自然哲学的数学原理-4

of the distance between their centres; and that their velocities ofmutual approach will be in the inverse ratio of their quantities o*matter. Thus he grandly outlined the Universal Law. Verifying its truth by the motions of terrestrial bodies, then by those ofthe moon and other secondary orbs, he finally embraced, in onemighty generalization, the entire Solar System all the movements of all its bodies planets, satellites and comets explaining and harmonizing the many diverse and theretofore inexplicable phenomena.Guided by the genius of Newton, we see sphere bound tosphere, body to body, particle to particle, atom to mass, the minutest part to the stupendous whole each to each, each to all,and all to each in the mysterious bonds of a ceaseless, reciprocal influence. An influence whose workings are shown to bealike present in the globular dew-drop, or oblate-spheroidal earth ;in the falling shower, or vast heaving ocean tides ; in the flyingthistle-down, or fixed, ponderous rock ;in the swinging pendulum,or time-measuring sun ;in the varying and unequal moon, orearth s slowly retrograding poles ;in the uncertain meteor, oroiazing comet wheeling swiftly away on its remote, yet determinedround. An influence, in fine, that may link system to systemthrough all the star-glowing firmament ; then firmament to iirmaLIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 35merit ; aye, firmament to firmament, again and again, till, converging home, it may be, to some ineffable centre, where morepresently dwells He who inhabiteth immensity, and where infinitudes meet and eternities have their condux, and where aroundmove, in softest, swiftest measure, all the countless hosts thatcrowd heaven s fathomless deeps.And yet Newton, amid the loveliness and magnitude of Omnipotence, lost not sight of the Almighty One. A secondary,however universal, was not taken for the First Cause. An impressed force, however diffused and powerful, assumed not thefunctions of the creating, giving Energy. Material beauties,splendours, and sublimities, however rich in glory, and endless inextent, concealed not the attributes of an intelligent Supreme.From the depths of his own soul, through reason and the WORD,he had risen, a priori, to God : from the heights of Omnipotence,through the design and law of the builded universe, he proved </posteriori, a Deity." I had," says he," an eye upon such principles as might work, with considering men, for the belief of aDeity,"in writing the PRINCIPIA ; at the conclusion whereof, heteaches that " this most beautiful system of the sun, planets andcomets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of anintelligent and powerful Being. And if the fixed stars are thecentres of other like systems, these, being forme 1 by the likewise counsels, must be all subject to the dominion of One ; especiallysince the light of the fixed stars is of the same nature with thelight of the sun, and from every system light passes into all othersystems : and lest the systems of the fixed stars should, by theirgravity, fall on each other mutually, he hath placed those systemsat immense distances one from 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 Travrowparwp or Universal Ruler ; for Godis a relative word, and has a respect to servants ; and Deity isthe dominion of God, not over his own body, as those imaginewho 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 to36 LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.be Lord God ; for we say, my God, your God, the God of Israelthe God of Gods, and Lord of Lords ; but we do not say, myEternal, your Eternal, the Eternal of Israel, the Eternal of Gods :we do not say my Infinite, or my Perfect : these are titles whichhave no respect to servants. The word God usually signifiesLord ; but every Lord is not 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. Andfrom 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 reachesfrom eternity to eternity ; his presence from infinity to infinity ;he governs all things and knows all things, that are or can bedone. He is not eternity or infinity, but eternal and infinite;he is not duration and space, but he endures and is present.He endures forever and is everywhere present ; and by existingalways and everywhere, he constitutes duration and space. Sinceevery particle of space is always, and every indivisible momentof duration is everywhere, certainly the Maker and Lord of thingscannot be never and nowhere. Every soul that has perceptionis, though in different times and different organs of sense and motion, still the same indivisible person. There are given successive parts in duration, co-existent parts in space, but neither theone nor the other in the person of a man, or his thinkingprinciple ; and much less can they be found in the thinking substance of God. Every man. so far as he is a thing that has j:erceptiori,is one and the same man during his whole life, in all andeach of his organs of sense. God is one and the same God, always and everywhere. He is omnipresent, not virtually only,but also substantially ; for virtue cannot subsist without substance. In him are all things contained and moved ; yet neitheraffects the other ; God suffers nothing from the motion of bodies ;bodies find no resistance from the omnipresence of God. It isallowed by all that the Supreme God exists necessarily ; and bythe same necessity he exists always and everywhere. Whencealso he is all similar, all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all poweiLIFE CF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 