it seems better calculated to display the abilities, and answer the private views of Fontenelle, than to convey accurate information. Mr. Edmund Turnor has lately favoured the world with the original life of Newton, drawn up by Mr. Conduitt, for the information of Fontenelle, and with a most interesting letter of Dr. Stukely on the same subject, from the MSS. in the possession of the earl of Portsmouth. But although Mr. Turnor's "Collections for the Town and Soke of Grantham," the work to which we allude, was published in 1806, Dr. Thomson was the first who availed himself of it, to enrich his valuable "History of the Royal Society." In the preceding account, therefore, we have generally followed Dr. Thomson, who has unquestionably the merit of giving the public the most accurate and elegant account of the personal history of sir Isaac, a man, said Dr. Johnson, who, had he flourished in ancient Greece, would have been worshipped as a divinity.

Any investigation of his mathematical discoveries, or a laboured analysis of his philosophy, called, by way of distinction, the Newtonian, would be out of place in a work of this kind, and to be satisfactory would exceed all bounds. Dr. Keill said that if all philosophy and mathematics were considered as consisting of ten parts, nine of them would be found entirely of his discovery and invention. "Does Mr. Newton eat, drink, or sleep, like other men?" said the marquis de l'Hospital, one of the greatest mathematicians of the age, to the English who visited him. "I represent him to myself as a celestial genius entirely disengaged from matter." Of his philosophy, properly so called, the great principle is the power of gravity: this had been hinted at by Kepler, but the glory of bringing it to a physical demonstration was reserved for Newton. It was first made public in 1686, but republished in 1713, with considerable improvements. Several other authors have since attempted to make it plainer, by setting aside many of the more sublime mathematical researches, and substituting either more obvious reasoning, or experiments, in lieu of them; particularly Whiston, in his "Prælect. Phys. Mathemat. ;" S'Gravesande, in "Element. et Instit." Dr. Pemberton, in his "View;" and Maclaurin, in his excellent work, entitled "An Account of sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries."

Notwithstanding the great merit of this philosophy, and the universal reception it has met with at home, it gained ground at its first publication but slowly abroad, and Cartesianism, Huygenianism, and Leibnitzianism, maintained their ground, till the force of truth prevailed. It is now, however, held in the utmost veneration both at home and abroad. The philosophy itself is laid down principally in the third book of the Principia. The two preceding books are taken up in preparing the way for it, and laying down such principles of mathematics as have the nearest relation to philosophy: such are the laws and conditions of powers, And these, to render them less dry and geometrical, the author illustrates by scholia in philosophy, relating chiefly to the density and resistance of bodies, the motion of light and sounds, a vacuum, &c. In the third book he proceeds to the philosophy itself; and from the same principles deduces the structure of the universe, and the powers of gravity, by which bodies tend towards the sun and planets; and from these powers, the motion of planets, and comets, the theory of the moon, and the tides. This book, which he calls "De Mundi Systemate," he tells us was first written in the popular way; but considering, that such as are unacquainted with the said principles would not conceive the force of the consequences, nor be induced to Jay aside their ancient prejudices, he afterwards digested the sum of that book into propositions, in the mathematical manner; so as it might only come to be read by such as had first considered the principles; not that it is necessary a man should master them all; many of them, even the firstrate mathematicians, would find a difficulty in getting over. It is enough to have read the definitions, laws of motion, and the three first sections of the first book: after which the author himself directs us to pass on to the book "De Systemate Mundi."

Newton's opinion of God is well expressed by Brucker: "God governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as the Lord of the universe. The Supreme Deity is an eternal, infinite, and absolutely perfect Being, omnipotent and omniscient: that is, his duration extends from eternity to eternity, and his presence from infinity to infinity; he governs all things, and knows all things which exist, or can be known. He is not eternity or infinity, but eternal and infinite he is not duration or space, but he endures, and is present; he endures for ever, and is present every

where. Since every portion of space is always, and every indivisible moment of duration is every where, certainly the Maker and Lord of all things cannot be never or nowhere. God is omnipresent not virtually only, but substantially, for power cannot subsist without substance. In him all things are contained and move, but without reciprocal affection: God is not affected by the motion of bodies, nor do bodies suffer resistance from the omnipre sence of God.

"It is universally allowed, that God exists necessarily; and by the same necessity he exists always and every where. Whence he is throughout similar, all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all power of perceiving, understanding, and acting; but in a manner not at all human; in a manner not at all corporeal; in a manner to us altogether unknown. As a blind man has no idea of colours, so we have no idea of the manner in which the Most Wise God perceives and understands all things. He is entirely without body and bodily form, and therefore can neither be seen, nor heard, nor touched; nor ought he to be worshipped under any corporeal representation. We have ideas of his attributes, but what the substance of anything is we are wholly ignorant. We see only the figures and colours of bodies; we hear only sounds; we touch only external superficies; we smell only odours; we taste only savours; of their internal substances we have no knowledge by any sense, or by any reflex act of the mind: much less have we any idea of the substance of God. We know him only by his properties and attributes, by the most wise and excellent structure of things, and by final causes; and we reverence and worship him on account of his dominion. A God without dominion, providence, and design, is nothing else but Fate and Nature."

