Rough draft preface for the Life of Newton

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Preface

It has fared with the learned men of this \our/ nation, much as it has done with those who have distinguished themselves in arms, the success of both has been very extraordinary & tho^u the writings of the one will always speak for themselves & the actions of the others have {sic} been of too great consequence to be entirely forgot little care has been taken to tr transmitt \deliver/ down {sic} to posterity wi any advantageous account of the authors. The Muses have not /strung their harps for our Sages or Heroes\ & the relations the most likely to last are such as have been given by their competitors – <2> There is hardly an officer among the French officer of the lowest rank |Man Many among of a neighbouring nation| unwilling to trust others with so dear a deposite |  pretious a charge as the care of their fame have been themselves the trumpeterss {sic} {sic} of their actions \often in their own life times/ & officers of the lowest rank, tho^u little known elsewhere make a figure in their own memoirs Whilst \there is no account to be found of/ the unparallelled actions of the great Duke of Marlborough but in the Annals of Boyer and the Histoire Militaire of Louis the 14^th – the Carthag wee know little \or nothing/ of the Carthaginians but \except/ from their rivals |the Romans| but the fate w^ch there attended the conquered has fallen upon England victorious —

Nor has France been less carefull of their learned men, a succession of the brightest wits have been entertained to perpetuate the memoirs of every member of their Society <3> & that pen w^ch has now been the delight of Europe for half a century has given such a lustre

finds or makes them

/\w^t {A}/ said of poetry may be said of him that however wee admire him more than his Heroes\

delivers down with so much advantage as will give posterity a much greater Idea – Whilst even Harvey Boyle live only in their works – nor would & Newton only as belonging to them & not as an Englishman —

Spratt began durst praise no body – |a false modesty|

As Tacitus wrote the life of Agricola because he married his daughter — I – having something \the like pretence of affinity/ – wanting a genius knowledge – haue excited others – they dictate – only my hand – Whatever is wrong is mine – Whatever praisewort otherwise theirs —

Folkes – Iones – Machin – &c –

endeavour to embellish to heighten to raise — follow example of Spratt – S^r Hans told often endeavoured to prevail a continuance \who frightened an/ no body write on same subject with Cesar {w^ch} imitation of his beauties degenerate into a vicious {esteem}

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S^r Hans Sloane told me that the History of the Royal Society was writt in 1677, that he had often pressed several to continue it but in vain –

The first sketch w^ch was intended as a sample & to encourage others to continue it was writt with so much perfection that no one durst attempt to tread in follow tread on the same ground to follow him as Cesar intended his Com̄entaries only as materials for others to enlarge upon but no man was so hardy as to write on the same subject with Cesar, D^r Swift says the {sic} History of the Royal Society is the best book in the English tongue

Spratt wrote his History just when S^r I had laid the foundations of all his discoveries – It has been said the Society has not answered the great expectations raised by that book – S^r I. has exceeded them – Happy if there had been such an Historian as {illeg} it to {illeg} to have described it when accomplished —