37to perceive, to understand, and to act ; but in a manner not at allhuman, in a manner not at all corporeal, in a manner utterly unknown to us. As a blind man has no idea of colours, so have weno idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives andunderstands all things. He is utterly void of all body, and bodilyfigure, and can therefore neither be seen, nor heard, nor touched ;nor ought he to be worshipped under the representation of anycorporeal thing. We have ideas of his attributes, but what thereal substance of anything is we know not. In bodies we seeonly their figures and colours, we hear only the sounds, we touchonly their outward surfaces, we smell only the smells, and tasteonly the savours ; but their inward substances are not to be known,either by our senses, or by any reflex act of our minds : muchless, then, have we any idea of the substance of God. We knowhim 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 adorehim as his servants ; and a god without dominion, providence, andfinal 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 ofnatural things which we find suited to different times and placescould arise from nothing but the ideas and will of a Being necessarily existing."Thus, the diligent student of science, the earnest seeker oftruth, led, as through the courts of a sacred Temple, wherein, ateach step, new wonders meet the eye, till, as a crowning grace,they stand before a Holy of Holies, and learn that all science andall truth are one which hath its beginning and its end in theknowledge of Him whose glory the heavens declare, and whosehandiwork the firmament showeth forth.The introduction of the pure and lofty doctrines of the PRINCIPIAwas perseveringly resisted. Descartes, with his system ofvortices, had sown plausibly to the imagination, and error hadstruck down deeply, and shot up luxuriantly, not only in thepopular, but in the scientific mind. Besides the idea in itself sosimple and so grand that the great masses of the planets were38 LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.suspended in empty space, and retained in their orbits by an invisible influence residing in the sun was to the ignorant a thinginconceivable, and to the learned a revival of the occult qualitiesof the ancient physics. This remark applies particularly to thecontinent. Leibnitz misapprehended ; Huygens in part rejected ;John Bernouilli opposed ; and Fontenelle never received the doctrines of the PRINCIPIA. So that, the saying of Voltaire is probably true, that though Newton survived the publication of hisgreat work more than forty years, yet, at the time of his death,lie had not above twenty followers out of England.But in England, the reception of our author s philosophy wasrapid and triumphant. His own labours, while Lucasian Professor ; those of his successors in that Chair Whiston andSaunderson ; those of Dr. Samuel Clarke, Dr. Laughton, RogerCotes, and Dr. Bentley ; the experimental lectures of Dr. Keilland Desaguliers ; the early and powerful exertions of DavidGregory at Edinburgh, and of his brother James Gregory at St.Andrew s, tended to diffuse widely in England and Scotland aknowledge of, and taste for the truths of the PRINCIPIA. Indeed,its mathematical doctrines constituted, from the first, a regularpart of academical instruction ; while its physical truths, given tothe public in popular lectures, illustrated by experiments, had,before the lapse of twenty ) ( ar.s, become familiar to, and adoptedby the general mind. Pemberton s popular" View of Sir IsaacNewton s Philosophy" was published, in 1728 ; and the year afterward, an English translation of the PRINCIPIA, and System of theWorld, by Andrew Motte. And since that period, the labours ofLe Seur and Jacquier, of Thorpe, of Jebb, of Wright and othershave greatly contributed to display the most hidden treasures ofthe PRINCIPIA.About the time of the publication of the Principia, James II.,bent on re-establishing the Romish Faith, had, among other illegal acts, ordered by mandamus, the University of Cambridge toconfer the degree of Master of Arts upon an ignorant monk.Obedience to this mandate was resolutely refused. Newton wasone of the nine delegates chosen to defend the independence ofthe University. They appeared before the High Court ; andLIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 39successfully : the king abandoned his design. The prominentpart which our author took in these proceedings, and his eminencein the scientific world, induced his proposal as one of the parliamentary representatives of the University. He was elected, in1688, and sat in the Convention Parliament till its dissolution.After the first year, however, he seems to have given little or noattention to his parliamentary duties, being seldom absent fromthe University till his appointment in the Mint, in 1695.Newton began his theological researches sometime previous to1691 ;in the prime of his years, and in the matured vigour ofhis intellectual powers. From his youth, as we have seen, hehad devoted himself with an activity the most unceasing, and anenergy almost superhuman to the discovery of physical truth;giving to Philosophy a new foundation, and to Science a newtemple. To pass on, then, from the consideration of the material,more directly to that of the spiritual, was a natural, nay, with solarge and devout a soul, a necessary advance. The Bible was tohim of inestimable worth. In the elastic freedom, which a pureand unswerving faith in Him of Nazareth gives, his mighty faculties