Well, violent death has always been a great spectacle, the biggest turn on lots of people can enjoy from the outside other than sex. (Anyone know the Nicholas Roeg film Performance, Mick Jagger plays Turner, a reclusive retired rock star who takes in Jamie Fox, playing Chas, a gangster enforcer on the run, because he wants to know why (in the words of Turner's girlfriend) "why your show is a bigger turnon than _his_ ever was!" -- Great flick, now out on DVD.)
But there's a difference between liking to watch and actually getting personally involved in directing the festivities. People in Newton's day were a lot more hardened to death and torture than we were; Londoners could walk across the Tower bridge and smell the rotting heads of the hapless traitors that were impaled on spikes across the top, hop over to Tyburn to watch a hanging or two, and if they cared too, now and then, a really gruesome hanging drawing and quartering. This in a country where the law did not permit torture. Really! It's prohibited under the common law.
But there was the "royal prerogative," which was the Monarch's way of saying "see if you can stop me." (That's how Locke puts it, pretty much.) Occasionally they did stop him/her -- the Barons at Runnymede -- here's the text of Magna Carta, the Great Charter of liberty;
http://hc.rediris.es/02/constituciones/html/magna2.htm
Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke (himself having, as Queen's Attorney, roughly Solicitor General, assured the condemnation to death by torture of notable alleged and real plotters against Elizabeth I), telling King James I that the King was under the law and not over it, and making it stick then and later as leader in Parliament, having gotten himself fired for his trouble, and other examples.
Be that as it may. Newton was unusually personally cruel and sadistic (in a very bad way). Definitely a heavy metal type of guy, and no fun at parties.
--- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Wow. I didn't know Newton was so Black Metal.
>
> Given the popularity of public executions in that
> time
> and place, I suspect a lot of people shared Newton's
> tastes.
>
> --- andie nachgeborenen
> <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > As Master of the Mint. Well, he had it done and
> > liked
> > to watch. Being a gentleman, he didn't do it
> > himself.
> > Dirty hands and all that. For more detail, read
> > Frank
> > Manuel's great psychobiography of Newton, A
> Portrait
> > of Isaac Newton. (I used to do History and
> > Philosophy
> > of Science in a former incarnation, and walked in
> > Trinity chapel where stands Newton with his prism
> > and
> > his silent face. I was at Kings', though --
> Keynes'
> > College. Our chapel is better.)
> >
> > http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/newton.htm
> >
> > Sir Isaac Newton, 1624-1727.
> >
> >
> > Cambridge genius, mathematician and physicist. In
> > his
> > Principia Mathematica (1687), Newton introduced
> his
> > three laws of motion and the concepts of mass,
> force
> > and the Principle of Universal Gravitation. In his
> > Opticks (1704) he showed that white light was
> > heterogeneously composed of more basic, primary
> > rays,
> > each with its own specific colour and index of
> > refraction. Independently of Gottfried Leibniz,
> > Newton was also the inventor of the calculus.
> >
> > In 1696, Newton gained an appointment as Warden of
> > the
> > Royal Mint and, in 1700, was made Master. The
> > semi-senile Newton was responsible for the
> > determination of the relationship between the
> values
> > of gold and silver in the minting of coins. His
> > undervaluation of silver led to the effective
> > formation of the gold standard. His understanding
> > of
> > inflation was rather simple-minded -- blaming it
> on
> > clipping and forgery. Newton spent much of his
> > spare
> > time coming up with novel ways of combating
> > inflation,
> > i.e. coming up with new gruesome ways to torture
> and
> > execute counterfeiters and clippers.
> >
> > http://www.simonsingh.com/Isaac_Newton.html
> >
> > Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer
> > Michael White
> >
> >
> > Isaac Newton’s PRINCIPIA is arguably the most
> > significant publication in the history of science,
> > and
> > without doubt its author was the greatest
> scientist
> > this nation has ever produced. Michael White’s
> > biography does describe the great man’s scientific
> > achievements, but the real focus of this book is
> the
> > background to Newton’s tormented personal life,
> > which
> > created such an isolated, obsessive, cruel genius.
> >
> > Newton’s early childhood was marked by rejection
> and
> > hatred. His mother, Hannah, was widowed before
> Isaac
> > was born, and when she remarried her new husband
> > refused to accept her three-year-old son into his
> > home. Eight years later, when she was widowed
> again,
> > Hannah was reunited with Isaac, but the pain of
> > being
> > abandoned was never forgotten. As an undergraduate
> > at
> > Cambridge, Newton confessed his childhood sins in
> a
> > notebook, which included, “Threatening my father
> and
> > mother Smith to burne them and the house over
> them.”
> >
> > An embittered man, Newton lived a life full of
> > vengeful disputes, including long-running battles
> > with
> > John Flamsteed over access to astronomical data,
> > with
> > Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz over who invented
> > calculus, and with Robert Hooke over virtually
> > everything imaginable. White does not skimp when
> > describing these hostile conflicts, and provides
> > valuable insights into the machinations which
> > surrounded the publication of PRINCIPIA.
> >
> > As the sub-title suggests, throughout the book
> there
> > are descriptions of Newton’s secret life-long
> > fascination with alchemy. Newton wrote over a
> > million
> > words on the subject, but this did not make him
> > unusual within the community of scientists - many
> > other members of the Royal Society privately
> shared
> > Newton’s obsession. Alchemists tended to work in
> > secret to avoid the wrath of the church and
> > prosecution under an anti-alchemy law passed by
> > Henry
> > IV. Subsequent monarchs were slightly more
> tolerant,
> > hoping that discovery of the philosopher’s stone
> > might
> > help the Crown pay off its debts, but the law
> > remained
> > in force and alchemists continued to conduct their
> > research behind closed doors.
> >
> > White gives an enlightening account of Newton’s
> > exploits in alchemy and his scientific research,
> but
> > he also attempts to go one step further by arguing
> > that the former influenced and inspired the
> latter.
> > His controversial argument is not wholly
> convincing,
> > and merely distracts from an otherwise fascinating
> > biography. Even beyond the world science Newton
> led
> > an
> > eventful life, which included a period as Master
> of
> > the Royal Mint. Until Newton reformed the nation’s
> > currency, Britain was on the point of economic
> > collapse. Most importantly he introduced milled
> > coins,
> > which prevented the practice of clipping - the
> > removal
> > a coin’s edge and turning clippings into new
> coins.
> > He
> > went on to frequent brothels and bars in an effort
> > to
> > hunt down counterfeiters, who he would have hung
> > drawn
> > and quartered. Here was a scientist who could
> > explain
> > gravity, create calculus, humiliate his rivals,
> > dabble
> > in alchemy and still have time to torture
> > counterfeiters - those were the days!
> >
> >
> >
> > --- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > > He did?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
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> >
>
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> > >
> >
>
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> > >
> >
> >
>
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