Letter from Newton to Henry Oldenburg, dated 25 January 1675/6

<50r>

|Jan. 25. 16$\frac{75}{76}$.|

S^r

I received both your's & thank you for yo^r care in disposing those things between me & M^r Linus. I suppose his friends cannot blame you at all for printing his first Letter, it being written I beleive for that end, & they never complaining of y^e printing of y^t but of y^e not printing that w^ch followed, w^ch I take my self to have been per accidens y^e occasion of by refusing to answer him. And though I think I may truly say I was very little concernd about it, yet I must look upon it as y^e result of yo^r kindnes to me y^t you was unwilling to print it w^thout an answer.

As to y^e printing Paper of Observations w^ch you move in y^e name of y^e Society to have printed, I cannot but return them my hearty thanks for y^e kind acceptance they meet w^th there; & know not how to deny any thing w^ch they desire should be done. Only I think it will be best to suspend y^e printing of them for a while because I have some thoughts of writing such another set of Observations for determining y^e manner of y^e production of colours by y^e Prism, w^ch, if done at all, ought to precede y^t now in yo^r hands, & will do best to be joyned w^th it. But this I cannot do at p^rsently by reason of some incumbrances lately put upon me by some friends, & some other buisines of my own w^ch at p^rsent almost take up my time & thoughts.

The additions that I intended, I think I must after putting you to so long expectations disappoint you in: for it puzzels me how to connect them w^th what I sent you; & if I had those papers yet I doubt y^e things I intended will not come in so freely as I thought they might have done. I could send them described w^thout dependance on those papers, but I fear I have already troubled y^e{illeg} Society & yo^r self too much w^th my scribbling, & so suppose it may do better to defer them till another season. I have therefore at p^rsent only sent you two or three alterations though not of so great moment y^t I need have stayed you for them: & they are these.

Where I say that nat the frame of nature may be nothing but Æther condensed by a fermental principle, instead of those words write that it may be nothing but \various contextures of/ some certain æthereal spirits or vapours condensed as it were by precipitation, much after y^e manner that vapors are condensed into water or exhalations into grosser substances, though not so easily condensible; & after condensation f{illeg}ced \wrought/ into various {illeg} \forms/, at first by y^e immediate hand of God \the Creator/, & ever since by y^e power of nature, who {illeg}|b|y virtue of y^e command Increas & multiply <50v> {became} a complete imitator of y^e {illeg} copies set her by y^e Protoplast. Thus perhaps may all things be originated from æther, &c.

A little after where I say y^e æthereal spirit may be condensed in fermenting or burning bodies or otherwise inspissated in y^e pores of y^e earth to a tender matter w^ch may be {illeg} as it were y^e succus nutri{illeg}|t|ious of y^e earth or primary substance out of w^ch things generable grow: instead of this you may write y^t that spirit may be condensed in fermenting or burning bodies or otherwise coagulated in y^e pores of y^e earth & water into some kind of humid adctive matter for y^e continual uses of nature, adhering to y^e sides of those pores after y^e manner that vapors condense on y^e sides of a vessel.

In y^e same paragraph there is, I think, a parenthesis in w^ch I mention volatile Saltpeter, pray strike out that Parenthesis least it should give offence to somebody.

Also where I relate y^e expe^triment of little papers made to move variously w^th a glas rubbed, I would have all that struck out w^ch follows about trying y^e exp^t w^th leaf gold. S^r I am interrupted by a visit & so must in hast b{illeg}|r|eak of

Yo^rs

Is. Newton

Jan 25. 7$\frac{5}{6}$.