NEWTON, ISAAC (b. Woolsthorpe, England, 25 December 1642; d. London, England, 20 March 1727), mathematics, dynamics, celestial mechanics, astronomy, optics, natural philosophy.

    experiments (University Library, Cambridge, MS Add. 3975), the experiments dated 23 May [1684] are immediately followed by an entry dated 26 April 1686. The former ends in the middle of a page, and the latter starts on the very next line; there is no lacuna, and no possibility that a page—which chronologically might concern experiments made while the Principia was being written—might be missing from the notebook.181

The overtones of alchemy are on occasion discernible in Newton's purely scientific writings. In query 30 of the Opticks (first published in the Latin version, then in the second English edition), Newton said that “Nature . . . seems delighted with Transmutations,” although he was not referring specifically to changing metals from one to another. (It must be remembered in fact that “transmutation” would not necessarily hold an exclusively chemical or alchemical meaning for Newton; it might, rather, signify not only transformations in general, but also particular transformations of a purely mathematical sort, as in lemma 22 of book I of the Principia.) This is a far cry, indeed, from Newton's extracts from the mystical Count Michael Maier and kindred authors. P. M. Rattansi particularly calls attention to the alchemist's “universal spirit,” and observes: “It is difficult to understand how, without a conviction of deep and hidden truths concealed in alchemy, Newton should have attached much significance to such ideas.”182

Notable instances of the conflation of alchemical inspiration and science occur in Newton's letter to Boyle (1679) and in the hypothesis he presented to explain those properties of light of which he wrote in his papers in the Philosophical Transactions. While it is not difficult to discover alchemical images in Newton's presentation, and to find even specific alchemical doctrines in undisguised form and language, the problem of evaluating the influence of alchemy on Newton's true science is only thereby compounded, since there is no firm indication of the role of such speculations in the development of Newton's physical science. The result is, at best, one mystery explained by another, like the alchemist's confusing doctrine of ignotum per ignotius. Rattansi further suggests that alchemy may have served as a guiding principle in the formulation of Newton's views on fermentation and the nourishment of the vegetation of the earth by fluids attracted from the tails of comets. He would even have us believe that alchemical influences may have influenced “the revival of aetherical notions in the last period of Newton's life.”183 This may be so; but what, if any, creative effect such “aetherical notions” then had on Newton's thought would seem to be a matter of pure hypothesis.

Scholars do not agree whether Newton's association with some “Hermetic tradition” may have been a creative force in his science, or whether it is legitimate to separate his alleged hermeticism from his positive science. Apart from the level of general inspiration, it must be concluded that, excluding some aspects of the theory of matter and chemistry, notably fermentation, and possibly the ether hypotheses, the real creative influence of alchemy or hermeticism on Newton's mathematics and his work in optics, dynamics, and astronomy (save for the role of the tails of comets in the economy of nature) must today be evaluated in terms of the Scottish verdict, “not proven.” Investigations of this topic may provide valuable insights into the whole man, Newton, and into the complexities of his scientific inspiration. His concern for alchemy and theology should not be cast aside as irrelevant aberrations of senility or the product of a mental breakdown. Yet it remains a fact beyond dispute that such early manuscripts as the Waste Book—in which Newton worked out and recorded his purely scientific discoveries and innovations—are free from the tinges of alchemy and hermeticism.

The London Years: the Mint, the Royal Society, Quarrels with Flamsteed and with Leibniz.

On 19 March 1696, Newton received a letter from Charles Montagu informing him that he had been appointed warden of the mint. He set up William Whiston as his deputy in the Lucasian professorship, to receive “the full profits of the place.” On 10 December 1701 he resigned his professorship, and soon afterward his fellowship. He was designated an associé étranger of the Paris Académie des Sciences in February 1699, chosen a member of the Council of the Royal Society on the following 30 November, and on 30 November 1703 was made president of the Royal Society, an office he held until his death. He was elected M.P. for Cambridge University, for the second time, on 26 November 1701, Parliament being prorogued on 25 May 1702. Queen Anne knighted Newton at Trinity College on 16 April 1705; on the following 17 May he was defeated in his third contest for the university's seat in Parliament.

At the mint, Newton applied his knowledge of chemistry and of laboratory technique to assaying, but he apparently did not introduce any innovations in the art of coinage. His role was administrative and his duties were largely the supervision of the recoinage and (curious to contemplate) the capture, interrogation, and prosecution of counterfeiters. Newton used the patronage of the mint to benefit fellow scientists. Halley entered the service in 1696 as comptroller of the Chester mint, and in 1707 David