Isaac Newton

by Mitch Stokes

Overview

In this Christian Encounter Series biography, author Mitch Stokes explores the life of Isaac Newton, the man behind the atomic theory.

As an inventor, astronomer, physicist, and philosopher, Isaac Newton forever changed the way we see and understand the world. At one point, he was the world’s leading authority in mathematics, optics, and alchemy. And surprisingly he wrote more about faith and religion than on all of these subjects combined. But his single-minded focus on knowledge and discovery was a great detriment to his health. Newton suffered from fits of mania, insomnia, depression, a nervous breakdown, and even mercury poisoning.

Yet from all of his suffering came great gain. Newton saw the scientific world not as a way to refute theology, but as a way to explain it. He believed that all of creation was mandated and set in motion by God and that it was simply waiting to be “discovered” by man. Because of his diligence in both scientific and biblical study, Newton had a tremendous impact on religious thought that is still evident today.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781418555290
Publisher:	Nelson, Thomas, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/2010
Series:	Christian Encounters Series
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishing
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Mitch Stokes is a Fellow of Philosophy at New St. Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Notre Dame under the direction of Alvin Plantinga and Peter van Inwagen. At Yale, he earned an M.A. in religion under the direction of Nicholas Wolterstorff. He also holds an M.S. in mechanical engineering and, prior to his philosophy career, worked for an international engineering firm where he earned five patents in aeroderivative gas turbine technology. He and his wife, Christine, have four children.

Read an Excerpt

ISAAC NEWTON

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By MITCH STOKES

Thomas Nelson

Copyright © 2010 Mitch Stokes
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-59555-303-4

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Chapter One

A POSTHUMOUS SON

Isaac Newton could still feel the dull ache in his stomach where Arthur Storer had kicked him on the way to school that morning. At twelve or thirteen years old, Isaac was small for his age. Slumped at his desk in the back of the class, he could see the older and larger boy who not only sat ahead of him in the classroom, but held a higher spot in the school's academic rankings. Once in a while one of the students would turn back and look at him; he could feel his ears burn. Newton knew that if Arthur went unchallenged, there would likely be further beatings. Boys smell fear, and some of them feed on it. Newton would have to do something. The pain in his gut was replaced by the fluttering of butterflies.

After school Isaac challenged Arthur to settle things in the churchyard next to the school. The two were followed by the rest of the boys who, like boys throughout the ages, simply couldn't resist. Isaac had something to prove and was intent on doing so. At the very least, he would defiantly take as much as the older boy could dish out. That would at least make Arthur-and the others-think twice before picking on him again. But by that time, Newton's fear had built into a violent fury, and it was Arthur who received the beating. Shockedby Isaac's ferocity, Arthur submitted and gave up, something Isaac would never do. The headmaster's son-a much older boy-pointed out that Arthur was a coward for giving up and, according to the rules of engagement, Isaac must treat him as such. Isaac complied and took Arthur by the ears, dragging his face across the stone wall, leaving a message for all to see.

Arthur must have been taken entirely by surprise. Isaac-in addition to his small physical stature-was socially slight. He was quiet and removed, playing mostly alone. One of his few school friends described him as a "sober, silent, thinking lad." No one would have guessed that there was fire beneath his skin.

And the fight fueled this flame. At the time, not only was he ranked behind Storer; he was second to last out of eighty or so students. (As Newton later admitted, he was "very negligent" in his schoolwork.) With the fight over, however, Isaac announced that he would pass Arthur in the rankings. This was a task for which Newton was naturally gifted; what he lacked in physical stature, he more than made up for intellectually. He overtook Arthur and rose quickly through the ranks of students, carving his name on every desk as he moved to the front. Positioned at the head of the school, it would be where he remained.

