Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727), scientist. Born Woolsthorpe, educated Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1661-1696, thereafter residing in London as the master of the mint and president of the Royal Society, knighted in 1705, for his achievements in the fields of mathematics, dynamics, celestial mechanics, astronomy, optics, natural philosophy and cosmology. Newton and Sir Francis Bacon became twin deities of English science for Victorian England.
Ruskin here draws two sets of comparison to illustrate his notion of the infinite variety of characteristics comprising man's individual identity, in the first, juxtaposing the name of a man who betrayed Christ with one who preached his message and, in the second, pairing two men whom he considered 'natural' geniuses: one in the field of literature and one in the field of science.