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not to be a spiral, but that in a vacuum it would be an excentric ellipse, which would change into an ovoidal curve likewise excentric, if the medium were a resisting one. It is impossible exactly to ascertain how Hooke arrived at these results, for neither then, nor on any subsequent occasion, did he give a demonstration of them; though Halley and Sir Christopher Wren both eagerly pressed him to do so. We might imagine, not without some probability, that the elliptic movement of projectiles was, in his mind, a consequence of the hypothetical, though just, ideas he had formed on the physical cause of the planetary motions; for he attributed them to the existence of a gravitating force, proper to each celestial body, and acting round its centre, with an energy inversely proportional to the square of the distance; so that, in this system, the motion of projectiles round the centre of the earth ought to be elliptical, because, according to observation, the motion of the planets was elliptical round the sun. Hooke had, for some time, turned his thoughts to this kind of speculation; but not being a sufficiently profound mathematician, rigorously to deduce the nature of the force from the form of the orbits, or to show how this form resulted from the supposed law of attraction, he tried to determine its character by direct physical experiments, and actually to produce the motions which resulted from the law, by means of mechanical contrivances. On the 21st March, 1666, he communicated to the Royal Society certain experiments, which he had attempted, in order to determine whether the weight of a body undergoes any variation at different distances from the earth's centre, at the greatest altitudes or depths which can be attained. These experiments were made with too little precision to give results on which any reliance could be placed. Hooke himself perceived this, and proposed to employ the more delicate process of using a pendulum clock, and successively observing its rate at different heights. This first attempt, though imperfect, shows the object he had in view, which perhaps is more clearly seen in his own words. "Gravity, though it seems to be one of the most universal, active principles in the world, and consequently ought to be the most considerable, yet has it had the ill fate to have been always, till of late, esteemed otherwise,

even to slighting and neglect. But the inquisitiveness of this latter age hath begun to find sufficient arguments to entertain other thoughts of it. Gilbert began to imagine it a magnetical attractive power, inherent in the parts of the terrestrial globe. The noble Verulam also, in part, embraced this opinion; and Kepler (not without good reason) makes it a property inherent in all celestial bodies,-sun, stars, planets. This supposition we may afterwards more particularly examine; but first it will be requisite to consider, whether this gravitating or attracting power be inherent in the parts of the earth; and, if so, whether it be magnetical, electrical, or of some other nature distant from either. If it be magnetical, any body attracted by it ought to gravitate more, when nearer to its surface, than when further off.*"

Two months afterwards, Hooke made before the Royal Society another experiment, which, as he himself observed, without being an exact representation of the planetary orbits, afforded an example, at that time new and remarkable, of a curvilinear motion produced by the combination of a primitive impulse with an attracting power emanating from a centre. He suspended from the ceiling of a room a long wire, to the end of which was attached a ball of wood, to represent a planetary body. On removing this pendulum from the vertical, and giving it a lateral impulse perpendicular to the plane of deviation, it is acted on by two forces, of which one is the impulse itself, and the other terrestrial gravity, of which the effort, when decomposed perpendicularly to the wire, tends always to bring the body back to the vertical. Now when the lateral impulse was nothing, the ball clearly described a plane orbit, viz. that of its free oscillation; if the impulse, without being nothing, were still very weak, the trajectory became a very much elongated ellipse, having its major axis in the plane of oscillation; with a stronger impulse, a more open ellipse was obtained, which, at a particular point, became an exact circle; and lastly, still stronger impulses produced ellipses, whose major axes were no longer parallel with, but were perpendicular to the plane of free oscillation. Thus these different curves were seen to be produced and to be transformed into each

Birch, Hist. R. S. vol, ii., p. 70.;

