William Stukeley

“ Is it to be wondered at, when the publick, always penurious toward the parochial clergy, have provided no stipend, much less a proportionable one, to its necessity, & use. is it to be wonder'd at, when the public tamely suffers the solemnization of matrimony, the very foundation of all Society, & government, to be done at the Fleet, & in obscure, private rooms, by obscure private persons, with impunity, & in open defiance of the Laws. ”

“ The whole hemisphere would have had the appearance of that luminous gloom of the milky way. we should have lost the present sight of the beauty & the glory of the starry firmament. & therefore we may well conclude the great architect has herein truly united infinite wisdom, power, & goodness ”

“ Newton the house is a pretty good one, built of white stone, which abounds all over this country. they carryed me up stairs, & show'd me Sir Isaac's study, in which he used to sit, when he came home from Cambridg, to see his mother. the shelves were of his own making, being pieces of deal boxes. There were some years ago 2 or 300 books in it chiefly of divinity, & old editions of the fathers the library of his father in law, Mr Smith, rector of North Witham. these books Sir Isaac gave to his relation Dr. Newton of Grantham. ”

“ The scituation I was then in, gave me no further opportunity of inquiry, than what I have here done. & by cooler minds it is thought not wholly unworthy of being communicated to the publick.
whoever writes a life, never fails to give what they can learn of the partys family, education, and the junior part of it. Such is chiefly the present work. but in that especially of so great a man, every reader burns with a desire of knowing somewhat of the primordia, the preparation and presages of his extraordinary abilitys ”

“ I proposed to him a thought I had entertain'd, how to account for that great luminous circle incompassing us, which we look upon with so much wonder, in a clear starry night, called the milky way. we all readily suppose it to be owing to the suns of separate systems there placed, one beyond another, Xone by the side of another, in the boundless extent of space, whose united rays cause that luminous appearance. +for light is the only thing that dos not diminish in proportion to its distance. we suppose with probability enough, that every star is a sun of a separate system ”

“ Isaac had made some drawings of it, & had consider'd the thing: indeed he had studyed every thing. We did not enter into any very particular detail about it. but we both agreed in this, that the architecture was not like any designs, or descriptions yet publick. no authors have an adequate notion of antient, & original architecture. Sir Isaac rightly judged, that it was older than any other of the great temples mentioned in history ”

“ I continued my discourse. this desire in us of new creations of any sort in our little way, may be a divine particle deriv'd from our maker. with wisdom is it implanted in us, for good purposes: that we may be active, & busy. obscure notion of the reason of the odd formation of the planet Saturn. that it is as a miniature picture, or model of the το παν. for we must conceive that the plane of suns and systems of planets concomitant, which make the lacteal circle, have a vast space left between it & the several stars which we behold in a clear night. ”

“ He took him home to the school house, to board with him; and soon compleated him in the learned languages.
thus the world is intirely indebted to Mr Stokes, for Sr. Isaac Newton. to his memory, true philosophy pays its grateful resentiments, which otherwise would have lost its far. ”

“ XI often transplanted these flowers into my garden at Stamford, where they grew to an extraordinary bulk, & beauty.
Sir Isaac who was so fond of plants, undoubtedly has often contemplated thir delicate purple, with yellow pointils. nor has the golden asphodel here growing escap'd his notice; nor the magic lunaria †minor moonwort, both very rare. the flower of bean trefoil, that extraordinary beauty, growing in bogs here, by the side of springs: nor the noble crimson berry of solanum lethale: the ripe juice of which I found to give an excellent blue color on paper. ”

“ Xor perhaps has gone in his surplice to dinner, in the hall. that when he had friends to entertain at his chamber, if he stept in to his study for a bottle of wine, & a thought came into his head, he would sit down to paper, & forget his friends. θthus the human mind wholly taken up in abstract reasonings, & long concatenation of causes & consequences, was apt, as it were, to desert the body: assume its essential & true life. & enjoy those superlative pleasures arising from contemplations of the most worthy sort, nearly approaching to angelical. ”

