Sir Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthrope Manor House on December 25th 1642. The infant Isaac Newton was considered at birth to be so week and small that it seemed unlikely he would survive the day. The two women assisting Newton`s mother in this difficult time, for not only was it a premature birth but she had been widowed during the pregnancy, went to the home of Lady Packenham at nearby Northe Witham to obtain medicine. Their efforts were not in vain and just a week later the babe was christened Isaac, son of Isaac and Hannah Newton, on January 1st 1642\43.

Haanah Newton (nee Ayscough) re-married, to Barnabas Smith, and moved to her husband`s place of residence in North Witham, where he was Rector.

The young Isaac was placed into the care and charge of his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Mary Ayscough, who moved into the Manor House. Isaac`s family tree is shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Newton`s family tree as he himself drew it is shown (Original is in the University of Texas).

Newton has never known his father and that fact was very important as far as his personality was concerned. It resulted in problems in his relationships with other people later in his life, especially when he became President of The Royal Society. He was full of rancour against his mother for her re-marriage. He felt jealous of his step-father and that fact can be easily proved by one notes in his youth diary written in short-hand in 1662. It is quite possible that it was the most important reason of his never having married.

Stokes and Skillington provide the earliest schooling for Newton but at the age of twelve he went to Grantham School. At Grantham School Newton studied under the headmastership of Mr. Stokes at whose house he was later to stay while studying for entry to Cambridge.

In 1659, following the death of her second husband, Newton`s mother returned to the Manor House and took Isaac away from Grantham School.

Newton matriculated at Trinity Collage in Cambridge on June 5th 1661. Later on he got a scholarship and took his B.A. in January 1665 and already started his scientific career. Little is known of his university life except for the phenomenal progress of his mind. We do not know who his room-mates and friend were. And what is more we know nothing about the theme of his master`s thesis.

For 18 months he had to go to Lincolnshire because the University was closed due to pestilence. During that time he discovered the foundations for his mathematical, optical and astronomical works. Some even believe that all his works were written during his isolation in Woolsthrope where he occasionally walked to nearby Boothy. Several years later Newton referred to this Annus Mirabilis by saying:

“In those days I was in the prime of my age for invention mined mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since”. From that time his genius went further and further to shine in its perfect form in: Optica (1704), (Fig. 3).

It is said that every leader should have a herald to announce him. For Newton, Voltaire was such a herald. Voltaire was he first to explain to people the greatness of Newton. It was Voltaire who introduces Newton to the world pantheon of great men and made him the most important one in the free realm of science. He could do this because of his real and thorough knowledge in the field of natural science which he gained by reading Locke`s rational philosophy, and close relationships with the margravine du Chatetet who was a physicist and a translator of Newton`s masterpieces.

              Voltaire in his philosophical letters, published in English in 1734, wrote something like this: “ Not such a long time ago a trivial Clinche was discussed in a noble and learned society namely: who was the greatest man: Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Tamerlaine the Great, Cromwell or perhaps somebody else? One of the people gathered there said that without any doubt Isaac Newton was. And surely that person was right because if true greatness means that somebody gifted by God with a powerful genius, uses it to improve his own mind and to educate others, such a man as Mr. Newton was really a great man and such people are born only once per thousand years”.

              Did Isaac Newton deserve the gratitude of posterity, in the century of quick development of human mind and thought, in the century that was recognized as the one when the scientific attitude broke out and the learned men squared up with scholasticism? The answer to the question must be positive. He not only earned his name but also found himself in such a good situation that although many significant philosophers attacked him for his chronological system and the Theory of Gravitation, he gained approbation amongst his living companions who presented him with their respect and academic degrees and distinctions.

              His genius and creative originality brought to life a great number of works which are still of outstanding importance to universal science and culture.

              Isaac Newton was elected member of Parliament for Cambridge University in 1689 and in 1701. In 1699 he was appointed Master of the Royal Mint. Yet another honor came in 1705 when he was knighted by Queen Anne. Later Newton is often alleged to have been a mystic and he was highly interested in alchemy and theology. His major work on the subject is observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. He also considered question such as, for example, “Whether Christ sent his apostles to preach metaphysics to the unlearned common people, and to  their wives and children”.

