Page:Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's life.djvu/97

 in the yard, & entrys, whenever the sun came. he did not do it in a little manner, as minute sciolists wd.would [sic] do, by making small sun-dyals: but show'd the greatness, & extent of his thought, by drawing long lines, tying long strings with running balls upon them; driving pegs into the walls, to mark hours, half hours & quarters. many contriveances he used, to find out the periods, conversions, & elevations of that great luminary. he made a sort of almanac of these lines, knowing the day of the month by them; the suns entry into signs, the equinoxes, & solstices. So that Sr. Isaac's dyals, when the sun shined, were the common guide to the family, & neighborhood. thus early did that fruitful, that sagacious, that immense genius show its self; which since has fill'd, rather comprehended the universe!

Sr. Isaac when a lad here at School, was not only expert at his mechanical tools, but equally so with his pen. for he busyed himself very much in drawing, which he took from his own inclination; & as in every thing else, improv'd it by a careful observation of nature. he learn'd to write of one old Barley, as he was commonly calld; who was writing master to the school. he lived, where now is the milstone alehouse, not