Hie : Vantage, MARE Ie. 
No bin Ce 


FOUR 
Ley TF R's 
FROM ~ 
Sir Isaac Newton 


TO. 


Doctor BENTLEY, 
CONTAINING 
SoME ARGUMENTS 


IN 


Proor of a DEITY. 


LONDON: 
Printed for R. and J. DODSLE Y, Pall-Mali, 
SAS RMON ane 
M nce by1. 


LETTERS: & 


bret tel dG, ee ee 


Yo the Reverend Dr. RicH Ard 
BentTuey, at the Bifbop of 
Worcefter’s Houfe in Park- 
ftreet, Weftminfter. 


STR; 
J HEN I wrote my Treatife about 
our Sy{tem, I had an Eye upon 
fuch Principles as might work with con- 
fidering Men, for the Belief of a Deity, 
and nothing can rejoice me more than to 
find it ufeful for that Purpofe, But if I 
B have 


fay 
have done the Public any Service this 
“way, it is due to nothing but Induftry and 
patient Thought. 


As to your firft Query, it feems to me 
that if the Matter of our Sun and Planets, 
and all the Matter of the Univerfe, were 
evenly fcattered throughout all the Hea- 
vens, and every Particle had an innate 
Gravity towards all the reft, and the 
whole Space, throughout which this Mat- - 
ter was fcattered, was but finite; thé 
Matter on the outfide of this Space would 
by its Gravity tend towards all the Matter 
on the infide, and by confequence -fall 
down into the middle of the whole Space, 
and there compofe one great {pherical 
Maifs. But if the Matter was evenly dif- 
pofed throughout an infinite’ Space, it 
could never convene into one Mafs, but 
fome of it would convene into one Mafs 
and fome into another, fo as to make an 
infinite Number of great Maffes, fcattered 
at great Diftances from one to another 
i through. 


ta 

throughout all that infinite Space. And 
thus might the Sun and fixt Stars. be 
formed, fuppofing the Matter were ofa 
lucid Nature. But how the Matter fhould 
divide itfelf into two forts, and that Part 
of it, which is fit to compofe a fhining 
Body, fhould fall down into one Mafs 
and make a Sun, and the reft, which is 
fit to compofe an opaque Body, fhould 
coalefce, not into one great Body, like 
the fhining Matter, but into many little 
ones; or if the Sun at firft were an 
opaque Body like the Planets, or the Pla- 
nets lucid Bodies like the Sun, how he 
alone fhould be changed into a fhining 
Body, whilft all they continue opaque, or 
all they be changed into opaque ones, 
whilft he remains unchanged, I do not 
think explicable by meer natural Caufes, 
but am forced to afcribe it to the Countel 
and Contrivance of a voluntary Agent. 


The fame Power, whether natural or 
fupernatural, which placed the Sun in 
Baz the 


[4] 

the Center of the fix primary Planets, 
placed Saturn in the Center of the Orbs 
of his five fecondary Planets, and Supzter 
in the Center of his four fecondary Planets, | 
and the Earth in the Center of the Moon’s 
Orb; and therefore had this Caufe been 
a blind one, without Contrivance or De- 
fign, the Sun would have been a Body 
of the fame kind with Saturn, ‘fupiter, and 
the Earth, that is, without Light and 
Heat. Why there is one Body in our 
Syftem qualified to give Light and Heat 
to all the reft, I know no Reafon, but 
becaufe the Author of the Syftem thought 
it convenient ; and why there is but one 
Body of this kind I know no Reafon, but 
becaufe one was fufficient to warm and 
enlighten all the reft. For the Cartefian 
Hypothefis of Suns lofing their Light, 
and then turning into Comets, and Co- 
mets into Planets, can have no Place in 
my Syftem, and is plainly erroneous ; be- 
caufe it 1s certain that as often as they 
appear to us, they defcend inta the Syftem 

of 


se] 


of our Planets, lower than the Orb of 
‘Fupiter, and fometimes lower than the 
Orbs of Venus and Mercury, and yet never 
ftay here, but always return from the Sun 
with the fame Degrees of Motion by 
which they approached him. 