              He lived 85 years in peace and happiness surrounded with the respect of his countrymen. Shortly before his death he gave his own view of his achievements: “I do not know what I may appear to the world but to myself I seem to have been only like a little boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself by now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me”. He died as a distinguished son of the English nation and still belongs amongst famous Englishmen, though we should remember that it was the epoch which gave birth to many prominent minds such as: Francis Bacon 1561-1626, William Shakespeare 1564-1616, John Locke 1632-1704, Robert Hooke 1635-1703, David Hume 1711-1776, Christopher Wren 1632-1723, Edmund Halley 1656-1742, John Dryden 1631-1700 and Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679.

              One could say that in England, Isaac Newton, alongside William Shakespeare and Francis Bacon, enjoys the greatest reputation and it is not just a matter of tradition. One could risk saying that three names represent the most  important achievements in the three disciplines: literature, universal philosophy, and general science.

In London the statue of Isaac Newton stands in the central part of Westminster Abbey, among the kings` tombs and the national heroes` and poets` monuments. On the tombstone of Newton one can read an epitaph, it goes like this:

H.S.E.

ISAACUS NEWTON, Eques Auratus

Qui animi vi prope divina

Planetarium Motus, Figuras,

Cometarum Semitas Oceanique Aestus

Sua Mathesi facem praeferente,

Primus demonstravit;

Radiorum Lucis Dissimilitudies

Colorumque in de nascentium proprietates

Quas nemo antea vel suspicatus erat, pervestigavit

Naturae Antiquitatis, S. Scriptuarae

Sedulus, Sagax, Fidus Interpres

Dei O.M. Maiestatem Philosophia asseruit

Evangelii Simplicitatem Moribus expressit

Sibi gratulentur Mortales.

Tale tantumqu extisse

HUMANI GENERIS DECUS

Nat.XXV DEC.A.D. MDCXLII, OBIIT XX MAR MDCCXXVI sic

Gul. KENT Pict.                                                  Mich: Rysbrack

Et Archit: Inveni                                                             Sculpfit

What caused the success of the author of “Principia” the philosopher whose mathematical turn of mind was evident when he was only 21 years old?

              Apart from his creative intuition and laboriousness his career was caused by many other facts.

              First of all, he was born at the right time and place, where the scientists squared up with the scholastic methods and then accepted the methodological rules of empirical research invented by F. Bacon, who in 1662 founded the Royal Society with its famous motto: “Nullus in verba” (nothing by words).

The Royal Society became a well-known place of meetings, discussions and confrontations of scientific discoveries, among others those of Newton as well.

He made his first communication to the Royal Society on his theory of light and colors in 1672. His researches on this subject were summed up in his “Opticks” published in 1704, to which was appended his “Method of Fluxiens”, his great mathematical discovery and the source of bitter quarrel with Leibnitz as to the priority of the invention. The first book of his “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” embodying his laws of motion and his idea of universal gravitation was exhibited at the Royal Society in 1686 and the whole published in 1687. Need to say that Newton and Leibniz each invented the basis dynamical tool, calculus. But Newton did much more: he set out a physical hypothesis – the law of universal gravitation – in sufficiently precise mathematical form that from it could derive the cosmic dynamic. Kepler`s and Galileo`s laws became rigorous mathematical consequences. It is curious that although Newton must have discovered his theorems in dynamics through the use of calculus, his exposition of them in “Principia” uses classical geometrical methods. “Newtonian” mechanics was developed later by Euler, Laplace, Lagrange and others.

Newton`s “Principia” was translated into many languages; for example Danish, English,  French, German, Italian, Japanese, Romanian, Russians and Swedish but never into Polish.

              Newton was elected president of the Royal Society in 1703 and was annually re-elected for 25 years till his death in 1727. But before he became a famous philosopher and scientist he had started his education by reading: “De revolutionibus…” by N. Coprnicus (1473-1543). He became acquainted with the W. Harvey`s discovery of blood circulation (1578-1657). Then he learned about J. Kepler`s rules of planets` movement (1571-1630). He also read Galileo`s works on astronomy and mechanics (1554-1642) then he surely must have heard about the discoveries of such great people as: Cartesius (1596-1650), P. Fermat (1601-1665), C. Huygens (1629-1695), R. Hooke (1635-1703), Jacob and John Bernoulli (1654-1704, 1667-1748), R. Boyle (1627-1691) or last Barrow and Wallis.

