SOURCE: "Isaac Newton," in Smithsonian Treasury of Science, edited by Webster P. True, Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1960, pp. 278-86.

In the following essay, originally published in 1927, Einstein examines the methods by which Newton approached scientific inquiry and comments on the significance of Newton's achievement.

The two-hundredth anniversary of the death of Newton falls at this time. One's thoughts cannot but turn to this shining spirit, who pointed out, as none before or after him did, the path of Western thought and research and practical construction. He was not only an inventor of genius in respect of particular guiding methods; he also showed a unique mastery of the empirical material known in his time, and he was marvelously inventive in special mathematical and physical demonstrations. For all these reasons he deserves our deep veneration. He is, however, a yet more significant figure than his own mastery makes him, since...