Draft account of Newton's life at Cambridge John Conduitt c. 2,052 words Newton Project London 2006 Newton Project, Imperial College

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 c. 1727-8, c. 2,053 words, 16 pp. 16 pp. 'Miscellanea' (assorted notes and anecdotes concerning Newton) [Keynes Ms. 130.05]Keynes Ms. 130Draft account of Newton's early life [Keynes Ms. 130.03] Keynes Ms. 130.04, King's College, Cambridge, UK UKCambridgeKing's College Keynes Mss Keynes Ms. 130.04 SL212

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 c. 1727-8 English Latin Holograph Biography Catalogue information compiled by Rob Iliffe, Peter Spargo & John Young Tagged transcription by Rebekah Higgitt Checked against microfilm by John Young Checked against original by John Young Coding audited and updated to Newton v2.0 DTD by Michael Hawkins Metadata revised by John Young Updated to Newton V3.0 (TEI P5 Schema) by Michael Hawkins Catalogue exported to teiHeader by Michael Hawkins
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Mr Aiscough had given SrSir Isaac before he sett out for Cambridge Sanderson's logick & told him that was the first book his tutor would read to him, this SrSir I. read over by himself & when he came to hear his tutor's lectures upon it found he knew more of it than his tutour, who finding him so forward told him he was going to read Kepler's Opticks to some gentlemen com̄mmoners 2 & that he might come to those lectures. SrSir I boug immediately read it at home & when his tutour send gave him notice of the lectures he told him he had already read that book throuthrough at Sturbridge fair Lighting on he bought he bought a He bought a book of Iudicial Astrology he had the out of a * * (wchwhich Hobbes say calls the mother of all Philosophy) – Human nature – p. 112 –curiosity to see what there was in that science & read in it till he came to a figure of the heavens wchwhich he could not understand for want of being acquainted with Trigonometry, & to understand 3 the ground of that bought an English Euclid with the an Index of all the problems at the end of it & only turned to two or three wchwhich he thought necessary for his purpose & only read nothing but the titles of them finding them so easy & self evident that he wondered any body would be at the pains of writing a demonstration of them & at that time laid Euclid aside as a trifling book, & was soon convinced of the vanity & emptiness of the pretended science of Iudicial astrology

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About Midsummer 16631664 he read Oughtred's Clavis wchwhich he understood thouthough not entirely he having some difficulties about what the author calls scala secundi et tertij gradus relating to the solution of Quadratick cubic Æquations – ** The opinion he had of Oughtred's Clavis appears by the following memorandum found among his papers sig writt in his own writing & signed with his name viz –

Mr Oughtred's Clavis being one of the best as well as one of the first Essays for reviving the Art of Geometrical Resolution & Composition – I agree with the Oxford professors that a correct edition thereof to make it more usefull & bring it into more hands will be both for the honour of our nation & advantage of Mathematicks —

He then young & in as he was took in hand Des-Cartes's Geometry (that book wchwhich Descartes in his Epistles says is with a sort of defiance says is so difficult to understand) * * he began with the most crabbed studies & books (like a high spirited horse who must be first broke in plowed grounds & the roughest & steepest ways or could otherwise be kept within no bounds

When he had got over read two or three pages 5 & could understand no farther he being too reserved or modest to trouble any person to instruct him began again & went got over two or three or four more till he came to another difficult place, & then began again & advanced farther & continued so doing till he not only made himself master of the whole without having the least light or instruction from any body but discovered the errors of Descartes, & as appears by the original book is s wchwhich he read 6 at that time & is still ex in being & marked in many places with in his own hand writing with these words Error – Error non est Geom. *

Like a high mettled horse learns to be * * a little before XmasChristmas in the year 1664 he read Shooten's miscellanies & Wallis's works & made large and notes & remarks upon them still extant in being, this was his usual method in all the books he read he began with the most crabbed studies like a high mettled horse his who must be first galloped broke in plowed grounds & the roughest ways or otherwise could be kept him within no bounds –

MemmMemorandum Mr Professor Smith told me he had seen the book it will be proper to mark the placespassages & shew they are errours

Soon after he was examined stood to be a Scholar of the House & Dr Barrow examined him in Euclid wchwhich he knew so little of that Dr Barrow conceived a very indifferent opinion of him & for that time postponed his being ha giving him that preferment till April 1664 7 a scholar of the house The DrDoctor never asked him about Descartes's Geometry not imagining that any one could be master of that book without first reading Euclid & SrSir Isaac was too modest to mention it himself so that he was not made Scholar of the House till the year following

Upon this SrSir I. read Euclid over again & began to change his opinion of him when he read that Parallellograms upon the same base & between the same parallells are equal & that other proposition that in a right angled triangle the square of the Hypothonuse is equal to the squares of the two other sides ** & in his latter days he consumed himself spoke with regret of his mistake at the beginning of his Mathematical Studies in applying himself to his Arithmeti at the beginning of his Mathematical Studies to the works of Descartes & other Algebraic writers before he had considered the Elements of Euclid with that attention wchwhich so excellent a writer deserved – Pemberton in the preface

