A genius as Isaac Newton is "a boy playing on the seashore ... finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

by Yanick Toutain

Revactu

22/1/15

"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." Isaac Newton

A genious knows he is a genious. But he understand that everyone can become a genious and every young boy or girl is a genious !

Newton's life on display

The acquisition reunited the papers with the Portsmouth Collection, the principal archive of Newton's scientific papers, which was presented to the university by the fifth Earl of Portsmouth in 1872.

"This exhibition in itself marks the acquisition of one of the most important collections in the library's history and we are delighted that we were able to re-unite these important papers and keep them in this country," said university librarian Peter Fox.

"Newton's manuscripts and books, some of which are from his own library, tell an even more complex story of this genius that is quite different from that of the alchemist and heretic, who had, for much of his life, lived a private life and deliberately avoided publicity of any kind."

The papers cover Newton's prolific scientific and political career.