io6 of the Newtonian system,

Of his juvenile studies we have but little know-ledge, none of his first attempts, or essays, havingever appeared. He seems to have been an in-ventor rather than a student; and to haveentered at once into the depths of science,without attending to the usual gradations.Jt was on this account that Mr. Fontenelleapplied to him the following idea of theancients, concerning the unknown source of themajestical river that fertiles Ægypt: II n’a pasete permis aux hommes de voir le Nil foible etnaissant.

Every science upon which this great man em-ployed his attention, received a new form fromhis hands, and was carried to a degree of per-fection unlooked for by the ancients. In thecourse of a few years he had destroyed theworks of ages, and erected an edifice of hisown, which will be as durable as the fabric ofnature itself. Algebra, geometry, mechanics,optics, chronology, philosophy, and astronomy,began now to assume an unusual splendor anddignity; and by his improvements and disco-veries, were rendered prodigiously more exten-sive and important. The method of Fluxions,in particular, was entirely his own invention;which alone was sufficient to have rendered hisname immortal. The exquisite subtilty of thisdoctrine is such, that the powers of the human* mind