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About XmasChristmas 1664 He read next Shooten's miscellanies & Dr Wallis's Arithmetica Infinitorum & on the occasion of a certain interpolation for the quadrature of the circle found that admirable Theorem for raising a binomial to a power given, but before that time a little after reading Des Cartes's Geometry wrote many things concerning the vortices Axes Diameters of curves wchwhich afterwards gaue rise to that excellent tract de Curvis secundi generis & made several notes & remarks on Shooten's miscellanies wchwhich are still in being, that was his usual method in all the books he read — ——

Memm.Memorandum here follows what is writt by Mr Iones, at least must be disposed with it in proper places –

In the winter between the years 1664 & 1665 he found the method of infinite series, & in sum̄mmer 1665 being forced from Cambridge by the plague computed the area of the Hyperbola at Boothby in Lincolnshire to two & fifty figures by the same method –

MemmMemorandum – This is writt in a pocket book in SrSir I.'s own hand writing

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In August 166445 or 1665 SrSir I. bought a prism at Sturbridge fair to try some experiments upon Descartes's book of colours MemmMemorandum SrSir I. in the PhilosophicaPhilosophical transactions – 1. Vol. Cowlturp p. 128 – says it was 1666 – but in the same page he mentions using 2 prisms wchwhich he told me he did not buy the 2d till the year following – NB. he does not name Descartes but calls his book the celebrated Phænomena of colours & when he came home & made a small hole in his window shutter & darkened the room & put placed his prism between at it that & the wall he found instead of a circle the light made aan parallellogram oblong form with strait sides & with semi circular ends &c wchwhich convinced him Desca of the falsity of Descartes's Hypothesis of Colours 10 & he then found out his own Theory * thouthough he could not demonstrate it for want of another prism for wchwhich (with a patience much to be admired in so new & engaging a discovery) he staid till next Sturbridge Fair & then proved what he had before found out — * X Thus Truth as it often happens rosearose out of those errors wchwhich gave occasion to thosethe inquiries by wchwhich themselves were detected.

In the year 16651666 Memm.Memorandum he says so p. 296 Phil. Tran. Abrid. p. 196 – he retired again from Cambridge on acctaccount of the plague to his mother at Boothby in Lincolnshirein Lincolnshire & whilst he was musing in a garden it came 11 into his thought that the same power of gravity (wchwhich brought made an apple fall from the tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from the earth but that this power must extend much farther than was usually thought – Why not as high as the Moon said he to himself & if so that must influence her motion must be influenced by it & perhaps retain her in her orbit, whereupon he fell a calculating what would be the effect of that calculation supposition but tak being absent from books & taking the com̄mmon estimate in use among Geographers & our sea men before Norwood 12 had measured the earth, that 60 English miles were contained in one degree of latitude on the surface of the Earth his computation did not agree with his Theory & inclined him then then to think entertain a notion that together with the force power of gravity there might be a mixture of that force wchwhich the moon would have if it was carried along in a vortex, but when the Tract of Picard of the measure of the earth came out shewing that a degree was about 6912 English miles 13. He began his calculation a new & found it perfectly agreable to the his Theory –

See Pemberton's account of this particular in his preface who says there that it was a letter from Hook wchwhich put SrSir I. upon recalculating & that letter Du Moivre says was not writt till 1673 – the difference may be ascertained by examining when Picard's book came out — * * Generally Often the whole life of those who should push farther & strike out new paths is spent in make new discoveries is spent in learning only what is already found out but SrSir IsIsaac # # Having read only the few books already mentioned some of wchwhich rather led him into errors, & 14& without the least help or instruction from any person he laid the foundation of all his discoveries before thehee was 24 years old * Like Like This Alexander he had He had run over made himself master in Philosophy subdued all Nature at an age when even the Cesars in learning were but just setting outbeginning their conquests – & must call to every one's mind that passage in Iob. 32. c. 7. verse – I said days should speak & multitude of years should teach wisdom, but there is a spirit in man & the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding Soon after When he was in the warmest pursuit of his discoveries he going out left a candle on his table amongst his papers & being meeting somebody who diverted him from returning as he intended when he went out, the candle sett fire to his papers & upon my asking 15 him wether they related to his opticks or the method of Fluxions & – he said to both & that he was forced to begin work them all over again – MemmMemorandum Dr Stukeley says he had also wrotewritt a piece of Chymistry explaining the principles of that mysterious art upon experimental & mathematical proof & valued it much but it was unluckily burnt in his laboratory wchwhich casually took fire, & he would never undertake that work again – Nor is there any compleat treatise ofon this subject 16 – amongst his papers thouthough there are several volumes in his own hand writing wchwhich are cheifly extracts out of Chymical authusauthors Nor is it to be thought he spent so many hours in that study without producing something more regular & larger treatise upon it, & than the Queries at the end of the Opticks wchwhich are certainly the result of long labour & study & contain a fund of Philosophy wchwhich will employ the learned world for many centuries