other, by merely changing the relative energies of the two forces (the one impulsive, and the other central) which acted on the pendulum. These ellipses, however, differed from the planetary ellipses, inasmuch as the central force produced by the decomposition of gravity is constantly directed towards the centre of the ellipse, and is directly proportional to the distance of the body from that centre; whereas, in the planetary orbits, the central force is constantly directed towards one of the foci of the ellipse, and is reciprocally proportional to the square of the distance of the body from that point. Notwithstanding this fundamental distinction, the experiment of Hooke was important and useful, as it gave a perceptible example of the composition of forces. Eight years later, in 1674, Hooke presented the whole of his ideas in a much more explicit and complete manner, at the end of a dissertation, entitled, "An Attempt to prove the Motion of the Earth from Observations."*" I shall," says he, "hereafter explain a system of the world, differing in many particulars from any yet known, answering in all things to the common rules of mechanical motions. This depends upon three suppositions:-first, that all celestial bodies whatsoever have an attraction or gravitating power towards their own centres, whereby they attract not only their own parts and keep them from flying from them, as we may observe the earth to do, but that they do also attract all the other celestial bodies that are within the sphere of their activity, and consequently, that not only the sun and moon have an influence upon the body and motion of the earth, and the earth upon them, but that Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn also, by their attractive powers, have a considerable influence upon its motion, as in the same manner the corresponding attractive power of the earth hath a considerable influence upon every one of their motions also. The second supposition is this, that all bodies whatsoever, that are put into a direct and simple motion, will so continue to move forward in a straight line, till they are, by some other effectual powers, deflected and bent into a motion describing a circle, ellipsis, or some other more compound curve line. The third supposition is, that those attractive powers are so much the more

London, 4to. 1674.

powerful in operating, by how much the nearer the body wrought upon is to their own centres. Now what these several degrees are I have not yet experimentally verified; but it is a notion which, if fully prosecuted, as it ought to be, will mightily assist the astronomers to reduce all the celestial motions to a certain rule, which I doubt will never be done true without it. He that understands the nature of the circular pendulum and circular motion will easily understand the whole ground of this principle, and will know where to find directions in nature for the true stating thereof. This I only hint at present to such as have ability and opportunity of prosecuting this inquiry, and are not wanting of industry for observing and calculating, wishing heartily such may be found, having myself many other things in hand, which I would first complete, and therefore cannot so well attend it. But this I durst promise the undertaker, that he will find all the great motions of the world to be influenced by this principle, and that the true understanding thereof will be the true perfection of astronomy."

Without lessening the credit due to the distinct expression of such remarkable ideas, it is proper to observe, that we find in Hooke's work no measured result. We do not allude only to the law of force, which is here entirely omitted: we have said that Hooke supposed it to be reciprocal to the square of the distance; but others before him, and among them Bouillaud,* had established the same supposition, on simple metaphysical considerations. Halley again did the same, after Hooke and Bouillaud. We have a convincing proof that Hooke arrived at this conclusion in no other way, from his saying that he had not ye experimentally verified the law of decrease in the attracting force; for he would not have thus expressed himself if he had discovered this law directly, by applying the theorems of Huygens on centrifugal forces to the observed orbits of the planets; for in this case the experiment would have been already made, and the law of the squares, thus obtained, would have needed no other verification. The generalization of the idea of gravity, and its extension to all celestial bodies, decreasing in intensity according to the distance, was formally

• Bullialdus, Astronomia Philolaica,

expressed by Borelli in 1666, in his work on the Satellites of Jupiter; and not only did he announce it as a general principle, but he explained very clearly how the planets may be retained and suspended in empty space round the sun, in the same manner as the satellites round their planets, by the action of a power continually and exactly balanced by the centrifugal force caused by their rotation, without having recourse either to the solid heavens of Aristotle, or to the vortices of Descartes. Borelli even endeavoured to deduce from this combination of forces the elliptical motions of the satellites, and the inequalities in their motions, which he considered as being partly produced by the secondary action of the sun; and though, from his being unacquainted both with the law of this force at different distances, and with the Theorems on Central Forces, published by Huygens six years afterwards, he was, of course, unable rigorously to establish these deductions; yet there was much merit in being the first to guess and perhaps to indicate the possibility of doing so. Newton also, we shall presently see, attributes to Borelli the honour of having first formed the idea of extending the principle of gravitation, and of applying it to the planetary motions; and Huygens renders him the same justice in his Kosmotheoros, where he mentions these happy perceptions, immediately before speaking of the demonstrations of Newton. It is not then by any means impossible that Hooke might have been conducted to the same thoughts by similar, that is by purely physical considerations; and we shall presently see reasons that render this conjecture extremely probable. However, in whatever manner he formed these opinions, it is clear that in 1679 he considered them as undoubtedly correct; for, in writing to Newton on the motion of projectiles, he represents the eccentric ellipse as the consequence of a force reciprocal to the squares of the distances from the centre of the earth. This remarkable relation could not fail of striking a mind which had so long and so constantly studied the motions of the heavens. Newton,

• Theorica medicearum planetarum ex causis phy sicis deductæ. (Firenze, 1666) This same Borelli was the author of the celebrated work de Motu Animalium.