Were it not for this fight, in all likelihood Newton would have become a farmer. The incident is Newton's story in miniature. Throughout his life, Newton nurtured his solitude, cultivating his ideas by spending his hours in isolated contemplation. He was happiest when alone with books, papers, experiments, and ideas. When asked once how he had come up with his law of universal gravitation, he answered, "By thinking on it continually." This was one of the keys to his successes. He also remarked that truth is "the offspring of silence and unbroken meditation." He mostly shunned the company of others in order to focus his energies on discoveries and developments. Only at the encouragement of a few close colleagues would he make these discoveries known to the outside world. He wrote millions upon millions of words in his lifetime but published only a fraction of them. And whenever debates over his theories arose-which frequently happened given their novel nature-he was at first reluctant to engage. But when he did engage, he was deadly. Heaven help the man who opposed him with charges of plagiarism or carelessness or incompetence.

Newton was tenacious when attacking problems as well, whether in mathematics, physics, theology, or chemistry. When gripped by a puzzle, he became obsessive, continually assailing it until it finally succumbed, which it usually did. Were it not for his intensity and focus, Newton would never have made the progress he did. Like ordinary mortals, he would have been stymied. His fortitude, perseverance, and ability to focus were-on his own admission-even more important than his innate intellectual capacity. At his birth, however, any strength he possessed-physical, mental, or otherwise-was hidden.

Newton was born on Christmas Day in a small upstairs bedroom of his family's manor house in Woolsthorpe, England. It was 1642, at least by England's reckoning (England's calendar was roughly ten days out of sync with the Continent's). Galileo died that same year.

Isaac was born several weeks prematurely, very small, and very sick. The attending nurses were sent to the next town for medicine, but despite the seriousness of the situation, they stopped along the way to rest because they were sure that the baby was as good as dead. Yet he survived the night. And the next day. And the day after that. Each day, he precariously clung to life, his mother, Hannah, postponing his baptism in nearby Colsterworth for a week, while Isaac slowly gained strength. He was so small he could fit into a "quart pot." And small he would remain; even as an adult he was short. While an infant, he was fitted with a special neck brace so he could breathe and nurse properly. But he would not remain sickly and lived eighty-four more years.

"Isaac" was not a "son of laughter" (one of his secretaries said later that he had only seen him laugh once); rather he was named after his father. But the senior Isaac Newton ("New Town") had died a few months earlier, in October-only six months after his marriage to Hannah. He was only thirty-six. Of what he died, we don't know, but his death was not entirely unexpected. A few days earlier, he wrote in his will that he was of sound mind but ill body. And so, in the space of a few months, Colsterworth's parish registry listed three major family events for the Newtons: a death, a birth, and a baptism (the latter entry was, "Isaac sonne of Isaac and Hanna Newton Baptized Jan. 1"). Newton was a "posthumous" son, born after the death of his father.

Newton's father-a yeoman, or upper-class farmer-left more than his name to his son. He bequeathed to him the two-story stone farmhouse of Woolsthorpe manor and a hundred acres of surrounding farmland, as well as a number of cottages and tenant farmers. In addition, Isaac inherited 234 sheep ("Woolsthorpe" means "wool farm") and 46 cattle, a considerable number of both. At least financially, Isaac Sr. left his pregnant wife and unborn child very comfortable. Isaac was born as the lord of Woolsthorpe manor and was expected to be a yeoman like his father, which carried with it a certain power of authority, including the authority to fine villagers for minor breaches of law.

It was expected, therefore, that his mother would provide Newton with the same kind of education his father had-namely none. Isaac Sr. was illiterate and signed his name with his "mark," the traditional X. Hannah was from the Ayscough (or Askew) family, of genteel status, and so a bit higher up on the social ladder than her husband. Nevertheless, she received a minimal education, typical for women of her position. She, at least, could sign her name (as evidenced by her signature on her will). The one surviving letter we have of hers, which she wrote to her son while he was at Cambridge, reveals the limited training she received (the paper is torn, so some words are missing):

Isack

received your letter and I perceive you letter from mee with your cloth but none to you your sisters present thai love to you with my motherly lov you and prayers to god for you I your loving mother hanah wollstru p may the 6. 1665

We do not know much about Hannah's background, not even her birth date. We know more about her brother, the Reverend William Ayscough, who looked after Hannah and Isaac, and would be instrumental in setting Newton on his academic course. Ayscough was an Anglican rector (leader or director) of a parish two miles from Woolsthorpe. He received his MA from Trinity College at Cambridge University, where Isaac would eventually attend.

