DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69942#0260
NEWTON. [ENGLAND,
at length persuaded by Dr. Barrow, his preceptor and
friend, who perceiving at once the extent of his genius,
requested him not to withhold its conceptions from the
world. In this admirable work geometry became the
foundation of a new species of physics ; it fixed the laws
of universal gravity; settled the motions of planets,
comets, and satellites; and laid open the causes of the
precession of the equinoxes ; motion of the moon ; and
of the flux and reflux of the sea. In 1704, appeared
his Optics, or Theory of Tight and Colour. Before his
time very confused ideas were entertained of light; he
endeavoured to explain it by decomposing it, and analiz-
ing its beams. In this work he suggested a number of
new and profound ideas, which the then state of the phy-
sical sciences did not permit him to verify or pursue, but
which have, most of them, been since experimentally
confirmed. Among others, he proved the existence of a
combustible principle in water and in diamonds. Newton
had drawn this conclusion from the action of these two
substances upon light, by observing that their refringent
force was analogous to that of oil and other substances
in which there is no such combustible principle. Some
have denied him the invention of the differential calculus,
and have assigned the honour to Leibnitz. It would be
difficult to ascertain precisely the proportion of merit
due to these celebrated men in that important disco-
very,—but itis not unreasonable to suppose that they may
both have been led to it by the impulse of genius, and
the progress of science at the period in which they lived.
This opinion which has been sometimes advanced has
never yet been refuted, and it is indeed the only one
that pan be entertained with due regard to their memory.
Newton was one of the few men whose merit and ge-
nius met with equal applause and remuneration from his
countrymen. The University, of which he was a mem-
at length persuaded by Dr. Barrow, his preceptor and
friend, who perceiving at once the extent of his genius,
requested him not to withhold its conceptions from the
world. In this admirable work geometry became the
foundation of a new species of physics ; it fixed the laws
of universal gravity; settled the motions of planets,
comets, and satellites; and laid open the causes of the
precession of the equinoxes ; motion of the moon ; and
of the flux and reflux of the sea. In 1704, appeared
his Optics, or Theory of Tight and Colour. Before his
time very confused ideas were entertained of light; he
endeavoured to explain it by decomposing it, and analiz-
ing its beams. In this work he suggested a number of
new and profound ideas, which the then state of the phy-
sical sciences did not permit him to verify or pursue, but
which have, most of them, been since experimentally
confirmed. Among others, he proved the existence of a
combustible principle in water and in diamonds. Newton
had drawn this conclusion from the action of these two
substances upon light, by observing that their refringent
force was analogous to that of oil and other substances
in which there is no such combustible principle. Some
have denied him the invention of the differential calculus,
and have assigned the honour to Leibnitz. It would be
difficult to ascertain precisely the proportion of merit
due to these celebrated men in that important disco-
very,—but itis not unreasonable to suppose that they may
both have been led to it by the impulse of genius, and
the progress of science at the period in which they lived.
This opinion which has been sometimes advanced has
never yet been refuted, and it is indeed the only one
that pan be entertained with due regard to their memory.
Newton was one of the few men whose merit and ge-
nius met with equal applause and remuneration from his
countrymen. The University, of which he was a mem-