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'Making a mousetrap on Thy day'

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'Making a mousetrap on Thy day'

The many sins of 19-year-old Isaac Newton

Shaun Usher
Apr 10, 2022
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'Making a mousetrap on Thy day'

www.listsofnote.com

Welcome to the third issue of the Lists of Note newsletter: each Sunday, a fascinating list from history. If you haven’t already, sign up.


Newton’s sins. From the Lists of Note book.

Sir Isaac Newton is undoubtedly one of the most influential scientists in human history. In 1668, he built the world’s first successful reflecting telescope; then, in 1687, he published Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, a hugely important book in which he laid out the laws of motion and universal gravitation. In 1964, three hundred years before he made his mark on the world, a page in one of his notebooks, penned cryptically in 1662, was finally decoded; on it, addressed to God, was a list of sins 19-year-old Newton had committed.


Before Whitsunday 1662

  1. Using the word (God) openly

  2. Eating an apple at Thy house

  3. Making a feather while on Thy day

  4. Denying that I made it.

  5. Making a mousetrap on Thy day

  6. Contriving of the chimes on Thy day

  7. Squirting water on Thy day

  8. Making pies on Sunday night

  9. Swimming in a kimnel on Thy day

  10. Putting a pin in Iohn Keys hat on Thy day to pick him

  11. Carelessly hearing and committing many sermons

  12. Refusing to go to the close at my mothers command

  13. Threatning my father and mother Smith to burne them and the house over them

  14. Wishing death and hoping it to some

  15. Striking many

  16. Having uncleane thoughts words and actions and dreamese

  17. Stealing cherry cobs from Eduard Storer

  18. Denying that I did so

  19. Denying a crossbow to my mother and grandmother though I knew of it

  20. Setting my heart on money learning pleasure more than Thee

  21. A relapse

  22. A relapse

  23. A breaking again of my covenant renued in the Lords Supper

  24. Punching my sister

  25. Robbing my mothers box of plums and sugar

  26. Calling Dorothy Rose a jade

  27. Glutiny in my sickness

  28. Peevishness with my mother

  29. With my sister

  30. Falling out with the servants

  31. Divers commissions of alle my duties

  32. Idle discourse on Thy day and at other times

  33. Not turning nearer to Thee for my affections

  34. Not living according to my belief

  35. Not loving Thee for Thy self

  36. Not loving Thee for Thy goodness to us

  37. Not desiring Thy ordinances

  38. Not long [longing] for Thee in [illeg]

  39. Fearing man above Thee

  40. Using unlawful means to bring us out of distresses

  41. Caring for worldly things more than God

  42. Not craving a blessing from God on our honest endeavors.

  43. Missing chapel.

  44. Beating Arthur Storer.

  45. Peevishness at Master Clarks for a piece of bread and butter.

  46. Striving to cheat with a brass halfe crowne.

  47. Twisting a cord on Sunday morning

  48. Reading the history of the Christian champions on Sunday

Since Whitsunday 1662

  1. Glutony

  2. Glutony

  3. Using Wilfords towel to spare my own

  4. Negligence at the chapel.

  5. Sermons at Saint Marys (4)

  6. Lying about a louse

  7. Denying my chamberfellow of the knowledge of him that took him for a sot.

  8. Neglecting to pray (3)

  9. Helping Pettit to make his water watch at 12 of the clock on Saturday night


The above list is one of 125 that feature in the Lists of Note book. It’s now out of print, but I’m selling the last remaining copies of its gorgeous special edition here.

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3 Comments
Peter Tanatarov
Apr 11, 2022

Does "a relapse" mean masturbation? What else would be unspeakable?

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Krys
Writes park dates with krys
Apr 11, 2022

World-Renowned Scientists: They're Just Like Us!

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