'Remarks on Sr Is. Newton', with a covering letter to John Conduitt

Author: William Derham

Source: Keynes Ms. 133, King's College, Cambridge, UK

Published online: June 2004

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Upminster near Rumford
in Essex ☿ 18. Iul. –33

Hon^d S^r

I have (after an hindrance by the colick) drawn up my Remarks on S^r Is. Newton, as you desired, which being too bulky for a Post L^r, I have this day sent them to M^r Innys's in S^t Paul's Church-yard, to be left till you send or call for them. I am w^th great respect

Hon^d S^r

Your humble serv^t.

W^m Derham.

To Iohn Conduit Esq^r
at his House in Great
George Street Hannover
Square London.

To Ioh: Conduit Esq^r

<1>

Upminster ☿ 18 Iul: 1733.

Hon^d S^r

According to your desire, I here send you some matters relating to my excellent Friend S^r Is: Newton: w^ch you should have had sooner, but I have not been long in this place, where my Memorials are; & have ever since I came been so afflicted w^th the Colick, y^t I was not able to dispatch any considerable business.

I had the Hon^r & Happiness of S^r Isaac's Acquaintance about 30 years. And by our frequent Conversation (for the most part about Philosophical matters) had opportunites of discerning his great Genius, & admirable Parts Of w^ch he hath given the learned World abundant Proof in his <2> Works: in w^ch he hath shewed his Acumen & Penetration to be equal, if not superior, to y^t of Archimedes, Euclid, & other the greatest Wits of former Ages.

One great sign of w^ch, may be the Ambition w^ch some of the greatest Genij of S^r Isaac's time, had, of robbing him of some of his Inventions. Of w^ch I shall instance in two, because I had some concern in them.

The first is the Controversy w^ch S^r Isaac had w^th M^r. Leibnitz. Which affair was transacted in the Royal Society whilst I had the Hon^r to be one of the Council of thereof, & produced some Original Letters y^t I found among the Papers of Rich. Townley Esq^r (now in my hands) w^ch plainly demonstrate S^r Isaac's just Title to w^t he claims. Which Letters being (as far as <3> relates to this Controversy) published in the Com̄ercium Epistolicum, I shall give no account of: only I think fit to cite, in his own words y^t w^ch M^r Collins writes to M^r Strode, viz. M^r Newton & M^r Gregory intend to write of this Method in Latin: but M^r Gregory will not anticipate M^r Newton, the first Inventor thereof Vid. Com̄erc. Epist. p. 29.

When S^r Is: & I discoursed about these matters, he gave me this short History of them, viz. That when he was a Iunior at the University, he had thoughts of these things, but brought them to no perfection, by reason he was forced to leave the University in the Plague-year 1665 & 1666. But at his return to Cambridge, Mercator's Logarithmotechia, & what D^r Wallis published about y^t time, revived his his thoughts of these matters, and <4> then he brought them to more perfection, & Com̄unicated them to D^r Barrow, at y^t time of the same College, who approving of them, acquainted M^r Collins & other w^th them. Thus far S^r Isaac.

M^r Collins (a man born to promote Mathematicks) I find was so taken w^th S^r Isaac's Discovery, y^t he wrote to divers persons about it in 1669, 1670, &c, as appears by his L^rs in my hands.

How M^r Leibnitz came to be informed of S^r Isaac's Method, & afterwards to dress it up with different Terms, & claim it as his own, S^r Is– always spake w^th great modesty, with relation to himself, & great honour & regard to the excellent Parts and Capacity of M^r. Leibnitz. He thought it <5> probable y^t when M^r Leibnitz was in England in the years 1673 & 1676, he might get information of a matter talked of, in his own way, among the Mathematicians, or y^t his Countryman M^r Oldenburgh might give him information of it But how so great a Genius as M^r Leibnitz came to dresse it up in different colours, & publish it as his own, S^r Is. left to the judgment of others.

