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THE LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
* * * * * *
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[Illustration:
SIR. G. KNELLER PINX. ENG.d BY GIMBER.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
HARPER’S FAMILY LIBRARY
Printed by R. Miller]
* * * * * *
_Harper’s Stereotype Edition._
THE LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
by
DAVID BREWSTER, LL.D. F.R.S.
Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra
Processit longe flammantia mœnia mundi;
Atque omne immensum peragravit mente amimoque.
_Lucret._ lib. i. 1. 73.
[Illustration: The Birthplace of Newton.]
New-York:
Printed and Published by J. & J. Harper;
No. 82 Cliff-Street,
and Sold by the Booksellers Generally Throughout
the United States.
1833.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LORD BRAYBROOKE.
The kindness with which your lordship intrusted to me some very
valuable materials for the composition of this volume has induced me
to embrace the present opportunity of publicly acknowledging it. But
even if this personal obligation had been less powerful, those literary
attainments and that enlightened benevolence which reflect upon rank
its highest lustre would have justified me in seeking for it the
patronage of a name which they have so justly honoured.
DAVID BREWSTER.
_Allerly, June 1st, 1831._
PREFACE.
As this is the only Life of Sir Isaac Newton on any considerable scale
that has yet appeared, I have experienced great difficulty in preparing
it for the public. The materials collected by preceding biographers
were extremely scanty; the particulars of his early life, and even
the historical details of his discoveries, have been less perfectly
preserved than those of his illustrious predecessors; and it is not
creditable to his disciples that they have allowed a whole century to
elapse without any suitable record of the life and labours of a master
who united every claim to their affection and gratitude.
In drawing up this volume, I have obtained much assistance from the
account of Sir Isaac Newton in the Biographia Britannica; from the
letters to Oldenburg, and other papers in Bishop Horsley’s edition
of his works; from Turnor’s Collections for the History of the Town
and Soke of Grantham; from M. Biot’s excellent Life of Newton in the
Biographie Universelle; and from Lord King’s Life and Correspondence of
Locke.
Although these works contain much important information respecting the
Life of Newton, yet I have been so fortunate as to obtain many new
materials of considerable value.
To the kindness of Lord Braybrooke I have been indebted for the
interesting correspondence of Newton, Mr. Pepys, and Mr. Millington,
which is now published for the first time, and which throws much light
upon an event in the life of our author that has recently acquired an
unexpected and a painful importance. These letters, when combined with
those which passed between Newton and Locke, and with a curious extract
from the manuscript diary of Mr. Abraham Pryme, kindly furnished to
me by his collateral descendant Professor Pryme of Cambridge, fill up
a blank in his history, and have enabled me to delineate in its true
character that temporary indisposition which, from the view that has
been taken of it by foreign philosophers, has been the occasion of such
deep distress to the friends of science and religion.
To Professor Whewell, of Cambridge, I owe very great obligations for
much valuable information. Professor Rigaud, of Oxford, to whose
kindness I have on many other occasions been indebted, supplied me with
several important facts, and with extracts from the diary of Hearne
in the Bodleian Library, and from the original correspondence between
Newton and Flamstead, which the president of Corpus Christi College
had for this purpose committed to his care; and Dr. J. C. Gregory, of
Edinburgh, the descendant of the illustrious inventor of the reflecting
telescope, allowed me to use his unpublished account of an autograph
manuscript of Sir Isaac Newton, which was found among the papers of
David Gregory, Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and which
throws some light on the history of the Principia.
I have been indebted to many other friends for the communication of
books and facts, but especially to Sir William Hamilton, Bart., whose
liberality in promoting literary inquiry is not limited to the circle
of his friends.
D. B.
_Allerly, June 1st, 1831._
CONTENTS.
Page
CHAPTER I.
The Pre-eminence of Sir Isaac Newton’s Reputation—The Interest
attached to the Study of his Life and Writings—His Birth and
Parentage—His early Education—Is sent to Grantham School—
His early Attachment to Mechanical Pursuits—His Windmill—His
Water-clock—His Self-moving Cart—His Sun-dials—His Preparation
for the University 17
CHAPTER II.
Newton enters Trinity College, Cambridge—Origin of his Propensity
for Mathematics—He studies the Geometry of Descartes unassisted—
Purchases a Prism—Revises Dr. Barrow’s Optical Lectures—Dr.
