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When Newtons Principia first appeared, only the most advanced mathematicians were able to fathom
its depths. This, with the discoveries in physics it contained, led to the work acquiring a reputation as an
impenetrable treatise presenting almost divine revelations about nature. Yet while Newton strove to
restrict access to its meaning, a growing number of popularizers began to craft ways of rendering the
Principia easy for the less mathematically astute. These entrepreneurs of natural p&osophy made
Newton public through an enormous industry of popular textbooks, engravings and experimental lecture
courses. In so doing, they were not only largely responsible for the reception of Newtons natural
philosophy, but also transformed its very nature.
Little Smatterers need not apply Philosophy more then contention, nor any Like many others, John Locke stumbled
Isaac Newtons Principia was a notoriously kind of contention more then one in print. over the mathematics in his attempt to read
difficult book to read. What is more, he And so, after this dkbficle, Newton retreated the Principia and was forced to apply to
intended it to be so. When the Philosophiae to his private world in Cambridge and Huygens for assurance that the mathemati-
naturalis principia mathematics attempted to extricate himself from corre- cal argumentation was sound. Having
(Mathematical principles of natural spondence on natural philosophyz. received this confirmation, Locke skipped
philosophy) first appeared in 1687, only a It was against this backdrop that Newton the mathematics and went on to tackle the
handful of exceptionally competent scholars developed and composed his Principia in proseT. Locke was not the only one to seek
could comprehend its involved mathemati- the mid-1680s. To this can be added the irri- such help. In 1691 William Wooton asked
cal physics. Partly because of the disputes tation of Hookes claim to priority in con- the Scottish mathematician John Craig how
arising from his 1672 paper on colours, and ceiving the inverse-square law, which came his friend Richard Bentley should prepare
partly because he had come to believe that while Newton was working on the text and himself to read the Principia; Craig
the weightier matters of truth - whether natu- caused him to expostulate: Philosophy is responded by drafting an imposing list of
ral philosophical or theological - should be such an impertinently litigious Lady.3 titles to read, telling Wooton that nothing
handled only by the mature and adept, Thus, although Newton committed himself less than a thorough knowledge of all that is
Newton wrote his Principia in a difficult to publication, he was not about to write his yet known in most curious parts of the
style and thereby excluded all but the ablest treatise for hoi polloi. As Newton later told Mathematicks can make him capable to
mathematicians. After eight years of labour- William Derham, to avoid being baited by read Mr. newtons book*. When the over-
ing to perfect his theory of colours through little Smatterers in Mathematicks . . . he whelmed Bentley went straight to the author
experiments, and after proving the truth of designedly made his Principia abstruse; but himself, he was presented with a slightly
these optical discoveries to himself beyond yet so as to be understood by able less onerous list of preparatory readings
a shadow of a doubt, Newton was exasper- Mathematicians.4 This was not a book for and, with additional guidance from Newton
ated beyond measure when natural philoso- the masses.
phers like Christiaan Huygens, Robert
Hooke and the English Jesuits Linus and The difficulty with the Principia
Lucas raised objections to his work and There is ample testimony that Newton suc-
drew him into a protracted dispute. A frus- ceeded in baffling even many of his most
trated Newton told Henry Oldenburg in late able readers. When Newton had his amanu-
1674 that he had long since determined to ensis distribute 20 copies of his newly
concern my self no further about ye promo- printed Principia to some of the College
tion of Philosophy. In a 1676 letter to Heads and his other acquaintances at
Hooke, Newton wrote: There is nothing Cambridge, his messenger later recalled that
wch I desire to avoyde in matters of some of them said That They might study
seven years, before They understood any
thing of it.5 After attempting to understand
Stephen D. Snobelen the newly released book in 1687, the ageing
former Cambridge mathematician Gilbert
Completed his Honours BA and MA in history at the
University of Victoria and his M.Phil. in history and Clerke admitted to Newton: I doe not as yet
philosophy of science at the University of well understand so much as your first three
Cambridge. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the sections, for wch you do not require yt a man
same department at Cambridge. His research
should be a mathematice doctus. The exas-
focuses on eighteenth-century science populariz-
ation, and the natural philosophy and theology of perated Clerke later chastised Newton: you
Newton and his followers. His doctoral thesis masters doe not consider ye infirmities of
explores the natural philosophical and theological your readers, except you intended to write
careers of the Newtonian William Whiston. He has
only to professours or intended to have your Figure 1 Isaac Newton in 1689 (courtesy
written on Newton, Whiston and Samuel Clarke,
and is a contributing editor of the Newton books lie, moulding in libraries or other men of the Syndics of Cambridge University
Manuscript Project. to gett the creditt of your inventionse. Library).
0160-9327/98/$19.00 -see front matter 0 1998 Elsevier Science. AII right reserved. PII: SO160-9327(98)01148-X Endeavour vol. 22(4) 1998 159
Newton: Nearer the gods no mortal may
approach.13 In his review of the Principia for
the Philosophical Transactions, Halley wrote
j f,E. of what he had termed Newtons divine
Treatise by declaring that it may be justly
said, that so many and so Valuable
Philosophical Truths, as are herein discovered
and put past Dispute, were never yet owing to
the Capacity and Industry of any one Manl4.
Others followed in this worship of the
NATURALIS author. The mathematician David Gregory
praised Newton and offered him thanks for
Adams.S.68.&
having been at the pains to teach the world
that which I never expected any man should
have knownl5. In a 1699 discussion
between Dr John Arbuthnot and the
Marquis de lHapita1, upon being told that
Newton had in the Principia also solved
the problem of what curve would find the
least resistance in a fluid, the astounded
Marquis cried out with admiration Good
god What a fund of knowledge there is in
that book? He then asked the D* every par-
ticular about Sr I. even to the colour of his
hair [and] said does he eat & drink & sleep?
is he like other men? 16
Far from ending with his death, such adu-
lation ascended to new heights. Visiting
from France, Voltaire was dumbfounded to
see Newton buried like a king who had
befitted his subjects17. An inscription on
Newtons tomb at Westminster Abbey pro-
claims: Let Mortals rejoice That there has
existed such and so great an Ornament of
the Human Racel8. The poet Alexander
Pope contributed to the panegyrics with his
famous couplet:
Figure 5 Plate from William Whistons Astronomical Principles of Religion, 1717 (courtesy The democratization of Newton?
of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library).
Not only was Newton more accessible
through the popular texts because of their
complete with engraved depictions of students lack of mathematical expertise by easier style and use of illustrations, but the
experiments, and, since many lecturers were resorting to experimental demonstrations. popular renditions were made available
in league with instrument-makers, natural Thus, one of the most common advertising much less expensively and in much greater
philosophical instruments. Through the pitches for the courses was that those numbers. By 1710 copies of the Principia
course manuals the influence of the original attending need not concern themselves with had become so rare that when they could be
lectures was also extended to a virtual the rigours of mathematics. In a catalogue found they sold for as much as two guineas.
audience - who need not even travel to for his course, Desaguliers assured potential This was well above the means of many stu-
London. Indeed, the course manual used by auditors that any one, &ho unskilld in dents, and at least one is said to have
Whiston and Hauksbee the younger was Mathematical Sciences, may be able to resorted to copying out the entire text in his
used as the basis for a similar course at understand all those Phaenomena of own hand25.
Oxford University. Nature, which have been discovered by A brief comparison of the print runs of the
It was the firm belief of the experimental Geometrical Principles, or accounted for by Principia and those of one of Newtons
lecturers that they could overcome their Experiments. Instead of geometrical defi- most vigorous apologists will establish the