_In Westminster Abbey_.
ISAACUS NEWTONIUS:
Quem immortalem
Testantur, _tempus, natura, coelum_:
Mortalem
Hoc marmor fatetur.
Nature, and nature's law, lay hid in night:
God said, _Let Newton be_! And all was light.
Of 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.