Preface

This small book has no pretensions to being a ``Life of Newton''; it is simply a small chapter in History and gives a view of Newton from a specially selected standpoint. Had it been in French I should probably have given it the title of Le Grand Newton en pantoufles, since that is the view of England' s great genius that I have endeavoured to adopt. This title, however, cannot be translated into English without degeneration into burlesque ; the nearest I could get to it was Newton: the Man.

I would wish to express my thanks to the British Museum authorities for their kind permission to reproduce photographically the very fine ivory bust of Newton by Le Marchand; also my very best thanks are due to Mr. Gordon D. Knox for his great help, especially in the collation of the two Catalogues.

Although I have carefully done my best, I can hardly hope to have escaped making some errors, and in reference to these I cannot do better than quote Newton's most modest words in his Preface to the Principia:

``I heartily beg that what I have here done may be read with candour, and that the defects I have been gulity of upon this difficult subject may be, not so much reprehended, as kindly supplied, and investigated by new endeavours of my readers.''