Raftsman's Journal

Sir Isaac Newton a Lover.

It appears from Sir David Brewster's Life of Sir Isaac Newton, just published, that the great philosopher, at the ripe age of sixty, made proposals of marriage to a widow. The lady was the widow of Sir William Norris, who died in 1702. The following is Newton's philosophical way of popping the question:

"Madam--Your ladyship's grief, at the loss of Sir William shows that if he had returned safe home, your ladyship would have been glad to have lived still with a husband, and therefore, your aversion at present for marrying again can proceed from nothing else than the memory of him whom you have lost. To be always thinking on the dead is to live a melancholy life among sepulchres, and how much grief is an enemy to your health is manifest by the sickness it brought when you received the first news of your widowhood. And can your ladyship resolve to spend the rest of your days in grief and sickness? Can you resolve to wear a widow's habit perpetually--a habit which is less acceptable to company--a habit which will be always putting you in mind of your lost husband, and thereby promote your grief and indisposition till you leave it off. The proper remedy for all these mischiefs is a new husband, and whether your ladyship should admit of a proper remedy for such maladies, is a question which I hope will not need much time to consider of. Whether your ladyship should go constantly in the melancholy dress of the widow, or flourish once more among the ladies; whether you should spend the rest of your days cheerfully or in sadness, in health or sickness, are questions which need not much consideration to decide them. Besides that your ladyship will be better able to live according to your quality by the assistance of a husband, than upon your own estate alone; and, therefore, since your ladyship likes the person proposed, I doubt not but that in a little time to have notice of your ladyship's inclination to marry,--at least that you will give him leave to discourse with you about it. I am, Madam, your ladyship's most humble and most obedient servant."