Barrow’s Opinion respecting Colours—Takes his Degrees—Is
appointed a Fellow of Trinity College—Succeeds Dr. Barrow in the
Lucasian Chair of Mathematics 26
CHAPTER III.
Newton occupied in grinding Hyperbolical Lenses—His first
Experiments with the Prism made in 1666—He discovers the
Composition of White Light, and the different Refrangibility of the
Rays which compose it—Abandons his Attempts to improve Refracting
Telescopes, and resolves to attempt the Construction of Reflecting
ones—He quits Cambridge on account of the Plague—Constructs
two Reflecting Telescopes in 1668, the first ever executed—One
of them examined by the Royal Society, and shown to the King—He
constructs a Telescope with Glass Specula—Recent History of the
Reflecting Telescope—Mr. Airy’s Glass Specula—Hadley’s Reflecting
Telescopes—Short’s—Herschel’s—Ramage’s—Lord Oxmantown’s 30
CHAPTER IV.
He delivers a Course of Optical Lectures at Cambridge—Is elected
Fellow of the Royal Society—He communicates to them his
Discoveries on the different Refrangibility and Nature of Light—
Popular Account of them—They involve him in various Controversies—
His Dispute with Pardies—Linus—Lucas—Dr. Hooke and Mr. Huygens—
The Influence of these Disputes on the mind of Newton 47
CHAPTER V.
Mistake of Newton in supposing that the Improvement of Refracting
Telescopes was hopeless—Mr. Hall invents the Achromatic Telescope—
Principles of the Achromatic Telescope explained—It is reinvented
by Dollond, and improved by future Artists—Dr. Blair’s Aplanatic
Telescope—Mistakes in Newton’s Analysis of the Spectrum—Modern
Discoveries respecting the Structure of the Spectrum 63
CHAPTER VI.
Colours of thin Plates first studied by Boyle and Hooke—Newton
determines the Law of their Production—His Theory of Fits of
easy Reflection and Transmission—Colours of thick Plates 75
CHAPTER VII.
Newton’s Theory of the Colours of Natural Bodies explained—
Objections to it stated—New Classification of Colours—Outline of
a new Theory proposed 82
CHAPTER VIII.
Newton’s Discoveries respecting the Inflection or Diffraction of
Light—Previous Discoveries of Grimaldi and Dr. Hooke—Labours
of succeeding Philosophers—Law of Interference of Dr. Young—
Fresnel’s Discoveries—New Theory of Inflection on the Hypothesis
of the Materiality of Light 98
CHAPTER IX.
Miscellaneous Optical Researches of Newton—His Experiments on
Refraction—His Conjecture respecting the Inflammability of the
Diamond—His Law of Double Refraction—His Observations on the
Polarization of Light—Newton’s Theory of Light—His “Optics” 106
CHAPTER X.
Astronomical Discoveries of Newton—Necessity of combined Exertion
to the completion of great Discoveries—Sketch of the History or
Astronomy previous to the time of Newton—Copernicus, 1473–1543—
Tycho Brahe, 1546–1601—Kepler, 1571–1631—Galileo, 1564–1642 110
CHAPTER XI.
The first Idea of Gravity occurs to Newton in 1666—His first
Speculations upon it—Interrupted by his Optical Experiments—He
resumes the Subject in consequence of a Discussion with Doctor
Hooke—He discovers the true Law of Gravity and the Cause of the
Planetary Motions—Dr. Halley urges him to publish his Principia—
His Principles of Natural Philosophy—Proceedings of the Royal
Society on this Subject—The Principia appears in 1687—General
Account of it, and of the Discoveries it contains—They meet with
great Opposition, owing to the Prevalence of the Cartesian System—
Account of the Reception and Progress of the Newtonian Philosophy
in Foreign Countries—Account of its Progress and Establishment
in England 140
CHAPTER XII.
