Christopher and Columbus
CHRISTOPHER AND COLUMBUS By the Author of _Elizabeth and Her German Garden_ Frontispiece by Arthur Litle Garden City New York Doubleday, Page & Company 1919 [Illustration: "Oh, yes. You're both very fond of me," said Mr. Twist, pulling his mouth into a crooked and unhappy smile. "We love you." said Anna-Felicitas simply.]
of her second marriage. Her means appear to have been somewhat
scanty, and it was consequently thought necessary to recall Isaac
from the school. His recently-born industry had been such that he
had already made good progress in his studies, and his mother hoped
that he would now lay aside his books, and those silent meditations
to which, even at this early age, he had become addicted. It was
expected that, instead of such pursuits, which were deemed quite
useless, the boy would enter busily into the duties of the farm and
the details of a country life. But before long it became manifest
that the study of nature and the pursuit of knowledge had such a
fascination for the youth that he could give little attention to
aught else. It was plain that he would make but an indifferent
farmer. He greatly preferred experimenting on his water-wheels to
looking after labourers, while he found that working at mathematics
behind a hedge was much more interesting than chaffering about the
price of bullocks in the market place. Fortunately for humanity his
mother, like a wise woman, determined to let her boy's genius have
the scope which it required. He was accordingly sent back to
Grantham school, with the object of being trained in the knowledge
which would fit him for entering the University of Cambridge.
[PLATE: TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
Showing Newton's rooms; on the leads of the gateway he placed
his telescope.]
It was the 5th of June, 1660, when Isaac Newton, a youth of eighteen,
CHRISTOPHER AND COLUMBUS By the Author of _Elizabeth and Her German Garden_ Frontispiece by Arthur Litle Garden City New York Doubleday, Page & Company 1919 [Illustration: "Oh, yes. You're both very fond of me," said Mr. Twist, pulling his mouth into a crooked and unhappy smile. "We love you." said Anna-Felicitas simply.]