“ Isaac did not play much with his schoolfellows, was, that generally, they were not very affectionate toward him. he was commonly too cunning for them in every thing. they were sensible, that he had more ingenuity than they. & 'tis an old observation, that in all Societys, even of men, he who has most understanding, is least regarded. ”

“ Mr Maurice Johnson, he readily enterd himself a member of the literary society at Spalding, which still subsists. he made them a present of books: desirous of incouraging every laudable attempt to promote learning, in any branch.
he carryed me with him in his chariot to see the coinage at the Mint, in the Tower: their method of weighing to an extreeme nicety, & the rest of thir operations.
23 feb. 1721, I breakfasted with him in company of Dr. Halley. Sr. Isaac among other discourse, mentiond the poverty of the materials he had, for making his theory of the moon's motion. ”

“ Xsome said, he ty'd a string to the mouse, & pulling by it, made the mouse turn the mill. some said, the mouse ran round a wheel like that of a turnspit: and that the hopper emptyed it self with the ground corn in his sight; therefore it always endevord to come to it, & then turn'd the wheel. however it was a piece of diversion, to not a little part of the town & country, to pay a visit to Isaac's mouse miller, & the farmers readily supplyd him with handfuls of corn, on market days. ”

“ I drew it up for the entertainment of the members of the Royal Society; to which your Lordship is so conspicuous an ornament. to the Royal Society, every, even the least, account of Sr. Isaac Newton cannot fail of being acceptable.
to recount the history of such as have deserv'd tis generally a species of writing, favorable enough to the author: tis an entertainment in reading, without the attention of study.
I shal recite: – I. What I knew of him in the earlier part of my own life.
II. What I learned of his family & the earlier part of his life. ”

“ I mean, since he thought fit to begin creation, for that creation certainly, & necessarily must commence in time, is a truth the +most certain in the world;+for by the definition, tis bringing that into being which was not in being before. therefore there was a time before it. therefore an eternal creation a parte ante is the greatest absurdity. but the continuing it a parte post is the greatest glory of the divine nature. ”

“ I lived in country obssurity, for above 20 years after his death; which was the fit season to gather all the notices of the most flourishing part of his time. after I have all this while in vain expected justice to be done to his memory, I thought what I cd say on the great subject would not be wholly unacceptable. some are celebrated after death, for their learning, some for their vertue, & piety, & charity, some for acquirements in arts and sciences ”

“ Xby her powerful presence, & chiefly projected by the Earl of Hallifax, minded, that great man should receive from, & give honor to the world, in a more public life.
We had then in our college, under the instruction of Dr Robert Dannye, (who dy'd in the month of March 1730, rector of Spofforth in Yorkshire) gone thro' an excellent course of lectures in mathematics, & philosophy, particularly the Newtonian. & I own, upon this Royal Visit, my curiosity was mostly excited, & delighted, in the beholding Sir Isaac; who remain'd some time with us. ”

“ Isaac satisfy'd them of the mode of his intelligence, which was this. by carefully attending to the sound, he found it grew louder & louder, consequently came nearer. from whence he rightly infer'd that the Dutch were victors. experiments; the vast acumen necessary to produce so stupendous a work. who can sufficiently admire his unraveling the mysterious nature of light, or the sun beams, consisting of different, & all kinds of colors, specific to each ray, & the analogy of thir proportions to that of the number, & nature of the notes in musick! ”

“ Sr. Isaac, in the latter part of his days, thro' age, & a sedentary life, had somewhat of a relaxation of the sphincter of the bladder: so that he was I have no scruple in judging it to be gouty. Some thought it, the stone.
he read the journal of Saturday 18 March in the morning & talkd a good deal with Dr. Mead who attended him. he was in perfect senses till that evening: but then lost them irrecoverably. ”

“ I must needs affirm, this is exactly consonant to the idea we ought to have of God. this same principle, seperated from all imperfection, +incompatible with the divine nature, always will create new worlds the antients had some notion of this sort, for Democritus affirmed infinite worlds may give us a good notion of the agency of the supreme mind, & solve our problem. ”

