Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor Cotes : including letters of other eminent men, now first published from the originals in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge; together with an appendix containing other unpublished letters and papers by Newton; with notes, synoptical view of the philosopher's life, and a variety of details illustrative of his history, by J. Edleston.

  • Isaac Newton
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor Cotes : including letters of other eminent men, now first published from the originals in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge; together with an appendix containing other unpublished letters and papers by Newton; with notes, synoptical view of the philosopher's life, and a variety of details illustrative of his history, by J. Edleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    151/430 (page 45)
    of the like nature with Muys wherein I am inform’d he undertakes to overthrow the Principles of Your Philosophy. I do not expect very much from him, & I beleivc Y ou will not Your self when I have told You he is a Person who pretends to have solv’d ye grand Problem of ye Quadrature of the Circle. That the Press may not stop, I am now looking over Your Copy beforehand. I find nothing amiss till I come to Prop: 48. I will choose to make my Objec- tion against the Corollary, wherein You have these words [Nam lineola Physica ey, quamprimum ad locum suum primum EG redierit, quiescet;] This assertion cannot I think be reconciled with what You assert & prove in the Proposition [& propterea vis acceleratrix lineolse Physicse ey est ut ipsius distantia a medio vibrationis loco Q] I propose to alter the whole Proposition thus if You approve of it. [Propagentur pulsus in plagam BC a B versus C & designet BC intervallum eorundem ab invicem. Sint E, F, G puncta tria Physica Medii quiescentis in recta BC ad sequales distantias sita; ee, ff, gg spatia aequalia per- brevia per quse puncta ilia motu reciproco singulis vibra- tionibus eunt & redeunt; e, <p, y loca quawis intermedia eorundem punctorum; & EF, FG lineoke Physicas seu Medii partes lineares punctis illis interjectae & successive imported to us from Italy and France All therefore which I design and intend, is to propose a Philosophy, which is truly English, a Cantabrigian, and a Clarensian one, as it was born, and educated, and studied in those places; And as my Name is not much worse in the Letters which belong to it, than those of Galileus or Des-Cartes, I shall venture to call the GREENIAN.” Mr Green was not altogether a stranger to Newton when Cotes introduced a notice of him in this letter. On making the discovery that the area of a circle is equal to four-fifths of the square of its diameter, shortly after taking his B. A. degree (1700), “ Dominum Newtonum accessi ut eonsulerem,” says he, “orantem qui chartulas perlegeret, ipsis intactis, ne inspectis certe, rejecit, ag- gressus sum dein epistola, recusavit, (in the Preface to his Geometria Solidorum, his phrase is ‘ rescripsit nihil,’) quid posthaec arbitremini me putassel Saltern vel con- temptum me vel Problema.” (Ib. p. 940, 1st Lecture “ ad Clarensem juventutem.’D On the publication of Green’s “ Natural Philosophy ” in 1712, w'here his quadrature of the circle was asserted, he tells us that Cotes was “so kind and obliging as to com- municate to me with great candour and friendship a demonstration against it,” which will be found Ib. pp. 924-5. Cf. Letter CVI.