It was during the residence of our ingenious philosopher with his father in the country that he made himself master of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, which he read in the English translation of Mr. Motte. It was here, likewise, he became acquainted with the science of fluxions; of which sublime invention he believed himself, for a while, to be the author, nor did he know for some years afterwards that a contest had been carried on between Sir Isaac Newton and Leibnitz for the honor of the great and useful discovery. What a mind was here! Without literary friends or society, and with but two or three books, he became, before he had reached his four and twentieth year, the rival of two of the greatest mathematicians in Europe.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "It was during the residence of our ingenious philosopher with his father in the country that he made himself master of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, which he read in the English translation of Mr. Motte. It was here, likewise, he became acquainted with the science of fluxions; of which sublime invention he believed himself, for a while, to be the author, nor did he know for some years afterwards that a contest had been carried on between Sir Isaac Newton and Leibnitz for the honor of the great and useful discovery. What a mind was here! Without literary friends or society, and with but two or three books, he became, before he had reached his four and twentieth year, the rival of two of the greatest mathematicians in Europe." in the context of "Benjamin Rush, An Eulogium, Intended to Perpetuate the Memory of David Rittenhouse, Late President of the American Philosophical Society, Delivered before the Society in the First Presbyterian Church, in High-Street, in Philadelphia, on the 17th Dec. 1796" to mean that wisdom is timeless.