SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

IR ISAAC NEWTON, the most eminent natural philosopher of ancient or modern times, was born at Woolsthorpe, in Lincolnshire, on Christmas day, 1642. At twelve years of age he was placed at Grantham grammar-school, with the view of becoming prepared to superintend, as a country a country gentleman, the small estate which his father had left him; but, manifesting an ardent desire for learning, he was entered in 1660 into Trinity College, Cambridge, where he soon distinguished himself in mechanics and mathematics. In 1664, before he had taken his bachelor's degree, he discovered a new method of infinite series and fluxions, and, his thoughts being next turned to the phenomena of colors, he ascertained by experiment that light was not homogeneous, but a heterogeneous mixture of refrangible rays. While reflecting on this important discovery, and before he had reduced his observations to any systematic theory, he was compelled by the plague of 1665 to leave Cambridge and retire into the country. Though thus separated from his laboratory and his books, his wonderful mind was not unemployed, and, accordingly, while he was sitting alone in his garden, the falling of an apple from a tree near him led his thoughts to the subject of

gravity; and, reflecting that this power is not sensibly diminished at the remotest distance from the centre of the earth, even at the top of the highest mountains, he concluded that it must extend much farther. Perhaps, thought he, it may extend to the moon, and even embrace the whole planetary system. The magnitude of the bare conception overwhelmed his mighty mind, and he therefore deferred the farther investigation of the subject till after his return to Cambridge.

Having been chosen in 1667 fellow of his college and taken his master's degree, Newton in 1669 succeeded Dr. Barrow as Lucasian professor of mathematics in the university. He now devoted all his energies to those vast subjects to which we have already alluded, and to his unrivalled genius and sagacity the world is indebted for a variety of stupendous discoveries in natural philosophy and mathematics; among which, his exposition of the laws which regulate the movement of the solar system may be regarded as the most brilliant. The law of gravitation, which he discovered, he clearly demonstrated affected the vast orbs that revolve around the sun not less than the smallest objects on our own globe. The work in which he explained this system was written in Latin, and appeared in 1687 under the title of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Newton's discoveries in optics also were such as to change so entirely the aspect of that science that he may justly be considered its founder. His

business, with a sister as her partner, and so far succeeded as to be able to bestow upon her son a learned education, first at Eton, and afterward at the University of Cambridge. The painful domestic circumstances of his youth gave a tinge of melancholy and pensive reflection to Gray's mind which is visible in all his poetry. At Eton the young student had secured the friendship of Horace Walpole, son of the English prime minister; and when his college education was completed, Walpole induced him to accompany him on a tour through France and Italy. After they had passed about a year together exploring the natural beauties, antiquities and picture-galleries of Rome, Florence, Naples and other important places, a quarrel took place between them; the travellers separated, and Gray returned to England. Walpole took the blame of this difference on himself, as he was vain and volatile and not disposed to trust in the better knowledge and somewhat fastidious tastes of his associate.

Gray immediately after his return repaired to Cambridge to take his degree in civil law, but without intending to follow the profession. His father was now dead, and, though his mother's fortune was small, still they possessed sufficient to supply all their wants. He fixed his residence at Cambridge, and amidst its noble libraries and learned society passed most of the remainder of his life. He devoted himself chiefly to classical learning, though not without attending to architecture, antiquities, natural history, and other branches of useful knowledge. His retired life was varied by occasional visits to London, where he would revel among the treasures of the British Museum, and

In 1765, Gray took a journey into Scotland, and at Glaminis Castle met his brother-poet Beattie. He also penetrated into Wales, and journeyed to Cumberland and Westmoreland to view the scenery of the lakes. The letters in which he describes these excursions are remarkable for elegance and precision, for correct and extensive observations, and for a dry scholastic humor peculiar to the poet. On his return from these agreeable holidays Gray would set himself calmly down in his college retreat, pore over his favorite authors, compile tables of chronology or botany, moralize on "all he felt and all he saw," correspond with his friends, and occasionally venture into the realms of poetry and imagination. He had studied the Greek and Latin poets with such intense devotion and critical care that their very spirit and essence seem to have sunk into his mind and colored all his efforts at original composition. At the same time, his knowledge of human nature and his sympathy with the world were varied and profound. Tears fell unbidden among the classic flowers of fancy, and in his almost monastic cell his heart vibrated to the finest tones of humanity.

the more lucrative situation of professor of modern history in the university, at a salary of four hundred pounds per annum. For some years he had been subject to hereditary gout, and as his circumstances improved his health declined. While at dinner one day in the college hall he was seized with an attack in the stomach, which was so violent as to resist all the efforts of medicine, and after six days of suffering he expired, on the 30th of July, 1771, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He was buried, according to his own request, by the side of his mother, at Stoke, near Eton, adding one more poetical association to that beautiful and classic district of England.

Gray's poetry is all comprised in a few pages, and yet as a poet he holds a very high rank. His two great odes, The Progress of Poesy and The Bard, are the most splendid compositions in the Pindaric style and measure in the English language. Each presents rich personifications, striking thoughts and happy imagery:

"Sublime their starry fronts they rear."

The Bard is more dramatic and picturesque than The Progress of Poesy, yet in the latter are some of the poet's richest and most majestic strains.

TH

ABRAHAM MILLS, A. M.

CHARLES KINGSLEY.

HIS distinguished writer stands before the world in many forms, preacher, poet, novelist, essayist and-most important of all-social reformer. He was born at Holne vicarage, Devonshire, where his father was incumbent, on the 12th of June, 1810; he was educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge, and on his graduation be

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gan the study of the law. This he soon abandoned, and took orders; he was first curate, and then rector, of Eversley, in Hampshire-a cure which he retained till his death. In 1844 he published a volume of Village Sermons, clear, simple and addressed principally to the working-people. In 1848 he made his first real literary venture in a serious drama entitled The Saint's Tragedy, based upon the life of the saint and martyr Elizabeth of Hungary. He had from the first enlisted as the champion of the working classes. this spirit the first manifesto is found in his novel of Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet, which appeared in 1850. It made a great stir, and was accused by the conservatives of being revolutionary in tendency. A pendant to this appeared in another story, entitled Yeast, in which he discusses the problem of poverty as it affects individuals and society, and maintains that the great leveller, upraiser and regenerator is Christianity. He was called "the Chartist clergyman," and certainly suffered, as to promotion and social consideration, for his convictions, but he gained a larger reputation. Among his other principal works, the following may be noted: In 1854, Alexandria and its Schools and Westward Ho! a story of English adventures in America during the reign of Elizabeth; Hereward, the Last of the Englishmen, is a splendid description of the days just after the Conquest; in 1852 he published Andromeda, and Other Poems, and continued to write occasional verses, among which "The Three Fishers" has gone to the ends of the earth. In 1874 he came to America, and was received with great hospitality and distinction,