and Newton was not a man--like Kepler--to detail to the world all the
hopes and disappointments, all the crude and mystical fancies, which mixed
themselves up with his career of philosophy... Many years later we find
Newton in correspondence with Locke, with reference to a mysterious red
earth by which Boyle, who was then recently dead, had asserted that he
could effect the grand desideratum of multiplying gold. By this time,
however, Newton's faith had become somewhat shaken by the unsatisfactory
communications which he had himself received from Boyle on the subject of
the golden recipe, though he did not abandon the idea of giving the
experiment a further trial as soon as the weather should become suitable
for furnace experiments."--Quarterly Review, No. 220, pp. 125, 126.

[2] Southey, in his "Doctor," vol. vi. p. 2, reports the conversation of
Sir Kenelm Digby with Descartes, in which the great geometrician said,
"That as for rendering man immortal, it was what he could not venture to
promise, but that he was very sure he could prolong his life to the
standard of the patriarchs." And Southey adds, "that St. Evremond, to
whom Digby repeated this, says that this opinion of Descartes was well
known both to his friends in Holland and in France." By the stress
Southey lays on this hearsay evidence, it is clear that he was not
acquainted with the works and biography of Descartes, or be would have
gone to the fountain-head for authority on Descartes's opinions, namely,
Descartes himself. It is to be wished that Southey had done so, for no
one more than he would have appreciated the exquisitely candid and lovable
nature of the illustrious Frenchman, and the sincerity with which he
cherished in his heart whatever doctrine he conceived in his
understanding. Descartes, whose knowledge of anatomy was considerable,
had that passion for the art of medicine which is almost inseparable from
the pursuit of natural philosophy. At the age of twenty-four he had
sought (in Germany) to obtain initiation into the brotherhood of the