enjoyed the only completest scope for development. Hisoriginal endowment, however great, combined with a studiousapplication, however profound, would never, without this liberation from the dominion of passion and sense, have enabled him toattain to that wondrous concentration and grasp of intellect, forwhich Fame has as yet assigned him no equal. Gratefully heowned, therefore, the same Author in the Book of Nature and theBook of Revelation. These were to him as drops of the sameunfathomable ocean ; as outrayings of the same inner splendour ;as tones of the same ineffable voice ;as segments of the sameinfinite curve. "With great joy he had found himself enabled toproclaim, as an interpreter, from the hieroglyphs of Creation, theexistence of a God : and now, with greater joy, and in the fulnessof his knowledge, and in the fulness of his strength, he labouredto make clear, from the utterances of the inspired Word, the farmightier confirmations of a Supreme Good, in all its gloriousamplitude of Being and of Attribute ; and to bring the infallibleworkings thereof plainly home to the understandings and the40 LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.affections of his fellow-men ; and finally to add the weight of hisown testimony in favour of that Religion, whose truth is now. indeed, " girded with the iron and the rock of a ponderous and colossal demonstration."His work, entitled, OBSERVATIONS UPON THE PROPHECIES OFHOLY WRIT, PARTICULARLY THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL AND THEAPOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN, first published in London, in 1733 4to.consists of two parts : the one devoted to the Prophecies oiDaniel, and the other to the Apocalypse of St. John. In the firstpart, he treats concerning the compilers of the books of the OldTestament ; of the prophetic language ; of the vision of thefour beasts ; of the kingdoms represented by the feet of theimage composed of iron and clay ; of the ten kingdoms represented by the ten horns of the beast ; of the eleventh horn ofDaniel s fourth beast ; of the power which should change timesand laws ; of the kingdoms represented in Daniel by the ramand he-goat ; of the prophecy of the seventy weeks ; of thetimes of the birth and passion of Christ ; of the prophecy of theScripture of Truth ; of the king who doeth according to his will,and magnified himself above every god, and honoured Mahuzzims,and regarded not the desire of women ; of the Mahuzzim, honoured by the king who doeth according to his will. In the second part, he treats of the time when the Apocalypse was written ,of the scene of the vision, and the relation which the Apocalypsehas to the book of the law of Moses, and to the worship of Godin the temple ; of the relation which the Apocalypse has to theprophecies of Daniel, and of the subject of the prophecy itselfNewton regards the prophecies as given, not for the gratificationof man s curiosity, by enabling him to foreknow ; but for his conviction that the world is governed by Providence, by witnessingtheir fulfilment. Enough of prophecy, he thinks, has alreadybeen fulfilled to afford the diligent seeker abundant evidence ofGod s providence. The whole work is marked by profounderudition, sagacity and argument.And not less learning, penetration and masterly reasoning areconspicuous in his HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF Two NOTABLECORRUPTIONS OF SCRIPTURES IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND. ThisLIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 41Treatise, first accurately published in Dr. Horsley s edition of hisworks, relates to two texts : the one, 1 Epistle of St. John v. 7 ;the other, 1 Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy iii. 16. As thiswork had the effect to deprive the advocates of the doctrine ofthe Trinity of two leading texts, Newton has been looked uponas an Arian ; but there is absolutely nothing in his writings towarrant such a conclusion.His regaining theological works consist of the LEXICON PROPHETICUM,which was left incomplete ;a Latin Dissertation onthe sacred cubit of the Jews, which was translated into English,and published, in 1737. among the Miscellaneous Works of JohnGreaves ; and FOUR LETTERS addressed to Dr. Bentlty, containing some arguments in proof of a Deity. These Letters weredated respectively : 10th December, 1692 ; 17th January, 1693 ;25th February, 1693; and llth February, 1693 the fourthbearing an earlier date than the third. The best faculties andthe profoundest acquirements of our author are convincinglymanifest in these lucid and powerful compositions. They werepublished in 1756, and reviewed by Dr. Samuel Johnson.Newton s religious writings are distinguished by their absolutefreedom from prejudice. Everywhere, throughout them, thereglows the genuine nobleness of soul. To his whole life, indeed,we may here fitly extend the same observation. He was mostrichly imbued with the very spirit of the Scriptures which he sodelighted to study and to meditate upon. His was a piety, sofervent, so sincere and practical, that it rose up like a holy incensefrom every thought and act. His a benevolence that not onlywilled, but endeavoured the best for all. His a philanthropythat held in the embracings of its love every brother-man.His a toleration of the largest and the truest ; condemning persecution in every, even its mildest form ; and kindly encouragingeach striving after excellence : .1 toleration that came not ofindifference for the immoral and the impious met with theirquick