XI 

 NEWTON AND THE COMPOSITION OF LIGHT 



, that giant in physical science of the 

 early seventeenth century, died in 1642. On 

 Christmas day of the same year there was born in 

 England another intellectual giant who was destined 

 to carry forward the work of Copernicus, Kepler, and 

 Galileo to a marvellous consummation through the 

 discovery of the great unifying law in accordance with 

 which the planetary motions are performed. We 

 refer, of course, to the greatest of English physical 

 scientists, Isaac Newton, the Shakespeare of the scien- 

 tific world. Born thus before the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century, Newton lived beyond the first quarter 

 of the eighteenth (1727). For the last forty years of 

 that period his was the dominating scientific personal- 

 ity of the world. With full propriety that time has 

 been spoken of as the "Age of Newton." 



Yet the man who was to achieve such distinction 

 gave no early premonition of future greatness. He 

 was a sickly child from birth, and a boy of little seem- 

 ing promise. He was an indifferent student, yet, on 

 the other hand, he cared little for the common amuse- 

 ments of boyhood. He early exhibited, however, a 

 taste for mechanical contrivances, and spent much 

 time in devising windmills, water-clocks, sun-dials, and 

 kites. While other boys were interested only in hav- 



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