To your fecond Query, I anfwer, that 
the Motions which the Planets now have 
could not {pring from any natural Caufe 
alone, but were impreffed by an intelli- 
gent Agent. For fince Comets defcend 
into the Region of our Planets, and here 
move all manner of ways, going fome- 
times the fame way with the Planets, 
fometimes the contrary way, and fome- 
times in crofs ways, in Planes inclined to 
the Plane of the Ecliptick, and at all 
kinds of Angles, ’tis plain that there is 
no natural Caufe which could determine 
all the Planets, both primary and fe- 
condary, to move the fame way and in 
the fame Plane, without any confiderable 
Variation: This muft have been the Ef- 

| fect 


's3 
fect of Counfel. Nor is there any natural, - 
Caufe which could give the Planets thofe 
juft Degrees of Velocity, in Proportion 
to their Diftances from the Sun, and other 
central Bodies, which were requifite’ to 
make them move in fuch concentrick 
Orbs about thofe Bodies. Had the Planets 
been as {wift as Comets, in Proportion’ to 
their Diftances from the Sun (as they 
would have been, had their Motion been 
caufed by their Gravity, whereby the 
Matter, at the firft Formation of -the 
Planets, might fall from the remoteft Re- 
gions towards the Sun) they would not - 
move in concentrick Orbs, but. in fuch, 
eccentrick ones as the Comets move in) 
Were all the Planets as fwift as Mercury, 
cr as flow as Saturn or his Satellites ; or 
were their feveral Velocities otherwife 
-much greater or lefs than they are, as; 
they might have been had they arofe from, 
any other Caufe than their Gravities ; or 
had the Diftances from the Centers a- 
bout which they move, been greater or 


lefs 


Ub ee 


fefS than they are with the fame Velo- 
cities; or had the Quantity of Matter in 
the Sun, or in Saturn, Fupiter, and the 
Earth, and by confequence their gravita- 
ting Power been greater or lefs than it is 5 
the primary Planets could not have re- 
volved about the Sun, nor the fecondary 
ones about Saturn, “fupiter, andthe Earth, 
in concentrick Circles as they do, but 
would have moved in Hyperbolas, or 
Parabolas, or in Ellipfes very eccentrick, 
To make this Syftem therefore, with 
all its Motions, required a Caufe which 
underftood, and compared together, the 
Quantities of Matter in the feveral Bo- 
dies of the Sun and Planets, and the 
gravitating Powers refulting from thence ; 
the feveral Diftances of the primary. 
Planets from the Sun, and of the fe. 
condary ones from Saturn, Supiter, and 
the Earth ; and the Velocities with which 
thefe Breet could revalve about thofe 
Quantities: of Matter in the central Bo- 
dies ; and to compare and adjuft all thefe 


Thin gs 


[ 8] 
Things together, in fo great a Variety of 
Bodies, argues that Caufe to be not blind 
and fortuitous, but very well fkilled in 
Mechanicks and Geometry. . 


To your third Query, I anfwer, that 
it may be reprefented that the Sun may, 
by heating thofe Planets moft which are 
nearett to him, caufe them to be better 
concocted, and more condenfed by that 
Concoétion. But when I confider that 
our Earth is much more heated in its 
Bowels below the upper Cruft by fubter- 
raneous Fermentations of mineral Bodies | 
than by the Sun, I fee not why the in- 
terior Parts of Yupiter and Saturn might 
not be as much heated, concocted, and 
coagulated by thofe Fermentations as our 
Farth is; and therefore this various Den- 
fity fhould have fome other Caufe than 
the various Diftances of the Planets from 
the Sun. And I am confirmed in this 
Opinion by confidering, that the Planets 
of Yupiter and Saturn, as they are rarer 

| than 


bet 


than the reft, fo they are vaftly greater, 
and contain a far greater Quantity of 
Matter, and have many Satellites about 
them ; which Qualifications furely arofe 
not from their being placed at fo great 
a Diftance from the Sun, but were rather 
the Caufe why the Creator placed them 
at great Diftance. For by their gravi- 
tating Powers’ they difturb one another’s 
Motions very fenfibly, as I find by fome 
late Obfervations of Mr. Flam/feed, and 
had they been placed much nearer to 
the Sun and to one another, they would 
by the fame Powers have caufed a, con- 
fiderable Difturbance in the whole Syf- 
tem. 


