Shortly before the Pri?wipirt was given to the public, Newton, who since 1669 had occupied the Lucasian chair at Cambridge, was called to take an active part in defending the rights of the university against the illegal encroachments of James 11. The conspicuous part which he had taken on that occasion procured him a seat in the Convention Parliament. in \Illicit he sat from January, 1689, to its dissolution in 1690. In 1696 he was appointed warden of the mint. and in 1699 was promoted to the office of master of the mint, an office which lie held till the end of his life. He again took a seat in Parliament in the year 1701. as the representative of his university. Thus engaged in the public service, he had little time left for mere scientific studies which lie always held of speondery importance to the public duties in which lie was engaged. In the interval of public duty, how ever, Newton showed that he still retained the scientific power by which his great diseoveries had been made. 11e was president of the 11(iyel Society from 1703 till his death, a period of twenty-four years, being each year reelected. In this position, and enjoying the confidence of Prince George of Denmark, he did much toward the advancement of science; and one of his most important works during this time was the super intendence of the publication of Flamsteed's Greenwich Obst rea t ions—a task. however, not accomplished without notch eontroversy and some bitterness between himself and that astronomer. The controversy between Newton and Leibnitz, as to priority of discovery of the differential cal culus, or the method of finxions, was raised rather through the partisanship of jealous friends than through the anxiety of the philosophers themselves, who were, however, induced to enter into and carry on the dispute with some degree of bitterness and mutual recrimination. The de
tails of these controversies, with all other in formation of the life of this philosopher, will he found admirably collected in the biography by Brewster, who wrote. not only with an intimate acquaintance with Newton's works, lint in pos session of all the materials collected in the hands of his family. Newton died on March 20, 1727. and his remains received a resting-place in West minster Abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory in 1731. A magnificent full-length statue of the philosopher, executed by Pmbilliac, was erected in 1755 in the antechapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. This work was assisted by a cast of the face taken after death, which is preserved in the University Library at Cam In 1699 Newton was elected a for eign) associate of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1705 he received the honor of knighthood from Queen Anne. Among the best editions of New ton's principal works are the quarto edition of the Optics ( London, 1704), and the quarto edi tion of the Principia, published at Cambridge, England. in 1713. Consult : Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Diseorcric.s of Sir Isaac Newton (London, 1855-60) ; Pemberton. View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy (ib., 1728) ; Ball, History of Moth/moth's ( ih., 1893) ; id.. Essay on Newton's Principia (ib., 1893); and Glazebrook, in the Dictionary of National Biography, xl. (New York, 1894).