Doctrine of Infinite Quantities—Labours of Pappus—Kepler—Cavaleri—
Roberval—Fermat—Wallis—Newton discovers the Binomial Theorem and
the Doctrine of Fluxions in 1606—His Manuscript Work containing
this Doctrine communicated to his Friends—His Treatise on
Fluxions—His Mathematical Tracts—His Universal Arithmetic—His
Methodus Differentialis—His Geometria Analytica—His Solution of
the Problems proposed by Bernouilli and Leibnitz—Account of the
celebrated Dispute respecting the Invention of Fluxions—Commercium
Epistolicum—Report of the Royal Society—General View of the
Controversy 168
CHAPTER XIII.
James II. attacks the Privileges of the University of Cambridge--
Newton chosen one of the Delegates to resist this Encroachment—He
is elected a Member of the Convention Parliament—Burning of his
Manuscript—His supposed Derangement of Mind—View taken of this
by foreign Philosophers—His Correspondence with Mr. Pepys and
Mr. Locke at the time of his Illness—Mr. Millington’s Letter to
Mr. Pepys on the subject of Newton’s Illness—Refutation of the
Statement that he laboured under Mental Derangement 200
CHAPTER XIV.
No Mark of National Gratitude conferred upon Newton—Friendship
between him and Charles Montague, afterward Earl of Halifax—Mr.
Montague appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1694—He resolves
upon a Recoinage—Nominates Mr. Newton Warden of the Mint in 1695—
Mr. Newton appointed Master of the Mint in 1699—Notice of the
Earl of Halifax—Mr. Newton elected Associate of the Academy of
Sciences in 1699—Member for Cambridge in 1701—and President of
the Royal Society in 1703—Queen Anne confers upon him the Honour
of Knighthood in 1705—Second Edition of the Principia, edited by
Cotes—His Conduct respecting Mr. Ditton’s Method of finding the
Longitude 223
CHAPTER XV.
Respect in which Newton was held at the Court of George I.—The
Princess of Wales delighted with his Conversation—Leibnitz
endeavours to prejudice the Princess against Sir Isaac and Locke—
Controversy occasioned by his Conduct—The Princess obtains a
Manuscript Abstract of his System of Chronology—The Abbé Conti
is, at her request, allowed to take a Copy of it on the promise of
Secrecy—He prints it surreptitiously in French, accompanied with a
Refutation by M. Freret—Sir Isaac’s Defence of his System—Father
Souciet attacks it, and is answered by Dr. Halley—Sir Isaac’s
larger Work on Chronology published after his Death—Opinions
respecting it—Sir Isaac’s Paper on the Form of the most ancient
Year 234
CHAPTER XVI.
Theological Studies of Sir Isaac—Their Importance to Christianity—
Motives to which they have been ascribed—Opinions of Biot and
La Place considered—His Theological Researches begun before his
supposed Mental Illness—The Date of these Works fixed—Letters
to Locke—Account of his Observations on Prophecy—His Lexicon
Propheticum—His Four Letters to Dr. Bentley—Origin of Newton’s
Theological Studies—Analogy between the Book of Nature and that
of Revelation 242
CHAPTER XVII.
The Minor Discoveries and Inventions of Newton—His Researches on
Heat—On Fire and Flame—On Elective Attraction—On the Structure
of Bodies—His supposed Attachment to Alchymy—His Hypothesis
respecting Ether as the Cause of Light and Gravity—On the
Excitation of Electricity in Glass—His Reflecting Sextant invented
before 1700—His Reflecting Microscope—His Prismatic Reflector as
a Substitute for the small Speculum of Reflecting Telescopes—His
Method of varying the Magnifying Power of Newtonian Telescopes—
His Experiments on Impressions on the Retina 265
CHAPTER XVIII.
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
284
CHAPTER XIX.
Permanence of Newton’s Reputation—Character of his Genius—His
Method of Investigation similar to that used by Galileo—Error in
ascribing his Discoveries to the Use of the Methods recommended by
Lord Bacon—The Pretensions of the Baconian Philosophy examined—
Sir Isaac Newton’s Social Character—His great Modesty—The
Simplicity of his Character—His Religious and Moral Character—
His Hospitality and Mode of Life—His Generosity and Charity—His
Absence—His Personal Appearance—Statues and Pictures of him—
Memorials and Recollections of him 292
APPENDIX, No. I.—Observations on the Family of Sir Isaac Newton 307
APPENDIX, No. II.—Letter from Sir Isaac Newton to Francis Aston,
Esq., a young Friend who was on the eve of setting out on his
Travels 316
APPENDIX, No. III.—“A Remarkable and Curious Conversation between
Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Conduit.” 320
LIFE
OF
SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
CHAPTER I.
