In the prospectus of a new _Life_ of sir Isaac Newton, by sir David
Brewster, it is stated that in examining the papers at Hurstbourne Park,
the seat of the earl of Portsmouth, the discovery had been maple of
"copious materials which Mr. Conduit had collected for a life of Newton,
_which had never been supposed to exist_."
About the year 1836 I consulted the principal biographers of
Newton--Conduitt, Fontenelle, Birch, Philip Nichols, Thomas Thomson, Biot,
{196} Brewster--and I have ever since believed that such materials _did
exist_.
We are assured by Mr. Edmund Turnor, in the preface to his _History of
Grantham_, printed in 1806, which work is quoted in the prospectus, that
the manuscripts at Hurstbourne Park then chiefly consisted of some
pocket-books and memorandums of sir Isaac Newton, and "the information
obtained by Mr. Conduitt for the purpose of writing his life." Moreover,
the collections of Mr. Conduitt are repeatedly quoted in that work as
distinct from the memoirs which were sent to M. de Fontenelle.
I shall give another anecdote in refutation of the statement made in the
prospectus, albeit a superfluity. In 1730 the author of _The Seasons_
republished his _Poem to the memory of sir Isaac Newton_, with the addition
of the lines which follow, and which prove that he was aware of the task on
which Mr. Conduitt was then occupied. The lines, it should be observed,
have been omitted in all the editions printed since 1738.
"This, CONDUITT, from thy rural hours we hope;
As through the pleasing shade, where nature pours
Her every sweet, in studious ease you walk;
The social passions smiling at thy heart,
That glows with all the recollected sage."
The _pleasing shade_ indicates the grounds of Cranbury-lodge, in Hampshire,
the seat of Mr. Conduitt--whose guest the poet seems previously to have
been.
Some inedited particulars of the life of Mr. Conduitt, drawn from various
sources, I reserve for another occasion.