Pursuing a scientific correspondence was an essential part of his role as a 'natural philosopher' - the term he preferred to that of scientist.

He was a natural philosopher, concerned with the economy of nature and obsessed with an idea of unity, in theology and in nature.

During these years his career as a natural philosopher began to take off.

As late as the eighteenth century, however, a natural philosopher would believe that a magnet had to be pointing directly at something.

He afterwards won for himself a reputation as a scientist, mathematician, natural philosopher and chemist besides being renowned for his piety, learning, breadth of mind and benevolence of heart.