When Newton was three years old, Hannah (probably around thirty years old) caught the attention of Barnabas Smith, the sixty-three-year-old rector of nearby North Witham. Smith's first wife had died sixth months earlier, and Smith felt it was high time to get on with what was left of his life. A parishioner recommended Hannah as "an extraordinary good woman" with fine prospects. Smith, not having the courage to face possible rejection in person, sent the parishioner to propose for him, paying him a day's wage for his trouble.

Understandably not swept off her feet, Hannah replied that she would have to consult her brother William before answering. As a widow with a young son and an estate to maintain until he was ready to take it over, she perhaps felt that there was more here to consider than love. Smith was very wealthy. A large inheritance had provided far more than what he received as rector. And as anyone who has read Jane Austen knows, this union would benefit the Ayscough family as well. On the advice of William, if not her heart, Hannah accepted Smith's proposal with two conditions: that Isaac be left a parcel of Smith's land and that Smith renovate the Woolsthorpe manor, which had fallen into disrepair. Smith agreed, but added his own condition: Hannah would come and live with him in North Witham-without Isaac.

Surprisingly (to us at least), Hannah accepted. Perhaps she reasoned that, given the advancement in Isaac's own prospects, as well as the high probability that Smith had little time left to live, on the whole, the arrangement would benefit her son. In any case, her mother, Margery, came to Woolsthorpe to care for Isaac while Hannah moved to her new home a mile and a half away. Later, if young Newton climbed a tree, he could see the steeple of North Witham's church. His mother was near, but not near enough.

We don't know how often Newton saw his mother. We do know that she would sometimes visit for an afternoon. And Newton didn't often attend the worship services of his stepfather, but rather he and his grandmother would ride to Colsterworth's fourteenth-century church, where he had been baptized, and in whose cemetery his father and grandfather were buried.

Smith lived eight more years and fathered three children with Hannah. When he died-Newton was now ten years old-she returned to Woolsthorpe, arriving with an increase in both property and children. And Hannah Ayscough Newton Smith had gained one more name.

Isaac's reunion with Hannah didn't last long. Until that time, he attended two local schools, called "dame schools" because they were named after their headmistresses. Perhaps Newton was being educated on the advice of William Ayscough (and maybe even his stepfather, who himself was an Oxford graduate). In any case, the dame schools were close enough that Isaac could walk back and forth each day. When he turned twelve, however, it was decided that he needed more than the village schools could provide. Newton was therefore sent to school in Grantham, a market town seven miles away. Seven miles was too far for him to remain in Woolsthorpe, so Newton packed his school supplies and moved to Grantham.

One of Hannah's friends was married to Grantham's apothecary, Joseph Clark. Newton was allowed to board in the Clark family's attic. Mrs. Clark had three children from a previous marriage, Edward, Arthur, and Catherine Storer. We have met Arthur. Arthur's sister, Catherine Storer, would, later in life, be a helpful source of information about Newton's years at Grantham. She was one of the two children he counted as friends during his school days. In fact, Catherine later recalled that she and Newton were more than friends; he had held her hand. He may have later considered marrying her. Newton's nineteenth-century biographer, Sir David Brewster, wrote that Miss Storer "seems to have added to great personal attractions more than the usual allotment of female talent," which is apparently a compliment. Catherine and Isaac never married-she said Newton's life of scholarship made marriage imprudent. They did, however, remain friends, and Newton would visit her and her husband when in Grantham. Brewster said that Newton even "liberally relieved her from little pecuniary embarrassments which seem to have occasionally beset her family."

