Barrow, Isaac

In Latin: Isaac Barrow, D.D. [Doctor of Divinity], chaplain to King Charles II. A man well nigh divine and truly great, if piety, probity, fidelity, great learning, and as great modesty, holiness of manners in all respects, and sweetness of temper, have ought of greatness. Geometry Professor of Gresham College in London, and of Greek and Mathematics at Cambridge, and he was an ornament to all his places, his church and country. He adorned Trinity College, while head of it, and much enlarged the Royal Library there. Wealth, honours, and the general pursuits of life, he, born for greater ends, despised not, but resigned to the world. God, whom from his childhood he had worshipped, he was foremost in imitating, in wanting little, and benefitting many, and even to posterity, to whom, even dead, he now preaches. What further and more excellent you would know concerning him may be found in his writings. Reader, go thy way and imitate him. He died 4 May 1677 aged 47. His friends erected this monument. [Translation courtesy of Westminster Abbey website, amended.]