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1Chapter
IT was just a year after the death of Galileo, that an infant came into the
world who was christened Isaac Newton. Even the great fame of Galileo
himself must be relegated to a second place in comparison with that of the
philosopher who first expounded the true theory of the universe.
Isaac Newton was born on the 25th of December (old style), 1642, at
Woolsthorpe,[1] in Lincolnshire, about a half-mile from Colsterworth, and
eight miles south of Grantham. His father, Mr. Isaac Newton, had died a few
months after his marriage to Harriet Ayscough, the daughter of Mr. James
Ayscough, of Market Overton, in Rutlandshire. The little Isaac was at first so
excessively frail and weakly that his life was despaired of. The watchful
mother, however, tended her delicate child with such success that he seems to
have thriven better than might have been expected from the circumstances of
his infancy, and he ultimately acquired a frame strong enough to outlast the
ordinary span of human life.
For three years they continued to live at Woolsthorpe, the widow’s means
of livelihood being supplemented by the income from another small estate at
Sewstern, in a neighbouring part of Leicestershire. In 1645, Mrs. Newton took
as a second husband the Rev. Barnabas Smith, and on moving to her new
home, about a mile from Woolsthorpe, she entrusted little Isaac to her mother,
Mrs. Ayscough. In due time we find that the boy was sent to the public school
at Grantham, the name of the master being Stokes. For the purpose of being
near his work, the embryo philosopher was boarded at the house of Mr. Clark,
an apothecary at Grantham. We learn from Newton himself that at first he had
a very low place in the class lists of the school, and was by no means one of
those model school-boys who find favour in the eyes of the school-master by
attention to Latin grammar. Isaac’s first incentive to diligent study seems to
have been derived from the circumstance that he was severely kicked by one
of the boys who was above him in the class. This indignity had the effect of
stimulating young Newton’s activity to such an extent that he not only
attained the desired object of passing over the head of the boy who had
maltreated him, but continued to rise until he became the head of the school.
The play-hours of the great philosopher were devoted to pursuits very
different from those of most school-boys. His chief amusement was found in
making mechanical toys and various ingenious contrivances. He watched day
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book Great Astronoms - Isaac Newton"
Great Astronoms
Isaac Newton
- Title
- Great Astronoms
- Subtitle
- Isaac Newton
- Author
- Robert S. Ball
- Date
- 1907
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 22
- Keywords
- Astronom, Philosopher, Englisch, English, Astronomie, Philosophie
- Categories
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Physik