• "The mark that seems most of all to distinguish it [the character of his genius] is this, that he himself was the truest judge, and made the justest estimation of it. One day, when one of this friends had said some handsome things of his extraordinary talents, Sir Isaac, in an easy and unaffected way, assured him, that for his own part he was sensible, that whatever he had done worth notice, was owing to a patience of thought, rather than an extraordinary sagacity which he was endowed with above other men. [He begins his first letter to Dr Bentley in 1692, thus, 'When I wrote my treatise about our system, I had an eye upon such principles as might work with considering men for the belief of a Deity, and nothing can rejoice me more than to find it useful for that purpose. But if I have done the public any service this way, it is due to nothing but industry and patient thought.' Four letters, &c. Edit. 1756, 2vo.] I keep the subject constantly before me, and wait ’till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light. And hence we are able to give a very natural account of that unusual kind of horror which he had for all disputes upon these points; a steady unbroken attention was his peculiar felicity, he knew it, and he knew the value of it. In such a situation of mind, controversy must needs be looked upon him as his bane. However, he was at a great distance from being steeped in Philosophy: on the contrary, he could lay aside his thoughts, though engaged in the most intricate researches, when his other affairs required his attendance and, as soon as he had leisure, resume the subject at the point where he left off. This he seems to have done, not so much by any extraordinary strength of memory, as by the force of his inventive faculty, to which every thing opened itself again with ease, if nothing intervened to ruffle him. The readiness of his invention made him not think of putting his memory much to the trial; but this was the offspring of a vigorous intenseness of thought, out of which he was but a common man."
I keep the subject constantly before me, and wait 'till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light.
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I keep the subject constantly before me, and wait 'till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light." in the context of "Reply upon being asked how he made his discoveries, as quoted in "Biographia Britannica: Or the Lives of the Most Eminent Persons who Have Flourished in Great Britain from the Earliest Ages Down to the Present Times, Volume 5 ", by W. Innys, (1760), p. 3241. Fuller quote:
• "The mark that seems most of all to distinguish it [the character of his genius] is this, that he himself was the truest judge, and made the justest estimation of it. One day, when one of this friends had said some handsome things of his extraordinary talents, Sir Isaac, in an easy and unaffected way, assured him, that for his own part he was sensible, that whatever he had done worth notice, was owing to a patience of thought, rather than an extraordinary sagacity which he was endowed with above other men. [He begins his first letter to Dr Bentley in 1692, thus, 'When I wrote my treatise about our system, I had an eye upon such principles as might work with considering men for the belief of a Deity, and nothing can rejoice me more than to find it useful for that purpose. But if I have done the public any service this way, it is due to nothing but industry and patient thought.' Four letters, &c. Edit. 1756, 2vo.] I keep the subject constantly before me, and wait ’till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light. And hence we are able to give a very natural account of that unusual kind of horror which he had for all disputes upon these points; a steady unbroken attention was his peculiar felicity, he knew it, and he knew the value of it. In such a situation of mind, controversy must needs be looked upon him as his bane. However, he was at a great distance from being steeped in Philosophy: on the contrary, he could lay aside his thoughts, though engaged in the most intricate researches, when his other affairs required his attendance and, as soon as he had leisure, resume the subject at the point where he left off. This he seems to have done, not so much by any extraordinary strength of memory, as by the force of his inventive faculty, to which every thing opened itself again with ease, if nothing intervened to ruffle him. The readiness of his invention made him not think of putting his memory much to the trial; but this was the offspring of a vigorous intenseness of thought, out of which he was but a common man."" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
About Isaac Newton