[72] M. Biot states that Sir Isaac Newton _caused_ this edition of the Commercium Epistolicum to be printed; that _Sir Isaac placed_ at the head of it a partial abstract of the collection; and that this abstract _appeared to have been written by himself_. These groundless charges may be placed, without any refutation, beside the assertion of Montucla, that Newton wrote the notes (les notes) on the Commercium Epistolicum; and the equally incorrect statement of La Croix, that Newton added to it notes (des notes), with his own hand. We should not have noticed the charges of M. Biot, had he not adduced them as proofs of Newton’s animosity to Leibnitz after his death. See Mr. Herschel’s History of _Mathematics_ in the _Edinburgh Encyclopædia_, vol. xiii. p. 368, _note_. [73] See Burnet’s _History of his own Times_, vol. i. p. 697. Lond. 1724. [74] The other candidates were Sir Robert Sawyer and Mr. Finch, and the votes stood thus. Sir Robert Sawyer, 125 Mr. Newton, 122 Mr. Finch, 117 [75] This M. Colin was probably a young bachelor of arts whom Newton seems afterward to have employed in some of his calculations. These bachelors were distinguished by the title of Dominus, and it was usual to translate this word and to call them _Sir_. In a letter from Newton to Flamstead, dated Cambridge, June 29th, 1695, is the following passage: “I want not your calculations, but your observations only, for besides myself and my servant, Sir Collins (whom I can employ for a little money, which I value not) tells me that he can calculate an eclipse and work truly.” [76] They are thus dated in Horsley’s edition of Newton’s Works, the _fourth_ letter having an earlier date than the _third_. [77] See _Newtoni Opera_, tom. iv. p. 480, and _Wallasii Opera_, 1693, tom. ii. p. 391–396. [78] _Optics_, part iv. obs. 13. [79] For these letters I have been indebted to the kindness of Lord Braybrooke. [80] These three letters have been published by Lord Braybrooke in the Life and Correspondence of Mr. Pepys. [81] This anxiety will be understood from the fact that, by an order of council dated January 28th, 1674–5, Mr. Newton was excused from making the usual payments of one shilling per week, “on account of his low circumstances, as he represented.” [82] The system of Hobbes was at this time very prevalent. According to Dr. Bentley, “the taverns and coffee-houses, nay, Westminster Hall and the very churches, were full of it;” and he was convinced from personal observation, that “not one English infidel in a hundred was other than a Hobbist.”—Monk’s _Life of Bentley_, p. 31. [83] The draft of this letter is endorsed “J. L. to I. Newton.”