his acquaintance with dr. pemberton, who edits the third edition of the principia—his first attack of ill health—his recovery—he is taken ill in consequence of attending the royal society—his death on the 20th march, 1727—his body lies in state—his funeral—he is buried in westminster abbey—his monument described—his epitaph—a medal struck in honour of him—roubiliac’s full-length statue of him erected in cambridge—division of his property—his successors.
about the year 1722, sir isaac was desirous of publishing a third edition of his principia, and the premature death of mr. cotes having deprived him of his valuable aid, he had the good fortune to become acquainted with dr. henry pemberton, a young and accomplished physician, who had cultivated mathematical learning with considerable success. m. poleni, an eminent professor in the university of padua, having endeavoured, on the authority of a new experiment, to overturn the common opinion respecting the force of bodies in motion, and to establish that of leibnitz in its place, dr. pemberton transmitted to dr. mead a demonstration of its inaccuracy. dr. mead communicated this paper to sir isaac, who not only highly approved of it, but added a demonstration of his own, drawn from another consideration of the subject; and this was printed without his name, as a postscript to pemberton’s paper, when it appeared in the transactions.121
in a short time after the commencement of their acquaintance, sir isaac engaged dr. pemberton to superintend the new edition of the principia. in discharging this duty, dr. pemberton had occasion to make many remarks on this work, which sir isaac285 always received with the utmost goodness, and the new edition appeared with numerous alterations in 1726. on the occasions upon which he had personal intercourse with sir isaac, and which were necessarily numerous, he endeavoured to learn his opinions on various mathematical subjects, and to obtain some historical information respecting his inventions and discoveries. sir isaac entered freely into all these topics and during the conversations which took place, and while they were reading together dr. pemberton’s popular account of sir isaac’s discoveries, he obtained the most perfect evidence that, though his memory was much decayed, yet he was fully able to understand his own writings.
during the last twenty years of his life, which he spent in london, the charge of his domestic concerns devolved upon his beautiful and accomplished niece, mrs. catharine barton, the wife of colonel barton, for whom, as we have already seen, the earl of halifax had conceived the warmest affection. this lady, who had been educated at her uncle’s expense, married mr. conduit, and continued to reside with her husband in sir isaac’s house till the time of his death.
in the year 1722, when he had reached the eightieth year of his age, he was seized with an incontinence of urine, which was ascribed to stone in the bladder, and was considered incurable. by means of a strict regimen, however, and other precautions, he was enabled to alleviate his complaint, and to procure long intervals of ease. at this time he gave up the use of his carriage, and always went out in a chair. he declined all invitations to dinner, and at his own house he had only small parties. in his diet he was extremely temperate. though he took a little butcher meat, yet the principal articles of his food were broth, vegetables, and fruit, of which he always ate very heartily. in spite of all286 his precautions, however, he experienced a return of his old complaint, and in august, 1724, he passed a stone the size of a pea, which came away in two pieces, the one at the distance of two days from the other. after some months of tolerable good health, he was seized in january, 1725, with a violent cough and inflammation of the lungs; and in consequence of this attack, he was prevailed upon, with some difficulty, to take up his residence at kensington, where his health experienced a decided improvement. in february, 1725, he was attacked in both his feet with a fit of the gout, of which he had received a slight warning a few years before, and the effect of this new complaint was to produce a great and beneficial change in his general health. on sunday the 7th march, when his head was clearer and his memory stronger than mr. conduit had known it to be for some time, he entered into a long conversation on various subjects in astronomy. he explained to mr. conduit how comets might be formed out of the light of vapours discharged from the sun and the fixed stars as the centres of systems. he conceived that these luminaries were replenished by the same comets being again returned to them; and upon this principle he explained the extraordinary lights which were seen among the fixed stars by hipparchus, tycho brahe, and kepler’s disciples, and which he supposed to arise from the additional fuel which they received.122
notwithstanding the improvement which his health had experienced, his indisposition was still sufficiently severe to unfit him for the discharge of his duties at the mint; and as his old deputy was confined with the dropsy, he was desirous in 1725 of resigning his office to mr. conduit. difficulties probably were experienced in making this arrangement, but his nephew discharged for him all the287 duties of his office; and during the last year of his life he hardly ever went to the mint.