To your fourth Query, I anfwer, that 
in the Hypothefis of Vortices, the In- 
clination of the Axis of the Earth might, 
in my Opinion, be afcribed to the Situa- 
tion of the Earth’s Vortex before it was 
abforbed by the neighbouring Vortices, 
and the Earth turned from a Sun to a 

& Comet ; 


f 10] 

Comet; but this Inclination ought to de- 
creafe conftantly in Compliance with the 
Motion of the Earth’s Vortex, whofe 
Axis is much lefs inclined to the Eclip- 
tick, as appears by the Motion of the 
Moon catried about therein, If the Sun 
by his Rays could carry about the Pla- 
nets, yet I do not fee how he could 
thereby effect their diurnal Motions, | 


Laftly, I fee nothing extraordinary in 
the Inclination of the Earth’s Axis for 
proving a Deity, unlefs you will urge it 
as a Contrivance for Winter and Sum- 
mer, and for making the Earth habita- 
ble towards the Poles; and that the 
diurnal Rotations of the Sun and Planets, 
as they could hardly arife from any Caufe 
purely mechanical, fo by being deter- 
mined all the fame way with the annual 
and menftrual Motions, they feem to 
make up that Harmony in the Syftem, 
which, as I explaind above, was the 
- Effect of Choice rather than Chance. 


"There 


[ins] 

There is yet another Argument for a 
Deity, which I take to be a very {trong 
one, but till the Principles on which it 
is grounded are better received, I think 
it more advifable to let it fleep. 


I am, 
Your moft humble Servant, 
to commana; 


Cambridge, 
Decemb, 10, 1692. 


1s. NEWTON; 


C 2 LE T- 


‘ae 


hae 


cog ditto 1) a 


oI 


[ 13 J 


ea Ra lL. 


For Mr. Bentuty, at the Palace 
at Worcefter. 


SIR, 


Agree with you, that if Matter evenly 
diffufed through a finite Space, not 
{pherical, fhould fall into a folid Mafs, 
this Mafs would affect the Figure of the 
whole Space, provided it were not foft, 
' like the old Chaos, but fo hard and folid 
from the Beginning, that the Weight of 
its protuberant Parts could not make it 
yield to their Preflure. Yet by Earth- 
quakes loofening the Parts of this Solid, 
the Protuberances might fometimes fink a 
little by their Weight, and thereby the 
Mafs might, by Degrees, approach a 

{pherical Figure, | 
The 


[14] 

The Reafon why Matter evenly {cat- 
tered through a finite Space would con- 
vene in the midft, you conceive the fame 
with me ; but that there fhould be a cen- 
tral Particle, fo accurately placed in the 
middle, as to be always equally attracted 
on all Sides, and thereby continue with- 
out Motion, feems to me a Suppofition 
fully as hard as to make the fharpeft 
Needle ftand upright on its Point upon a 
Looking-Glafs. For if the very mathe- 
matical Center of the central Particle be 
not accurately in the very mathematical 
Center of the attractive Power of the 
whole Mafs, the Particle will not be at- 
tracted equally on all Sides. And much 
harder it is to fuppofe all the Particles in 
an infinite Space fhould be fo accurately 
poifed one among another, as to ftand 
{till in a perfect Equilibtium. For [reckon 
this as hard as to make not one Needle 
only, but an infinite number of them (fo 
many as there are Particles in an infinite 
Space) ftand accurately poifed upon their 

Points. 


td ae 

Points. Yet I grant it poffible, at leaft by 
a divine Power ; and if they were once to 
be placed, I agree with you that they 
would continue in that Pofture without 
Motion for ever, unlefs put into new Mo- 
tion by the fame Power. When there- 
fore I faid, that Matter evenly fpread 
through all Space, would convene by its 
Gravity into one or more great Mafles, I 
underftand it of Matter not refting in an 
accurate Poife, 