Catherine recalled that the other boys resented Newton because he was intellectually superior. By her account, he "never was known scarce to play with the boys abroad." Rather, he usually preferred his own company or, sometimes, the company of girls. We wouldn't expect this to endear him to the other boys, and Newton's aloofness could have been one of the factors in his fight with Catherine 's brother Arthur.

Being an only child (other than his three half siblings with whom he lived perhaps a year) almost certainly contributed to Newton's isolation, but this wasn't the primary reason he sought privacy. As Catherine said, Newton spoke little and thought much, and the quiet allowed him to think. As one biographer put it, "Solitude was the essential part of his genius." Even if it was initially his seclusion that forced Newton's thoughts to become his main source of friendship, he would later voluntarily seek out seclusion to spend more time with these private friends. This became a lifelong habit-seclusion and contemplation-and Newton fiercely guarded his privacy. Solitude enabled him to focus his mental and physical energy in ways that ordinary people simply cannot, given the multitude of things vying for their attention.

But at first, it seems that privacy was more a source of loneliness and pain, even if it allowed him to "play philosophically" (science was his play), as one early biographer put it. We can't be sure, but there are English phrases in one of Newton's first notebooks that indicate his unhappiness. The phrases were to be translated into Latin as an exercise, but their nature is difficult to ignore: "A little fellow." "Hee is paile; There is no room for me to sit; In the top of the house-In the bottom of hell." "What imployment is he fit for? What is he good for?" "I will make an end. I cannot but weepe. I know not what to doe." If autobiographical, then we see that Newton's isolation mostly affected him negatively, despite some of its eventual advantages.

Newton was an adept craftsman, even in his youth, possessing skills that laid the foundation for his famous scientific discoveries. According to his earliest biographer, William Stukeley, Granthamites knew young Newton for

his strange inventions, uncommon skill & industry in mechanical works. They tell us, that insted of playing among the other boys, when from school, he always busyed himself at home, in making knicknacks of divers sorts, & models in wood, of whatever his fancy led him to. For which purpose he furnished himself with little saws, hatchets, hammers, chizels, & a whole shop of tools; which he would use with as much dexterity, as if he had been brought up to the trade, & all the money, his mother gave him, went in the purchase of 'em.

This was what it meant to "play philosophically."

Newton copied many of his models from books, particularly The Mysteries of Nature and Art by John Bate and Mathematical Magick by John Wilkins (Wilkins would become one of the Royal Society's founders). During this period we already see Newton taking pages of notes from these books and whatever else he read. This is a habit he kept the rest of his life. Merely reading wasn't enough; he wanted to keep the treasures he found. To help his memory, he would sometimes copy passages from books repeatedly. The notebooks Newton accumulated over his life give us an idea of what sorts of things interested him. From Bates's book, for example, Newton copied down directions on drawing, catching birds (by making them drunk), making fish bait, mixing paints (Newton was fascinated with colors), and making cures for sicknesses. One cure is particularly enticing: "drinking twice or thrice a day a ... small portion of mint & wormwood & 300 Millipedes well beaten (when their heads are pulled off) in a mortar ... & suspended in 4 gallons of Ale in its fermentation." The active ingredient was no doubt the last one.

(Continues...)

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Table of Contents

Contents

1. A Posthumous Son....................1
2. A Narrow Escape....................16
3. At the Feet of Giants....................26
4. "Certain Philosophical Questions"....................31
5. The Annus Mirabilus....................41
6. Emerging....................55
7. Conflict and Regret....................68
8. "To Celebrate God"....................81
9. Wisdom of the Ancients....................91
10. Philosophy Calls Again....................104
11. The Principia....................115
12. Don't Ask Why....................126
13. In Full View....................133
14. About the King's Business....................145
15. A Few Last Fights....................155
Epilogue....................166
Acknowledgments....................169
About the Author....................171
Notes....................173