CANTO THE TENTH.
I.
When Newton saw an apple fall, he found
In that slight startle from his contemplation —
'T is said (for I'll not answer above ground
For any sage's creed or calculation) —
A mode of proving that the Earth turned round
In a most natural whirl, called "gravitation;"
And this is the sole mortal who could grapple,
Since Adam — with a fall — or with an apple.
II.
Man fell with apples, and with apples rose,
If this be true; for we must deem the mode
In which Sir Isaac Newton could disclose
Through the then unpaved stars the turnpike road,
i. In a most natural whirling of rotation. — [MS. erased.]
ii. Since Adam — gloriously against an apple. — [MS. erased.]
iii. To the then unploughed stars — [MS. erased.]
I. ["Neither Pemberton nor Whiston, who received from Newton himself the history of his first Ideas of Gravity, records the story of the fa;ling apple. It was mentioned, however, to Voltaire by Catherine Barton (afterwards Mrs. Conduit), Newton's niece. We saw the apple tree in 1814. … The tree was so much decayed that it was taken down in 1820" (Memoirs, etc., of Sir Isaac Newton, by Sir David Brewster, 1855, i. 27, note 1). Voltaire tells the story thus (Éléments de la Philosophie de Newton, Partie III. chap, iii.): "Un jour, en l'année 1666 [1665], Newton, retiré à la campagne, et voyant tomber des fruits d'un arbre, à ce que m'a conté sa nièce (Madame Conduit), se laissa aller à une méditation profonde sur la cause qui entraine ainsi tous les corps dans une ligne qui, si elle était prolongée, passerait à peu près par le centre de la terre." — Œuvres Complètes, 1837, v. 727.]