But you argue, in the next Paragraph 
of your Letter, that every Particle of 
Matter in an infinite Space, has an inf~ 
nite Quantity of Matter on all Sides, and 
— by confequence an infinite Attra@tion every 
way, and therefore muft reft in Eguili- 
brio, becaufe all Infinites are equal. Yet 
you fufpec a Paralogifm in this Argu- 
ment ; and I conceive the Paralogifm lies 
in the Pofition, that all Infinites are equal, 
The generality of Mankind confider 
Infinites no other ways than indefinitely ; 

and 


[ 16 ] 


and in this Senfe, they fay all Infinites 
are equal; tho’ they would fpeak more 
truly if they fhould fay, they are neither 
equal nor unequal, nor have any cerf- 
tain Difference or Proportion one to ano- 
ther. In this Senfe therefore, no Con- 
clufions can be drawn from them, about 
the Equality, Proportions, or Differences 
of Things, and they that attempt to do it 
ufually fall. into Paralogifms. So when 
Men argue againft the infinite Divifibility 
of Magnitude, by faying, that if an Inch 
may be divided into an infinite Number of. 
Parts, the Sum of thofe Parts will be an 
Inch ; and if a Foot may be divided into 
an infinite Number of Parts, the Sum of 
thofe Parts mutt’ be a Foot, and therefore 
Gnee all Infinites are equal, thofe Sums 
‘mutt be equal, that is, an Inch equal to 


a Foot. 


The Falfenefs of the Conclufion fhews 
an Error in the Premifes, and the Error 
lies in the Pofition, that all Infinites are 

f equal, 


[ 17 ] 

equal. There is therefore another Way 
of confidering Infinites ufed by Mathe- 
maticians, and that is, under certain de- 
finite Reftrictions and Limitations, where- 
by Infinites are determined to have cer- 
tain Differences or Proportions to one 
another. Thus Dr. Walls confiders them 
in his Arithmetica Infinitorum, where 
by the varicus Proportions of infinite 
Sums, he gathers the various Proporti- 
ons of infinite Magnitudes: Which way 
of arguing is generally allowed by Ma- 
thematicians, and yet would not be good 
were all Infinites equal. According to 
the fame way of confidering Infinites, a 
Mathematician would tell you, that tho’ 
there be an infinite Number of infinite 
little Parts in an Inch, yet there is twelve 
times that Number of fuch Parts in a 
Foot, that is, the infinite Number of 
thofe Parts in a Foot is not equal to, but 
twelve Times bigger than the infinite 
Number of them:in an Inch. And fo 
a Mathematician will tell you, that if a 

D Body 


, Trek! 

Body flood in Equilibrio between any two 
equal and contrary attracting infinite 
Forces ; and if to either of thefe Forces 
you add any new finite attracting Force, 
that new Force, how little foever, will 
deftroy their Equilibrium, and put the 
Body into the fame Motion into which 
it would put it were thofe two contrary 
equal Forces but finite, or even none at 
all; fo that in this Cafe the two equal 
Infinites by the Addition of a Finite to 
either of them, become unequal in our 
ways of Reckoning; and after thefe 
ways we muft reckon, if from the 
Confiderations of Infinites we would al- 
ways draw true Conclufions.: 


‘To the laft Part of your Letter, I an- 
fwer, Firft, that if the Earth (without 
the Moon) were placed any where with 
its Center in the Orbis Magnus, and ftood 
(till there without any Gravitation or Pro- 
jection, and there at once were infufed 
into it, both a gravitating Energy towards 


the 


[319 | 

the Sun, and a tranfverfe Impulfe of a 
juft Quantity moving it directly in a ‘Tan- 
gent to the Orézs Magnus; the Com- 
pounds of this Attraction and Projection 
would, according to my Notion, caufe a 
circular Revolution of the Earth about 
the Sun. But the tranfverfe Impulfe 
muit be a juft Quantity; for if it be too 
big or too little, it will caufe the Earth 
to move in fome other Line. Secondly, 
I do not know any Power in Nature 
which would caufe this tranfverfe Motion 
without the divine Arm. SB/onde/ tells us 
fomewhere in his Book of Bombs, that 
Plato affirms, that the Motion of the 
Planets is. fuch, as if they had all 
of them been created by God in 
fome Region very remote from our 
Syftem, and let fall from thence to- 
wards the Sun, and fo foon as they arrived 
at their feveral Orbs, their Motion of 
falling turned afide into a tranfverfe 
one. And this is true, fuppofing the 
gravitating Power of the Sun was double 

of 9B: at 


y 


[ 20 ] 
at that Moment of ‘Time in which they 
all arrive at their feveral Orbs ; but then 
the divine Power is here required in a 
double refpect, namely, to turn the de- 
fcending Motions of the falling Planets 
into a fide Motion, and at the fame time 
to double the attractive Power of the Sun: 
So then Gravity may put the Planets into 
Motion, but without the divine Power it 