but though every kind of motion was calculated to aggravate his complaint, and though he had derived from absolute rest and from the air at kensington the highest benefit, yet great difficulty was experienced in preventing him from occasionally going to town. feeling himself able for the journey, he went to london on tuesday the 28th of february, 1727, to preside at a meeting of the royal society. on the following day mr. conduit considered him better than he had been for many years, and sir isaac was himself so sensible of this improvement in his health, that he assured his nephew that on the sunday preceding, he had slept from eleven o’clock at night till eight o’clock next morning without waking. he had undergone, however, great fatigue in attending the meeting of the royal society, and in paying and receiving visits, and the consequence of this was a violent return of his former complaint. he returned to kensington on saturday the 4th march, and was attended by dr. mead and dr. cheselden, who pronounced his disease to be stone, and held out no hopes of his recovery. from the time of his last journey to london he had experienced violent fits of pain with very short intermissions; and though the drops of sweat ran down his face during these severe paroxysms, yet he never uttered a cry or a complaint, or displayed the least marks of peevishness or impatience; but during the short intervals of relief which occurred, he smiled and conversed with his usual gayety and cheerfulness. on wednesday the 15th of march he seemed a little better; and slight, though groundless hopes were entertained of his recovery. on the morning of saturday the 18th he read the newspapers, and carried on a pretty long conversation with dr. mead, when all his senses and faculties were strong and vigorous; but at six o’clock288 of the same evening he became insensible, and he continued in that state during the whole of sunday, and till monday the 20th, when he expired between one and two o’clock in the morning, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.
his body was removed from kensington to london, and on tuesday the 28th march it lay in state in the jerusalem chamber, and was thence conveyed to westminster abbey, where it was buried near the entrance into the choir on the left-hand. the pall was supported by the lord high chancellor, the dukes of roxburghe and montrose, and the earls of pembroke, sussex, and macclesfield, who were fellows of the royal society. the hon. sir michael newton, knight of the bath, was chief mourner, and was followed by some other relations, and several distinguished characters who were intimately acquainted with the deceased. the funeral service was performed by the bishop of rochester, attended by the prebend and choir.
sensible of the high honour which they derived from their connexion with so distinguished a philosopher, the relations of sir isaac newton who inherited his personal estate,123 agreed to devote 500l. to the erection of a monument to his memory, and the dean and chapter of westminster appropriated for it a place in the most conspicuous part of the abbey, which had often been refused to the greatest of our nobility. this monument was erected in 1731. on the front of a sarcophagus resting on a pedestal are sculptured in basso-relievo youths bearing in their hands the emblems of sir isaac’s principal discoveries. one carries a prism, another a reflecting telescope, a third is weighing the sun and289 planets with a steelyard, a fourth is employed about a furnace, and two others are loaded with money newly coined. on the sarcophagus is placed the figure of sir isaac in a cumbent posture, with his elbow resting on several of his works. two youths stand before him with a scroll, on which is drawn a remarkable diagram relative to the solar system, and above that is a converging series. behind the sarcophagus is a pyramid, from the middle of which rises a globe in mezzo-relievo, upon which several of the constellations are drawn, in order to show the path of the comet of 1681, whose period sir isaac had determined, and also the position of the solstitial colure mentioned by hipparchus, and by means of which sir isaac had, in his chronology, fixed the time of the argonautic expedition. a figure of astronomy as queen of the sciences sits weeping on the globe with a sceptre in her hand, and a star surmounts the summit of the pyramid. the following epitaph is inscribed on the monument.
