Isaac Newton

1642-1727. Came from humble origins, went to Cambridge and staid there as don. Famous as the leading scientist of his age, writing on optics, mathematics, the laws of gravity. President of the Royal Society. Alexander Pope expressed the admiration of society for Newton thus:

“Nature and Nature’s Laws lay hid in Night;

God said Let Newton be! and all was Light.” (Quoted in Sambrook 1986: 2)

Many people popularised Newton’s ideas in the 18th century. There were public lectures on science in coffee-houses. Addison wrote about Newton in his famous weekly journal The Spectator. There was even a Newton for Ladies.

Sources:

Oxford Companion to English Literature.

James Sambrook. The Eighteenth Century. The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English Literature, 1700-1789. London: Longman, 1986.