+ Vid. lib. ii, p. 141. Christianii Hugenii Kosmotheoros, sive de terris cœlestibus, eorumque ornatu conjecturæ. (4to. Haga Comm. 1698.)

as we have already said, hastened to examine this result, by means of mathematical calculations, and discovered its truth; that is to say, he found that an attractive force, emanating from a centre, and acting reciprocally to the squares of the distances, necessarily compels the body on which it acts, to describe an ellipse, or in general a conic section, in one of whose foci the centre of force resides. The motions produced by such force exactly resemble the planetary motions, both in regard to the form of the orbit and the velocity of the body at each point. This was evidently the secret of the system of the world; but it still remained to account for the singular discordance which the moon's motion had offered to Newton, when, in 1665, he had wished to extend to her the earth's gravity diminished according to this law. Hence it was that, notwithstanding his inference was confirmed by other inductions, he abstained from publishing any thing upon the subject. Three years afterwards, however, (in June, 1682,) Newton being present at a meeting of the Royal Society, in London, the conversation turned on a new measurement of a terrestrial degree, recently executed in France, by Picard, and much credit was given to the care taken in rendering it exact. Newton, having noted down the length of the degree obtained by Picard, returned home immediately, and taking up his former calculation of 1665, began to recompute it from the new data. Finding, as he advanced, the manifest tendency of these numbers to produce the long wished for results, he suffered so much nervous excitement, that becoming at length unable to go on with the calculation, he entreated one of his friends to complete it for him. This time the agreement of the computed with the observed result was no longer doubtful. The force of gravity at the earth's surface, as determined by experiments on falling bodies, when applied to the moon, after being diminished proportionally to the square of the distance from the centre of the earth, was found to be very nearly equal to the centrifugal force in the moon, as concluded from its distance and angular velocity obtained by observation. The small difference which still existed between the two results, was in itself a new proof of exactness ; for if we suppose an attractive power to emanate from all the celestial bodies inversely proportional to the squares of

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their distances from the bodies which they attract, the motion of the moon ought not only to depend upon its gravity towards the earth, but also to be influenced by the action of the sun; for this effect, though exceedingly weakened by the distance, ought not to be wholly imperceptible in the result.

Thus Newton ceased to doubt; and after having been, during so many years, kept in suspense about this eminently important law, he had no sooner recognized its truth, than he penetrated instantly to its most remote consequences, pursued them all with a vigour, a perseverance, and a boldness of thought, which, till that time, had never been displayed in science. Indeed it seems hardly probable that it will, at any future time, be the destiny of another human being to demonstrate such wonderful truths as these; that all the parts of matter gravitate towards one another, with a force directly proportional to their masses, and reciprocally proportional to the squares of their mutual distances; that this force retains the planets and the comets round the sun, and each system of satellites around their primary planets; and that, by the universally communicated influence which it establishes between the material particles of all these bodies, it determines the nature of their orbits, the forms of their masses, the oscillations in the fluids which cover them, and, in fine, their smallest movements, either in space or in rotation upon their own. axes, and all conformably to the actually observed laws. The finding of the relative masses of the different planets, the determination of the ratio of the axes of the earth, the pointing out the cause of the precession of the equinoxes, and the discovery of the force exercised by the sun and the moon in causing the tides, were the sublime objects which unfolded themselves to the meditations of Newton, after he had discovered the fundamental law of the system of the universe. Can we wonder at his having been so much excited as not to have been able to complete the calculation which was leading him to a conviction that the discovery was achieved?

It was now that he must have experienced intense satisfaction at having so profoundly studied the manner in which physical forces act, and at having sought by so many experiments to comprehend, and exactly to measure their afferent effects. More particularly

must he have been delighted at having created that new calculus, by means of which he was enabled to develope the most complicated phenomena, to bring to light the simple elements of motion, and thus to obtain the forces themselves from which the phenomena result; and finally, to re-descend from these forces to the detail of all their effects: for, with equal talent, had he not possessed this instrument of investigation, the complete unfolding of his discovery would have been impossible. But, possessing the means, he had only to apply them; and thus he saw the constant object of his hope attained. Henceforward, he devoted himself entirely to the enjoyment of these delightful contemplations; and during the two years that he spent in preparing and developing his immortal work, Philosophiae naturalis Principia Mathematica, he lived only to calculate and to think. Oftentimes lost in the contemplation of these grand objects, he acted unconsciously: his thoughts appearing to preserve no connexion with the ordinary concerns of life. It is said, that, frequently on rising in the morning, he would sit down on his bedside, arrested by some new conception, and would remain for hours together, engaged in tracing it out, without dressing himself. He would even have neglected to take sufficient nourishment, had he not been reminded by others of the time of his meals.*

