Notes on Newton's suitability for canonisation if not deification
Had this great & good man lived in an age when those superiour Genij inventors were Deified or in a country where mortals are canonized he would have had a better claim to those honours than those they have hitherto been ascribed to, his virtues proved him a Saint & his discoveries might well pass for miracles —
1 When wee consider his talents his virtues Even wee that knew him can hardly think of him without a sort of superstition which demands {all} our reason to check – nor forbear saying with the Marquis de l'Hospital was Newton a man? Thus far surely wee may say that had he lived in an age &c —
<2>It is a policy in the Roman Church to canonize none till they have been dead 100 years that there may be no living witnesses of their imperfections – it is a happy circumstance that whilst I am writing this many are alive who knew him & can bear witness for posterity will hardly believe so many virtues & no vices could exist in any man — mortal
