ISAAC NEWTON
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loginAT ONCE MORTAL AND IMMORTAL, ISAAC NEWTON WAS BOTH Aliving, breathing man and a legend that forever changed theworld. Yet so reclusive was he at his most creative that his biogra-phers have succeeded in viewing him only through a glass darkly.During a rare moment of introspection, Newton once comparedhimself to a boy playing on a seashore, casting about for a fewbeautiful pebbles that he likened to his greatest discoveries. It isworth noting, however, that even this simple metaphor is mislead-ing. While Newton’s home was an island, he never set eyes on theopen sea beyond the fens until well after he had grown to man-hood. Neither, so far as is known, did he seriously entertain theidea of taking in the wonders of the Continent only a short sailaway, or of communing with Europe’s foremost scientific minds.
