How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

by Mortimer J. Adler

  ____

  ____

  (c)

  an active segregationist

  ____

  ____

  (d)

  a strong advocate of censorship of newspapers and other mass media

  ____

  ____

  10. It can be inferred from the text that Mill considered his wife (the former Mrs. Harriet Taylor), both during their marriage and after her death, to be (a) his severest critic (b) his best friend (c) his greatest enemy (d) his muse.

  Turn to p. 413 for the answers to Test A.

  Sir Isaac Newton is of enormous interest to scholars and historians of science at the present day. There are two main reasons for this. The first is a commonplace. By combining analysis with experimentation—by combining theorizing with systematic observation of natural phenomena—men like Galileo and Newton launched an intellectual revolution and helped to usher in our modern age of science. Not only did they discover truths about the physical world that continue to be relevant and important, but they also developed new methods of studying nature that have proved to be of wide usefulness in many areas of study and research.

  That, as we said, is a commonplace; that aspect of Newton’s life and achievement has been known and discussed for centuries. More recently, Newton has become the center of a worldwide study of the character of genius. Scholars and stup. 372dents of science and literature endlessly rank scientists and authors as more or less great, or on a scale ranging from extraordinary to genius. There is a considerable body of learned opinion that maintains that Newton was the supreme genius—the greatest intellect of all time. Many efforts have been made to characterize and account for genius. Precocity, the ability to concentrate, acute intuitiveness, rigorous analytical capacity—by terms such as these genius is described. All these terms seem to apply to Isaac Newton.

  The biographical sketch of Newton that follows is reprinted from Volume 34 of Great Books of the Western World. That volume contains the texts of Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (often known as Newton’s Principia) and of his Optics; it also contains the text of the Treatise on Light of the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens. The biography of Newton is somewhat longer than the one of Mill; therefore, take ten to twelve minutes to read it. As before, mark the most striking passages and make notes. Then try to answer the questions that follow.

  Sir Isaac Newton

  1642-1727

  Newton was born at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, on Christmas Day, 1642. His father, a small farmer, died a few months before his birth, and when in 1645 his mother married the rector of North Witham, Newton was left with his maternal grandmother at Woolsthorpe. After having acquired the rudiments of education at small schools close by, Newton was sent at the age of twelve to the grammar school at Grantham, where he lived in the house of an apothecary. By his own account, Newton was at first an indifferent scholar until a successful fight with another boy aroused a spirit of emulation and led to his becoming first in the school. He displayed very early a taste and aptitude for mechanical contrivances; he made windmills, water clocks, kites, and sundials, and he is said to have invented a four-wheel carriage which was to be moved by the rider.

  p. 373 After the death of her second husband in 1656, Newton’s mother returned to Woolsthorpe and removed her eldest son from school so that he might prepare himself to manage the farm. But it was soon evident that his interests were not in farming, and upon the advice of his uncle, the rector of Burton Coggles, he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1661 as one of the boys who performed menial services in return for their expenses. Although there is no record of his formal progress as a student, Newton is known to have read widely in mathematics and mechanics. His first reading at Cambridge was in the optical works of Kepler. He turned to Euclid because he was bothered by his inability to comprehend certain diagrams in a book on astrology he had bought at a fair; finding its propositions self-evident, he put it aside as “a trifling book,” until his teacher, Isaac Barrow, induced him to take up the book again. It appears to have been the study of Descartes’ Geometry which inspired him to do original mathematical work. In a small commonplace book kept by Newton as an undergraduate, there are several articles on angular sections and the squaring of curves, several calculations about musical notes, geometrical problems from Vieta and Van Schooten, annotations out of Wallis’ Arithmetic of Infinities, together with observations on refraction, on the grinding of spherical optic glasses, on the errors of lenses, and on the extraction of all kinds of roots. It was around the time of his taking the Bachelor’s degree, in 1665, that Newton discovered the binomial theorem and made the first notes on his discovery of the “method of fluxions.”

  When the Great Plague spread from London to Cambridge in 1665, college was dismissed, and Newton retired to the farm in Lincolnshire, where he conducted experiments in optics and chemistry and continued his mathematical speculations. From this forced retirement in 1666 he dated his discovery of the gravitational theory: “In the same year I began to think of gravity extending to the orb of the Moon, . . . compared the force requisite to keep the Moon in her orb with the force of gravity at the surface of the earth and found them to answer pretty nearly.” At about the same time his work on optics led to his explanation of the composition of white light. Of the work he accomplished in these years Newton later remarked: “All this was in the two years of 1665 and 1666, for in those years I was in the prime of my age for invention and minded Mathematics and Philosophy more than at any time since.”

  p. 374 On the re-opening of Trinity College in 1667, Newton was elected a fellow, and two years later, a little before his twenty-seventh birthday, he was appointed Lucasian professor of mathematics, succeeding his friend and teacher, Dr. Barrow. Newton had already built a reflecting telescope in 1668; the second telescope of his making he presented to the Royal Society in December, 1671. Two months later, as a fellow of the Society, he communicated his discovery on light and thereby started a controversy which was to run for many years and to involve Hooke, Lucas, Linus, and others. Newton, who always found controversy distasteful, “blamed my own imprudence for parting with so substantial a blessing as my quiet to run after a shadow.” His papers on optics, the most important of which were communicated to the Royal Society between 1672 and 1676, were collected in the Optics (1704).

