APPENDI X.

Strictures on Sir Ifaac Newton's Chronology.

THIS

INTRODUCTION.

HIS prodigy of genius, while exploring the laws of nature, devoted occafionally a vacant hour to the hiftory of time, with the meafures of which he was well acquainted; and in fuch researches, intricate as is the fubject, found relief from the fatigue of inveftigating thofe general principles, which pervade the ftill more complex mechanifm of the universe.

"He bound the fun

And planets to their spheres! th' unequal task
Of human kind till then. Oft had they roll'd
O'er erring man the year, and oft difgrac'd
The pride of fchools, before their course was known
Full in its caufes and effects to him,

All piercing fage! who fat not down and dream'd
Romantic schemes, defended by the din

Of fpecious words and tyranny of names;
But, bidding his amazed mind attend,

And

And with heroick patience years on years
Deep-fearching, faw at laft the fyftem dawn
And fhine of all his race, on him alone!
The noiseless tide of time, all bearing down
To vaft eternity's unbounded fea,

Where the green iflands of the happy fhine,
He stemm'd alone; and to the fource (involv'd
Deep in primeval gloom) afcending rais'd
His lights at equal diftances, to guide
Hiftorian, wilder'd on his darksome way."

THIS elegant encomium is, with one exception, juft. Even the vaft, capacious mind of Newton did not ascend to the fource of time, but left it involved in deep primeval gloom. From the vulgar year of the nativity, as erroneously defined by Usher, A. P. J. 4709, (which is the true hiftorical date), he purfues his refearches, in the retrograde order, to the days of Eli, where he ftates the firft fynchronism of the Egyptian history with that of the Hebrews.

MUCH is it regretted, that he did not extend the line of investigation through the patriarchal ages, by the notations of an infallible chronology, (which happily combines GENEALOGY with HISTORY), back to the origin of things,-that point in measured time where genuine hiftory begins, and beyond which chronology can go no farther. Not fufpecting deception or error in the lucubrations of a metropolitan, who was

Thomfon's Foem to the Memory of Sir Ifaac Newton.

the

pre

the ornament of his age, and had excelled all his deceffors in the fingular art of HISTORICAL ARRANGEMENT, Sir Ifaac ftopt fhort, and excluded from his fyftem the chronology of 28 centuries.

IN Sir John Marfham's Chronological Canon, this adventurous reformer of ancient computations found a rich mine of mixed ore, gold, filver, brafs, iron, and clay; all in one mafs; waiting the refiner's fkill, and the operations of the furnace. Hence he derived an immenfe variety of materials, fufceptible of a better arrangement, and a more perfect form. The result of a minute examination was a full conviction, that the antiquities of the Gentiles had been amplified by fiction, difguifed under the mafk of allegory, and derived belief from the credulity of an ignorant world.

THE CHRONOLOGY of ancient KINGDOMS amended, was not an attempt rafhly projected, or its ingredients precipitately thrown together. About five months before the author's death he had an interview with Dr. Pearce, late bishop of Rochester, whom he informed, "That he had spent thirty years, at intervals, in reading over all the authors, or parts of authors, which could furnish any materials, for forming a juft account of the Ancient Chronology;-that he had, in his reading, made collections from thofe authors, and had, at the end of 30 years, compofed from thence HIS Chronology of ancient Kingdoms;-and that he had written it over feveral times, (it appeared afterwards, the bishop thought 16 times), making a few alterations in it, but what were for the fake of fhort

ening it (as the bishop gathered from his difcourse), and leaving out, in every later copy, fome of the authorities and references, on which he had grounded his opinions."

As this elaborate work was begun in the vigour of his faculties, fo it was the subject of his thoughts, and the exercise of his hand, in the laft period of his life. "A few days before he died, Dr. Pearce made him a vifit at Kenfington, and dined with him. He found him writing over his Chronology of ancient Kingdoms, without the help of spectacles, at the greateft diftance in the room from the windows, and with a parcel of books on the table cafting a fhade upon the paper. Seeing this, on my entering the room, (said the doctor), "Sir, you seem to be writing in a place where you cannot well fee." His answer was, " Little light ferves me.” He then told me, that he was preparing his Chronology for the press, and that he had written the greatest part of it for that purpose *."

WITH many difadvantages, the almost unavoidable fate of pofthumous works, this last and least perfect production of the venerable Sir Ifaac Newton, was ufhered into the world t. His work, as it is, has fo

great

Bishop Pearce's Life, prefixed to his Commentary on the Gofpels, &c. p. 42—44.

+ Buchanan's Hiftory, without the benefit of his last revifal, appeared about three weeks before his death, and he had the mortification to be told, that the printer had committed many egregious mistakes. Maclaurin dying with the pen in his hand, before he had finished his AccoUNT of SIR ISAAC

NEWTON'S

great merit, that, with all its faults, no one publication on the subject contains fo many valuable improvements. Perfection is a character incompatible with the most finished productions of human genius. Its principles new, bold, and rather deep than dark, amazed the illiteterate, and puzzled the learned. Scarcely could it be expected, that even the most accurate practitioners, in the computation of TIMES, would instantly renounce the authority of hoary tradition, abjure tenets established by immemorial belief, and become profelytes to a fyftem, incongruous with the prejudices of education, and conftitutional habits of thinking.

The Chronology of ancient Kingdoms amended, having divided the opinions of the best judges, experienced a kind of ambiguous reception. Its fate was neither that of many fungous productions ;-a premature death in infancy;—the last, and not least severe, curfe of unfuccessful authorship: nor fummary reprobation on the fcore of literary impofture. In the very year of its publication, 1728, Bedford fent forth his ANIMADVERSIONS, and Whifton his CONFUTATION. These luminaries of their day elucidated several obfcure parts of an abstruse subject. In their diftinct performances are obvious fignatures of erudition, acuteness, and candour, without credulity, adulation, farcafm, and illi

NEWTON'S Philofophical Discoveries, this work concludes with three afterics, to denote imperfection. With a fimilar fatality was his own Chronology exhibited to the public;-a part not copied by the author, and the whole fent forth in the condition of a defencelefs orphan.

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