REVIEW

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FOUR LETTERS from Sir ISAAC NEWTON to Dr. BENTLEY,

AINING

Some Arguments in Proof of a DEITY.

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T will certainly be required, that notice fhould

be taken of a book, however fmall, written on fuch a fubject, by fuch an author. Yet I know not whether thefe Letters will be very fatisfactory; for they are answers to inquiries not published; and therefore, though they contain many pofitions of great importance, are, in fome parts, imperfect and obfcure, by their reference to Dr. Bentley's Letters.

Sir Ijaac declares, that what he has done is due to nothing but industry and patient thought; and indeed long confideration is fo neceffary in such abstruse inquiries, that it is always dangerous to publish the productions of great men, which are not known to have been defigned for the prefs, and of which it is uncertain, whether much patience and thought have been bestowed upon them. The principal question of thefe Letters gives occafion to obferve how even the mind of Newton gains ground gradually upon darkness.

"As to your first query," fays he, "it feems to "me, that if the matter of our fun and planets, "and all the matter of the universe, were evenly "fcattered throughout all the heavens, and every "particle had an innate gravity towards all the rest, " and the whole space throughout which this matter "was fcattered, was but finite, the matter on the "outfide of this fpace would by its gravity tend "towards all the matter on the infide, and by consequence fall down into the middle of the whole fpace, and there compofe one great spherical "mafs. But if the matter was evenly difpofed "throughout an infinite fpace, it could never con"vene into one mafs; but fome of it would con"vene into one mafs, and fome into another, fo as "to make an infinite number of great maffes, fcat"tered at great distances from one to another "throughout all that infinite space. And thus "might the fun and fixed ftars be formed, fup'pofing the matter were of a lucid nature. "how the matter fhould divide itself into two forts, "and that part of it which is fit to compofe a

But

fhining body, fhould fall down into one mafs and "make a fun, 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 fun at first were an opaque body like the planets, or the planets lucid "bodies like the fun, how he alone fhould be " changed into a fhining body, whilft all they con"tinue opaque, or all they be changed into opaque ones, whilft he remains unchanged, I do not think "more explicable by mere natural causes, but am "forced

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"forced to afcribe it to the counfel and contrivance "of a voluntary agent.'

The hypothefis of matter evenly difpofed through infinite space, feems to labour with fuch difficulties, as makes it almoft a contradictory fuppofition, or a fuppofition deftructive of itself.

Matter evenly difpofed through infinite space, is either created or eternal; if it was created, it infers a Creator: if it was eternal, it had been from eternity evenly spread through infinite space; or it had been once coalefced in maffes, and afterwards been diffused. Whatever flate was firft, must have been from eternity, and what had been from eternity could not be changed, but by a caufe beginning to act as it had never acted before, that is, by the voluntary act of fome external power. If matter infinitely and evenly diffufed was a moment without coalition, it could never coalefce at all by its own power. If matter originally tended to coalefce, it could never be evenly diffufed through infinite fpace. Matter being fuppofed eternal, there never was a time when it could be diffufed before its conglobation, or conglobated before its diffufion.

This Sir Ifaac feems by degrees to have underftood; for he fays, in his fecond Letter, "The "reafon why matter evenly fcattered through a "finite fpace would convene in the midft, you con"ceive the fame with me; but that there fhould be "a central particle, fo accurately placed in the "middle, as to be always equally attracted on all

fides, and thereby continue without motion, seems "to me a fuppofition fully as hard as to make the fharpeft needle ftand upright upon its point on a

"looking

looking-glafs. For if the For if the very mathematical "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 "attracted equally on all fides. And much harder

is it to fuppofe all the particles in an infinite space <fhould be fo accurately poifed one among ano"ther, as to ftand ftill in a perfect equilibrium. * For I reckon this as hard as to make not one nee"dle only, but an infinite number of them (fo many "as there are particles in an infinite space) ftand ac"curately poifed upon their 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 mo❝tion for ever, unless put into new motion by the "fame power. When therefore I said, that matter

evenly spread through all space, would convene "by its gravity into one or more great maffes, I understand it of matter not refting in an accurate "poise."

Let not it be thought irreverence to this great name, if I observe, that by matter evenly spread through infinite space, he now finds it neceffary to mean matter not evenly spread. Matter not evenly Spread will indeed convene, but it will convene as foon as it exifts. And, in my opinion, this puzzling question about matter is only how that could be that never could have been, or what a man thinks on when he thinks of nothing.

Turn matter on all fides, make it eternal, or of late production, finite or infinite, there can be no regular system produced but by a voluntary and meaning

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meaning agent. This the great Newton always afferted, and this he afferts in the third letter; but proves in another manner, in a manner perhaps more happy and conclufive.

"The hypothefis of deriving the frame of the "world by mechanical principles from matter I evenly spread through the heavens being incon"fiftent with my fyftem, I had confidered it very "little before your letter put me upon it, and "therefore trouble you with a line or two more "about it, if this comes not too late for your use.

"In my former I reprefented that the diurnal "rotations of the planets could not be derived from "gravity, but required a divine arm to impress "them. And though gravity might give the pla"nets a motion of defcent towards the fun, either directly, or with fome little obliquity, yet the "tranfverfe motions by which they revolve in their feveral orbs, required the divine arm to impress "them according to the tangents of their orbs. "I would now add, that the hypothefis of matter's "being at firft evenly spread through the heavens,

is, in my 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 im

poffible now for the matter of the earth, and all "the planets and ftars, 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 fuperna"tural power, could never be heretofore without the fame power."