_The Pre-eminence of Sir Isaac Newton’s Reputation—The Interest
attached to the Study of his Life and Writings—His Birth and
Parentage—His early Education—Is sent to Grantham School—His early
Attachment to Mechanical Pursuits—His Windmill—His Waterclock—His
Self-moving Cart—His Sundials—His Preparation for the University._
The name of Sir Isaac Newton has by general consent been placed at the
head of those great men who have been the ornaments of their species.
However imposing be the attributes with which time has invested the
sages and the heroes of antiquity, the brightness of their fame has
been eclipsed by the splendour of his reputation; and neither the
partiality of rival nations, nor the vanity of a presumptuous age, has
ventured to dispute the ascendency of his genius. The philosopher,[1]
indeed, to whom posterity will probably assign the place next to
Newton, has characterized the _Principia_ as pre-eminent above all the
productions of human intellect, and has thus divested of extravagance
the contemporary encomium upon its author,
Nec fas est propius mortali attingere Divos.
HALLEY.
So near the gods—man cannot nearer go.
The biography of an individual so highly renowned cannot fail to excite
a general interest. Though his course may have lain in the vale of
private life, and may have been unmarked with those dramatic events
which throw a lustre even round perishable names, yet the inquiring
spirit will explore the history of a mind so richly endowed,—will study
its intellectual and moral phases, and will seek the shelter of its
authority on those great questions which reason has abandoned to faith
and hope.
If the conduct and opinions of men of ordinary talent are recorded for
our instruction, how interesting must it be to follow the most exalted
genius through the incidents of common life;—to mark the steps by
which he attained his lofty pre-eminence; to see how he performs the
functions of the social and the domestic compact; how he exercises his
lofty powers of invention and discovery; how he comports himself in the
arena of intellectual strife; and in what sentiments, and with what
aspirations he quits the world which he has adorned.
In almost all these bearings, the life and writings of Sir Isaac Newton
abound with the richest counsel. Here the philosopher will learn the
art by which alone he can acquire an immortal name. The moralist will
trace the lineaments of a character adjusted to all the symmetry of
which our imperfect nature is susceptible; and the Christian will
contemplate with delight the high-priest of science quitting the study
of the material universe,—the scene of his intellectual triumphs,—to
investigate with humility and patience the mysteries of his faith.
* * * * *
Sir Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe, a hamlet in the parish of
Colsterworth, in Lincolnshire, about six miles south of Grantham,
on the 25th December, O. S., 1642, exactly one year after Galileo
died, and was baptized at Colsterworth on the 1st January, 1642–3.
His father, Mr. Isaac Newton, died at the early age of thirty-six, a
little more than a year after the death of his father Robert Newton,
and only a few months after his marriage to Harriet Ayscough, daughter
of James Ayscough of Market Overton in Rutlandshire. This lady was
accordingly left in a state of pregnancy, and appears to have given
a premature birth to her only and posthumous child. The helpless
infant thus ushered into the world was of such an extremely diminutive
size,[2] and seemed of so perishable a frame, that two women who were
sent to Lady Pakenham’s at North Witham, to bring some medicine to
strengthen him, did not expect to find him alive on their return.
Providence, however, had otherwise decreed; and that frail tenement
which seemed scarcely able to imprison its immortal mind was destined
to enjoy a vigorous maturity, and to survive even the average term
of human existence. The estate of Woolsthorpe, in the manor-house of
which this remarkable birth took place, had been more than a hundred
years in the possession of the family, who came originally from Newton
in Lancashire, but who had, previous to the purchase of Woolsthorpe,
settled at Westby, in the county of Lincoln. The manor-house, of which
we have given an engraving, is situated in a beautiful little valley,
remarkable for its copious wells of pure spring water, on the west side
of the river Witham, which has its origin in the neighbourhood, and
commands an agreeable prospect to the east towards Colsterworth. The
manor of Woolsthorpe was worth only 30_l._ per annum; but Mrs. Newton
possessed another small estate at Sewstern,[3] which raised the annual
value of their property to about 80_l._; and it is probable that the
cultivation of the little farm on which she resided somewhat enlarged
the limited income upon which she had to support herself, and educate
her child.
