The Age of Genius

In the seventeenth century science moved from the alchemy and astrology of John Dee to the observation and astronomy of Galileo, from the classicism of Aristotle to the evidence-based, collegiate investigation of Francis Bacon. And if the old ways still lingered, affecting the new mind set - Descartes' dualism, an attempt to square the new philosophy with religious belief; Newton, the man who understood gravity and the laws of motion, yet fascinated to the end of his life by alchemy - by the end of that tumultuous century 'the greatest ever change in the mental outlook of humanity' had irrevocably taken place.