Item 158 - Letter from Dawson Turner

2 pp.

Thanks WW for his pamphlet on the Newton and Flamsteed controversy ['Newton and Flamsteed: Remarks on an Article in Number 109 of the Quarterly Review', 1836]: 'I am not sure that I do not wish that you had rather been content to let the whole matter rest, and not combat a review, which is in reality very much like combatting the air, and where our opponent must always be on unfair terms, inasmuch as the poison, if such be, will penetrate in numberless directions when the antidote cannot follow it. The fact appears to be, that Newton, great as he was, was not exempt from the common set of humanity; that Mr Baily's [Francis Baily] publication necessarily brought forth the weakness of his character in a strong light'.