It is characteristic of genius to be aware of the limitations of its own findings, even in the case of such momentous outcomes as Newton’s discovery of the laws of mechanics and universal gravity. Newton’s theory worked so well, it turned out to be so useful, that for two centuries no one bothered any longer to question it – until Faraday, the ‘reader’ to whom Newton had bequeathed the unanswered question, found the key to understanding how bodies can attract and repel each other at a distance in a reasonable manner. Einstein will later apply Faraday’s brilliant solution to Newton’s own theory
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