Whereas we whose names are underwritten, on the fourth of April last, were guilty of grave irregularity and misbehaviour by insulting the Vice-Master, the Dean, and other officers of the College and thereby gave just offence to the Society, we do profess ourselves heartily sorry for the same and acknowledge the lenity of the Master and Dean in suffering us to return so soon from rustication. And we do hereby engage to be strictly observant of our duty for the future and take this as our first admonition in order to expulsion. James Bensley, John Ambler. 29 May, 1754. [Bensley graduated in due course and was elected to a fellowship: Ambler did not graduate.] Ordered that ..., for irregular attendance at lectures and neglect of impositions, be admonished a second time previous to rustication or expulsion. 29 May, 1844. Temporary or permanent removal from the College were penalties reserved for the gravest offences. They are still recognized as possible punishments. The fact that there are but few records of the infliction of these extreme penalties indicates how easily discipline has always been maintained. My readers may well think that the results of these notes are somewhat scanty, but if that nation is happy which has no history, surely universities and colleges are to be congratulated whose records of punishment are so few. To sum up the matter, the general effect left on my mind is that most of the common offences were due only to youthful exuberance of spirits and not to deliberate mischief making; and that the rules and sanctions, judged by the standard of their time, have been neither harsh nor unreasonable, and have usually been approved by public opinion in the University. CHAPTER XIII. NEWTON'S _PRINCIPIA_. Newton's _Principia_ is one of the few scientific books which has sensibly affected the methods of scientific research and the ideas of men about the universe. It is on this aspect of the subject I propose, in this paper, to make a few remarks. The work itself is a classic in the history of mathematics: the exposition of the subject, the enunciation of the principle of prime and ultimate ratios, the creation of mechanics as a science resting on experiments, and the theory of universal gravitation with concrete applications to the solar system, make it a masterpiece. Here I avoid all technicalities, and confine myself to a general description of its genesis and contents and the reason why its publication affected scientific thought and methods.