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| CHAPTER I. |
| The Pre-eminence of Sir Isaac Newton’s Reputation—The Interest attached to the Study of his Life and Writings—His Birth and Parentage—His early Education—Is sent to Grantham School—His early Attachment to Mechanical Pursuits—His Windmill—His Water-clock—His Self-moving Cart—His Sun-dials—His Preparation for the University | 17 |
| CHAPTER II. |
| Newton enters Trinity College, Cambridge—Origin of his Propensity for Mathematics—He studies the Geometry of Descartes unassisted—Purchases a Prism—Revises Dr. Barrow’s Optical Lectures—Dr. Barrow’s Opinion respecting Colours—Takes his Degrees—Is appointed a Fellow of Trinity College—Succeeds Dr. Barrow in the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics | 26 |
| CHAPTER III. |
| Newton occupied in grinding Hyperbolical Lenses—His first Experiments with the Prism made in 1666—He discovers the Composition of White Light, and the different Refrangibility of the Rays which compose it—Abandons his Attempts to improve Refracting Telescopes, and resolves to attempt the Construction of Reflecting ones—He quits Cambridge on account of the Plague—Constructs two Reflecting Telescopes in 1668, the first ever executed—One of them examined by the Royal Society, and shown to the King—He constructs a Telescope with Glass Specula—Recent History of the Reflecting Telescope—Mr. Airy’s Glass Specula—Hadley’s Reflecting Telescopes—Short’s—Herschel’s—Ramage’s—Lord Oxmantown’s | 30 |
| CHAPTER IV. |
| He delivers a Course of Optical Lectures at Cambridge—Is elected Fellow of the Royal Society—He communicates to them his Discoveries on the different Refrangibility and Nature of Light—Popular Account of them—They involve him in various Controversies—His Dispute with Pardies—Linus—Lucas—Dr. Hooke and Mr. Huygens—The Influence of these Disputes on the mind of Newton | 47 |
| CHAPTER V. |
| Mistake of Newton in supposing that the Improvement of Refracting Telescopes was hopeless—Mr. Hall invents the Achromatic Telescope—Principles of the Achromatic Telescope explained—It is reinvented by Dollond, and improved by future Artists—Dr. Blair’s Aplanatic Telescope—Mistakes in Newton’s Analysis of the Spectrum—Modern Discoveries respecting the Structure of the Spectrum | 63 |
| CHAPTER VI. |
| Colours of thin Plates first studied by Boyle and Hooke—Newton determines the Law of their Production—His Theory of Fits of easy Reflection and Transmission—Colours of thick Plates | 75 |
| CHAPTER VII. |
| Newton’s Theory of the Colours of Natural Bodies explained—Objections to it stated—New Classification of Colours—Outline of a new Theory proposed | 82 |
| CHAPTER VIII. |
| Newton’s Discoveries respecting the Inflection or Diffraction of Light—Previous Discoveries of Grimaldi and Dr. Hooke—Labours of succeeding Philosophers—Law of Interference of Dr. Young—Fresnel’s Discoveries—New Theory of Inflection on the Hypothesis of the Materiality of Light | 98 |
| CHAPTER IX. |
| Miscellaneous Optical Researches of Newton—His Experiments on Refraction—His Conjecture respecting the Inflammability of the Diamond—His Law of Double Refraction—His Observations on the Polarization of Light—Newton’s Theory of Light—His “Optics” | 106 |
| CHAPTER X. |
| Astronomical Discoveries of Newton—Necessity of combined Exertion to the completion of great Discoveries—Sketch of the History or Astronomy previous to the time of Newton—Copernicus, 1473–1543—Tycho Brahe, 1546–1601—Kepler, 1571–1631—Galileo, 1564–1642 | 110 |
| CHAPTER XI. |
| The first Idea of Gravity occurs to Newton in 1666—His first Speculations upon it—Interrupted by his Optical Experiments—He resumes the Subject in consequence of a Discussion with Doctor Hooke—He discovers the true Law of Gravity and the Cause of the Planetary Motions—Dr. Halley urges him to publish his Principia—His Principles of Natural Philosophy—Proceedings of the Royal Society on this Subject—The Principia appears in 1687—General Account of it, and of the Discoveries it contains—They meet with great Opposition, owing to the Prevalence of the Cartesian System—Account of the Reception and Progress of the Newtonian Philosophy in Foreign Countries—Account of its Progress and Establishment in England | 140 |
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| CHAPTER XII. |
| Doctrine of Infinite Quantities—Labours of Pappus—Kepler—Cavaleri—Roberval—Fermat—Wallis—Newton discovers the Binomial Theorem and the Doctrine of Fluxions in 1606—His Manuscript Work containing this Doctrine communicated to his Friends—His Treatise on Fluxions—His Mathematical Tracts—His Universal Arithmetic—His Methodus Differentialis—His Geometria Analytica—His Solution of the Problems proposed by Bernouilli and Leibnitz—Account of the celebrated Dispute respecting the Invention of Fluxions—Commercium Epistolicum—Report of the Royal Society—General View of the Controversy | 168 |
| CHAPTER XIII. |
| James II. attacks the Privileges of the University of Cambridge—Newton chosen one of the Delegates to resist this Encroachment—He is elected a Member of the Convention Parliament—Burning of his Manuscript—His supposed Derangement of Mind—View taken of this by foreign Philosophers—His Correspondence with Mr. Pepys and Mr. Locke at the time of his Illness—Mr. Millington’s Letter to Mr. Pepys on the subject of Newton’s Illness—Refutation of the Statement that he laboured under Me
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