Newton's Principia : $b The mathematical principles of natural philosophyNewton, Isaac
General
Newton's Principia : $b The mathematical principles of natural philosophy
Newton, Isaac
Celestial mechanics -- Early works to 1800; Mechanics -- Early works to 1800
Our author's works are found in the collection of Castilion, Berlin,
1744, 4to. 8 tom.; in Bishop Horsley's Edition, London, 1779, 4to. 5
vol.; in the Biographia Brittannica, &c. Newton also published Bern.
Varenius Geographia, &c., 1681, 8vo. There are, however, numerous
manuscripts, letters, and other papers, which have never been given to
the world: these are preserved, in various collections, namely, in the
library of Trinity College, Cambridge; in the library of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford; in the library of Lord Macclesfield; and, lastly and[Pg 61]
chiefly, in the possession of the family of the Earl of Portsmouth,
through the Viscountess Lymington.
Everything appertaining to Newton has been kept and cherished with
peculiar veneration. Different memorials of him are preserved in
Trinity College, Cambridge; in the rooms of the Royal Society, of
London; and in the Museum of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
The manor-house, at Woolsthorpe, was visited by Dr. Stukeley, in
October, 1721, who, in a letter to Dr. Mead, written in 1727, gave
the following description of it:—"'Tis built of stone, as is the way
of the country hereabouts, and a reasonably good one. They led me up
stairs and showed me Sir Isaac's study, where I supposed he studied,
when in the country, in his younger days, or perhaps when he visited
his mother from the University. I observed the shelves were of his own
making, being pieces of deal boxes, which probably he sent his books
and clothes down in on those occasions. There were, some years ago, two
or three hundred books in it of his father-in-law, Mr. Smith, which Sir
Isaac gave to Dr. Newton, of our town." The celebrated apple-tree, the
fall of one of the apples of which is said to have turned the attention
of Newton to the subject of gravity, was destroyed by the wind about
twenty years ago; but it has been preserved in the form of a chair. The
house itself has been protected with religious care. It was repaired in
1798, and a tablet of white marble put up in the room where our author
was born, with the following inscription:—
"Sir Isaac Newton, son of John Newton, Lord of the Manor of
Woolsthorpe, was born in this room, on the 25th of December, 1642."
Nature and Nature's Laws were hid in night,
God said, "Let NEWTON be," and all was light.
[Pg lxvii]
THE PRINCIPIA.
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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