SIR ISAAC NEWTON. "DOES Mr. Newton eat, or drink, or sleep, like other men ?" said the Marquis de L'Hôpital, one of the greatest mathematicians of the age, to the English who visited him,— "I represent him to myself as a celestial genius, entirely disengaged from matter." Such were the transcendent powers of mind with which Sir Isaac Newton was endowed, that his contemporaries, even those of the highest attainments, were unable at first to comprehend his philosophy, and were inclined to regard its author as a being of another and superior nature to their own. Yet, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary circumstances in Newton's character was,-that no singularities of conduct whatever, either affected or natural, distinguished him from other men. Peculiarities of manner, dress, or appearance, particular and curious modes of phrase, gesture, or deportment, are almost looked for in a man of genius: he who desires to be considered as such, affects them; he who is such, usually has them from nature or habit. But the truly wise man is devoid of all eccentricities, at least of those which regard his conduct, language, dress, and demeanour. Reason is the guide of all his actions, and condemning all those prejudices, partialities, and antipathies, from which singularity of behaviour generally springs in minds where reason does not predominate over the fiery quality of genius, it renders its possessor, the WISE MAN, natural, unaffected, and observant of the common rules. of society, which time and experience have shown to be the wisest, most rational, and best. Wisdom is very different from what is called genius; so different as to be almost incompatible with it. There are, however, a few instances of these qualities being combined in the same person, of which two, the most illustrious, are to be met with in the biographical annals of our own nation--Bacon and Newton. Of the genius of Newton it is both superfluous and irrelevant to speak: the subsequent letter is the best illustration we can give of that wisdom which directed and controlled all the actions of his long and happy life. Letter from Sir Isaac Newton to a young Gentleman who was entering upon his travels. SIR, Trinity College, Cambridge, May 18, 1669. Since in your letter you give me so much liberty of spending my judgment about what may be to your advantage in travelling, I shall do it more freely than, perhaps, otherwise would have been decent. First, then, I will lay down some general rules, most of which, I believe, you have considered already; but if any of them be new to you, they may excuse the rest; if none at all, yet is my punishment more in writing than yours in reading. |