792 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



dent for overlooking his prior claims ; he endeavored to persuade the 

 members that Newton was indebted to him for the first hint of a dis- 

 covery which he pretended was but a small part of what he himself 

 had conceived, and was engaged in perfecting ; he did not attempt to 

 conceal that he regarded Newton's triumph in the light of a personal 

 injury. When this " strange carriage " was reported (probably with 

 some exaggeration) to Newton, he was, not unreasonably, incensed, 

 and wrote to Halley concerning it in somewhat acrimonious terms. 

 Halley, who seems to have acted throughout a very creditable part, 

 replied by urging that Hooke's conduct had been represented in worse 

 colors than it deserved ; whereupon Newton not only expressed his 

 regret for the angry " postscript to his last," but agreed, with the view 

 of " composing the dispute," to insert into the text of his book the fol- 

 lowing acknowledgment : 



" The inverse law of gravity holds in all the celestial motions, as 

 was discovered also independently by my countrymen, Wren, Hooke, 

 and Halley."* 



How far Hooke was pacified by this concession does not appear ; 

 but there is evidence that be continued, although in a lower key, to 

 claim ownership in the discovery of gravity. It was, indeed, difficult 

 for him to see with equanimity the great scientific prize of the century, 

 which he had set before him as the crowning glory of his own career, 

 carried off before his eyes by a swifter competitor ; and he could not 

 be expected to recognize, what to us is evident enough, that his powers 

 were wholly unequal to the unique achievement of his rival. The in- 

 tuition of a discovery is one thing, its demonstration another ; and, 

 while the one excites our interest and curiosity, it is to the other that 

 we justly appoi'tion our unqualified admiration. 



Between Hooke and Newton no further intercourse seems at any 

 time to have been set on foot. If Hooke was jealous of Newton, New- 

 ton was perhaps somewhat ungenerous toward Hooke. He recognized 

 his merits with reluctance, and acknowledged his inventions only by 

 compulsion. Broils and disquietudes, and the fomentors and origina- 

 tors thereof, were in truth odious to him ; and he was at all times dis- 

 posed to conceal a discovery, rather than risk a controversy. " Philos- 

 ophy," he wrote to Halley, f " is such an impertinently litigious lady, 

 that a man had as good be engaged in lawsuits as have to do with her." 

 Thus the turmoil raised by Hooke on the appearance of the first part 

 of the " Principia " inspired him with so deep a disgust that he seri- 

 ously contemplated suppressing the remainder ; and he could never be 

 induced to publish his work on " Optics" until the death of his unquiet 

 opponent had secured for it a peaceful reception. But the most sig- 

 nificant fact as regards the relations of these two men is that Newton, 



* Scholium to the Fourth Proposition in First Book of "Principia." Brewster, "Life 

 of Newton," vol. i., p. 311. 



f Letter of June 20, 1686, "Biographia Britannica," article " Halley." 