While many learned mathematicians, and celebrated writers, have attempted to illustrate and explain different parts of the writings of Newton, some have ventured to call in question the ground of his philosophy. It has been objected, that attraction, the first principle in the Newtonian philosophy, is in reality one of those occult qualities which Newton professes to reject. But to this it is satisfactorily replied, that the power of gravity is not an unknown cause, since its existence is proved from the phanomena. The Newtonian philosophy does not require, that the cause of gravitation should be explained. It merely

assumes an incontrovertible fact, that bodies gravitate to wards each other according to a known law, and, by the help of geometrical reasoning, deduces from this fact certain conclusions. Newton himself expressly asserts, that it is enough for him that gravity really exists, though its cause be not certainly known. In truth no words can be more explicit than those in which Newton disclaims all reliance upon hypothetical principles, or occult.qualities, and makes experience the only foundation of his philosophy.

Dissatisfied with the hypothetical grounds on which former philosophers, particularly Des Cartes, had raised the structure of natural philosophy, Newton adopted the manner of philosophising introduced by lord Bacon, and determined to raise a system of natural philosophy on the basis of experiment. He laid it down as a fundamental rule, that nothing is to be assumed as a principle, which is not established by observation and experience, and that no hypothesis is to be admitted into physics, except as a question, the truth of which is to be examined by its agreement with appearances. "Whatever," says he, "is not deduced from phænomena, is to be called an hypothesis and hypotheses, whether physical or metaphysical, whether of occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy." In this philosophy, propositions are drawn from phænomena, and are rendered general by induction. This plan of philosophising he pursued in two different methods, the Analytic and the Synthetic; collecting from certain phænomena the forces of nature, and the more simple laws of these forces; and then proceeding, on the foundation of these, to establish the rest. In explaining, for example, the system of the world, he first proves, from experience, that the power of gravi. tation belongs to all bodies: then, assuming this as an established principle, he demonstrates, by mathematical reasoning, that the earth and sun, and all the planets, mutually attract each other, and that the smallest parts of matter in each have their several attractive forces, which are as their quantities of matter, and which, at different distances, are inversely as the squares of their distances. In investigating the theorems of the "Principia," Newton made use of his own analytical method of fluxions; but, in explaining his system, he has followed the synthetic method of the ancients, and demonstrated the theorems geometrically.

The following, we presume, is a correct list of the works of Newton, published before or after his death. 1. Several papers relating to his "Telescope," and his "Theory of Light and Colours," printed in the Philosophical Transactions, numbers 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 88, 96, 97, 110, 121, 123, 128; or vols. VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI. 2. "Optics, or a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, and Inflections, and the Colours of Light," 1704, 4to; a Latin translation by Dr. Clarke, 1706, 4to; and a French translation by Pet. Coste, Amst. 1729, 2 vols. 12mo; beside several English editions in 8vo. 3. "Optical Lectures," 1728, 8vo; also in several Letters to Mr. Oldenburg, se cretary of the Royal Society. 4. "Lectiones Opticæ," 1729, 4to. 5. "Naturalis Philosophiæ Principia Mathematica," 1687, 4to; a second edition in 1713, with a Preface, by Roger Cotes; the third edition in 1726, under the direction of Dr. Pemberton; an English translation, by Motte, 1729, 2 vols. 8vo, printed in several editions of his works, in different nations, particularly an edition, with a large Commentary, by the two learned Jesuits, Le Seur and Jacquier, in 4 vols. 4to, in 1739, 1740, and 1742. 6. "A System of the World," translated from the Latin original, 1727, 8vo; this was at first intended to make the third book of his Principia; an English translation by Motte, 1729, 8vo. 7. Several Letters to Mr. Flamsteed, Dr. Halley, and Mr. Oldenburg. 8. "A Paper concerning the Longitude," drawn up by order of the House of Commons, ibid. 9. "Abregé de Chronologie," &c. 1726, under the direction of the abbé Conti, together with some observations upon it. 10. "Remarks upon the Observations made upon a Chronological Jndex of Sir I. Newton," &c. Philos. Trans. vol. XXXIII. See also the same, vol. XXXIV and XXXV, by Dr. Halley. 11. "The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms amended," &c. 1728, 4to. "Arithmetica Universalis," &c. under the inspection of Mr. Whiston, Cantab. 1707, 8vo. Printed, Dr. Hutton thinks, without the author's consent, and even against his will: an offence which it seems was never forgiven. There are also English editions of the same, particularly one by Wilder, with a Commentary, in 1769, 2 vols. 8vo; and a Latin edition, with a Commentary, by Castilion, 2 vols. 4to, Amst. &c. 13. "Analysis per Quantitatum Series, Fluxiones, et Differentias, cum Enumeratione Linearum Tertii Ordinis," 171k, 4to, under the inspection of W.

12.