海角大神

Isaac Newton鈥檚 forgotten years as a cosmopolitan Londoner

Newton is often remembered as an isolated thinker. But in actuality, he lived a larger life in the heart of Britain鈥檚 biggest city.

Many of us tend to like our geniuses as neatly lovable caricatures. And when it comes to Isaac Newton, we tend to envision a virtually disembodied intellect who was inspired by a falling apple to revolutionize physics from the quiet of his study at Trinity College.聽

But even when Newton was performing his intellectual feats at Cambridge in the 1680s, he was eager to move on to a new life. Patricia Fara, historian of science at Cambridge University, seeks to chronicle that period in 鈥淟ife after Gravity: Isaac Newton's London Career.鈥� In this book she presents Newton as 鈥渁 metropolitan performer, a global actor who played various parts.鈥澛�

Here we have not the familiar 鈥� and almost inhuman 鈥� Newton who produced his great 鈥淧rincipia Mathematica鈥� in 1687, but rather a worldly, cosmopolitan Newton: master of the Royal Mint, president of the Royal Society, member of parliament, speculator on the market, prominent man-about-town.聽

In many ways it鈥檚 a startling portrait, and it鈥檚 clearly intended to be. Fara is a pleasingly lively historical guide 鈥� not just to Newton鈥檚 London life, but also to the London of those decades. It鈥檚 the London of Queen Anne and William Hogarth and most of all John Dryden, and their presence wonderfully hovers over everything here.聽

We see Newton become preoccupied with straightening out the complicated mess he鈥檇 inherited at the Royal Mint. We see him working the stock market 鈥� not always successfully, which seems at first odd about somebody who invented whole new kinds of calculus at will. And Fara鈥檚 lengthy digressions are as fascinating as her main subject 鈥� particularly the mini-biography she provides of Newton鈥檚 relative and fellow thorough-going London creature John Conduitt.聽

Fara is perfectly aware of the dark shadows lurking everywhere in the period she鈥檚 studying, particularly the slave trade, which was eventually abolished in England 鈥� but not in its colonies 鈥撀� in 1722. 鈥淣ewton knew that the country鈥檚 prosperity depended on the triangular trade in enslaved people,鈥� Fara writes, 鈥渁nd when he was meticulously weighing gold at the Mint, he must have been aware that it had been dug up by Africans whose friends and relatives were being shipped across the Atlantic to cultivate sugar plantations, labour down silver mines, and look after affluent Europeans.鈥� She neither condemns nor lauds Newton, but there鈥檚 no avoiding the fact that her Newton isn鈥檛 a particularly likable guy.聽

Like its famous subject, the book has nagging little flaws. On the purely textual level, the entire thing could have benefitted from one final sweep of the proofreader鈥檚 eye; lines like 鈥淗e openly abhorred Catholicism openly鈥� happen more often than is comfortable. And on the production level, there鈥檚 a graver issue. Fara declares at the onset that her book is about two things: Newton鈥檚 three decades spent in London, and William Hogarth鈥檚 1732 painting 鈥淭he Indian Emperor. Or the Conquest of Mexico鈥� 鈥� which is shown at the beginning of the book in a murky, blurry black-and-white reproduction that鈥檚 completely useless. Readers have to page over to the middle of the book to see it in color, and even then, there are no detail panels.聽

But on balance, the sheer energy of the book shines through, giving readers a messier and more thornily human Newton than the cartoon renditions to which he鈥檚 so often reduced. The period covered by 鈥淟ife After Gravity鈥� has been examined in depth in some of the superb Newton biographies that have appeared over the years; the two best are Richard Westfall鈥檚 鈥淣ever at Rest'' and Gale 海角大神son鈥檚 鈥淚n the Presence of the Creator.鈥� But the greater focus here, like scrutinizing an antic Hogarth painting, yields marvelous and rewarding detail.

So, what was he really like? As Fara writes, 鈥淭he only honest answer is that nobody knows: even when he was still alive, impressions that conflicted with each other could all claim validity.鈥� As she shrewdly notes, all anecdotes 鈥� whether of an absent-minded scientist or ruthless government official 鈥� were crafted by people who wanted to reinforce the Newton they knew, or the one they wanted to believe existed. 鈥淟ife After Gravity鈥� doesn鈥檛 aspire to being a definitive portrait 鈥� rather, like Hogarth鈥檚 painting, it tries to convey a little world.