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It was the 5th of June, 1660, when Isaac Newton, a youth of eighteen, was
enrolled as an undergraduate of Trinity College, Cambridge. Little did those
who sent him there dream that this boy was destined to be the most illustrious
student who ever entered the portals of that great seat of learning. Little could
the youth himself have foreseen that the rooms near the gateway which he
occupied would acquire a celebrity from the fact that he dwelt in them, or that
the ante-chapel of his college was in good time to be adorned by that noble
statue, which is regarded as one of the chief art treasures of Cambridge
University, both on account of its intrinsic beauty and the fact that it
commemorates the fame of her most distinguished alumnus, Isaac Newton,
the immortal astronomer. Indeed, his advent at the University seemed to have
been by no means auspicious or brilliant. His birth was, as we have seen,
comparatively obscure, and though he had already given indication of his
capacity for reflecting on philosophical matters, yet he seems to have been but
ill-equipped with the routine knowledge which youths are generally expected
to take with them to the Universities.
From the outset of his college career, Newton’s attention seems to have
been mainly directed to mathematics. Here he began to give evidence of that
marvellous insight into the deep secrets of nature which more than a century
later led so dispassionate a judge as Laplace to pronounce Newton’s immortal
work as pre-eminent above all the productions of the human intellect. But
though Newton was one of the very greatest mathematicians that ever lived,
he was never a mathematician for the mere sake of mathematics. He
employed his mathematics as an instrument for discovering the laws of
nature. His industry and genius soon brought him under the notice of the
University authorities. It is stated in the University records that he obtained a
Scholarship in 1664. Two years later we find that Newton, as well as many
residents in the University, had to leave Cambridge temporarily on account of
the breaking out of the plague. The philosopher retired for a season to his old
home at Woolsthorpe, and there he remained until he was appointed a Fellow
of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1667. From this time onwards, Newton’s
reputation as a mathematician and as a natural philosopher steadily advanced,
so that in 1669, while still but twenty-seven years of age, he was appointed to
the distinguished position of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at
Cambridge. Here he found the opportunity to continue and develop that
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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