SCHOLIUM
The hypothesis of vortices
is pressed with many difficulties. That every planet by a radius drawn
to the sun may describe areas proportional to the times of description,
the periodic times of the several parts of the vortices should observe
the square of their distances from the sun; but that the periodic times
of the planets may obtain the 3/2th power of their distances from the
sun,
the periodic times of the parts of the vortex ought to be as the 3/2th
power of their distances. That the smaller vortices may maintain their
lesser revolutions about Saturn, Jupiter, and other planets, and swim
quietly
and undisturbed in the greater vortex of the sun, the periodic times of
the parts of the sun's vortex should be equal; but the rotation of the
sun and planets about their axes, which ought to correspond with the
motions
of their vortices, recede far from all these proportions. The motions
of
the comets are exceedingly regular, are governed by the same laws with
the motions of the planets, and can by no means be accounted for by the
hypothesis of vortices; for comets are carried with very eccentric
motions
through all parts of the heavens indifferently, with a freedom that is
incompatible with the notion of a vortex.
Bodies projected in our air
suffer no resistance but from the air. Withdraw the air, as is done in
Mr. Boyle's vacuum, and the resistance ceases; for in this void a bit
of
fine down and a piece of solid gold descend with equal velocity. And
the
same argument must apply to the celestial spaces above the earth's
atmosphere;
in these spaces, where there is no air to resist their motions, all
bodies
will move with the greatest freedom; and the planets and comets will
constantly
pursue their revolutions in orbits given in kind and position,
according
to the laws above explained; but though these bodies may, indeed,
continue
in their orbits by the mere laws of gravity, yet they could by no means
have at first derived the regular position of the orbits themselves
from
those laws.
The six primary planets are revolved about the
sun in circles concentric with the sun, and with motions directed
towards
the same parts, and almost in the same plane. Ten moons are revolved
about
the earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, in circles concentric with them, with
the
same direction of motion, and nearly in the planes of the orbits of
those
planets; but it is not to be conceived that mere mechanical causes
could
give birth to so many regular motions, since the comets range over all
parts of the heavens in very eccentric orbits; for by that kind of
motion
they pass easily through the orbs of the planets, and with great
rapidity;
and in their aphelions, where they move the slowest, and are detained
the
longest, they recede to the greatest distances from each other, and
hence
suffer the least disturbance from their mutual attractions. This most
beautiful
system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the
counsel
and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being. And if the fixed
stars
are the centres of other like systems, these, being formed by the like
wise counsel, must be all subject to the dominion of One; especially
since
the light of the fixed stars is of the same nature with the light of
the
sun, and from every system light passes into all the other systems: and
lest the systems of the fixed stars should, by their gravity, fall on
each
other, he hath placed those systems at immense distances from one
another.
This Being governs all things,
not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of
his
dominion he is wont to be called Lord God (greek), or Universal
Ruler; for God is a relative word, and has a respect to
servants;
and Deity is the dominion of God not over his own body, as
those
imagine who fancy God to be the soul of the world, but over servants.
The
Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect; but a
being,
however perfect, without dominion, cannot be said to be Lord God; for
we
say, my God, your God, the God of Israel, the God of Gods, and Lord of
Lords; but we do not say, my Eternal, your Eternal, the Eternal of
Israel,
the Eternal of Gods; we do not say, my Infinite, or my Perfect: these
are
titles which have no respect to servants. The word God usually
signifies
Lord; 1 but every lord is not a God. It is the
dominion
of a spiritual being which constitutes a God: a true, supreme, or
imaginary
dominion makes a true, supreme, or imaginary God. And from his true
dominion
it follows that the true God is a living, intelligent, and powerful
Being;
and, from his other perfections, that he is supreme, or most perfect.
He
is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, his
duration
reaches from eternity to eternity; his presence from infinity to
infinity;
he governs all things, and knows all things that are or can be done. He
is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite; he is not
duration
or space, but he endures and is present. He endures forever, and is
everywhere
present; and, by existing always and everywhere, he constitutes
duration
and space. Since every particle of space is always, and every
indivisible
moment of duration is everywhere, certainly the Maker and Lord of all
things
cannot be never and nowhere. Every soul that has
perception
is, though in different times and in different organs of sense and
motion,
still the same indivisible person. There are given successive parts in
duration, coexistent parts in space, but neither the one nor the other
in the person of a man, or his thinking principle; and much less can
they
be found in the thinking substance of God. Every man, so far as he is a
thing that has perception, is one and the same man during his whole
life,
in all and each of his organs of sense. God is the same God, always and
everywhere. He is omnipresent not virtually only, but also substantially;
for virtue cannot subsist without substance. In him2 are all
things contained and moved; yet neither affects the other: God suffers
nothing from the motion of bodies; bodies find no resistance from the
omnipresence
of God. It is allowed by all that the Supreme God exists necessarily;
and
by the same necessity he exists always and everywhere.
