SOURCE: "Reading Locke and Newton as Literature," in University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 4, Summer 1988, pp. 472-82.

In the following essay, Wilson argues that such literary topics as narration, point of view, diction, image patterns, and "creative myth making or imaginative range" may be found in the works of both Locke and Newton. Wilson explores Newton's use of first-person narration, the settings and props used in discussion of experiments, and the use of negative interrogative syntax.

What does one expect from a title like 'Reading Locke and Newton as Literature'? Maybe some account of their prose style, or, more broadly, of their rhetoric, as it contributes to the persuasive quality of what they are arguing for. Well, it would certainly be possible to include my particular concerns, plus plenty of other matters, under the broad umbrella of rhetoric. But what I really want to do is discuss Locke...