“could never put them into fucha circulating 


Motion as they have about the Sun; and 
therefore, for this, as well as other Reafons; 
I am compelled to afcribe the Frame of 
this Syftem to an intelligent Agent. 


You fometimes fpeak of Gravity as 
effential and inherent to Matter. Pray do 
not afcribe that Notion to me; for the 
Caufe of Gravity is what I do not pretend 
to know, and therefore would take more 
Time to confider of it. 


I fear what I have faid of Infinites, will 
feem obfcure to you; but it is enough if 
you 


[21] 

you underftand, that Infinites when con- 
fidered abfolutely without any Reftriction 
or Limitation, are neither equal nor un- 
equal, nor have any certain Proportion one 
to another, and therefore the Principle 
that all Infinites are equal, is a precarious 
one. 


Sire ant ‘ 
Your moft humble Servant, 


Trinity College, 
Jan. 17, 1692-3. 


Is, NEWTON, 


LE T- 


a | 


ai eK 


y 
t 


[ 23 ] 


ee Pee Ree 


For Mr. Bentuty, at the Palace 
at Worcefter. 


SIR, 
Ecaufe you defire Speed, I will an- 
fwer your Letter with what Brevity 
Ican. In the fix Pofitions you lay down 
in the Beginning of your Letter, L agree 
with you. Your affuming the Ord:s Mag- 
nus 7000 Diameters of the Earth wide, 
implies the Sun’s horizontal Parallax to be 
halfa Minute. Flamfleed and Caffini have 
of late obferved it to be about ro’, and 
thus the Orbis Magnus muft be 21,000, or 
in a rounderNumber 20,000 Diameters of 


the Earth wide. Either saving guste I 
think 


‘[ 24 
think will do well, and I think it not 
worth while to alter your Numbers. 


In the next Part of your Letter you lay 
down four other Pofitions, founded upon 
the fix firft. The frft of thefe four feems 
very evident, fuppofing you take Attrac- 
tion fo generally as by it. to underftand 
any Force by which diftant Bodies endea- 
vour to come together without mechani- 
cal Impulfe. The fecond feems not fo 
-clear ; for it may be faid, that there might 
be other Syftems of Worlds before the 
prefent ones, and others before thofe, and 
fo on to all paft Eternity, and by confe- 
quence, that Gravity may be co-eternal 
to Matter, and have the fame Effe@ from 
-all Eternity as at prefent, unlefs you have 
fomewhere proved that old Syftems can- 
uot gradually pafs into new ones ; -or that 
this Syftem had not its Original from the 
exhaling Matter of former decaying Syf- 
tems, but from a Chaos of Matter evenly 

difperfed 


[cass 
difperfed throughout all Space ; for fome= 
thing of this Kind, I think, you fay was 
the Subject of your fixth Sermon ; and 
the Growth of new Syftems out of old 
ones, without the Mediation of a divine 
Power, feemgs to me apparently abfurd. 


The laft Claufe of the fecond Pofition 

I like very well. It is inconceivable, that 
inanimate brute Matter fhould, without 
the Mediation of fomething elfe, which is 
not material, operate upon, and affect 
other Matter without mutual Contact, as 
it mutt be, if Gravitation in .the Senfe of 
-Epicurus, be eflential and inherent in it. 
And this is one Reafon why I defired you 
would not afcribe innate Gravity to me. 
That Gravity fhould be innate, inherent 
and effential to Matter, fo that one Body 
may at upon another at a Diftance thro’ 
a Vacuum, without the Mediation of any 
thing elfe, by and through which their 
Action and Force may be conveyed from 
E one 


[ 26 | 
one to another, is to me fo great an iba 
furdity, that I believe no Man who has in 
philofophical Matters a competent F aculty 
of thinking, can ever fall into it. Gravity 
muf{t be caufed by an Agent acting con- 


{tantly according to certain Laws; but 
whether this Agent. be material or imma- 


terial, Ihave left to the Confideration of 
my Readers. 


