NEWTON, SIR ISAAC, an English philosopher; born in Woolsthorpe, Lin colnshire, England, Dec. 25, 1642 (old style). In 1654 he was sent to Grantham School, and at the age of 18 removed to Trinity College, Cambridge. After going through Euclid's Elements, he pro ceeded to the study of Descartes' Geom etry, with Oughtred's Clavis and Kep ler's Optics, in all of which he made marginal notes. It was in this early course that he invented the method of fluxions, which he afterward brought to perfection, though his claim to the dis covery was unjustly contested by Leib nitz. At the age of 22 Newton took his degree of B. A., and about the same time he applied himself to the grinding of object-glasses for telescopes. Having nrocured a glass prism in order to in vestigate the phenomena of colors, the result of his observations was his new theory of light and colors. It was not long after this that he made his discov ery of the law of gravitation; but it was not till 1687 that the Newtonian system was first published in his great work, the "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy." On his return to the uni versity, in 1667, he was chosen fellow of his college, and took his degree of M. A. Two years afterward he succeeded Dr. Barrow in the mathematical professor ship. In 1691 he was chosen fellow of
the Royal Society, to which body he com municated his theory of light and colors, with an account of a new telescope in vented by him, and other interesting papers. When the privileges of the Uni versity of Cambridge were attacked by James II., Newton was appointed to appear as one of the delegates in the High Commission Court. He was next chosen a member of the Convention Parliament, in which he sat till it was dissolved. In 1696 he was made Warden of the Mint, and afterward Master; which latter place he held till his death. The reformation of the English coinage was largely his work. In 1703 he was chosen president of the Royal Society, in which station he continued 25 years. He was also a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, having been elected in 1699. In 1704 he published his treatise on "Optics"; but the whole merit of this extraordinary work was not at first ap preciated. In 1705 he received the honor of knighthood from Queen Anne. He died in Kensington, near London, March 20, 1727. In 1731 a monument to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey where his remains were buried.