David Brewster

“ The fatal upas-tree distils its poison in the spring as well as the autumn of its growth, but the fruit which sustains life must have its bud prepared before the approach of winter, its blossom expanded in the spring, and its juices elaborated by the light and heat of the summer and the autumnal sun.
In the century which preceded the birth of Newton the science of astronomy advanced with the most rapid steps. Emerging from the darkness of the middle ages, the human mind seemed to rejoice in its new-born strength, and to apply itself with elastic vigour to unfold the mechanism of the heavens. ”

“ In almost all these bearings, the life and writings of Sir Isaac Newton abound with the richest counsel. Here the philosopher will learn the art by which alone he can acquire an immortal name. The moralist will trace the lineaments of a character adjusted to all the symmetry of which our imperfect nature is susceptible; and the Christian will contemplate with delight the high-priest of science quitting the study of the material universe,—the scene of his intellectual triumphs,—to investigate with humility and patience the mysteries of his faith. ”

“ To the uninstructed mind, the power of seeing an object a thousand miles distant, as large and nearly as distinct as if it were brought within a mile of the observer, must seem almost miraculous; and to the philosopher, even, who thoroughly comprehends the principles upon which it acts, it must ever appear one of the most elegant applications of science. To have been the first astronomer in whose hands such a gift was placed was a preference to which Galileo owed much of his future reputation. ”

“ Whatever this process may be in its details, if it has any, there cannot be the slightest doubt that in its generalities at least it is the very reverse of the method of induction. The impatience of genius spurns the restraints of mechanical rules, and never will submit to the plodding drudgery of inductive discipline. The discovery of a new fact unfits even a patient mind for deliberate inquiry. Conscious of having added to science what had escaped the sagacity of former ages, the ambitious spirit invests its new acquisition with an importance which does not belong to it. ”

“ In this way he found that the weight of the same body would be twenty-three times greater at the surface of the sun than at the surface of the earth, and that the density of the earth was four times greater than that of the sun, the planets increasing in density as they receded from the centre of the system.
If the peculiar genius of Newton has been displayed in his investigation of the law of universal gravitation, it shines with no less lustre in the patience and sagacity with which he traced the consequences of this fertile principle. ”

“ But, though the system of revealed truth which this book contains is, like that of the universe, concealed from common observation, yet the labours of centuries have established its Divine origin, and developed in all its order and beauty the great plan of human restoration. In the chaos of its incidents we discover the whole history of our species, whether it is delineated in events that are past or shadowed forth in those which are to come,—from the creation of man and the origin of evil, to the extinction of his earthly dynasty and the commencement of his immortal career. ”

“ In the starry firmament he sees no bodies of stupendous magnitude, and no distances of immeasurable span. The two great luminaries appear vastly inferior in magnitude to many objects around him, and the greatest distances in the heavens seem even inferior to those which his own eye can embrace on the surface of the earth. The planets, when observed with care, are seen to have a motion among the fixed stars, and to vary in their magnitude and distances, but these changes appear to follow no law. ”

“ He who dared to accuse a man like Newton, or indeed any man holding a fair character in society, with the odious crime of plagiarism, placed himself without the pale of the ordinary courtesies of life, and deserved to have the same charge thrown back upon himself. The man who conceives his fellow to be capable of such intellectual felony, avows the possibility of himself committing it, and almost substantiates the weakest evidence of the worst accusers. ”

“ Were we to judge of the qualities of his mind from the early age at which he made his principal discoveries, and from the rapidity of their succession, we should be led to ascribe to him that quickness of penetration, and that exuberance of invention, which is more characteristic of poetical than of philosophical genius. But we must recollect that Newton was placed in the most favourable circumstances for the development of his powers. The flower of his youth and the vigour of his manhood were entirely devoted to science. ”

“ The ambition of fame is a youthful passion, which is softened, if not subdued, by age. Success diminishes its ardour, and early pre-eminence often extinguishes it. Before the middle period of life Newton was invested with all the insignia of immortality; but endowed with a native humility of mind, and animated with those hopes which teach us to form an humble estimate of human greatness, he was satisfied with the laurels which he had won, and he sought only to perfect and complete his labours. His mind was principally bent on the improvement of the Principia ”

“ If men of high powers, then, are still found, who are insensible to the evidence which sustains the system of the universe, need we wonder that there are others whose minds are shut against the effulgent evidence which intrenches the strongholds of our faith.
If such, then, is the character of the Christian faith, we need not be surprised that it was embraced and expounded by such a genius as Sir Isaac Newton. ”

“ Isaac Newton, Knight,
Who, by a Vigour of Mind almost supernatural,
First demonstrated
290The Motions and Figures of the Planets,
The Paths of the Comets, and the Tides of the Ocean.
He diligently investigated
The different Refrangibilities of the Rays of Light,
And the Properties of the Colours to which they give rise.
An assiduous, sagacious, and faithful Interpreter
Of Nature, Antiquity, and the Holy Scriptures,
He asserted in his Philosophy the Majesty of God,
And exhibited in his conduct the Simplicity of the Gospel.
Let Mortals rejoice
That there has existed such and so great ”

“ On no former occasion has the human mind exhibited such a fatal relapse into intolerance. The age itself had improved in liberality;—the persecuted doctrines themselves had become more deserving of reception;—the light of the Reformed faith had driven the Catholics from some of their most obnoxious positions;—and yet, under all these circumstances, the church of Rome unfurled her banner of persecution against the pride of Italy, against the ornament of his species, and against truths immutable and eternal. ”