The other thing w^ch I said was claimed, was by D^r Hook, & was no lesse a matter than S^r Isaac's Doctrine of the Mundane Systeme. This happened to come into our discours, as D^r Hook and I were discoursing \talking/ about M^r Huygens's celebrated Watch, & the Doctor's Inventions in Watchwork. At <6> which time the D^r took occasion to tell me, y^t he had discovered the reciprocal Gravitation of the Planets &c, long before S^r Is: Newton, & complained to me of the injury S^r Is: had done him in robbing him of the Invention. This I thought my self bound, by the Rules of Friendship, to acquaint S^r Is: with. To w^ch he (w^th greater warmth & peevishness than was usual in him) gave me this Answer, That he believed D^r Hook could not perform y^t w^ch he pretended to: let him give Demonstrations of it: I know he hath not Geometry enough to do it. I confess I was surprized at this Answer, knowing D^r Hook to be a very considerable man. But by Letters I find among D^r Hooks Papers (w^ch are now <7> in my hands) I perceive y^t this matter was controverted, & S^r Is: teized about the year 1686. In a Letter of S^r Is: to D^r Halley of Iun. 20. 1686, he says In one of my Papers written above 15 years agoe, the Proportion of the Forces of the Planets from the Sun reciprocally duplicate of to their Distances from the Sun him, is exprest: & the Proportion of our Gravity to the Moon's Conatus recedendi a centro terræ is calculated, though not accurately ennough. And in another L^r of this same date, S^r Is: says he wrote a L^r of Thanks to Hugenius for the his Present of his Horologium Oscillatorium, & directed it to M^r Oldenburgh, who used to keep the Originals, & his Papers coming into M^r Hook's hands, he might <8> have the curiosity to look into y^t L^r, and thence take the Notion of comparing y^e Forces of the Planets arising from their ciruclar motion; & so what he wrote to me afterwards about the Ratio of Gravity, might be nothing but the Pursuit of my own Garden. And in another L^r of Iul. 27. 1686. S^r Isaac speaking of a L^r of his, part of w^ch, about Colours, was published in Phil: Trans: N^r 96. saith, It is evident from w^t I is said there, y^t I was at y^t time versed in the Theory of the Forces arising from Circular Motions, & had an eye upon the Forces of the Planets, knowing how to compare them by the Proportions of their Periodical Revolutions {illeg} Distances from the Center they move about: An instance of w^ch you have <9> here in the comparison of the Forces of the Moon arising from her menstrual Motion about the Earth, and annual about the Sun. So then in this Theory I am plainly before M^r Hook. For he about a year after, in his Attempt to prove the Motion of the Earth, declared expresly that the Degrees by w^ch Gravity decreased, he had not then experimentally verified, y^t is, He knew not how to gather it from Phænomena, & therefore recom̄ends it to the prosecution of others. Thus much I find in the Papers remaining in {the} my hands: but more is in some of the D^r's Papers, w^ch I delivered up some time since to the R. Society.

The next Remark I shall make shall be of a somewhat out of the way Proof of God, w^ch S^r Isaac mentioned in some

<10>

These Controversies w^th Leibnitz, Hooke, & Linus, & others about Colours, made S^r Is: very uneasy; who abhorred all Contests, accounting Peace a substantial Good. And for this reason, namely to avoid being baited by little smatterers in Mathematicks, he told me, he designedly made his Principia abstruse; but \yet so as/ to be understood by able Mathematicians, who he imagined, by comprehending his Demonstrations, would concurr w^th him in his Theory.

The next Remark I shall make shall be a peculiar sort of Proof of God, w^ch S^r Is: mentioned in some discourse w^ch he & I had soon after I published my Astro-Theology. He said there were 3 things in the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies, y^t were plain Eviden <11> ces of Omnipotence & wise Counsel: 1. That the Motion imprest upon these Globes was Lateral, or in a Direction perpendicular to their Radij, not along them or parallel w^th them. 2. That the motions of them tend the same way. 3 That their Orbits have all the same, or nearly the same Inclination.

As S^r Is: Newton was well skilled in Chymistry, & particularly had made divers trials on the Fusion of Metals for Reflecting Telescopes, so I think some of his Observations on this subject worth your Cognizance, S^r. He told me, If the Block-Tin is put into the Crucible to be melted with the Copper, y^t the greater part will thereof will be evaporated; & therefore ought not to be put in untill the Copper is melted. Also if the Tin is too hot, & boyls, it makes the Metal porous. Therefore he advised, <12> when the Tin is put in to the \melted/ Copper, and is it self melted, y^t it should be stirred two or three times w^th the Spatula, & suddainly poured into the Mold: & y^t the cooler & thicker the Melted Metal is, whi|e|n run into the Mold, so much the better it is, than when too hot & thin.

The last thing, S^r, y^t I shall trouble you with, shall be a Passage relating to the Coynage of the Copper-money some years agoe, w^ch pleased me much, as setting forth the Integrity of my Friend, S^r Is. The occasion of our Discourse was, The great inconveniences which many underwent by the Delay of the Coynage of this sort of Money. The occasion of which Delay, S^r Is: told me, was from the numerous Petitions y^t were presented then; in most of w^ch some person or other of Quality was concerned. Amongst others he told me, y^t an Agent of one <13> had made him an Offer of above 6000 ^li. W^ch S^r Is: refusing on account of its being a Bribe; the Agent said, he saw no dishonesty in the acceptance of the Offer & y^t S^r Is: understood not his own Interest. To w^ch S^r Is: replied y^t he knew well enough w^t was his Duty, & y^t no Bribes should corrupt him. The Agent then told him y^t he came from a great Dutchesse, & pleaded her Quality & Interest. To w^ch S^r Is: roughly answered, I desire you to tell the Lady, y^t if she was here her self, & had made me the Offer, I would have desired her to go out of my house, & so I desire you, or you shall be turned out. Afterwards he learnt who the Dutchesse was.

Thus, S^r, I have given you an Account, as far as my Memory reaches, of the most material passages y^t occur <14> red in my Conversation w^th S^r Is: Newton. There were multitudes of lesser matters, y^t it is scarce worth while to trouble you with. And whether these may be of any use to the kind Design you mentioned to me, you are the best Iudge of; my Intent & I leave it to you to omit, or insert, & in a word, to make w^t use you please of them; my Intent in sending them to you being not only to shew my Veneration of the Memory of S^r Is. Newton, but also the Regard I have to your Request, & y^t I am with great Respect

Hon^d S^r

Your humble serv^t

W^m Derham.