THE DISCOVERER OF THE LAW OF GRAVITATION.

Northland Age, Volume VIII, Issue 25, 9 February 1912, Page 7

THE DISCOVERER OF THE LAW OF GRAVITATION.

Sir Isaac Newton, the great philosoi h r and discoverer of the law of gravitation, was born a weali sickly infant. His talents were not apparently extraordinary until hia twelfth year ; for years he had kept a low place in his school at Gran-

tham, until one day, having fought and beaten one of h'.s schoolfellows, he became fired with the ambition to beat him equally thoroughly at sch ’arship. He succeeded so well that he became head of the school. His leisure he devoted to ALL KINDS OF MECHANICAL INVENTIONS : windmills, water-clocks, even a carriage pro elled by the person in it. These quiet amusements he varied by flying kites ut night with lanterns attached to their tails, and thereby frightening the simple Lincolnshire country-folk. His stepfather dying, his mother recalled him from school when he was fifteen years of age to help in the house and on the Uml. He was frequently sent, in company with an old servant, to buy and sell at Grantham Market ; but he invariably stopped at some distance from the town, and, lying under a hedge, would read and study, sending the sen ant on to do the business alone. His mother soon recognised that her son’s talents were TOO GREAT TO BE WASTED for lack of education, and she sent him back to his grammar-school to pieoare for a University course. From this time onwards his rise to the ranks of the foremost scholars in t h e world was steady and certain. He 1 ecame the author of , NUMBERLESS SCIENTIFIC WORKS. He was knighted by Queen Anne, and later on- became a great favourite at the Court of George 11. Newton’s absence of mind in proverbial. He would forget everything and everybody when engaged in. verifying his theories. His character was simple and his charity unfailing. Kor all his great attainments and the WORLD-WIDE HONOURS SHOWERED ON HIM, he was very modest, and once said that he “ was but a child picking up pebbles on the shore of the great undiscovered ocean of truth.” He died on March 20, 1727, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. . DAVID AND GOLIATH. Lord Roberts was chatting with some friends at a reception one night when a very tall man came up and asked to be introduced to the very famous little soldier. After the intrdictim al be-n made, the tall man—who happened to be one of those unple s*nt people whose whole idea of humour is to raise a laugh at somebody else’s ex-pense-shaded his eyee with his hand as though Lord Robeets, being so small, could only be seen with difficulty. “ I have often heard of you,” he remarked, moving his head from side to side, as though trying to get a better view, “ but I have never seen you.” ” That is very possible,” Lord Roberts replied, promptly, “for I have often seen you, but I have never heard of you.”