go through Europe reading a guide-book which
you can read at home seems to be a waste of time. On the stone beneath
which Addison lies is engraved the verse from Tickell's ode:

"'Ne'er to these chambers where the mighty rest,' etc.

"The base of Newton's monument is of white marble, a solid mass large
enough to support a coffin; upon that a sarcophagus rests. The remains
are not enclosed within. As I stepped aside I found I had been standing
upon a slab marked 'Isaac Newton,' beneath which the great man's remains
lie.

"On the side of the sarcophagus is a white marble slab, with figures in
bas-relief. One of these imaginary beings appears to be weighing the
planets on a steel-yard. They hang like peas! Another has a pair of
bellows and is blowing a fire. A third is tending a plant.

"On this sarcophagus reclines a figure of Newton, of full size. He leans
his right arm upon four thick volumes, probably 'The Principia,' and he
points his left hand to a globe above his head on which the goddess
Urania sits; she leans upon another large book.

"Newton's head is very fine, and is probably a portrait. The left hand,
which is raised, has lost two fingers. I thought at first that this had
been the work of some 'undevout astronomer,' but when I came to 'read
up' I found that at one time soldiers were quartered in the abbey, and
probably one of them wanted a finger with which to crowd the tobacco
into his pipe, and so broke off one.

"August 17. To-day we have been to the far-famed British Museum. I
carried an 'open sesame' in the form of a letter given to me by
Professor Henry, asking for me special attention from all societies with
which the 'Smithsonian' at Washington is connected.

"I gave the paper first to a police officer; a police officer is met at
every turn in London. He handed it to another official, who said, 'You'd
better go to the secretary.'

"I walked in the direction towards which he pointed, a long way, until I
found the secretary. He called another man, and asked him to show me
whatever I wanted to see.

"This man took me into another room, and consigned me to still another
man--the fifth to whom I had been referred. No. 5 was an intelligent and
polite person, and he began to talk about America at once.

"I asked to see anything which had belonged to Newton, and he told me
they had one letter only,--from Newton to Leibnitz,--which he showed me.
It was written in Latin, with diagrams and formulae