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 interspersed. The
reply of Leibnitz, copied by Newton, was also in their collection, and
an order from Newton written while he was director of the mint.
"No. 5 also showed me the illuminated manuscripts of the collection;
they are kept locked in glass-topped cases, and a curtain protects them
from the light. We saw also the oldest copy of the Bible in the world.
"The art of printing has brought incalculable blessings; but as I looked
at a neat manuscript book by Queen Elizabeth, copied from another as a
present to her father, I could not help thinking it was much better than
worsted work!
"A much-worn prayer-book was shown me, said to be the one used by Lady
Jane Grey when on the scaffold. Nothing makes me more conscious that I
am on foreign soil than the constant recurrence of associations
connected with the executioner's block. We hung the Quakers and we
burned the witches, but we are careful not to remember the localities of
our barbarisms; we show instead the Plymouth Rock or the Washington Elm.
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