Page "Robert Hooke" Paragraph 45

One of the contrasts between the two men was that Newton was primarily a pioneer in mathematical analysis and its applications as well as optical experimentation, while Hooke was a creative experimenter of such great range, that it is not surprising to find that he left some of his ideas, such as those about gravitation, undeveloped.

This in turn makes it understandable how in 1759, decades after the deaths of both Newton and Hooke, Alexis Clairaut, mathematical astronomer eminent in his own right in the field of gravitational studies, made his assessment after reviewing what Hooke had published on gravitation.

" One must not think that this idea ... of Hooke diminishes Newton's glory ", Clairaut wrote ; " The example of Hooke " serves " to show what a distance there is between a truth that is glimpsed and a truth that is demonstrated ".