Isaac Newton
Subtitle: the last sorcerer
By: Michael White.
Series: Helix books
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Reading, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 402
Subjects: Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727.; Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727 -- Influence.; Alchemy -- Influence.; Physics -- History.; Science -- History.; Physicists -- Great Britain -- Biography.
Description: It is no exaggeration to say that almost everything we do in the modern world - from looking at the stars through reflecting telescopes to solving problems by means of calculus - is based on Sir Isaac Newton's enormous scientific achievements. But, as Michael White so deftly reveals in this ground-breaking biography, Newton was not the pure scientist of lore. Unknown to all but a hero-worshipping inner circle, Newton was a practicing alchemist who dabbled with the occult.

He did not discover gravity by watching an apple fall - that was a myth created to disguise the messier, perhaps more embarrassing, truth. In reality, Newton's great theories were grasped within the charred base of the crucible and the alchemist's fire.

White confirms that a handful of Newton's friends must have known during his life time: that Newton, driven to investigate everything that puzzled him, expended a vast amount of time and effort studying the chronology of the Bible, examining prophecy, investigating natural magic - perhaps even the black arts - and attempting to unravel the hermetic secrets, the prisca sapientia.

Most remarkable, however, is White's assertion that, far from being a distraction, these alchemical diversions were in fact the key to Newton's world-changing discoveries in science: his alchemical work and his science were inextricably linked.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [363]-385) and index.