of Rohault's Physics, with notes, in which Newton is frequently referred to with expressions of profound respect, though the leading doctrines of the Principia are not introduced till a later edition, in 1703. In 1699 Bentley, whom we have already mentioned as a Newtonian, became master of Trinity College; and in the same year, Whiston, another of Newton's disciples was appointed his deputy as professor of mathematics. Whiston delivered the Newtonian doctrines, both from the professor's chair, and in works written for the use of the University; yet it is remakable that a taunt respecting the late introduction of the Newtonian system into the Cambridge course of education, has been founded on some peevish expressions which he uses in his Memoirs, written at a period when, having incurred expulsion from his professorship and the University, he was naturally querulous and jaundiced in his views. In 1709-10 Dr. Laughton, who was tutor in Clare Hall, procured himself to be appointed moderator of the University disputations, in order to promote the diffusion of the new mathematical doctrines. By this time the first edition of the Principia was become rare, and fetched a great price. Bentley urged Newton to publish a new one; and Cotes, by far the first, at that time, of the mathematicians of Cambridge, undertook to superintend the printing, and the edition was accordingly published in 1713. At Oxford, David Gregory and Halley, both zealous and distinguished disciples of Newton, obtained the Savilian professorships of astronomy and geometry in 1691 and 1703; and in 1704 or 5, Keill publicly taught the Newtonian philosophy by experiment. In the Scotch Universities, James Gregory, who was professor at St. Andrew's, accepted the Newtonian philosophy with singular alacrity, for he is said, as early as 1690, to have printed a thesis containing, in twenty-two positions, a compend of Newton's Principia. David Gregory, his brother, was, before he removed to Oxford, professor at Edinburgh; and would no doubt introduce the new discoveries there. The general diffusion of these opinions in England took place, not only by means of books, but through the labours of various experimental lecturers, like Desaguliers, who removed from Oxford to London in 1713; when he informs us", that "he found the Newtonian philosophy generally received among persons of all ranks and professions, and even among the ladies by the help of experiments." We might easily trace in our literature indications of the gradual progress of the Newtonian doctrines. For instance, in the earlier editions of Pope's Dunciad, this couplet occurred, in the description of the effects of the reign of Dulness:- Philosophy, that reached the heavens before, "And this," says his editor, Warburton, "was in * Hutton's Dict., art. D. Gregory. 5 Desag. Pref. tended as a censure on the Newtonian philosophy. For the poet had been misled by the prejudices of foreigners, as if that philosophy had recurred to the occult qualities of Aristotle. This was the idea he received of it from a man educated much abroad, who had read everything, but everything superficially". When I hinted to him how he had been imposed upon, he changed the lines with great pleasure into a compliment (as they now stand) on that divine genius, and a satire on that very folly by which he himself had been misled." In 1743 it was printed, Philosophy, that leaned on heaven before, Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more. The Newtonians repelled the charge of dealing in occult causes; and, referring gravity to the will of the Deity, as the First Cause, assumed a superiority over those whose philosophy rested in second causes. To the willing reception of the Newtonian theory by the English astronomers, there is only one conspicuous exception; which is, however, one of some note, being no other than Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal, a most laborious and exact observer. Flamsteed at first listened with complacency to the promises which the new doctrines held forth, and appeared willing to assist Newton, and to receive * I presume Bolingbroke is here mcant. assistance from him. But he soon quarrelled with Newton's theory, as we have seen that he did with the author, and declares to his correspondent", "I have determined to lay these crotchets of Sir Isaac Newton's wholly aside." We need not, however, find any difficulty in this, if we recollect that Flamsteed, though a good observer, was no philosopher; could never understand by a theory anything more than a formula which should predict results;—and was incapable of comprehending the object of Newton's theory, which was to assign causes as well as rules, and to satisfy the conditions of mechanics as well as of geometry. Sect. 2.-Reception of the Newtonian Theory abroad. THE reception of the Newtonian theory on the Continent, was much more tardy and unwilling than in its native island. Even those whose mathematical attainments most fitted them to appreciate its proofs, were prevented by some peculiarity of view from adopting it as a system; as Leibnitz, Bernoulli, Huyghens; who all clung to one modification or other of the system of vortices. In France, the Cartesian system had obtained a wide and popular reception, having been recommended by Fontenelle with the graces of his style; and its empire was so firm and well established in that country, that it Account of Flamsteed, &c., p. 309. resisted for a long time the pressure of Newtonian arguments. Indeed, the Newtonian opinions had scarcely any disciples in France, till Voltaire asserted their claims, on his return from England in 1728: till then, as he himself says, there were not twenty Newtonians out of England. The hold which the philosophy of Descartes had upon the minds of his countrymen is, perhaps, not surprising. He really had the merit, a great one in the history of science, of having completely overturned the Aristotelian system, and introduced the philosophy of matter and motion. In all branches of mixed mathematics, as we have already said, his followers were the best guides who had yet appeared. His hypothesis of vortices, as an explanation of the celestial motions, had an apparent advantage over the Newtonian doctrine, in this respect ;that it referred effects to the most intelligible, or at least most familiar kinds, of mechanical causation, namely, pressure and impulse. And above all, the system was acceptable to most minds, in consequence of being, as was pretended, deduced from a few simple principles by necessary consequence; and of being also directly connected with metaphysical and theological speculations. We may add, that it was modified by its mathematical adherents in such a way as to remove most of the objections to it. A vortex revolving about a centre could be constructed, or at least it was supposed that it could be constructed, so as to produce a tendency of bodies to |