a

'cation, his mother wished him to Select Biography.

pass a private life in the manage“No part of History is more in ment of an estate, which had be. structive and delightful than the Lives longed to his ancestors for ages. of great and worthy Men.”

He was perpetually found reading BURNETT. his books, when he ought to have

been superintending the labourers,

till at length his uncle' finding him, To tke Editor of the Oxford Entertaining Miscellany.

one day, hid in a hay-loft, work

ing a mathematical problem, deSir,

termined to prevail on Mrs. NewAs it cannot be ex-ton to alter her plan, and allow pected to find in such a work as her son to follow his inclination. this an adequate account of a man Newton was accordingly sent to whose history and discoveries Trinity College, Cambridge, where would fill a volume, and as I should Dr. Barrow soon discovered his trespass op your pages too much I great natural genius. So great shall content myself with giving was the progress of his learning your readers a short sketch of the that he laid the foundation of his life of

two immortal works, the Principia, SIR ISAAC NEWTON. and Optics, before he was twentyIsaac Newton, one of the

years

of

age. est Philosophers that the world On the resignation of Dr. Barever produced, was descended from row he was appointed Professor of an ancient family which had been Mathematics, 1669 ; and the same seated for nearly three centuries year he read a course of lectures on the manor of Wolsthorpe, near on Optics, in Latin. The theory Grantham, in Lincolnshire, where of the universe, which Newton so this prodigy of science was born, clearly demonstrated, was suggesa on Christmas Day, 1642. He lost ted by the following trivial cir. his father while in his infancy ; cumstance. As he was one day but his uncle, a clergyman in the reading under an appletree, one of vicinity, wishing to have him edu- that species of fruitfell, and cated at Grantham, he was ac- struck him a smart blow on the cordingly sent there.

At an head; when he observed the early age, he displayed a very smallness of the apple, he was sursingular passion for mechanical prised at the force of the blow. contrivances, he made a wooden This led him to consider the acclock and constructed a good mo- celerating motion of falling bodies, del of a windmill, which was erect- from which he laid the foundation ed abont that time near Grantham. of that Philosophy by which his Having finished a grammatical edu- name will be rendered immortal.

R

great- four

curve ;

his way,

In 1687 his Mathematical Princi-vanced in years, was irretrievable; ples of Natural Philosophy were yet, he only rebuked the animal, published, a work which the Mar- saying, “ Diamond ! Diamond ! quis de l'Hapital said he regarded th ou little knowest the mischief as the production of a celestial in-thou hast done.”

He was never telligence rather than that of man. married, having, he said, never had In 1704 he published his Optics, leisure to think of it; and, it has a piece of Philosophy so new that been said, and perhaps truly, that the science may be considered as his exemption from the entangleentirely indebted to our author. ments of love and the fondness of

In the following year, he was wine, were the greatest secondary Kuighted by Queen Ann as a tes- causes of his attainments in knowtimony of her opinion of his merit. ledge.

This great man enjoyed a set- He, first of men, with awful wing tled state of health till he was

pursu'd eighty years old, when he began The Comet through the long eliptic to be afflicted by the stone; he had the perfect use of all his As round innum'rous worlds he wound senses, till the day before he died,

Till, to the forehead of our evening which was on the 20th of March,

sky in the eighty-fifth year of his age, Return'd, the blazing' wonder glares he was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a noble monument is And o’er the trembling nation shakeş erected to his memory.

dismay. Sir Isaac was of a middling

Αλφα. stature, his countenance remarkably pleasing, and his temper is said to have been so mild that no

THE BROTHERS : accident could ruffle it. Of this AN ANECDOTE FROM THE the following circumstance is related. Sir Isaac had a favourite Plays and Romances disclose to little dog, called Diamond, and us the most shining traits in the being called out of his study human mind; our imagination is into the next room, Diamond was inflamed but our heart remains left behind. When Sir Isaac re- cold ; at least the fervour which turned, having been absent but a is raised in it in this manner is few minutes, he found that Dia- only momentary, and becomes mond had thrown down a lighted chilled in practical life. At the candle among some papers, and same instant that we are moved the nearly-finished labour of many almost to tears, by the unadorned years was almost consumed. This goodness of heart of the noble loss, as Sir Isaac was very far ad-hero of romance, we perhaps

anew,

GERMAN

OF SCHILLER.

<

m

spurn with anger from our door either side impossible. The fair the miserable beggar who impor- one, full of commiseration for the tunes us for charity. Who knows, unhappy situation of these two whether this artificial existence in unfortunates, would not decide an ideal world, may not under- upon the exclusion of either, but mine our existence in the real one? submitted her own feelings to the We hover, as it were, about the decision of their brotherly love. two extremes of morality, angel Conqueror in this doubtfu.. and devil; and the medium-strife, betwixt duty and sentiman, we abandon.

ment, which our philosophers are The following anecdote of two always so ready to decide, but Germans, (with a proud joy do I which the practical man undersay it) has one indisputable merit takes so slowly, the elder brother -it is true. I hope it may in- said to the younger, “I know thou stil more warmth into my readers lovest the maiden as vehement as than all the volumes of Grandison myself. I will not ask for which or of Pamela.

