Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27), the English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, explainer of celestial mechanics, philosopher and author who watched an apple exemplify the law of gravity once listed 48 sins he has “committed” before and just after Whitsunday, 1662. Given the rather benign nature of many of them, 57 appears to be admirably few and could be achieved by many of us by lunch.
Newton (1795, detail) by William Blake. Newton is depicted critically as a “divine geometer”
BEFORE WHITSUNDAY, 1662
- Using the word (God) openly
- Eating an apple at Thy house
- Making a feather while on Thy day
- Denying that I made it
- Making a mousetrap on Thy day
- Contriving of the chimes on Thy day
- Squirting water on Thy day
- Making pies on Sunday night
- Swimming in a kimnel on Thy day
- Putting a pin in Iohn Keys hat on Thy day to pick him
- Carelessly hearing and committing many sermons
- Refusing to go to the close at my mothers command
- Threatning my father and mother Smith to burne them and the house over them
- Wishing death and hoping it to some
- Striking many
- Having uncleane thoughts words and actions and dreamese
- Stealing cherry cobs from Eduard Storer
- Denying that I did so
- Denying a crossbow to my mother and grandmother though I knew of it
- Setting my heart on money learning pleasure more than Thee
- A relapse
- A relapse
- A breaking again of my covenant renued in the Lords Supper
- Punching my sister
- Robbing my mothers box of plums and sugar
- Calling Dorothy Rose a jade
- Glutiny in my sickness
- Peevishness with my mother
- With my sister
- Falling out with the servants
- Divers commissions of alle my duties
- Idle discourse on Thy day and at other times
- Not turning nearer to Thee for my affections
- Not living according to my belief
- Not loving Thee for Thy self
- Not loving Thee for Thy goodness to us
- Not desiring Thy ordinances
- Not long [longing] for Thee in [illegible]
- Fearing man above Thee
- Using unlawful means to bring us out of distresses
- Caring for worldly things more than God
- Not craving a blessing from God on our honest endeavors
- Missing chapel
- Beating Arthur Storer
- Peevishness at Master Clarks for a piece of bread and butter
- Striving to cheat with a brass halfe crowne
- Twisting a cord on Sunday morning
- Reading the history of the Christian champions on Sunday
Since Whitsunday, 1662
49. Glutony
50. Glutony
51. Vsing Wilfords towel to spare my own
52. Negligence at the chapel.
53. Sermons at Saint Marys (4)
54. Lying about a louse
55. Denying my chamberfellow of the knowledge of him that took him for a sot.
56. Neglecting to pray 3
57. Helping Pettit to make his water watch at 12 of the clock on Saturday night
Via: Fitzwilliam Notebook,
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