How To Read A Book- A Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading - Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren [175]
From an early period of his life Newton had been much interested in theological studies and before 1690 had begun to study the prophecies. In that year he wrote, in the form of a letter to Locke, an Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of the Scriptures, regarding two passages on the Trinity. He left in manuscript Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse and other works of exegesis.
After 1725 Newton's health was much impaired, and his duties at the Mint were discharged by a deputy. In February, 1727, he presided for the last time at the Royal Society, of which he had been president since 1703, and died on March 20, 1727, in his eighty-fifth year. He was buried in Westminster Abbey after lying in state in the Jerusalem Chamber.
376 HOW TO READ A BOOK
Test B : Questions about the
biography of Sir Isaac Newton
I. Before Newton gained admission to Trinity College, Cam bridge, he took a special interest in ( a ) politics ( b ) theology ( c ) mechanical devices ( d ) science and mathematics.
2. Newton was knighted by ( a ) King Charles II ( 1660-1685 ) ( b ) King James II ( 1685-1688 ) ( c ) Queen Anne ( 1702-1714 ) ( d ) King George I ( 1714-1727 ).
3. When Trinity College was closed for two years from 1665 to 1667 as a consequence of the spreading of the Great Plague from London to Cambridge, Newton along with many other students took an extended holiday on the Continent.
(True or False?)
4. Newton was elected to Parliament on the basis of ( a) his handling of antiroyalist rioting among the students ( b ) his opposition to James Il's attempt to repudiate the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy ( c ) his handling of student and faculty panic in the face of the spread of the Great Plague from London to Cambridge.
5. During the latter part of his life, Newton was occupied and distressed by his involvement in controversies regarding (a ) astronomical observations of the astronomer royal ( b ) the invention of the calculus ( c ) the prophecies of Daniel.
6. Newton originally wrote his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in ( a ) Greek ( b ) Latin ( c ) English.
7. Among other matters, the work explained ( a ) why apples fall ( b ) the orbits of the planets ( c ) how to square a circle ( d ) in what respects God is a geometrician.
8. Optics is ( a ) the general name given to the study of light, the radiant energy that among other things by its action upon the organs of vision enables man to see ( b ) the general name for the study of the eye in man and other animals ( c ) the technology of the production of the lens and its use in telescopes.
9. Newton, in his Optics, ( a ) proved that light travels at Appendix B 377
30,00 kilometers an hour ( b ) revealed the composition of white light ( c ) described how white light can be broken up by a prism into the colors of the spectrum ( d ) outlined some military uses of the telescope.
10. As an old man, Newton remarked: "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." Comment on this statement in 250
words.
Tum to p. 413 for the answers to Test B.
You have now completed the two-part reading exercise at the first level of reading. You will of course have noted that,