hic situs est
isaacus newton, eques auratus,
qui animi vi prope divina,
planetarum motus, figuras,
cometarum semitas, oceanique ?stus,
sua mathesi facem preferente,
primus demonstravit.
radiorum lucis dissimilitudines,
colorumque inde nascentium proprietates,
quas nemo antea vel suspicatus erat, pervestigavit,
natur?, antiquitates, s. scriptur?,
sedulus, sagax, fidus interpres,
dei opt. max. majestatem philosophia asseruit,
evangelii simplicitatem moribus expressit.
sibi gratulentur mortales, tale tantumque extitisse,
humani generis decus.
natus xxv. decemb. mdcxlii. obiit. xx. mar.
mdccxxvii.
of which the following is a literal translation:
here lies
isaac newton, knight,
who, by a vigour of mind almost supernatural,
first demonstrated
290the motions and figures of the planets,
the paths of the comets, and the tides of the ocean.
he diligently investigated
the different refrangibilities of the rays of light,
and the properties of the colours to which they give rise.
an assiduous, sagacious, and faithful interpreter
of nature, antiquity, and the holy scriptures,
he asserted in his philosophy the majesty of god,
and exhibited in his conduct the simplicity of the gospel.
let mortals rejoice
that there has existed such and so great
an ornament of human nature.
born 25th dec. 1642, died 20th march, 1727.
in the beginning of 1731, a medal was struck at the tower in honour of sir isaac newton. it had on one side the head of the philosopher, with the motto, felix cognoscere causas, and on the reverse a figure representing the mathematics.
on the 4th february, 1755, a magnificent full-length statue of sir isaac newton in white marble was erected in the antechapel of trinity college. he is represented standing on a pedestal in a loose gown, holding a prism, and looking upwards with an expression of the deepest thought. on the pedestal is the inscription,
qui genus humanum ingenio superavit.
who surpassed all men in genius.
this statue, executed by roubiliac, was erected at the expense of dr. robert smith, the author of the compleat system of optics, and professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy at cambridge.—it has been thus described by a modern poet:
hark where the organ, full and clear, with loud hosannas charms the ear; behold, a prism within his hands, absorbed in thought great newton stands such was his brow, and looks serene, his serious gait and musing mien, when taught on eagle wings to fly, he traced the wonders of the sky; the chambers of the sun explored, where tints of thousand hues were stored.
dr. smith likewise bequeathed the sum of 500l.291 for executing a painting on glass for the window at the south end of trinity college, cambridge. the subject represents the presentation of sir isaac newton to his majesty george iii., who is seated under a canopy with a laurel chaplet in his hand, and attended by the british minerva, apparently advising him to reward merit in the person of the great philosopher. below the throne, the lord chancellor bacon is proposing to register the reward about to be conferred upon sir isaac. the original drawing of this absurd picture was executed by cypriani, and cost one hundred guineas.
the personal estate of sir isaac newton, which was worth about 32,000l., was divided among his four nephews and four nieces of the half-blood, the grandchildren of his mother by the reverend mr. smith. the family estates of woolsthorpe and sustern he bequeathed to john newton, the heir-at-law, whose great-grandfather was sir isaac’s uncle. this gentleman does not seem to have sufficiently valued the bequest, for he sold them in 1732, to edmund turnor of stoke rocheford.124 a short time before his death, sir isaac gave away an estate in berkshire to the sons and daughter of a brother of mrs. conduit, who, in consequence of their father dying before sir isaac, had no share in the personal estate; and he also gave an estate of the same value, which he bought at kensington, to catharine, the only daughter of mr. conduit, who afterward married mr. wallop, the eldest son of lord lymington. this lady was afterward viscountess lymington, and the estate of kensington descended to the late earl of portsmouth, by whom it was sold. sir isaac was succeeded as master and warden in the mint by his nephew, john conduit, esq., who wrote a treatise on the gold and silver coin, and who died in 1737, leaving behind him his wife and daughter, the former of whom died in 1739, in the 59th year of her age.
