Page:Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's life.djvu/137

 Halifax,   who sensible of his merit, was resolv'd, he shd. no longer be immur'd in a college. the Earl, together with Lord Somers, undertook the great affair of the recoynage. & judg'd rightly, that Sr. Isaac was the fittest man in the kingdom, to assist them. r. Isaac therefore was made master of the mint. in 1699, he was made master, & worker of the mint.

at length, in the forepart of the present century, he was elected president of the Royal Society 1703. there we view him in his proper dignity. that chair which had held so many great men, his predecessors, was now filled indeed! as the great solar orb shining with its own light, & diffusing his beamy influence, thro' the whole system of arts, & sciences. to him gravitated all the lesser lights, both regular planets, & extravagant comets of erudition, both at home, & abroad. from him they borrowd a ray, & sip'd from his common fountain. & now was that illustrious body truly so; & at its height of glory: the prototype of these literary Societys in Europe, with the great Newton at their head, as an object almost ador'd.

for eight years I was a constant attendant there, which may be reckon'd a lucid part of one's life.

Sr. Isaac was gray headed when under 40; owing, perhaps, to the infinite expence of spirits from