/ )" ISAAC NEWTON’S & On Natural Philosophy and related documents Containing Newton’s contributions to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, his letter to Boyle about the cether, “De Natura Acidorum,” Newton’s letters to Bentley and the “Boyle Lectures” related to them, the first published biography of Newton, Halley’s publications about Newton’s “Principia,” &c. With explanatory prefaces by Marie Boas, Charles Coulston Gillispie, Thomas S. Kuhn, & Perry Miller. HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts '• 1958 © Copyright 1958 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 58-5607 Printed in the United States of America V Preface S tu d en ts of intellectual history and the history of science need no reminder that the majestic figure of Isaac Newton dominates the 18th century. The “Age of Newton” must be studied in the works of Newton himself, as well as in the writings of his commentators and the scientific books and articles that either continued the investigations undertaken by Newton or ventured into new domains of knowledge which he had not explored. The intention of the present volume is to bring together for the first time Newton’s scattered papers and letters on natural philosophy (excluding math­ ematics, pure theology, and biblical chronology) as they were actu­ ally available in print during most of the 18th century, that is, prior to Horsley’s edition of Newton’s works in 1779-1785. Newton’s two major books on physical science, the Principia and the Opticks, are today readily accessible, and in print; this volume complements them by placing in the hands of students all of Newton’s related publications issued during his lifetime or soon after his death. The Principia, the Opticks, and the papers collected in this volume thus represent the complete corpus of Newton’s writings on physical science that actually influenced the scientists and thinking men of v VI PREFACE the “Age of Newton”; the Optical Lectures, however interesting, were of less importance in conditioning the advance of science or mod­ erating the general climate of opinion on the frame of the universe or the mechanism of nature. Since the aim of this volume is to present to the modern scholar the very works studied during Newton’s life and the decades fol­ lowing his death, each document is reproduced in facsimile from the original publication; a facsimile is provided of a standard translation into English of those documents which are in Latin. Since many of Newton’s communications are letters, as was cus­ tomary in the 17th and 18th centuries, there have also been included facsimiles of the printed letters and documents written by others that were the occasion of each of Newton’s communications. In every case, the page numbers of the originals have been kept, so that the scholar will have available to him in facsimile the actual pages of many rare works which are not to be found in all libraries, and certainly not on the shelves of students who wish to study the development of physical thought in the age of Newton. In addition to Newton’s own letters and papers, and documents immediately relating to them, several Newtonian productions of rarity have been included. Fontenelle’s eloge is the first published biography of Newton and was widely read in England and abroad. Halley’s review of the Principia and the account of the theory of the tides which he wrote for James II are as useful today as they were then, serving to orient the nonspecialist to some major aspects of Newton’s monumental achievement. Finally, all students of Newton will be grateful for a “Newtonian index” to Birch’s History of the Royal Society. The editor wishes to acknowledge the kindness of the scholars who have aided this cooperative venture by contributing prefaces to the several sections of the volume: Marie Boas, University of California (Los Angeles); Charles Coulston Gillispie, Princeton University; Thomas S. Kuhn, University of California (Berkeley); and Perry Miller, Harvard University. Dr. Robert E. Schofield, of the University of Kansas, has helped in every stage of preparing the book and has written several contributions to it. The editor respectfully acknowledges the stimulation to the pro­ duction of this volume given by Professor A. Koyre of the Ecole PREFACE Vll \ Pratique des Hautes Etudes of the University of Paris (Sorbonne), who urged upon him the necessity of producing it. The editor gratefully records the sincere interest in the history of science of Mr. Bern Dibner, the guiding spirit in the formation of the Burndy Library of the history of science in Norwalk, Connecticut, who has sponsored many important publications in the history of science as well as this one. Valuable information was provided by