Warren wrote
Sean wrote
He had gotten into a public scrap or two with Robert Hooke. At one particular point, Hooke took exception to something Newton had published without referencing something he had used (probably by Hooke, I don't remember). So Newton used the line as a sort of apology and to give Hooke credit for the work Hooke had done. Nice hey? However, some seem to believe the comment was not in actual fact meant to be complementary. Apparently Hooke was slightly small in stature and was a hunchback. So Newton's use of the line could have been malicious in nature. It's obviously speculation but for some reason this always stuck with me.
Newton was apparently a real bastard ? And insecure at that: it took many years of prompting from his mate, Edmond Halley, for him to finally publish his Principia.
Science is chock full of weird and unpleasant - but very productive - innovators ?
There was certainly a scrap between Hooke and Newton. Hooke made claims to have already produced work that Newton was about to publish. Halley, then an eminent member of the Royal Society, asked Hooke to show his workings. Hooke couldn't or wouldn't produce them. Then Halley turned to Newton and Newton said that some of his papers had been mislaid. However Newton did come up with a proof eventually. This may have delayed publication of Newton's master work.
Newton also had other problems, things that he had to be secretive about. The Church of England were very influential in 17th century England. Certainly to be a fellow at a major university he would have had to be ordained by the Church. This was problematic
a) because Newton was a Christian but did not accept all the teachings of the C of E, having done his own exhaustive study of the Bible which led him to conclusions and beliefs that would have prevented him accepting ordination and the Church offering that status
b) he was secretly an alchemist. This practice was frowned upon by the Church and was also seen generally as being at best eccentric and at worst as satanic.
Eventually he was given the fellowship that he so desired. There was no deadline for ordination and Newton at first deferred and delayed as much as he could and then, as his prestige grew, was given a special dispensation by the King.
But it's strange that his work in physics was so profound, so well conceived and so brilliant, but in chemistry he stuck to what amounted to superstition.
There's nothing to suggest that he was much of a guitar player - even by the standards of his day.
