Thomas Newton

“ The publication of the 'Principia' of Newton, in 1686-7, marks the epoch at which the progress of mechanical physics had effected a complete revolution of thought on these subjects. By this time, it had been made clear that the old generalisations were either incomplete or totally erroneous; that a body, once set in motion, will continue to move in a straight line for any conceivable time or distance, unless it is interfered with; that any change of motion is proportional to the 'force' which causes it, and takes place in the direction in which that 'force' is exerted ”

“ Newton, employing mathematical methods which are the admiration of adepts, but which no one but himself appears to have been able to use with ease, not only answered this question in the affirmative, but stayed not his constructive genius before it had founded modern physical astronomy. ”

“ Sixty years after Bacon's death, Newton had crowned the long labors of the astronomers and the physicists, by coordinating the phenomena of solar motion throughout the visible universe into one vast system; but the 'Principia' helped no man to either wealth or comfort. Descartes, Newton, and Leibnitz had opened up new worlds to the mathematician, but the acquisitions of their genius enriched only man's ideal estate. Descartes had laid the foundations of rational cosmogony and of physiological psychology; ”

“ Six years later a new determination of the size of the earth gave him a new basis for calculation, and, in an excitement so great that he could hardly see his figures, Newton found that the fall of a stone to the earth and the sweep of the moon in her orbit were due to the same cause. The mechanism by means of which the force is exerted remained unrevealed to Newton, and has baffled all inquirers since his day, but the discovery that all the movements of the heavens could be described by one simple physical law, represents the greatest achievement in the history of science. ”

“ After the death of Bacon, one of the most distinguished Englishmen was certainly Boyle, who, if compared with his contemporaries, may be said to rank immediately below Newton, though, of course, very inferior to him as an original thinker. ”

“ Though Newton lived long enough to receive the honour that his astonishing discoveries so justly merited, and though for many years of his life his renown was much greater than that of any of his contemporaries, yet it is not too much to say that, in the years which have since elapsed, Newton's fame has been ever steadily advancing, so that it never stood higher than it does at this moment. ”

“ Newton virtually created a new department of astronomy, gravitational astronomy, as it is often called, and bequeathed to his successors the problem of deducing more fully than he had succeeded in doing the motions of the celestial bodies from their mutual gravitation.
To the solution of this problem Newton’s own countrymen contributed next to nothing throughout the 18th century, and his true successors were a group of Continental mathematicians whose work began soon after his death, though not till nearly half a century after the publication of the Principia. ”

“ 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. ”

“ After having been jostled by the throng of mules and market-people in the long, crooked, miry streets of Mytilene, it is pleasant to walk in a place where for miles you meet nothing but a stray donkey, where no sound is heard but the echo of your own footsteps on a pavement of pebbles, the most beautifully clean that I ever trod on. ”

“ And so it would be, if truths, like the sun, rose by their own proper motion, without human effort; but not otherwise. I believe that if Newton had not lived, the world must have waited for the Newtonian philosophy until there had been another Newton, or his equivalent. No ordinary man, and no succession of ordinary men, could have achieved it. I will not go the length of saying that what Newton did in a single life, might not have been done in successive steps by some of those who followed him, each singly inferior to him in genius. ”

“ As a matter of fact, it is little short of a miracle, in view of the insignificance of our mathematical ability, that theoretical physics should have been possible at all. Had our solar system contained two suns such as are present in the double-star systems, or had one of the planets been comparable in size to the sun, it is safe to say that Newton, in spite of his genius, would never have discovered his law of gravitation ”

“ Newton elected Associate of the Academy of Sciences in 1699—Member for Cambridge in 1701—and President of the Royal Society in 1703—Queen Anne confers upon him the Honour of Knighthood in 1705—Second Edition of the Principia, edited by Cotes—His Conduct respecting Mr. Ditton’s Method of finding the Longitude.
Hitherto we have viewed Newton chiefly as a philosopher leading a life of seclusion within the walls of a college, and either engaged in the duties of his professorship, or ardently occupied in mathematical and scientific inquiries. ”

“ The history of these problems affords, by direct comparison, a striking illustration of Newton's vast superiority of mind. That amazing concentration and grasp of intellect, of which we have spoken, enabled him to master speedily, and, as it were, by a single effort, those things, for the achievement of which, the many would essay utterly in vain, and the very, very few attain only after long and renewed striving. And yet, with a modesty as unparalleled as his power, he attributed his successes, not to any extraordinary sagacity, but solely to industry and patient thought. ”

“ If the body L, by a radius drawn to the other body T, describes areas, which, compared with the times, are very unequal; and that other body T be either at rest, or moves uniformly forward in a right line: the action of the centripetal force tending to that other body T is either none at all, or it is mixed and compounded with very powerful actions of other forces: and the whole force compounded of them all, if they are many, is directed to another (immovable or moveable) centre. The same thing obtains, when the other body is moved by any motion whatsoever ”

“ 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. ”

