Without belittling the merits of Sir Isaac Newton and even revering them, Peter Ackroyd nevertheless deprives the image of the protagonist of blissful roundness: an outstanding naturalist and natural philosopher, a man who «subordinated the cosmos to laws, an open man», managed to combine incredible upsurges of the spirit with pettiness and suspicion.
He was born prematurely, at nineteen he entered Cambridge, and at twenty-six he became professor of mathematics there. He grew up in a poor family, but in his old age he achieved great wealth. As a child, he made kites, accurately calculating the geometric parameters, in adulthood he became interested in alchemy, and at an advanced age he mastered Hebrew in order to study the texts of the biblical prophets in the original. He was also an excellent administrator, the best keeper of the Mint and a meticulous fighter against English counterfeiters, whom he himself caught and interrogated … the natural philosopher, the man who «subordinated the cosmos to laws, an open man,» managed to combine incredible upsurges of the spirit with pettiness and suspicion. He made a revolution in several fundamental sciences — and at the same time treated his scientific opponents (among whom were Hooke and Leibniz), using, as they would say now, «administrative resources». According to the biographer, such differences are the result of a psychological trauma received at a young age: the boy grew up without a mother, experiencing a feeling of abandonment, and possibly his own worthlessness. His desire to order the universe, Ackroyd believes, was a reaction to the surrounding everyday chaos. Well, even so, Newton did his job brilliantly.
Hummingbird, ALPHABETIC ATTICUS, 256 p.