It was only by the uninterrupted efforts of solitary and profound meditation, that even Newton was able to unfold all the truths he had conceived, and which were but so many deductions from his great discovery. We may learn from his example, on what severe conditions even the most perfect intellect is able to penetrate deeply into the secrets of nature, and to enlarge the bounds of For himself, he human attainments. well knew, and willingly confessed, the inevitable necessity of perseverance and

The following anecdote is told on this subject. Dr. Stukely, an intimate friend of Newton, called upon him one day when his dinner was already served up, but before he had appeared in the diningroom. Dr. Stukely having waited some time, and becoming impatient, at length removed the cover from a chicken, which he presently ate, putting the bones back into the dish and replacing the cover. After a short interval, Newton came into the room,

and after the usual compliments, sat down to dinner, but on taking up the cover, and seeing only the bones of the bird left, he observed with some little

surprise, “I thought I had not dined, but I now find that I have."

constancy in the exercise of his attention, in order to develope the power of thought. To one who had asked him on some occasion, by what means he had arrived at his discoveries, he replied, "By always thinking unto them;" and at another time he thus expressed his method of proceeding. "I keep the subject constantly before me, and wait till the first dawnings open slowly by little and little into a full and clear light." Again, in a letter to Dr. Bentley, he says, "If I have done the public any service this way, it is due to nothing but industry and patient thought." With such tastes and habits, the complete command of his own time, and of his own ideas, was his highest enjoyment. Thus, notwithstanding the importance of the results he had obtained, Newton was not eager to establish a title to them by publication, and perhaps he would have even longer delayed giving them to the world had an accidental circumstance not induced him to do so. About the beginning of 1684, Halley, one of the greatest of the English astronomers, and, at the same time, one of the most enlightened and active minds that have ever cultivated science, formed the idea of employing the Theorems of Huygens on central forces, to determine the tendency in the different planets to recede from the sun, by virtue of their revolutions about that body, their orbits being considered as circular. From the ratios discovered by Kepler between the times of these revolutions, and the major axes of the orbits, he recognized these tendencies to be reciprocally as the square of the distances of each planet from the sun, so that the attraction which this luminary exerts to keep them in their places, must also vary according to the same law. This was precisely the idea that Newton had conceived in 1666, and from which he had drawn the same consequence. But there was yet a long way from this, to the rigorous calculation of curvilinear motions when the law of the force is given. Halley perceived the difficulty of this step, and after having in vain endeavoured to remove it, he consulted Hooke, at Sir Christopher Wren's house, without, however, receiving any light on the subject, although Hooke had boasted before them both that he had completely resolved this grand question. At last, impatient to see an idea unfolded, which appeared to him so fertile in consequences, Halley went to Cambridge in

1692, purposely to confer with Newton on the subject. It was then that Newton showed to him a Treatise on Motion, in which Halley found the desired solution. This treatise, with some additions, afterwards formed the two first books of the Principia. It would appear that, at this time, Newton had already introduced, and explained some parts of it, in his lectures at Cambridge. Halley, delighted at seeing his hopes realized, requested Newton to confide to him a copy for insertion in the registers of the Royal Society, in order to secure to him the honour of so important a discovery. Although Newton had an extreme repugnance to expose himself in the arena of literary intrigue, where he had, on a former occasion, wasted his time, and sacrificed his tranquillity, Halley, by repeated entreaties, at length succeeded in his object. On returning to London, Halley announced his success to the Royal Society, who repeated the request by means of Aston, at that time their secretary. But, though Newton kept his word to Halley, personally, by sending him a copy of his treatise, he did not then wish it to be communicated, having still many things to complete. It was not till the following year, that Dr. Vincent presented, in Newton's name, this work, which was destined to make so great a revolution in science. Newton dedicated it to the Royal Society, who showed itself able to appreciate such an honour. It decided that the work should be printed immediately at its own expense, and addressed to the author, by Halley, a letter of thanks expressed in the most honourable terms.

Hooke, who probably had for some time past conceived in his mind similar ideas, without having been able to bring them to perfection, had no sooner understood the object of Newton's treatise, and heard of the admiration with which it was received, than he claimed for himself the priority of the discovery of the law of attraction varying inversely as the square of the distance. His reclamation was so violent, that Halley thought it necessary to notice it in his official letter to Newton, and to say that Hooke expected Newton to mention in his preface, that the priority was due to him. We will here quote the answer of

Birch, Hist. R. S. vol. iv. p. 370,

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