Sir Isaac Newton and the Greek Philosophers

Abstract

A FEW years ago I suspected that justice was not given to the brilliant astronomical discoveries of the ancient Greeks, and this led me to copy, to collect, and to classify several thousands of their passages relating to the structure and polity of the universe. A sound independent basis was thus established for checking the originality of the reformers of astronomy since the sixteenth century, and for rendering “unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's”, in a very important period of the history of science.