For three years Mrs. Newton continued to watch over her tender charge
with parental anxiety; but in consequence of her marriage to the
Reverend Barnabas Smith, rector of North Witham, about a mile south
of Woolsthorpe, she left him under the care of her own mother. At the
usual age he was sent to two day-schools at Skillington and Stoke,
where he acquired the education which such seminaries afforded; but
when he reached his twelfth year he went to the public school at
Grantham, taught by Mr. Stokes, and was boarded at the house of Mr.
Clark, an apothecary in that town. According to information which
Sir Isaac himself gave to Mr. Conduit, he seems to have been very
inattentive to his studies, and very low in the school. The boy,
however, who was above him, having one day given him a severe kick
upon his stomach, from which he suffered great pain, Isaac laboured
incessantly till he got above him in the school, and from that time
he continued to rise till he was the head boy. From the habits of
application which this incident had led him to form, the peculiar
character of his mind was speedily displayed. During the hours of
play, when the other boys were occupied with their amusements, his
mind was engrossed with mechanical contrivances, either in imitation
of something which he had seen, or in execution of some original
conception of his own. For this purpose he provided himself with little
saws, hatchets, hammers, and all sorts of tools, which he acquired the
art of using with singular dexterity. The principal pieces of mechanism
which he thus constructed were a windmill, a waterclock, and a carriage
put in motion by the person who sat in it. When a windmill was erecting
near Grantham on the road to Gunnerby, Isaac frequently attended the
operations of the workmen, and acquired such a thorough knowledge of
the machinery that he completed a working model of it, which excited
universal admiration. This model was frequently placed on the top of
the house in which he lodged at Grantham, and was put in motion by
the action of the wind upon its sails. Not content with this exact
imitation of the original machine, he conceived the idea of driving it
by animal power, and for this purpose he enclosed in it a mouse which
he called the miller, and which, by acting upon a sort of treadwheel,
gave motion to the machine. According to some accounts, the mouse was
made to advance by pulling a string attached to its tail, while others
allege that the power of the little agent was called forth by its
unavailing attempts to reach a portion of corn placed above the wheel.
His waterclock was formed out of a box which he had solicited from Mrs.
Clark’s brother. It was about four feet high, and of a proportional
breadth, somewhat like a common houseclock. The index of the dialplate
was turned by a piece of wood, which either fell or rose by the action
of dropping water. As it stood in his own bedroom he supplied it every
morning with the requisite quantity of water, and it was used as a
clock by Mr. Clark’s family, and remained in the house long after its
inventor had quitted Grantham.[4] His mechanical carriage was a vehicle
with four wheels, which was put in motion with a handle wrought by the
person who sat in it, but, like Merlin’s chair, it seems to have been
used only on the smooth surface of a floor, and not fitted to overcome
the inequalities of a road. Although Newton was at this time “a sober,
silent, thinking lad,” who scarcely ever joined in the ordinary games
of his schoolfellows, yet he took great pleasure in providing them with
amusements of a scientific character. He introduced into the school
the flying of paper kites; and he is said to have been at great pains
in determining their best forms and proportions, and in ascertaining
the position and number of the points by which the string should be
attached. He made also paper lanterns, by the light of which he went
to school in the winter mornings, and he frequently attached these
lanterns to the tails of his kites in a dark night, so as to inspire
the country people with the belief that they were comets.
In the house where he lodged there were some female inmates in whose
company he appears to have taken much pleasure. One of these, a
Miss Storey, sister to Dr. Storey, a physician at Buckminster, near
Colsterworth, was two or three years younger than Newton, and to great
personal attractions she seems to have added more than the usual
allotment of female talent. The society of this young lady and her
companions was always preferred to that of his own schoolfellows, and
it was one of his most agreeable occupations to construct for them
little tables and cupboards, and other utensils for holding their dolls
and their trinkets. He had lived nearly six years in the same house
with Miss Storey, and there is reason to believe that their youthful
friendship gradually rose to a higher passion; but the smallness of her
portion and the inadequacy of his own fortune appear to have prevented
the consummation of their happiness. Miss Storey was afterward twice
married, and under the name of Mrs. Vincent, Dr. Stukely visited her
at Grantham in 1727, at the age of eighty-two, and obtained from her
many particulars respecting the early history of our author. Newton’s
esteem for her continued unabated during his life. He regularly visited
her when he went to Lincolnshire, and never failed to relieve her from
little pecuniary difficulties which seem to have beset her family.
