> In those days the channels of discovery were so few and privileged that a common man couldn't even imagine something like publishing. Isaac Newton was a fell

> In those days the channels of discovery were so few and privileged that a common man couldn't even imagine something like publishing. Isaac Newton was a fellow at Trinity (which required a special exemption by King Charles II concerning legal religious restrictions) and a fellow of the Royal Society for several decades before he published his work. He was not a "common man".