® 


Your fourth Affertion, that the World 
could not be formed by innate Gravity 
alone, you confirm by three Arguments, 
But in your firft Argument you feem to 
make a Petitio Principii; for: whereas 
many ancient Philofophers and others, as 
well Theifts as Atheifts, have all allowed; 
that there may be Worlds and Parcels of 
- Matter innumerable or infinite, you deny 
this, by reprefenting it ‘as abfurd as that 
there fhould be pofitively an infinite arith= 
metical Sum or Number, which ‘is a Con 
tradiction za Termiuis; but you do not 

a prove 


[ 27 J 

prove it as abfurd. Neither do you prove, 
that what Men mean by an infinite Sum 
or Number, isa Contradiction in Nature ; 
for a Contradiction zz Termunis implies no 
more than an Impropriety of Speech. 
Thofe things which Men underftand by 
improper and contradictious Phrafes, may 
be fometimes really in Nature without any 

Contradiction at all: a Silver Inkhorn, a 
Paper Lanthorn, an Iron Whetftone, are 
abfurd Phrafes,- yet the Things fighified © 
thereby, are really in Nature. If any 
Man fhould fay, that a Number and a 
Sum, to fpeak properly, is that which may 
be numbered and fummed, but Things in- 
finite are numberlefs, or, as we ufually 
{peak, innumerable and fumlefs, or in- 
fummable, and therefore ought not to be 


called a Number or Sum, he will fpeak* | 


properly enough, and your Argument 
againft him will, I fear, lofe its Force. 
And yet if any Man fhall take the Words, 
Number and Sum, in a larger Senfe, fo 

K2 as 


[ 28 ] 
as to underftand thereby Things, which 
inthe proper way of fpeaking are num- 
berlefs and fumlefs (as you feem to do 
when you allow an infinite Number of 
Points ina Line) I could readily allow him 


~ the Ufe of the contradictious Phrafes of 


innumerable Number, or fumlefs Sum, 
without inferring from thence any Abfur- 
dity in the Thing he means by thofe 
Phrafes. However, if by this, or any 
other Argument, you have proved the 
Finitehefs of the Univerfe, it follows, that 
all Matter would fall down from the Out- 
fides, and convene in the Middle: Yet 
the Matter in falling might concrete into 
many round Maffes, like the Bodies of 
the Planets, and thefe by attraCting one 
another, might acquire an Obliquity of 
Defcent, by means of which they might 
fall, not upon the great central Body, but 
upon the Side of it, and fetch a Compafs 
about, and then afcend again by the fame 
Steps and Degrees of Motion and Velocity 

with 


[ 29 J 
with which they defcended before, much 
after the Mauner that the Comets revolve 
about the Sun; but a circular Motion in 
concentrick Orbs about the Sun, they 


could never acquire by Gravity alone. 


And tho’ all the Matter were divided at 
firft into feveral Syftems, and every Syf- 
tem by a divine Power conftituted like 
ours ; yet would the Outfide Syftems de- 
{cend towards the Middlemoft; fo that 
this Frame of Things could not always 
fubfift without a divine Power to conferve 
it, which is the fecond Argument; and 
to your third I fully affent. ) 


As for the Paffage of Plato, there is no 
common Place from whence all the Pla- 
nets being let fall, and defcending with 
uniform and equal Gravities (as Galileo 
fuppofes) would at their Arrival to their 
feveral Orbs acquire their feveral Veloci- 


ties, with which they now revolve in 
them. 


[ 30 ] 


them. If we fuppofe the Gravity of all 
the Planets towards the Sun to be of fuch 
4 Quantity as it really is, and that the Mo- 
tions of the Planets are turned upwards, 
every Planet will afcend to twice its 
Height from the Sun. Saturn will af- 
_ cend till he be twice as high from the Sun 
as he is at prefent, and no higher; Yupi- 
fer will afcend as high again as at prefent, . 
that is, a little above the Orb of Saturn ; 
Mercury will afcend to twice his prefent 
Height, that is, to the Orb of Venus ; and 
fo of the reft ; and then by falling down 
again from the Places to which they af- 
cended, they will arrive again at their fe+ 
veral Orbs with the fame Velocities they 
had at firft, and with which they now 


revolve. 