  It was not until 1684 that Newton began to think of making known his work on gravity. Hooke, Halley, and Sir Christopher Wren had independently come to some notion of the law of gravity but were not having any success in explaining the orbits of the planets. In that year Halley consulted Newton on the problem and was astonished to find that he had already solved it. Newton submitted to him four theorems and seven problems, which proved to be the nucleus of his major work. In some seventeen or eighteen months during 1685 and 1686 he wrote in Latin the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Newton thought for some time of suppressing the third book, and it was only Halley’s insistence that preserved it. Halley also took upon himself the cost of publishing the work in 1687 after the Royal Society proved unable to meet its cost. The book caused great excitement throughout Europe, and in 1689 Huygens, at that time the more famous scientist, came to England to make the personal acquaintance of Newton.

  While working upon the Principles, Newton had begun to take a more prominent part in university affairs. For his opposition to the attempt of James II to repudiate the oath of allegiance and supremacy at the university, Newton was elected parliamentary member for Cambridge. On his return to the university, he suffered a serious illness which incapacitated him for most of 1692 and 1693 and caused considerable concern to his friends and fellow workers. After his recovery, he left the university to work for the government. Through his friends Locke, Wren, and Lord p. 375 Halifax, Newton was made Warden of the Mint in 1695 and four years later, Master of the Mint, a position he held until his death.

  For the last thirty years of his
life Newton produced little original mathematical work. He kept his interest and his skill in the subject; in 1696 he solved overnight a problem offered by Bernoulli in a competition for which six months had been allowed, and again in 1716 he worked in a few hours a problem which Leibniz had proposed in order to “feel the pulse of the English analysts.” He was much occupied, to his own distress, with two mathematical controversies, one regarding the astronomical observations of the astronomer royal, and the other with Leibniz regarding the invention of calculus. He also worked on revisions for a second edition of the Principles, which appeared in 1713.

  Newton’s scientific work brought him great fame. He was a popular visitor at the Court and was knighted in 1705. Many honors came to him from the continent; he was in correspondence with all the leading men of science, and visitors became so frequent as to prove a serious discomfort. Despite his fame, Newton maintained his modesty. Shortly before his death, he remarked: “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.”

  From an early period of his life Newton had been much interested in theological studies and before 1690 had begun to study the prophecies. In that year he wrote, in the form of a letter to Locke, an Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of the Scriptures, regarding two passages on the Trinity. He left in manuscript Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse and other works of exegesis.

  After 1725 Newton’s health was much impaired, and his duties at the Mint were discharged by a deputy. In February, 1727, he presided for the last time at the Royal Society, of which he had been president since 1703, and died on March 20, 1727, in his eighty-fifth year. He was buried in Westminster Abbey after lying in state in the Jerusalem Chamber.

  Test B:

  Questions about the biography of Sir Isaac Newton

  p. 376 1. Before Newton gained admission to Trinity College, Cambridge, he took a special interest in (a) politics (b) theology (c) mechanical devices (d) science and mathematics.

  2. Newton was knighted by (a) King Charles II (1660-1685) (b) King James II (1685-1688) (c) Queen Anne (1702-1714) (d) King George I (1714-1727).

  3. When Trinity College was closed for two years from 1665 to 1667 as a consequence of the spreading of the Great Plague from London to Cambridge, Newton along with many other students took an extended holiday on the Continent. (True or False?)

  4. Newton was elected to Parliament on the basis of (a) his handling of antiroyalist rioting among the students (b) his opposition to James II’s attempt to repudiate the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy (c) his handling of student and faculty panic in the face of the spread of the Great Plague from London to Cambridge.

  5. During the latter part of his life, Newton was occupied and distressed by his involvement in controversies regarding (a) astronomical observations of the astronomer royal (b) the invention of the calculus (c) the prophecies of Daniel.

  6. Newton originally wrote his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in (a) Greek (b) Latin (c) English.

  7. Among other matters, the work explained (a) why apples fall (b) the orbits of the planets (c) how to square a circle (d) in what respects God is a geometrician.

  8. Optics is (a) the general name given to the study of light, the radiant energy that among other things by its action upon the organs of vision enables man to see (b) the general name for the study of the eye in man and other animals (c) the technology of the production of the lens and its use in telescopes.

  9. Newton, in his Optics, (a) proved that light travels at p. 377 300,000 kilometers an hour (b) revealed the composition of white light (c) described how white light can be broken up by a prism into the colors of the spectrum (d) outlined some military uses of the telescope.

  10. As an old man, Newton remarked: “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.” Comment on this statement in 250 words.

  Turn to p. 413 for the answers to Test B.