Professor H. W. Turnbull, editor of the projected edition of Newton’s corre­ spondence, Mr. A. N. L. Munby, Librarian of King’s College, Cambridge, and Curator of the Keynes Collection of Newton Manuscripts, and Professor E. N. da C. Andrade of London, master interpreter of science in our day, whose many publications on Newton and his times have provided illumination with an elegance and charm all too rare in the current literature of the history of science. The editor hopes that this volume may be conceived as a trans­ atlantic tribute to the Royal Society of London, whose role was of such major importance in the development of Newton’s thought. All scholars who have had the privilege of using the great library of the Royal Society are aware of the feeling of awe that arises from confronting the manuscripts that record the major progress of science in a continuous succession of almost three centuries; the remem­ brance of that experience is always tempered by a warm feeling of gratitude for the extreme kindness and helpfulness of the present and past librarians, Messrs. I. Kaye and H. W. Robinson, and especially of the Assistant Secretary, Dr. D. C. Martin. In saluting the Royal Society, and its two Newtonian scholars, Professors Andrade and Turnbull, a word may be said about the forthcoming Royal Society edition of Newton’s correspondence, being prepared under Professor Turnbull’s editorship. This task, of immense com­ plexity and beset by extremely difficult questions at every turn, will prove to be one of the most important collections of source material for the study of 17th-century science. Based upon a careful study of the manuscripts, it will provide a complete and accurate text of each document. Hence the student who wishes to know exactly what Newton wrote, or exactly what Newton’s correspondents wrote, must always turn to the Royal Society edition of Newton’s correspondence. But for the student who wishes to find out what X CONTENTS 5. “Mr. Isaac Newton’s Considerations upon part of a Letter of Monsieur de Berce. concerning the Catadrioptrical Telescope, pretended to be im­ prov’d and refined by M. Cassegrain” 72 “Some Experiments propos’d [by Sir Robert Moray] in relation to Mr. Newtons Theory of light . together with the Observations made thereupon by the Author of that Theory” 75 [Phil. Trans., No. 83, May 20, 1672, pp. 4056-4062] 6. “A Latin Letter ... by Ignatius Gaston Pardies .. containing some Animadversions upon Mr. Isaac Newton . his Theory of Light . .” and “Mr. Newtons Letter . being an Answer to the fore­ going Letter of P. Pardies” 79 [Phil. Trans., No. 84, June 17, 1672, pp. 4087-4093] English translations of the two Latin letters above 86 [Phil. Trans., Abridged; Hutton, Shaw, Pearson, editors (London, 1809), vol. 1, pp. 726-732] 7. “A Serie’s of Quere’s propounded by Mr. Isaac Newton, to be determin’d by Experiments, positively and directly concluding his new Theory of Light and Colours; and here recommended to the Indus­ try of the Lovers of Experimental Philosophy . ..” 93 [Phil. Trans., No. 85, July 15, 1672, pp. 5004 (misprinted as 4004)-5007] 8. “A Second Letter of P. Pardies . to Mr. Newtons Answer, made to his first Letter . .” and “Mr. Newtons Answer to the foregoing Letter” [and final capitulation by Pardies] 97 [Phil. Trans., No. 85, July 15, 1672, pp. 5012-5018] English translations of the two Latin letters above 104 [Phil. Trans., Abridged (London, 1809), vol. 1, pp. 738-743; lines 4-45, p. 5015, lines 1-18, p. 5016, and lines 31-36, p. 5018 are omitted in this English version] 9. Robert Hooke’s Critique of Newton’s Theory of Light and Colors 110 [Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society of London (Lon­ don, A. Millar, 1757), vol. 3, pp. 10-15] “Mr. Isaac Newtons Answer to some Considera­ tions [of Hooke] upon his Doctrine of Light and Colors” 116 [Phil. Trans., No. 88, November 18, 1672, pp. 5084-5103] / > CONTENTS x i 10. “An Extract of a Letter lately written by an ingen­ ious person from Paris [Christiaan Huygens], con­ taining some Considerations upon Mr. Newtons Doctrine of Colors, as also upon the effects of the different Refractions of the Rays in Telescopical Glasses” 136 “Mr. Newtons Answer to the foregoing Letter fur­ ther explaining his Theory of Light and Colors, and particularly that of Whiteness; together with his continued hopes of perfecting Telescopes by Re­ flections rather than Refractions” 137 [Phil. Trans., No. 96, July 21, 1673, pp. 6086-6092] 11. “An Extract of Mr. Isaac Newton’s Letter . .. con­ cerning the Number of Colors, and the Necessity of mixing them all for the production of White; as also touching the Cause why a Picture cast by Glasses into a darkned room appears so distinct notwithstanding its Irregular refraction ..