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34    ANNUAL REGISTER 

nine, sincerely lamented by his friends, regretted by the worthy and the good, and revered by the great and the learned. 

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Of Francis Duke de la Rochefoucault. 

THIS duke, who was also of Francis I. duke Rochefoucault, and born in 1613. This nobleman passed half of his life in troubles and disquietudes. He was one of the first who listed under the banner of the princes against the ministry and cardinal Richelieu. When restored to tranquility, he cultivated letters and philosophy, and his house became the rendezvousof all who knew how to think. He wrote the Memoirs of Ann of Austria, which the energy of a Tacitus; they are in every one's hands, but we know by heart his Reflexious and Maxims, where he has grown a perfect picture of men. The touches of the painter here are delicate and refined. Though there is but one truth in this book , that self-love is the motive of all our actions, yet this truth is placed in so many different points of view, that it is always striking. 

It was partly at the instigation of the beautiful Duchess de Longueville, that the Duke de Rochesfoucault engaged in the civil wars, in which he signalized himself particularly at the battle of St. Antoine. Beholding one day a portrait of this lady, he wrote underneath it these two lines from the tragedy of Alcyoneus.  

"Pour mériter son coeur, pour 
plaire à ses beaux yeux. 
J'ai fait la guerre aux rois, je 
l'audois fait aux dieux." 
which may be thus rendered in English: 
"To gain her heart and please
her sparkling eyes, 
I've war'd with kings, and would 
have braved the skies." 

The author of the maxims was not a member of the French academy.The necessity of making a public speech the day of his reception, was the only cause that he did not claim admittance. this nobleman, with all courage he had displayed upon various critical occasions, and with his superiority of birth and understanding over the common run of men, did not think himself capable of facing an audience, to utter only four lines in public, without being out of countenance. 

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Of Sir Isaac Newton. 

SIR Isaac Newton was the only child of Mr. John Newton, who had a small paternal estate in and near the little village of Woolsthorpe, about half a mile west from Coltersworth, on the great north road, between Stamford and Grantham, by the daughter of a gentleman whose name was Ayscough, who also lived in Woolsthorpe, and was lord of the manor. Sir Isaac was born in a farm-house in this village, in the year 1641; and, his father being a weak and extravagant man, he was, when a boy, sometimes employed in very servile offices: he used to watch the sheep; and, when the servant carried corn to Grantham-market, he attended to open the gates. It is 

reported, 

For the YEAR 1772.   35 

reported, that a gentleman found him, one day, near Woolsthorpe, in the character of a shepherd's boy, reading a book of practical geometry; and that, upon asking him some questions, he discovered some tokens of uncommon genius; that he applied to his mother, and strongly urged her to take the boy from the field, and give him the education of a scholar, offering to assist in his maintenance, if there should be occasion. It is not, however, probable, that, if such offer was made, it was ever accepted; for, in the rolls or records that are sometimes read at the Court-leets of Grantham, mention is made of Mr. Ayscough, Isaac's maternal grandfather, as guardian or trustee of Isaac Newton under age. It is therefore reasonable to believe, that Isaac had a provision under his mother's marriage settlement; and that his grandfather, as his guardian or trustee, took care of his education. But, however this be, he was sent to the grammar-school, and, as is well known, afterwards pursued his academic studies in Trinity-College, Cambridge. 

His father died, probably, while he was yet a lad; for his mother married a second husband, the Rev. Mr. Smith, who was then rector of North Witham, a parish that joins to Coltersworth; by whom he had a son and several daughters, who afterwards intermarried with persons of property and character, of the names of Barton and Conduit. 

The manor of Woolfthorpe, with some other property, descended to Sir Isaac, upon the death of his grandfather Ayfeough, and he made some purchases himself: but the whole was inconsiderable; for his estate in that neighbourhood, at his death, amounted only to 105l.

Sir Isaac's principal residence in town was at a house the corner of Long's-court, in St. Martin's street, Leicester-fields, upon the roof of which he built a small observatory, that is still standing. He died at his lodgings in Pitt's-buildings, Kensington, in the year 1726, at the age of eigthy-five.

This account, however brief and imperfect, will confute many errors which the persons who have under-taken to write the life of Sir Isaac have fallen into. Some, indeed, are so gross, as to confute them-selves. The author of the Biogra-phia Philosophica represents Sir Isaac's father as the eldest son of a baronet; but, if this had been true, Sir Isaac, who was the only child of his father, would have had an hereditary title.

Neither is it true that the family of Sir Isaac was opulent. The son of his father's brother was a carpenter; his name was John Newton: he was afterwards game-keeper to Sir Isaac, and died at the age of sixty, in 1725. To Robert, the son of this John, who was Sir Isaac's second cousin, his real estates, in the neighbourhood of Woolf-thorpe, descended upon his death, as his heir at law; but Robert was an illiterate and dissolute wretch, who very soon wasted his substance; and, falling down with a tobacco-pipe in his mouth when he was drunk, it broke in his throat, and put an end to his life, when he was about thirty years old, in the year 1737.

Sir Isaac's personal estate, which was very considerable, was shared among the children of his mother

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