  You have now completed the two-part reading exercise at the first level of reading. You will of course have noted that, as we reminded you they would, the questions draw not only on the texts read but also on historical and other information not explicitly included in the text. The capable reader, even at this first level, can bring useful information to bear on whatever he reads. In general, the better informed he is, the better he reads.

  If you have done reasonably well in answering the test questions, it must be obvious to you that you are a pretty well-rounded reader and that you have reached and even exceeded the standards set for Elementary Reading. We hope you have also recognized that these exercises and tests were designed not only to improve your skill as a reader but also to help you learn something worth knowing, or to apply something you already know to what you read.

  II. Exercises and Tests at the Second Level of Reading:

  Inspectional Reading

  The tables of contents of two works included in Great Books of the Western World are used as texts for reading and p. 378 testing in this section of Appendix B. In addition, short biographical sketches of their authors—Dante and Darwin—are also reprinted here, for the reader’s information and also as material from which test questions are drawn.

  The biography of Dante and the table of contents of his Divine Comedy are taken from Volume 21 of Great Books of the Western World. That volume contains only the Divine Comedy. But Dante wrote other works, in prose and verse, of great interest and beauty, although only his Comedy (the adjective “Divine” was added after his death) is widely read today.

  You will recall, from Chapter 4, that there are two steps in Inspectional Reading. The first we called Pre-Reading or Skimming; the second, Superficial Reading. As we do not have the entire text of the Divine Comedy before us for this sample reading exercise, we will treat the table of contents of the work, given here in its entirety, as though it were a book in itself. That is, we suggest that you spend less than ten minutes (here, speed is of the essence) systematically skimming the whole table of contents, after which you can try answering some questions; and then we will ask you to read the table of contents over again superficially—that is, in about twenty minutes—and then answer some more questions.

  The total reading time to be devoted to the table of contents of the Divine Comedy is therefore half an hour. Considering that scholars have devoted thirty years of their lives to the Divine Comedy, we dare say that thirty minutes of inspection is indeed superficial. At the same time, it is not presumptuous or vain. One can learn a lot about this great poem in half an hour. And as to those for whom Dante and the Divine Comedy are vague names at best, a careful inspection of the table of contents may induce them to inspect the whole work, or even lead them on to read the whole analytically, at the third level of reading.

  Before giving the table of contents your first inspection—before either pre-reading or systematically skimming it—read the biographical note about Dante in a few minutes. It will p. 379 help you understand what Dante is planning and doing in the Divine Comedy—and also help you to answer some of our questions.

  Dante Alighieri

  1265-1321

  Dante Alighieri was born in Florence about the middle of May, 1265. The city, then under its first democratic constitution, was sharply divided between the Papal party of the Guelphs and the Imperial party of the Ghibellines. Dante’s family were adherents of the Guelph faction, and when Dante was only a few months old, the Guelphs obtained decisive victory at the Battle of Benevento. Although of noble ancestry, the Alighieri family was neither wealthy nor particularly prominent.

  It seems probable that Dante r
eceived his early education at the Franciscan school of Santa Croce. He evidently owed much to the influence of Brunetto Latini, the philosopher and scholar who figured largely in the councils of the Florentine commune. Before Dante was twenty, he began writing poetry and became associated with the Italian poets of the “sweet new style,” who exalted their love and their ladies in philosophical verse. Dante’s “lady,” whom he celebrated with singular devotion, was a certain Beatrice. According to Boccaccio’s life of Dante, she was Beatrice Portinari, daughter of a Florentine citizen, who married a wealthy banker and died when she was but twenty-four. Dante first sang of Beatrice in the Vita Nuova (1292), a sequence of poems with prose comment in which he recounts the story of his love, of the first meeting when they were both nine years of age, of the exchange of greetings which passed between them on May Day, 1283, and of Beatrice’s death in 1290.

  Upon turning thirty, Dante became actively involved in Florentine politics. The constitution of the city was based upon the guilds, and Dante, upon his enrollment in the guild of physicians and apothecaries, which also included book dealers, became eligible for office. He participated in the deliberations of the councils, served on a special embassy, and in 1300 was elected one of the six priors that governed the city. The former struggle between the Guelphs and Ghibellines had appeared in new form in the conflict p. 380 between the Whites and the Blacks. As one of the priors, Dante seems to have been influential in the move to lessen factionalism by banishing from Florence the rival leaders, including among the Blacks his wife’s relative, Corso Donati, and among the Whites his “first friend,” the poet, Guido Cavalcanti. Despite the opposition of Dante and the White leaders to Papal interference in Florentine affairs, Pope Boniface VIII in 1301 invited Charles of Valois, brother of King Philip of France, to enter Florence to settle the differences between the two factions. Actually he assisted the Blacks to seize power, and more than six hundred Whites were condemned to exile. In 1302 Dante, with four others of the White party, was charged with corruption in office. He was condemned to pay a fine of five thousand florins within three days or lose his property, exiled for two years, and denied the right ever again to hold public office. Three months later, upon his refusal to pay the fine, Dante was condemned to be burned alive if he should come within the power of the republic.