“ How few ever reach the shore even, much less find "a smoother pebble or a prettier shell!"
Newton had now resided about two years at Kensington; and the air which he enjoyed there, and the state of absolute rest, proved of great benefit to him. Nevertheless he would occasionally go to town. And on Tuesday, the 28th of February, 1727, he proceeded to London, for the purpose of presiding at a meeting of the Royal Society. At this time his health was considered, by Mr. Conduit, better than it had been for many years. ”

“ But though Newton was one of the very greatest mathematicians that ever lived, he was never a mathematician for the mere sake of mathematics. He employed his mathematics as an instrument for discovering the laws of nature. His industry and genius soon brought him under the notice of the University authorities. It is stated in the University records that he obtained a Scholarship in 1664. Two years later we find that Newton, as well as many residents in the University, had to leave Cambridge temporarily on account of the breaking out of the plague. ”

“ Study, unbroken, persevering and profound carried on its informing and disciplining work upon a genius, natively the greatest, and rendered freest in its movements, and clearest in its vision, through the untrammelling and enlightening power of religion. And, in this happy concurrence, are to be sought the elements of those amazing abilities, which, grasping, with equal facility, the minute and the stupendous, brought these successively to light, and caused science to make them her own.
In 1667, Newton was made a Junior Fellow ”

“ When a man at that time put forth an unusual thought, it was regarded as a challenge. Teachers and professors all over Great Britain, and also in Germany and France, at once set about to show the fallacy of Newton's conclusions.
Newton had issued a pamphlet with diagrams showing how to study light, and the apparatus was so simple and cheap that the "Newton experiments" were tried everywhere in schoolrooms.
People always combat a new idea when first presented, and so Newton found himself overwhelmed with correspondence.
Cheap arguments were fired into Cambridge in volleys. ”

“ To place this effect in a constant motion is hard, because the sun ought then to appear perpetually. It seems rather to consist in a disposition of the sensorium to move the imagination strongly, and to be easily moved, both by the imagination and by the light, as often as bright objects are looked upon."
Though Newton had continued silent, yet his thoughts were by no means inactive upon the vast subject of the planetary motions. The idea of Universal Gravitation, first caught sight of, so to speak, in the garden at Woolsthorpe, years ago, had gradually expanded upon him. ”

“ These little globes, so fragile that they disappear in a breath, hardly seem worthy of the attention of a thinker, and still less the examination of a philosopher; but it is nevertheless true that Newton made experiments on the colours shown on the surface of these apparently insignificant objects which ended in the most brilliant discoveries, just as on seeing an apple fall he began a train of thought which only terminated in the enunciation of the hypothesis of the earth's power of gravity. ”

“ In Physics, Newton was his favourite author. Of HIM he ever spoke with a species of respect bordering upon veneration. He considered him as one of those few great leaders in science whose discoveries and services can never be forgotten: whose fame, instead of diminishing, is destined to be augmented, with the progress of time. I had many opportunities of being witness to the exalted opinion which he entertained of the immortal British philosopher. ”

“ It is interesting to observe how Newton begins his research on the classification of cubic curves by the algebraic method, but, finding it laborious, attacks the problem geometrically, and afterwards returns again to analysis. [36]
Space does not permit us to do more than merely mention Newton's prolonged researches in other departments of science. He conducted a long series of experiments in optics and is the author of the corpuscular theory of light. The last of a number of papers on optics, which he contributed to the Royal Society, 1687, elaborates the theory of "fits." ”

“ Others were taken up with what Newton accomplished, Newton was taken up with what remained to be done. So it is ever with the highest genius; the broader the range of view, the wider the horizon of mystery. He who understands more than others is conscious beyond others of what still remains to be understood.
Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe, in Lincolnshire, on December 25, 1642, one year after the death of Galileo, and just as England was being plunged into the confusion and miseries of civil war. ”

“ Our design not respecting arts, but philosophy, and our subject not manual but natural powers, we consider chiefly those things which relate to gravity, levity, elastic force, the resistance of fluids, and the like forces, whether attractive or impulsive; and therefore we offer this work as the mathematical principles if philosophy; for all the difficulty of philosophy seems to consist in this—from the phænomena of motions to investigate the forces of nature, and then from these forces to demonstrate the other phænomena; ”

“ Judging from what we know of physical laws, we may expect the which belongs to it to be distinguished by having simple mathematical properties. Physics, this time as a physics of fields, is again pursuing the object of reducing the totality of natural phenomena to a single physical law: it was believed that this goal was almost within reach once before when Newton’s Principia, founded on the physics of mechanical point-masses, was celebrating its triumphs. But the treasures of knowledge are not like ripe fruits that may be plucked from a tree. ”

“ Monsieur Roger continued:
"By much reflection, by hard work and calculation, Newton made an admirable discovery,—that of universal attraction. Yes, he discovered that all bodies, different though they may be, attract each other: they draw towards each other; the bodies which occupy the celestial spaces,—planets and suns,—as well as the bodies which are found upon our earth. The force which attracts bodies towards the earth, which made this stone fall, as Newton's apple fell, has received the name of weight. ”