“ Such were the earliest attempts to construct the reflecting telescope, that noble instrument which has since effected such splendid discoveries in astronomy. Looking back from the present advanced state of practical science, how great is the contrast between the loose specula of Gregory and the fine Gregorian telescopes of Hadley, Short, and Veitch,—between the humble six-inch tube of Newton and the gigantic instruments of Herschel and Ramage. ”

“ Had Galileo but added the courage of the martyr to the wisdom of the sage,—had he carried the glance of his indignant eye round the circle of his judges,—had he lifted his hands to heaven, and called the living God to witness the truth and immutability of his opinions, the bigotry of his enemies would have been disarmed, and science would have enjoyed a memorable triumph. ”

“ The great discovery which characterizes the Principia is that of the principle of universal gravitation, as deduced from the motion of the moon, and from the three great facts or laws discovered by Kepler. This principle is, that every particle of matter is attracted by, or gravitates to, every other particle of matter, with a force inversely proportional to the squares of their distances. From the first law of Kepler, namely, the proportionality of the areas to the times of their description, Newton inferred that the force which kept the planet in its orbit was always directed to the sun ”

“ The modesty of Sir Isaac Newton in reference to his great discoveries was not founded on any indifference to the fame which they conferred, or upon any erroneous judgment of their importance to science. The whole of his life proves, that he knew his place as a philosopher, and was determined to assert and vindicate his rights. ”

“ Wallis about the parallax of the fixed stars to be printed, and that you had mentioned me therein with respect to the theory of the moon, I was concerned to be publicly brought upon the state about what, perhaps, will never be fitted for the public, and thereby the world put into an expectation of what perhaps they are never likely to have. I do not love to be printed upon every occasion, much less to be dunned and teased by foreigners about mathematical things, or to be thought by your own people to be trifling away my time when I should be about the king’s business. ”

“ The sun is put for the whole race of kings, the moon for the body of the common people, and the stars for subordinate princes and rulers. In the earth, the dry land and the waters are put for the people of several nations. Animals and vegetables are also put for the people of several regions. When a beast or man is put for a kingdom, his parts and qualities are put for the analogous parts and qualities of the kingdom; and when a man is taken in a mystical sense, his qualities are often signified by his actions, and by the circumstances and things about him. ”

“ The explanation of opacity, as arising from a multitude of reflections, is liable to the same objection which we have urged against the explanation of colour. In order to appreciate its weight, we must distinguish opacity into two kinds, namely, the opacity of whiteness and the opacity of blackness. Those bodies which possess the power of reflection in the highest degree, such as white metals, chalk, and plaster of Paris, never reflect more than one-half of the light which falls upon them. The other half of the incident light is, according to Newton, lost by a multitude of reflections. ”

“ That the light detained within bodies has been stopped by the attractive force of the particles seems to be highly probable, and the mind will not feel any repugnance to admit that the particles of all bodies, whether solid, fluid, or aëriform, have a specific affinity for the particles of light. Considering light, therefore, as material, it is not difficult to comprehend how it should, like other elementary substances, enter into combination with bodies, and produce many chymical and physical effects, but particularly the phenomena of transparency, opacity, and colour. ”

“ No anathema was pronounced against his scientific discoveries; no interdict was laid upon the free exercise of his genius. He was prohibited merely from teaching a doctrine which the church of Rome considered to be injurious to its faith. We might have expected, therefore, that a philosopher so conspicuous in the eyes of the world would have respected the prejudices, however base, of an institution whose decrees formed part of the law of the land, and which possessed the power of life and death within the limits of its jurisdiction. Galileo, however, thought otherwise. ”

“ In the study of the sciences which depend on mathematics, those who do not consult nature, but authors, are not the children of nature; they are only her grandchildren. Nature alone is the master of true genius.
“In treating any particular subject, I would first of all make some experiments, because my design is first to refer to experiment, and then to demonstrate why bodies are constrained to act in such a manner. This is the method which we ought to follow in investigating the phenomena of nature. It is very true that nature begins by reasoning and ends with experiment ”

“ He imagines a thousand consequences to flow from his discovery: he forms innumerable theories to explain it, and he exhausts his fancy in trying all its possible relations to recognised difficulties and unexplained facts. The reins, however, thus freely given to his imagination, are speedily drawn up. His wildest conceptions are all subjected to the rigid test of experiment, and he has thus been hurried by the excursions of his own fancy into new and fertile paths, far removed from ordinary observation. ”

“ The antiquity and authenticity of the books which compose the sacred canon,—the fulfilment of its prophecies,—the miraculous works of its founder,—his death and resurrection, have been demonstrated to all who are capable of appreciating the force of historical evidence; and in the poetical and prose compositions of the inspired authors we discover a system of doctrine and a code of morality traced in characters as distinct and legible as the most unerring truths in the material world. ”

“ The notions of harmony and symmetry in the construction of the solar system, which had filled the mind of Kepler, necessarily led him to believe that the planets revolved with a uniform motion in circular orbits. So firm, indeed, was this conviction, that he made numerous attempts to represent the observations of Tycho by this hypothesis. The deviations were too great to be ascribed to errors of observation; and in trying various other curves, he was led to the discovery that Mars revolved round the sun in an elliptical orbit, in one of the foci of which the sun itself was placed. ”

“ If the conduct and opinions of men of ordinary talent are recorded for our instruction, how interesting must it be to follow the most exalted genius through the incidents of common life;—to mark the steps by which he attained his lofty pre-eminence; to see how he performs the functions of the social and the domestic compact; how he exercises his lofty powers of invention and discovery; how he comports himself in the arena of intellectual strife ”