Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/478

448 NEWTON them and gave evidence. He stated that for determining the longitude at sea there had been several projects, true in theory but difficult to execute. He mentioned four: (1) by a watch to keep time exactly, (2) by the eclipses of Jupiter s satellites, (3) by the place of the moon, (4) by a new method proposed by Mr Ditton. Newton criticized all the methods, pointing out their weak points, and it is due mainly to his evidence that the committee brought in the report which was accepted by the House, and shortly afterwards was converted into a Bill, passed both Houses, and received the royal assent. The report ran "that it is the opinion of this committee that a reward be settled by parliament upon such person or persons as shall discover a more certain and practicable method of ascertaining the longitude than any yet in practice ; and the said reward be proportioned to the degree of exactness to which the said method shall reach." For the history of the conse quences of this report we must refer to the article NAVI GATION, p. 258 sq. of the present volume. Sir Isaac Newton was a very popular visitor at the court of George I. The princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline, wife of George II., took every opportunity of con versing with him. Having one day been told by Sir Isaac that he had composed a new system of chronology while he was still resident at Cambridge, she requested him to give her a copy. He accordingly drew up an abstract of the system from his papers, and sent it to the princess for her own private use ; but he afterwards allowed a copy to be made for the Abb6 Conti on the express understanding that it should not be communicated to any other person. The abbe, however, unmindful of his promise not to divulge the system, lent his copy to M. Fre ret, an antiquary at Paris, who translated it, and endeavoured to refute it. The translation was printed under the title Abrege de Chronologic de M. le Chevallier Newton, fait par lui-meme et traduit sur le Manuscrit Anglais. Upon receiving a copy of this work, Sir Isaac Newton printed, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1725, a paper entitled Remarks on the observations made on a Chronological Index of Sir Isaac Newton, translated into French by the observator, and published at Paris. In these remarks Sir Isaac charged the abbe" with a breach of promise, and gave a triumphant answer to the objections which Freret had urged against his system. Father Souciet entered the field in defence of Fre ret and in consequence of this contro versy Sir Isaac was induced to prepare his larger work, which was published in 1728, after his death, and entitled The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms amended, to which is prefixed a short Chronicle from the First Memory of Kings in Europe to the Conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great. From an early period of his life Newton had paid great attention to theological studies, and it is well known that he had begun to study the subject of the prophecies before the year 1690. M. Biot, with a view of showing that his theological writings were the productions of his dotage, has fixed their date between 1712 and 1719. That Newton s mind was even then quite clear and powerful is sufficiently proved by his ability to attack the most difficult mathe matical problems with success. For it was in 1716 that Leibnitz, in a letter to the Abbe" Conti, proposed a problem for solution " for the purpose of feeling the pulse of the English analysts." The problem was to find the orthogonal trajectories of a series of curves represented by a single equation. Newton received this problem about 5 o clock in the afternoon as he was returning from the mint, but, though he was fatigued with business, he solved the problem the same evening. One of the most remarkable of Sir Isaac s theological productions is his Historical Account of Two Notable Cor ruptions of the Scripture, in a letter to a friend. This friend was Mr Locke, who received the letter in November 1690. Sir Isaac seems to have been then anxious for its publication ; but, as the effect of his argument was to deprive the Trinitarians of two passages in favour of the Trinity, he became alarmed at the probable consequences of such a step. He therefore requested Locke, who was then going to Holland, to get it translated into French, and published on the Continent. Being prevented from going to Holland, Locke copied the manuscript, and sent it, without Newton s name, to Le Clerc, who received it before the llth of April 1691. On the 20th of January 1692 Le Clerc announced to Locke his intention to publish the pamphlet in Latin ; and, upon the intimation of this to Sir Isaac, he entreated him " to stop the translation and impression as soon as he could, for he designed to suppress them." This was accordingly done ; but Le Clerc sent the manuscript to the library of the Remonstrants, and it was afterwards published at London in 1754, under the title of Two Letters from Sir Isaac Newton to M. le Clerc. This edition is imperfect, and in many places erroneous. Dr Horsley therefore published a genuine one, which is in the form of a single letter to a friend, and was taken from a manuscript in Sir Isaac s own hand. Sir Isaac Newton left behind him in manuscript a work entitled Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St John, which was published in London in 1733, in one volume 4to; another work, entitled Lexicon Propheticum, with a dissertation on the sacred cubit of the Jews, which was printed in 1737 ; and four letters addressed to Bentley, containing some arguments in proof of a Deity, which were published by Cumberland, a nephew of Bentley, in 1756. Sir Isaac also left a Church History complete, a History of the Creation, Paradoxical Questions regarding Athanasius, and many divinity tracts. Newton devoted much of his time to the study of chemistry ; but the greater number of his experiments still remain in manuscript. His Tabula Quantitatum et Graduum Caloris contains a comparative scale of tempera ture from that of melting ice to that of a small kitchen fire. He wrote also another chemical paper De Natura Acidorum, which has been published by Dr Horsley. Sir Isaac spent much time in the study of the works 01 the alchemists. He had diligently studied the works of Jacob Boehme, and there were found amongst his manuscripts copious abstracts from them in his own handwriting. In the earlier part of his life he and his relation Dr Newton of Grantham had put up furnaces, and had wrought for several months in quest of the philosopher s tincture. Among the manuscripts in the possession of the earl of Portsmouth there are many sheets in Sir Isaac s hand of Flamsteed s Explication of Hieroglyphic Figures, and in another hand many sheets of William Yworth s Processus Mysterii Magni Philosophicus. In the last few years of his life Newton was troubled with incontinence of urine, which was supposed to be due to stone ; but with care he kept the disease under control. In January 1725 he was seized with a violent cough and inflammation of the lungs, which induced him to reside at Kensington ; and in the following month he had a severe attack of gout, which produced a decided improvement in his general health. His duties at the mint were dis charged by Mr Conduitt, and he therefore seldom went from home. On the 28th of February 1727, feeling well, he went to London to preside at a meeting of the Royal Society ; but the fatigue which attended this duty brought on a violent return of his former complaint, and he returned to Kensington on the 4th of March, when Dr Mead and Dr Chesselden pronounced his disease to be stone. He endured the sufferings of this complaint with