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                                        Sir ISAAC NEWTON
                  Woolsthorpe, England -  London, England.
                              4 Jan. 1643  -  31 March 1727

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           Nature and Nature's laws lay hid by night:
           God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.

A. Pope :  Epitaph intended for Sir Isaac Newton.
In: Moritz, p. 167, # 1007

Cf.:      O'er Nature's laws God cast the veil of night,
           Out-blaz'd a Newton's soul-and all was light.

Aaron Hill. In: Moritz, p. 167, # 1009

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Date: Sat, 7 Oct 1995 17:38:59 +0100 (MET)
From: Andrew McNab <mcnab@afsmail.cern.ch>
To: "Antreas P. Hatzipolakis" <xpolakis@prometheus.hol.gr>
Subject: Re: Newton's epitaph

Pope wrote the couplet:

    Nature and Nature's laws lay hid by night.
    God said 'Let Newton Be!' and all was light.

to be placed on Newton's memorial in Westminster Abbey (which is a few  metres away from his grave.) However the couplet was not used and a longer Latin inscription was used instead. I copied it down by hand one afternoon and will add it to  Newtonia  when I come up with a decent translation (my latin is rather rusty nowadays.)

It finishes with the lines

   Sibi gratulentur Mortales 
   Tale tantumque exstitissit
   Humani generis decus.

   Let Mortals rejoice that 
   there has existed such and so great 
   an Ornament to the Human Race.

Given the heavy baroque style of the monument, Pope's couplet would have looked out of place.
As an aside, Hillaire (?) Belloc added a couplet to Pope's:

    Nature and Nature's laws lay hid by night.
    God said 'Let Newton Be!' and all was light.

    But the Devil shouting 'Ho!
    Let Einstein be!' restored the status quo.
    
Cheers
  
  Andrew McNab

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