charles Howard entered the naval service of his country at a very early age, and obtained the most advantageous appointments for the developement of his talents under the immediate eye of his father, Baron Effingham, who filled the post of Lord High Admiral upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne. At this period, though only two and twenty years of age, young Howard was particularly distinguished by the notice of his royal mistress, who entrusted him with an embassy to France, to congratulate Charles the IX. upon his assumption of the crown. This mission satisfactorily discharged, he for awhile quitted the naval service, as the events of the period afforded no opportunity for employment, and entered the army. In this new profession he was nominated to the command of a regiment of cavalry; and after a promiscuous service of nine years, was proclaimed a general of horse, when the Earl of Warwick opposed the insurrection headed by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, in the north. The rapid and favourable termination of that revolt, though not particularly described, is yet so pointedly recorded in history as to be generally known. Immediately afterwards Howard was replaced on his natural element, and led the squadron of ships of war, which Elizabeth ordered out to sea as a convoy to Anne, daughter of Maximilian, Emperor of Austria, during her voyage to Spain. In 1571 we find him returned for the county of Surrey to the House of Commons, and ere long, by the death of his father, invested with the family title, and a seat in the Upper House. At the same moment he had also the satisfaction of receiving the high office of Lord Privy Seal, which was possessed by his father at the moment of his demise. That the son succeeded in gaining the same confidence from his royal mistress, by which the parent had always been distinguished, may be safely inferred from his progressive rise to some of the greatest honours to which a subject can aspire. He was first made Chamberlain of the Royal Household, next elected a Knight of the Garter, and,