sophy of Sir Isaac hath been depreciated, and even ridiculed*. And is it not enough to discompose the muscles of an hermit, to see men thus notoriously contradicting one another, and all gravely pretending to authority and demonstration! They tell us, there has been a great discovery of late years in natural philosophy; it having been found at length, after the world had been in ignorance for many ages, that all matter is endued with attraction. If you ask them what they mean by it; it is an innate virtue or affection of matter; while others affirm, matter can have no such affections. It is the most simple of causes, and an effect, the cause of which is unknown; it is owing to the agency of a subtile medium; and it is effected by the immediate influence of the Deity: and if you do not believe this principle, and make use of it to explain every thing, you are out of the fashion, and what you have to say will be very coldly regarded.

As we cannot possibly believe all these opinions, we are not bound to believe any one of them upon the bare authority of Sir Isaac Newton. If we are to receive one of

his

Philos. Difcov. p. 110.

his opinions in this way, why not ano ther? the authority which is broken through in one article, will at least be questioned in every other. If it be said, we have reason to prefer some of his sentiments to others; then we are influenced, not by authority, but by reason or evidence; and hitherto I would willingly bring this matter. Reason and evidence must determine us at last, though the fame of Sir Isaac Newton were as universal now as that of Aristotle was formerly. His warmest friends take this liberty with him. Mr. Maclaurin rejects his immaterial powers acting at distance; Mr. Baxter makes as free with his medium, yet is greatly displeased with his adversary for lessening Sir Isaac's authority. But they treat the public with some disingenuity, if they would overbear the judgment of others by that authority, which, as it appears from their own practice, hath had so little influence upon themselves. They choose their own sentiments, as inclination or passion directs; and then desire us quietly to rest upon the authority of Sir Isaac; though one of these has robbed him of his attraction, the other

of

of his medium; and thus, between them both, they have left us nothing to follow.

If the learned were but once persuaded, that God doth govern the natural world by a delegation of material instruments, which seems to have but one of the opinions of Sir Isaac, at least it was an opinion held by Mr. Maclaurin in his name; and could be brought to see any errors in the doctrine. of resistance; something, I am convinced, might yet be done, either in this or the succeeding age, to render natural knowledge more serviceable to the people of all classes than it is at present; chiefly because the inquirers of these times would no longer have their hands tied up by an imaginary infallibility in those who have gone before them; the admitting of which has always been attended with fatal effects: they might then reject such principles as are manifestly false, and put a stop to their inquiries, and take advantage of the rest in common.

It is still believed, however, by very many, either that matter, though inert, is endued with active qualities; or that the influence of the Deity is immediate in the production of all natural effects. By the former of these positions, we allow to dead matter a power

VOL. VIII.

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power that is denied even to God himself * by the latter of them, we are directed to read nature backward; to begin where we ought to have ended; and, in support of such procedure, are obliged to annihilate the far greater half of the creation. I shall therefore go on to examine, how far these positions are supported by mathematical evidence.

CHAP. IV.

The Attraction of Gravity, understood as an universal Property or Quality in the Parts of Matter, hath received no Proof from Geometry.

WE

E have been assured from every quarter, that the modern doctrine of physical causes has all the evidence that can be desired from experiment, and is abundantly confirmed by the most strict mathematical reasoning. That this doctrine was deduced

Omnipræsens est non per virtutem folam, sed etiam per substantiam: nam virtus sine substantia subsistere non potest. Newt. Princip. schol. gen.

deduced analytically from observation; then applied synthetically to the explication of the various phænomena: and its impregnability in these respects has been boasted of, I will not say insolently, but confidently enough, I am sure, by all its admirers, great and small, from the learned, who think it rests on the firm basis of geometry itself, down to our mere English mathematicians, who declare it as their opinion, that "never a philosopher before Newton ever took the "method that he did that it is a mere joke to talk of a new philosophy-and that in "these unhappy days of ignorance and avarice, "Minerva has given place to Pluto," meaning

86

"Plutus*.

These pretensions, whether of the learned or unlearned, deserve a serious examination. Experiment is nothing less than matter of fact, which, if not misrepresented, is the best sort of argument in the world: and a mathematical conclusion, if deduced from real data, is not easily overthrown. Something has already been said of mathematical evidence,

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* See the Preface to Emerson's Treatise on Mechanics. The book is very ingenious and useful in its way, and the Author appears to understand his subject; but when he decides thus magisterially upon philosophy in general, it is sutor ultrà crepidam.