But if {6 foon as their Motions by 
whichthey revolve are turned upwards, 
the gravitating Power of the Sur, by 
which their Afcent is perpetually retarded, 

be 


L 34 4 
be diminifhed by one half, they will now 
afcend perpetually, and all of them at all 
equal Diftances from the Sun will be 
equally fwift. Mercury when he arrives 
at the Orb of Venus, will be as {wift as 
Venus; and he and Venus, when they 
arrive at the Orb of the Earth, will be 
as {wift as the Earth; and fo of the ret, If 
they begin all of them toafcend at once,and 
afcend in the fameLine,they will conftant- 
ly in afcending become nearer and nearer 
together, and their Motions will conftantly 
approach to an Equality, and become at 
length flower than any Motion affion- 
able. Suppofe therefore, that they afcended 
till they were almoft contiguous, and their 
Motions inconfiderably little, and that all 
their Motions were at the fame Moment 
of Time turned back again; or, which 
comes almoft to the fame jay that they 
were only deprived of their Motions, and 
let fall at that Time, they would all at 
once arrive at their feveral Orbs, each 


with 


[ 32 ] 

with the Velocity it had at firft; and if 
their Motions were then turned Side- 
ways, and at the fame Time the gravi- 
tating Power of the Sun doubled, that it 
might be ftrong enough to retain them in 
their Orbs, they would revolve in them as 
before their Afcent. . But if the gravitate- 
ing Power of the Sun was not doubled, 
they would go away from their Orbs into 
the higheft Heavens in parabolical Lines, 
_Thefe Things follow from my Prine, 
Math. Libvii., Prpp.3935.34; 20,49. ? 


I thank you very kindly for your dey 
figned Prefent, and reft 
Your moft 
humble Servant 
| to command, 
Cambridge, 
Feb. 25, 1092-3, 


[ 33 ] 


" 


pe nai Re EN 


Io Mr. Bentuzy, at the Palace 
at Worcefter. 


STR, 


oe HE Hypothefis of deriving the 
Frame of the World by mechani- 
cal Principles from Matter evenly fpread 
through the Heavens, being inconfiftent 
with my Syftem, I had confidered it very 
little before your Letters put me upon it, 
and therefore trouble you with a Line 
or two more about it, if this comes not 
too late for your Ufe. 


In my former I reprefented that the 
diurnal Rotations of the Planets could not 
be derived from Gravity, but required a 
divine Armto imprefsthem. And tho’ 

F Gravity 


| [ 34] 

Gravity might give the Planets a Motion 
of Defcent towards the Sun, either dire@tly 
or with fome little Obliquity, yet the 
tranfverfe Motions by which they revolve 
in their feveral Orbs, required the divine 
Arm to imprefs them according to the 
Tangents of their Orbs, I would now add, 
that the Hypothefis of Matter’s being at 
firft evenly {pread through the Heavens, 
is, inmy Opinion, inconfiftent with the 
Hypothefis of innate Gravity, without a 
fupernatural Power to reconcile them, 
and therefore it infers a Deity. For if 
there be innate Gravity, it is impoffible 
now for the Matter of the Earth and all 
the Planets and Stars to fly up from them, 
and become evenly fpread throughout all 
the Heavens, without a fupernatural Power; 
and certainly that which can never be 
hereafter without a fupernatural Power, 
could never be heretofore without the 
fame P ower. 5. 


You 


[35] 

You queried; whether Matter evenly 
{pread throughout a finite Space, of fome 
other Figure than fpherical, would not in 
falling down towards a central Body, 
caufe that Body to be of the fame Figure 
with the whole Space, and I anfwered, 
yes. But in my Anfwer it is to be fup- 
pofed that the Matter defcends. directly. 
downwards to that Body, and that that 
Body has no diurnal Rotation. 

This, Sir, is all I would add to my 
former Letters. | | 


I am, 


Your moft humble 


Servant, 


Cambridge, 
Feb. 11, 1693. 


Is. NEWTON. 


Bod ING Ee)