“ Martin Folkes when he travelld into Italy, tho' after Sir Isaac's death. nor did foreigners, when in England value themselves a little, if they could pay a visit to Sir Isaac: many of whom the most considerable men in all parts of the globe, came hither for that very purpose. ”

“ Storey, a physician at Buckminster, near Colsterworth. her mother, who was a handsom woman, was second wife to Mr Clark the apothecary, where Sir Isaac lodg'd. so that she lived in the same house with him, all the time of his being at Grantham School; which was 7 years. further, her mother & Sir Isaac's mother were great intimates, which was one reason of his lodging at Mr Clarks.
Mrs. Vincent gave me much of the foregoing account, & confirm'd the relations of others. She says, Sir Isaac was always, a sober, silent, thinking lad; never was known scarce to play abroad among the boys ”

“ Isaacs moral, & religious character; it will insure us of a blisful immortality; when the wisdom of this world will be no more.
this small offering, & grateful tribute I make to the shrine of this illustrious person, an offering not quite inconsiderable enough to be forgotten. ”

“ I made diligent search for the Registers of the parish, of births, buryals, & marriages: especially the older ones, which generally have been very ill kept. nor can we say much in commendation of those of more modern date. they commonly give us the bare name of persons, without far., mor., or such other marks, as ascertain the identity of person. the old ones for the most part are lost, destroyd, or obliterated ”

“ I try'd it after a rude
the bredth of the angle, which the galaxy makes, shows its inconceivable distance, in this view: & that beyond all number.
& that to all eternity,
manner & found the interval double the diameter of the whole view of the fixt stars which we behold. thus as in pa. 57 a second objection is merely theological. some are inclined to think our religion not founded sufficiently on philosophy. because it supposes the globe of our earth to be the whole world. that it is unworthy, that a divine Mediation shd. ”

“ Xthat the fountain of his bounty may flow for ever; & all the streams of it, may not only flow, but increase eternally, both in number, & quantity.
"when we indevor to form in our minds an apt idea of God almighty we are to stretch our imagination to the utmost pitch, that we may view somewhat of the largest scope of infinite wisdom, power, & goodness, which we can possibly reach to. ”

“ It ripens, & quickens thir invention. for want of this handycraft, how many philosophers quietly sit down in thir studys, & invent an hypothesis? but Sr. Isaac's way was, by dint of experiment to find out, quid Natura faciat aut feret?
philosophers, like great conquerors, or politic ministers of state, must take into thir assistance arts, & helps low, & sordid. as success in war depends on the arm of the scum of mankind, as well as on the head of the General. ”

“ Isaac was elected a fellow of the college; & also made Lucasian professor of mathematics; Xin 1669 wherein he succeeded his tutor Dr. Barrow. then he put out a new edition of that curious piece, Varenius's geography. the method of that author pleasd him; it is like his own. his chambers in Trinity college were those in the great court, on the north side, between the masters lodg, & the chapel.
* in 1687 he showd himself to the world indeed, in publishing that amazing production principia philosophiæ mathematica. & the world was truly astonishd at it, almost afraid to look on so divine a work. ”

“ I observ'd, it ran along the horizontal thread of the telescope with an undulatory or jogging motion which I attributed to the nisus betw. the axis of the earth, & obliquity of the ecliptic; in which the earths motion is perform'd: which must in some degree oppose one another, bec. the axis of the earth is not parallel to the plain, in which it moves. ”

“ Europe sighd at the loss of so incomparable a person. Science mourn'd its light. its glory extinct!
he thought fit to make no Will, but lost his fortune, wh was pretty considerable, as the Law directed; wh his relations shared among them, he had given a great part of his money, to Mrs Catherin Barton his favorite niece, upon her marriage with Mr Conduit. ”

“ Therefore these stars which we behold in a clear night we may liken taken altogether to the globe of Saturn: the plane of those stars beyond, which appear to us like the lacteal circle, may be assimilated, taken all together, to the ring of Saturn."
Sr. Isaac seem'd to listen to this kind of discourse, with some approbation. & we discus'd an objection or two. as 1. whether tis not better to suppose the worlds infinitely extended quaquaversum than in a sort of plane. this would provide better for thir stability ”