Among the early passions of Newton we must recount his love of drawing;
and even of writing verses. His own room was furnished with pictures
drawn, coloured, and framed by himself, sometimes from copies, but
often from life.[5] Among these were portraits of Dr. Donne, Mr.
Stokes, the master of Grantham school, and King Charles I. under whose
picture were the following verses.
A secret art my soul requires to try,
If prayers can give me what the wars deny.
Three crowns distinguished here, in order do
Present their objects to my knowing view.
Earth’s crown, thus at my feet I can disdain,
Which heavy is, and at the best but vain.
But now a crown of thorns I gladly greet,
Sharp is this crown, but not so sharp as sweet;
The crown of glory that I yonder see
Is full of bliss and of eternity.
These verses were repeated to Dr. Stukely by Mrs. Vincent, who believed
them to be written by Sir Isaac, a circumstance which is the more
probable, as he himself assured Mr. Conduit, with some expression of
pleasure, that he “excelled in making verses,” although he had been
heard to express a contempt for poetical composition.
But while the mind of our young philosopher was principally occupied
with the pursuits which we have now detailed, it was not inattentive
to the movements of the celestial bodies, on which he was destined to
throw such a brilliant light. The imperfections of his waterclock had
probably directed his thoughts to the more accurate measure of time
which the motion of the sun afforded. In the yard of the house where
he lived, he traced the varying movements of that luminary upon the
walls and roofs of the buildings, and by means of fixed pins he had
marked out the hourly and half-hourly subdivisions. One of these dials,
which went by the name of _Isaac’s dial_, and was often referred to
by the country people for the hour of the day, appears to have been
drawn solely from the observations of several years; but we are not
informed whether all the dials which he drew on the wall of his house
at Woolsthorpe, and which existed after his death, were of the same
description, or were projected from his knowledge of the doctrine of
the sphere.
Upon the death of the Reverend Mr. Smith in the year 1656, his widow
left the rectory of North Witham, and took up her residence at
Woolsthorpe along with her three children, Mary, Benjamin, and Hannah
Smith. Newton had now attained the fifteenth year of his age, and had
made great progress in his studies; and as he was thought capable of
being useful in the management of the farm and country business at
Woolsthorpe, his mother, chiefly from a motive of economy, recalled
him from the school at Grantham. In order to accustom him to the art
of selling and buying, two of the most important branches of rural
labour, he was frequently sent on Saturday to Grantham market to
dispose of grain and other articles of farm produce, and to purchase
such necessaries as the family required. As he had yet acquired no
experience, an old trustworthy servant generally accompanied him on
these errands. The inn which they patronised was the Saracen’s Head at
West Gate; but no sooner had they put up their horses than our young
philosopher deserted his commercial concerns, and betook himself to
his former lodging in the apothecary’s garret, where a number of Mr.
Clark’s old books afforded him abundance of entertainment till his aged
guardian had executed the family commissions, and announced to him the
necessity of returning. At other times he deserted his duties at an
earlier stage, and intrenched himself under a hedge by the way-side,
where he continued his studies till the servant returned from Grantham.
The more immediate affairs of the farm were not more prosperous under
his management than would have been his marketings at Grantham. The
perusal of a book, the execution of a model, or the superintendence of
a waterwheel of his own construction, whirling the glittering spray
from some neighbouring stream, absorbed all his thoughts when the sheep
were going astray, and the cattle were devouring or treading down the
corn.
Mrs. Smith was soon convinced from experience that her son was not
destined to cultivate the soil, and as his passion for study, and his
dislike for every other occupation increased with his years, she wisely
resolved to give him all the advantages which education could confer.
He was accordingly sent back to Grantham school, where he continued
for some months in busy preparation for his academical studies. His
uncle, the Reverend W. Ayscough, who was rector of Burton Coggles,
about three miles east of Woolsthorpe, and who had himself studied at
Trinity College, recommended to his nephew to enter that society, and
it was accordingly determined that he should proceed to Cambridge at
the approaching term.[6]