"2. The story above may have a fair room and a large closet.

"3. A place for a repository over them.

"4. A place for the Library over the repository. "5. A place covered with lead for observing the heavens.

"6. A good stair-case from bottom to top.

"7. A reasonable area behind it, to give light to the back-rooms.

"All which may be comprised in a space of ground 40 foot in front, and 60 foot deep37."

In consequence, however, of the insertion of a clause in the new Bill, "that the Trustees should be obliged and required to build these houses, hall, and almshouses, for the lecturers and almsfolks, within five years from the passing of this Act, upon the penalty of two thousand pounds," exception was taken, and the bill was rejected by the Commons on its first reading. 38. All prospect of procuring better accommodation being thus at an end, the Council considered the expediency of removing from the College. At their Meeting, held on the 21 April, 1703, it was "Resolved, that the Society should purchase a place of abode for themselves; and it was ordered that a Committee, consisting of Mr. Isted, Mr. Hill, Dr. Tyson, Sir John Hoskyns, Dr. Sloane, and the Treasurer, should consider of a place to build on, or buy, and lay their thoughts before the Society."

37 The original of this document is preserved in the Archives of the Royal Society.

38 Stow's London, Second Appendix, Vol. iv. p. 22, edit. 1720. Commons' Journals, Vol. XIV. p. 426. It would appear by the petition that the Mercers' Company were considerably embarrassed.

From this period until the Society removed, the Council-minutes make frequent mention of the labours of the Committee, who reported on various localities and houses, which appeared suitable for the purposes of the Society. Amongst these was a house in Whitehall, and ground for building in the Savoy, and near St. James's Park. The Duke of Bedford also offered the Society "an estate of inheritance, or a lease of ground for 61 years;" but as these proposals did not meet the approbation of the Council, the Society meanwhile continued to occupy their apartments in Gresham College.

At the Anniversary in 1703 Lord Somers retired from the Presidency, and Sir Isaac Newton was elected to this high office, which even in those early days of the Society was regarded as conferring great honour and distinction upon the individual selected to fill it. In this case, the election was alike honourable to the Society and to Newton. It is not a little remarkable that he was chosen into the Council for the first time, and elected President, on the same day. The cause of his not having been called earlier to the Councils of the Society, arose probably from the jealousy of Hooke, which betrayed itself in so melancholy a manner for some years previous to his decease, that it is hardly possible to conceive how Newton could have sat at the same board with him. It is well known that Newton decided not to publish his Optics during the lifetime of Hooke; tolerably conclusive evidence of his wish not to expose himself to the attacks of the irritable philosopher 39, of whom Biot said, in the

39 In the Preface to the Optics, written a short time after

Hooke's

words which had before been applied by D'Alembert to Fontaine, Hooke est mort;-c'était un homme de génie, et un mauvais homme; la Société y gagne plus que la géométrie n'y perd!

Hooke's death, Newton says: "To avoid being engaged in disputes about these matters, I have hitherto delayed the printing."

THE BIRTH-PLACE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON;

Showing the Solar Dials which he made when a boy.

CHAPTER XIV.

Memoir of Sir Isaac Newton-His constant attendance at the Meetings Presents his Optics to the Society-Prince George of Denmark elected-Requested by the Society to print Flamsteed's Observations-He consents to defray the Expense Committee appointed to superintend the Publication-Flamsteed's Dissatisfaction-Painful Dispute-He burns the Historia Coelestis-Prints a more perfect edition at his own expenseNewton's Propositions for Financial Improvements-Papin's Proposal to construct Steam-vessel-Edinburgh Philosophical Society-Death of Sir G. Copley-His Bequest-Devoted at first to Experiments-Gold Medal afterwards adopted – Awarded to Dr. Franklin-Mercers' Company give notice of their intention to withhold Apartments-Petition to the Queen for Land in Westminster-Application to Trustees of Cotton Library-Purchase of Dr. Brown's House in Crane Court-Objections by some of the Fellows-Proceedings of Council with respect to the Removal-First Meeting in Crane Court-Regret of the Gresham Professors on the Departure of the Society.

IT

1700-10.

T has devolved on me, in the course of this work, to notice the principal discoveries of Newton, which, as already shown, were communicated to the Royal Society. To these, therefore, we need only slightly allude, the object of this memoir being to give such an outline of the life of their author, as may refresh the memory of the reader, who will see that, amidst occupations of great care and responsibility, which would alone have engrossed all the time and thoughts of an ordinary mind, the greatest of all philosophers found opportunities to attend not only to onerous public duties, but also to the affairs

and interests of the Royal Society, over which he presided for twenty-five years.

The mind of Newton has been happily and popularly compared by Professor De Morgan, to "a person who is superior to others in every kind of athletic exercise; who can outrun his competitors with a greater weight than any one of them can lift standing." Upwards of a century has passed away, and the name of Newton still remains amongst us, “an object of unqualified wonder," a name to be pronounced with reverence.

Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire, on the 25th December, 1642, exactly one year after the death of Galileo. He was a puny and weakly infant, giving little promise of a vigorous maturity or prolonged life. According to his statement, made at the Herald's Office, his great grandfather's father was John Newton, of Westby, in Lincolnshire.

His father, Isaac Newton, married the daughter of James Ayscough, of Market Overton, in Rutlandshire. He died before the birth of his son, the only issue of the marriage. Mrs. Newton contracted a second alliance with the Rev. Barnabas Smith, rector of North Witham, and confided her son, who was then about three years old, to the care of his maternal grandmother, by whom he was sent to a day-school, and at the age of twelve to the public school at Grantham. He lodged in this town at the house of Mr. Clarke, an apothecary, where he met Miss Storey, daughter of Dr. Storey of Buckminster, and for whom he formed a friendship, which grew into a warmer feel