_Intended for Sir_ ISAAC NEWTON, _in Westminster Abbey_.
ISAACUS NEWTONIUS:
Quem Immortalem
Testantur, _Tempus_, _Natura_, _Cœlum_:
Mortalem hoc marmor fatetur.
Nature, and Nature’s laws, lay hid in night:
God said, _Let Newton be_! And all was light.
On this epitaph, short as it is, the faults seem not to be very few. Why
part should be Latin and part English it is not easy to discover. In the
Latin the opposition of _Immortalis_ and _Mortalis_ is a mere sound, or a
mere quibble; he is not _immortal_ in any sense contrary to that in which
he is _mortal_. In the verses the thought is obvious, and the words
_night_ and _light_ are too nearly allied.