Whence
also he is all similar, all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all power
to perceive, to understand, and to act; but in a manner not at all
human,
in a manner not at all corporeal, in a manner utterly unknow'n to us.
As
a blind man has no idea of colors, so have we no idea of the manner by
which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things. He is
utterly
void of all body and bodily figure, and can therefore neither be seen,
nor heard, nor touched; nor ought he to be worshipped under the
representation
of any corporeal thing. We have ideas of his attributes, but what the
real
substance of anything is we know not. In bodies, we see only their
figures
and colors, we hear only the sounds, we touch only their outward
surfaces,
we smell only the smells, and taste the savors; but their inward
substances
are not to be known either by our senses, or by any reflex act of our
minds:
much less, than, have we any idea of the substance of God. We know him
only by his most wise and excellent contrivances of things, and final
causes;
we admire him for his perfections; but we reverence and adore him on
account
of his dominion: for we adore him as his servants; and a god without
dominion,
providence, and final causes, is nothing else but Fate and Nature.
Blind
metaphysical necessity, which is certainly the same always and
everywhere,
could produce no variety of things. All that diversity of natural
things
which we find suited to different times and places could arise from
nothing
but the ideas and will of a Being necessarily existing. But, by way of
allegory, God is said to see, to speak, to laugh, to love, to hate, to
desire, to give, to receive, to rejoice, to be angry, to fight, to
frame,
to work, to build; for all our notions of God are taken from the ways
of
mankind by a certain similitude, which, though not perfect, has some
likeness,
however. And thus much concerning God; to discourse of whom from the
appearances
of things, does certainly belong to natural philosophy.
Hitherto we have explained
the phenomena of the heavens and of our sea by the power of gravity,
but
have not yet assigned the cause of this power. This is certain, that it
must proceed from a cause that penetrates to the very centres of the
sun
and planets, without suffering the least diminution of its force; that
operates not according to the quantity of the surfaces of the particles
upon which it acts (as mechanical causes used to do), but according to
the quantity of the solid matter which they contain, and propagates its
virtue over all sides to immense distances, decreasing always as the
inverse
square of the distances. Gravitation towards the sun is made up out of
the gravitations towards the several particles of which the body of the
sun is composed; and in receding from the sun decreases accurately as
the
inverse square of the distances as far as the orbit of Saturn, as
evidently
appears from the quiescence of the aphelion of the planets; nay, and
even
to the remotest aphelion of the comets, if those aphelions are also
quiescent.
But hitherto I have not been able to discover the cause of those
properties
of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypotheses; for whatever is
not
deduced from the phenomena is to be called an hypothesis; and
hypotheses,
whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or
mechanical,
have no place in experimental philosophy. In this philosophy particular
propositions are inferred from the phenomena, and afterwards rendered
general
by induction. Thus it was that the impenetrability, the mobility, and
the
impulsive force of bodies, and the laws of motion and of gravitation,
were
discovered. And to us it is enough that gravity does really exist, and
act according to the laws which we have explained, and abundantly
serves
to account for all the motions of the celestial bodies, and of our sea.
What was it that Sir Isaac
Newton
was attempting to impart here at the end of his opus magnum?
A simple statement of faith,
or something more encompassing in addition?
2. This was the opinion of the ancients. So Pythagoras, in Cicero De natura deorum i. Thales, Anaxagoras, Virgil, in Georgics iv. 220; and Aeneid vi. 721. Philo, Allegories, at the beginning of Book I. Aratus, in his Phenomena, at the beginning. So also the sacred writers: as St. Paul, in Acts, 17.27, 28. St. John's Gospel, 14.2. Moses, in Deuteronomy, 4.39; and 10.14. David, in Psalms, 139.7,8,9. Solomon, in I Kings, 8~7. Job, 22.12,13,14. Jeremiah, 23.23,24. The idolaters supposed the sun, moon, and stars, the souls of men, and other parts of the world, to be parts of the Supreme God, and therefore to be worshipped; but erroneously.]