              One should not forget the fact that Newton after Isaac Barrow had taken over the Lucas Institute. During his studies at Cambridge University he should have known works such as:

“Organon” and “Ethics” by Aristoteles with the commentary to both by D. Stahl, Eustachius and G. Vossius,

“Stocheia Geometrias” by Euclides,

“Geometrie” and “Principia Philosophiae” by Descartes with the commentary by F. Van Schooten,

“Dioptrices” by J. Kepler,

“Discorsi” and “Sidereus muncis” by Galileo,

“Miscellanies” by F. van Schooten,

“Horologium oscillatorium” by C. Huygens,

„Arithmetica infinitorium” by Wallis,

“Logarithmotechnics” by Nicolaus Mercator,

“Elements and Data” by I. Barrow,

“Micrographia” by R. Hooke,

“History of the Royal Society” by Sprat,

“Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society”,

“Two Essays” by Digby,

“Perspectiva” by Witel, the Pole,

and theological works by Henry More (1614-1687).

Besides a good education and accurate reading Newton exchanged letters with many eminent scientists not only from England but from the Continent as well.

There is a lot of evidence that he correspondent with:

R. Boyle who was a great English naturalist,

David Gregory, a professor from Edinburgh,

Edmund Halley, an astronomer,

Robert Hooke, a physicist and a mathematician, a member of Royal Society,

Christian Huygens, a member of Royal Society, also, Gottfried W. Leibnitz, a German philosopher and mathematician,

John Locke, an English philosopher,

Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, a Swiss and his close friend, John Wallis, an English mathematician,

Semuel Pepys, an English writer who, being the president of the Royal Society at that time, signed the Imprimatur to Newton`s “Principia” on 5th July, 1686.

These were the facts that helped Newton in his excellent career. In the 18th century Isaac Newton became not only the beacon of new times but also for all living and future scientists. Voltaire`s speech which he delivered during Newton`s funeral, described the latter best:

“If all the geniuses of the world assembled, he should lead the band”.

And indeed such a situation lasted till the end of the 19th century. One could say that most important of Newton`s achievements were:

-          to make natural sciences independent from philosophy,

-          to develop mathematics and mathematical natural sciences,

-          to connect laws of mechanics and gravitation together which allowed him to explain the movements of planets in the Solar System,

-          to discover the law of universal gravitation that was his triumph through the centuries and still shows its usefuless.

Newton`s universal gravitation law can be used for distances embracing the entire Solar System.

But still his theory awoke controversies and Newton himself said:

“I am not able to discover the source of those principal peculiarities of gravitation through phenomena”.

And only then his philosophical part of life began, called “Hypothesis non fingo” (I do not build up hypothesis).

In his works Newton was able to see the difference between: speculations and the results of his experiments and mathematical calculations. He carefully separated mathematical hypothesis from results obtained in other ways such as by experiment and observation.

              He gave an admonition “Physics, beware of Metaphysics”. Newton used mathematical models of physical reality which could be confirmed by experiment.

              In his letters to Coates he wrote that “Principia” and “Axioms” had been found through real occurrences and with the help of induction made precise.

He went on saying:

“Arguments of induction should not manage without factual phenomena”.

In one of his letters to Leibnitz he wrote:

“Taking advantage from something uncertain is pure building up. It is a rejection of arguments of correct induction and changing philosophy into a pile of enigmatical hypothesis”.

In this place it is necessary to remember Mach`s statement from 1871:

“the theory of gravitation upset nearly every nature-searching scientist, because it was based on an unusual and incomprehensible notion. Now it does not make anybody upset because it has became an incomprehensible thing to which we are now accustomed”.

It should be added here that one could treat the general theory of relativity as the modification of the theory of gravitation which is in agreement with the law of relativity and with the law of equivalence at the same time, and moreover establishes a close relationship between the notions of acceleration and gravitational force. In the general theory of gravitation it is useless to the notion of force because the movement of all the bodies is specified by the curve of space which is created interdependently by the distribution of the bodies. Contrary to Newton`s theory one can say that the gravitational deviations of the trajectory from a straight line are not caused by forces but are the result of the characteristics of space itself.

Werner Heisenberg, in his work (1948) wrote precisely about the actuality of Newton`s mechanics:

“Classical mechanics is a closed scientific theory in itself. It is a conceptual and true description of that part of nature to which this theory can be applied. We admit Newton`s  mechanics is in agreement with the truth even today. We can agree it is precise and general but we only want to indicate additionally those occurrences in which Newton`s theory cannot be taken into the consideration, that means it has some limitations in use”.

