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by her second marriage, and their descendants.

The temper of this great man is said to have been so equal and mild, that no accident could disturb it; and a remarkable instance of it is authenticated by a person who is still living.

Sir Isaac had a favorite little dog; which he called Diamond; and, being one day called out of his study into the next room, Diamond was left behind. When Sir Isaac returned, having been absent but a few minutes, he had the mortification to find, that, Diamond having thrown down a lighted candle among some papers, the nearly finished labour of many years was in flames, and almost consumed to ashes. This loss, as Sir Isaac was then very far advanced in years, was irretrievable; yet, without once striking the dog, he only rebuked him with this exclamation, "Oh! Diamond! Diamond! thou little knowest the mischief thou haft done!'

Sir Isaac lived a batchelor; and, as the author was informed by a relation, often declared that he had never violated the laws of chastity.

the foregoing Anecdotes first appeared in the Notes to a Poem lately published, entitled Wensley Dale, and were productive of the following letter.

To the Authors of the Monthly Review.

'Gentlemen,
'In your review for August last, I see the article Wensley-Dale has some particulars of Sir Isaac Newton; to which I will only add, that what Fontenelle mentions in his panegyric on Sir Isaac is true; that his mother was an Ayscough, sometimes written, Askew; and that she was of an ancient family, whose ancestors were considerable gentry; the famous Anne Askew, in Fox's Martyrology, was of the same family. His mother's brother, Ayscough, a clergyman, grandfather of my mother, was the person who insisted on his sister's completing Isaac's education at the university, not according to the tradition mentioned in the poem of Wensley-Dale, of a gentleman observing him in the field keeping sheep, but on the uncle's finding him in a hay-loft, at Grantham, working a mathematical problem.

'Of this clergyman, Ayscough, there are several descendants, one of which is Mr. Thomas Ayscough, who lived above 50 years at the bankers in Lombard Street (formerly Brasseys, and now Lee and Ayton) with others who are still in being as well as myself. My mother's sister who attended him in his last illness, and who is very much with him at other times, had told me, that when he had many mathematical problems, or solutions, in his mind, he would never quit the subject on any account. Dinner has been often three hours ready for him before he could be brought to table: that this man often said, when he has been getting up in the morning, he has sometimes begun to dress, and with one leg in his breeches, sat down on the bed, where he has remained for hours before he got his cloaths on; and my father has often told me that he was the most modest and bashful man that could be; and that in company he was never positive nor overbearing, even in those matters 

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matters which were demonstrated to his own mind. And I had the pleasure of experiencing, when a child, his humane and kind behaviour to children.

I am, your humble servant, I.H.
Oct. 13, 1772

Some Account of the late celebrated Marchioness du Châtelet.

The Marchioness du Châtelet, descended of a very ancient family of Picardy, was born on the 17th of December, 1706. She was the daughter of Nicolas, Baron da Preuilly, and Anne de Froullai. Among the women of her nation who have rendered themselves illustrious, she is certainly intitled to the first rank. Before her, many of them had acquired reputation by agreeable romances, and by poetical pieces, in which there appeared the graces of wit, and the charms of sentiment. Several also, by applying themselves to the study of languages, by making their beauties to pass into their own, and by inriching their versions with valuable commentaries, had deserved well of the republic of letters. But very few of them, taking into their hands the compass of Urania, had endeavoured to penetrate into the secrets of nature, and to exercise themselves in the abstract calculations of geometry. These were reserved for the Marchiones du Châtelet, and by composing works on subjects, which unfold themselves only to men of rare genius, she has classed herself with the great philosophers, and may be said to have rivalled Leibniz and Newton.

But a taste for the abstract sciences was not the only one she possessed. She had cultivated polite learning with as much ardour as success, and had consecrated her earlier years to the study of the ancients. Virgil was the author for who she seemed to have the greatest admiration. She was never satisfied with reading over the Aeneid; she had even begun to translate it. What a pity that she did not finish it; she should then have had an excellent translation of that masterly poem.

The best French authors had also attracted her attention; and she had got by heart all the most beautiful passages in them. She was particularly struck with harmonious verses; but her delicate ear was hurt with those which had only the merit of mediocrity.

Other living languages had like-wise excited her curiosity; she could read Tasso and Milton with facility. But it was of her own language that she had chiefly studied the propriety; and she left some manuscript remarks in relation to it, which would not have disgraced the celebrated Marfais. The purity with which all her works are written is an infallible proof that she knew it to the bottom.

Whatever recalled to her the perfections of nature gave her pleasure. The fine arts, which are to be considered as imitations of nature, were no less agreeable to her than eloquence and poetry. Music had particular charms for her; born with sensibility, she could not but feel all the power of harmony!

These acquisitions served as a light to conduct her into the obscure field of metaphysical inquiry. Leibnitz, that ingenious and profound

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