of us a priority of right should Two brothers, Barons of W, determine. · Do thou remain here, were in love with a young and whilst I seek the wide world. I excellent lady, and neither was am willing to die that I may

foracquainted with the passion of get her. If such be my fate, brothe other. The affection of both ther, then she is thine, and may was tender and vehement,-it was heaven bless thy love ! Should I their first: the maiden was beau- not meet with death, do thou set tiful, and formed of sensibility. out, and follow my example.' They suffered their inclinations He left Germany, and hastened to increase to the utmost bounds, to Holland; but the form of his for the danger the most dreadful beloved still followed him. Far to their hearts was unknown to from the climate which she inthem, to have a brother for a rival, habited, banished from the spot Each forbore an early explana- which contained the whole felicity tion with the lady, and thus were of his heart, in which alone he both deceived ; until an unexpect- was able to exist, the unhappy 'ed

discovered the youth sickened,—as the plant whole secret of their sentiments. withers which is ravished from

Their love had already risen to its maternal bed in Asia by the its utmost height : that most un- powerful European, and forced "happy passion, which has caused from its more clement sun into a almost as cruel ravages as its remote and rougher soil. dreadful counterpart, had taken reached Amsterdam in a despondsuch complete possession of their ing condition, where he fell ill of hearts as to render a sacrifice on/ a violent fever. The surm of her

occurrence

He

he loved predominated in his fran- sity. Love, and at the same time, tic dreams; his health depended the sorrow at losing such a man, on her possession. The physici- rushed forcibly upon his mind. ans were in doubt of his life, and The noise of the flying vehicle nothing but the assurance of be- pierced him to the heart,-his ing restored again to her, rescued life was feared. The Lady,-but him from the arms of death. He no! of her I must not yet speak. arrived in his native city changed The packet was opened. It to a skeleton, the most dreadful contained a complete assignation image of consuming grief, and of all his German posessions to h's with tottering steps reached the brother, in the event of fortune door of his beloved-of his bro- being favourable to the fugitive in ther.

Batavia. The latter, subdner of • Brother, behold me once again. himself, sailed with some Dutch Heaven knows how I have striven merchants, and arrived safely at to subdue the emotions of my that place. A few weeks after, heart. I can do no more.' he sent his brother the following

He sunk senseless into the lines : lady's arms.

'Here, where I return thanks The younger brother was no to the Almighty; here, in another less determined. In a few weeks world, do I think of thee, and of he was ready to set out.

our loves, with all the joy of a • Brother, thou carriedst thy martyr. New scenes and events grief with thee to Holland. I have expanded my soul, and God will endeavour to bear mine far- has given me strength to offer the ther. Lead not the maiden to the greatest sacrifice to friendship, altar till I write to thee, Frater. the maiden. God! here a tear nal love alone permits such a sti- doth fall,—the last-1 have conpulation. Should I be more for- quered the maiden is thive.

tunate than thou wert, in the Brother, it was not ordained that name of God, let her be thine, I should possess her; that is, she and

may Heaven prosper thy would not have been happy with union. Should I not, may the me.

If the thought should ever Almighty in that case judge fur- come to her that she would have ther between us ! Farewell. Take been,- -Brother ! brother ! with this sealed packet; do not open difficulty do I tear her from my it till I am far from hence. I am soul. Do not forget how hard going to Batavia.'

the attainment of her has been to He then sprang into the coach, thee. Treat her always as thy The other remained motionless, youthful passion at present teachand absorbed in grief, for his bro-es thee. Treat her always as the ther had corpassed him in genero- dear legacy of a brother whom

а

thy arms will never more enfold. hope to overtake it by violent Farewell! Do not write to me exertions, or by going cross roads : when thou celebratest thy mar- if he follow diligently, and pursue riage--my wounds still bleed. the path, incident will perhaps Write to me, that thou art happy. give him a lift on his way, or at My deed is a surety to me, that any rate he will, by patience, God will not forsake me in a fo- overtake his object. reign world.

Let us see what are the great The nuptials were celebrated. stumbling blocks and interrupThe most felicitous of marriages tions to a regular plan or distribu, lasted a year. At the end of that tion of time. First, INDOLENCE, period the lady died. In her ex- that vis inertiu which keeps us piring moments she acknowledged just where we are. Next, PLEAto her most intimate friend the SURE, that force which moves us unhappy secret of her bosom :- easily by her allurements, when the exiled brother she had loved we are actually employed, and the strongest.

would not willingly have any Both brothers still live. The thing to say to her : but these, elder upon his estates in Germa- though the most open enemies of ny, where he has married again. time, are not perhaps so dangerThe younger remains in Batavia, ous as those which are concealed and has become a fortunate and under masks of actual occupation. shining character. He made a We have, for instance, Pausers, vow never to marry, and has Wishers, Hopers, and Fretters ; kept it.

each of which, in their different ways, lay waste a portion of time, One of your great Pausers is

BOB VACANT! Bob is always in The Sketch Book, a study; Bob weighs every thing, No. II.

and does nothing; decides, and never moves; makes

up

his mind,

and never acts; is in a great There is not, fairly speaking, hurry and never stirs. Vain are any but the distressed man who all his acquirements of learning, may be said to be in want of time : vain his knowledge, vain his skill all other men have, to use a com- and judgment. They are to him mon proverb, the fore-horse by like the precious hoard of the the head; all roads and paths are miser, which he is always looking open to them, and it is their own at, but of which he never touches faults if they choose the worst. a guinea. But he who has got considerably The Wisher is another sort of is arrears with time, must not being as to the nature of his