ABSTRACT
In early 1673, Isaac Newton announced his intention to withdraw from all correspondence about natural philosophy. Just a year before, the young Cambridge don had submitted his first publication to the Royal Society and had agreed to have it printed in the Philosophical Transactions. The essay, titled ‘New Theory of Light and Colours’, introduced the world of natural philosophy to a new methodology of scientific discourse and experimentation. For Newton, it was quality that mattered, not quantity. Written in a rather concise style, the essay put forward a theory that seems plausible to us now: that light consists of differently coloured rays, each with their own angle of refraction. It was not so clear-cut to Newton’s contemporaries though. Within a few weeks Newton found himself the recipient of letters from various national and international natural philosophers. Evidently, he was not pleased with the tone of many of these letters, which questioned his methods, his accuracy and even his honesty. One year and one month after he had submitted his ‘New Theory’ to the Royal Society, Newton wrote:
I desire that you will procure that I may be put out from being any longer fellow of the R Society. For though I honour that body, yet since I see I shall neither profit them, nor (by reason of this distance) can partake of the advantage of their Assemblies, I desire to withdraw.