rebuke but a toleration that came of the wise humblenessand the Christian charity, which see, in the nothingness of selfand the almightiness of TRUTH, no praise for the ablest, and noblame for th^ feeblest in their strugglings upward to light and life.42 LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON,Tn the winter of 1691-2, on returning from chapel, one morning, Newton foima tnat a favourite little dog, called Diamond,had overturned a lighted taper on his desk, and that several papers containing the results of certain optical experiments, werenearly consumed. His only exclamation, on perceiving his loss,was, " Oh Diamond, Diamond, little knowest thou the mischielthou hast done," Dr. Brewster, in his life of our author, gives thefollowing extract from the manuscript Diary of Mr. Abraham DeLa Pryme. a student in the University at the time of this occurrence." 1692. February, 3. What I heard to-day I must relate.There is one Mr. Newton (whom I have very oft seen), Fellowof Trinity College, that is mighty famous for his learning, being amost excellent mathematician, philosopher, divine, &c. He hasbeen Fellow of the Royal Society these many years ; and amongother very learned books and tracts, he:s written one upon the mathematical principles of philosophy, which has given him a mightyname, he having received, especially from Scotland, abundance ofcongratulatory letters for the same ; but of all the books he everwrote, there was one of colours and light, established upon thousands of experiments which he had been twenty years of making,and which had cost him many hundreds of pounds. This bookwhich he vaiued so much, and which was so much talked of, hadthe ill luck to perish, and be utterly lost just when the learnedauthor was almost at pitting a conclusion at the same, after thismanner : In a winter s morning, leaving it among his other paperson his study table while he went to chapel, the candle, which hehad unfortunately left burning there, too, catched hold by somemeans of other papers, and they fired the aforesaid book, and utterly consumed it and several other valuable writings ;arid whichis most wonderful did no further mischief. But when Mr. Newton came from chapel, and had seen what was done, every onethought he would have run mad, he was so troubled thereat thathe was not himself for a month after. A long account of this hissystem of colours you may find in the Transactions of the RoyalSociety, which he had sent up to them long before this sad mischance happened unto him."LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 43It will be borne in mind that all of Newton s theological writings, with the exception of the Letters to Dr. Bentley, werecomposed before this event which, we must conclude, fromPryme s words, produced a serious impression upon our author forabout a month. But M. Biot, in his Life of Newton, relying on amemorandum contained in a small manuscript Journal of Huygens,declares this occurrence to have caused a deran-gement of Newton s intellect. M. Blot s opinions and deductions, however, aswell as those of La Place, upon this subject, were based uponerroneous data, and have been overthrown by the clearest proof.There is not, in fact, the least evidence that Newton s reason was,for a single moment, dethroned ; on the contrary, the testimonyis conclusive that he was, at all times, perfectly capable of carrying on his mathematical, metaphysical and astronomical inquiries.Loss of sleep, loss of appetite, and irritated nerves will disturbsomewhat the equanimity of the most serene ; and an act done, orlanguage employed, under such temporary discomposure, is not ajust criterion of the general tone and strength of a man s mind.As to the accident itself, we may suppose, whatever might havebeen its precise nature, that it greatly distressed him, and, stillfurther, that its shock may have originated the train of nervousderangements, which afflicted him, more or less, for two yearsafterward. Yet, during this very period of ill health, we find himputting forth his highest powers. In 1692, he prepared for, andtransmitted to Dr. Wallis the first proposition of the Treatise onQuadratures, with examples of it in first, second and third fluxions. He investigated, in the same year, the subject of haloes ;making and recording numerous and important observations relative thereto. Those profound and beautiful Letters to Dr. Bentleywere written at the close of this and the beginning of the nextyear. In October, 1693, Locke, who was then about publishing asecond edition of his work on the Human Understanding, requested Newton to reconsider his opinions on innate ideas. And in1694, he was zealously occupied in perfecting his lunar theory ;visiting Flamstead, at the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, inSeptember, and obtaining a series of lunar observations ; and14 LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.commencing, in October, a correspondence with that distinguishedpractical Astronomer, which continued till 1698.We now arrive at the period when Newton permanently withdrew from the seclusion of a collegiate, and entered upon a moreactive and public life. He was appointed Warden of the Mint,in 1695, through the influence of Charles Montague, Chancellorof the Exchequer, and afterward Earl of Halifax. The currentroin of the nation had been adulterated and debased, and Montague undertook a re-coinage. Our author s mathematical andchemical knowledge proved eminently useful in accomplishing

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