We should say that Newton`s theory of movement is the only one of its kind and that any other similar one has never appeared either in physics or in any other field of science. Newton`s dynamical theory was so successful that by Darwin`s day it had become the standard model for all scientific theories: it was not enough for something to happen, there had to be a force – like dynamic driving the action. Darwin and Russel found their dynamic in Malthus.

The most important notions introduced by Newton are still up-to-date in the terminology of physics.

With Newton`s approach or Mach`s approach the equations of movement are invariable in the class of the Galilean inertial system.

              Like his contemporaries Newton believed that philosophical studies of nature should lead to obvious evidence the God-the Creator exists and causes the harmony in Universe. This outlook of Newton on the Universe, developed into a philosophical system, found a lot of opponents who, according  to Kant, took without any reservations his scientific notions but rejected all his metaphysical ones.

Through his original conception of the relation between God and the Universe, which was taken over by deists, he influenced the intellectual culture of the century of Enlightenment, specially when Voltaire made Newton famous among the intellectuals of his time.

Although the scientific opinions of Newton`s were not free of hypothesis, they went beyond empirical facts. This is shown in his formulation of mechanical laws, where he started that absolute space is of spiritual nature whereas the Cartesian system considers that it is of material nature.

That is why their relations in metaphysics is as that of Plato and Democritus. It is ideal and materialistic as well.

Voltaire wrote about this Cartesian-Newton relation as follows:

“Cartesian theory is only a scheme while Newton`s theory is a masterpiece”.

“English public opinion”, Voltaire said, “thinks that the first of them was a thinker and the other was a philosopher”.

“A peculiar difference”, Voltaire went on, “between Newton and Cartesius depends on the fact that Newton had never fallen in love with a woman and moreover he had never tasted sexual relationships. He had never succumbed to any other emotion or weakness of the human body. The surgeon present at his death-bed assured me of these facts”.

Newton should be admired for that but at same time Cartesius should not be condemned. It is difficult to judge if Voltaire`s suggestion was supplied by documentary evidence but it is rather interesting how Newton himself commented on that fact “Science is like a quarrelsome but beautiful women, if you want to have her, you will lead an everlasting trial”.

In the perspective of time one can say that Newton, if he had wanted to develop his mind, would have led only one trial… with mechanics. Newton`s character could be known, in expresis verbis, through his quarrel with Leibnitz about his priority of invention in the differential calculus. Enough to say that he was quarrelsome, ruthless and uncompromising in his tenacity of purpose but at the same time he tried to save appearance of dignity.

As far as the idea of their quarrel A.N. Whitehead (1881-1947) said accurately:

“though Peter Fermat (died in 1665) worked out the fundamental idea of differential calculus, long before Newton and Leibnitz published their results, nothing can depreciate the merit of both. One was a mathematician and physicist and the other was a mathematician and philosopher, and both of them – each in his field of knowledge – belong amongst the greatest geniuses of the worls”.

Lord Brougham, unveiling Newton`s monument in Grantham in August 1858, said:

“Whose genius dimmed all men`s as far as does the midday sun the midnight star”.

To render homage to Newton in three-hundredth anniversary of the publication of his “Principia” I would like to underline that he was one of those great people who recovered all those secrets that were not seen and understandable before him. Thanks to his discoveries a new world of science and philosophy came into being.

              About Newton`s World one could paraphrase the great Polish  poet Adam Asnyk`s (1838-1897) poem on the change of morality into immortality:

“You [the world] must be different although you will be the same”.

That is why he, like Platon ages ago, ad perpetuam rei memoriam, could say about himself:

“If I have seen further than other men it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”.

An English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1741) in his epitaph of Newton wrote:

“Nature and Naturea`s laws lay hid in night,

God said: “Let Newton be! – and all was light”.

At the Poets` Corner on the floor there is an inscription:

“Here lies what was once human of Sir Isaac Newton”.

But in his works Newton is immortal and let him be for ever on.

              I would like to thank the British Council whose generosity made possible a trip to Britain during which it was also possible for me to visit locations relevant to the life of Sir Isaac Newton.

I would like to thank for showing me round the exhibition “Apples to Astronauts” to Management of the George Hotel, Grantham and particularly to Mrs. Doreen Cubitt.