cosmic hypothesis his suggestion in the preface of the Principia that all the phenomena of nature may be soluble in terms of atomism and determinate attractive and repulsive forces. For this his earlier speculation on the possibility of deriving solid bodies ultimately from ethereal substances and his constantly expressed faith in all kinds of transmutations in nature had paved the way. The hypothesis, in brief, is that the whole of the physical world may consist of particles which attract each other in proportion to their size, the attraction passing through a zero point into repulsion as we get down to the very minute particles that compose what we call the ether.80 Thus at one stroke the formation of solid bodies out of the mutual attractions of the larger particles, and the allpervading ethereal medium with its repulsive endeavours and its variations of density are made quite plausible. It is regrettable that Newton did not allow his disciplined imagination to pursue such suggestions till he had evolved the simplest possible definite theory of the physical universe as a whole.

Did Newton think of the ether as a material or immaterial substance? Was the influence of More over him, already observed at so many points, sufficient to make him follow the great Platonist and his predecessor Gilbert in conceiving the ethereal medium as something spiritual rather than material? The reader has noticed that in the quotations so far drawn Newton uses the term 'spirit' almost as frequently as 'medium,' except when referring to the main body of the phlegmatic ether,' and in the third letter to Bentley. Likewise in the Principia 81 the question is raised and left ostensibly open whether the interplanetary medium be a corporeal or incorporeal one. Does Newton use these terms in the same sense that his English predecessors applied to them? Thus put, the question is

• Opticks, p. 363, ff.

impossible to answer.

81 Vol. I, 174.

In fact, if we focussed our attention on the cosmic theory just considered, we should have to deny any difference in substance between the ether and solid bodies, which would make the former necessarily corporeal; and yet in his early letter it was suggested that solid bodies arise by concretions of various ethereal spirits, which would seem to make the bodies ultimately spiritual. The fact is, Newton's positivism was powerful enough to prevent his carrying his speculations very far in this direction. The ultimate nature of anything he rather consistently denied knowledge of, and our curiosity must therefore remain unsatisfied on this point. Bodies existed, displayed certain qualities, and acted in certain mathematical ways; the ether, he was convinced, likewise existed, and provided for the propagation and increase where needed of the decaying motion in the world; he called it a spirit, and believed thoroughly in the possibility of universal transmutations in nature; but questions as to their inner substance or final relations he considered so far beyond the scope of profitable science as not to deserve careful attention. Furthermore, the spirituality of the cosmos to him was amply guaranteed by the fact that all things and their forces were originally given existence and direction by a spiritual Creator. Religiously as well, then, such a question as we have proposed was unimportant. To Newton's theism and its relation to his science we now

turn.

Section 6.-God-Creator and Preserver of the Order of the World

Thus far the metaphysical ideas of Newton which we have been investigating exemplify in the main the first and second of the three types distinguished in Section 2 of the present chapter. They are either appropriated uncritically from the scientific tide of the

day or rest upon some feature of his method for their final justification. His treatment of space and time, however, has led us by anticipation into the importance of his ultimately theistic interpretation of the universe, and now as we face the latter more directly it will be helpful first to note that his theological views represent predominantly a metaphysical element of the third type. Religion was a fundamental interest to Newton. It dealt with a realm for the most part different from the object of science; its method was quite disparate, for its conclusions, in the main, were insusceptible of proof or disproof by scientific standards. To be sure, Newton was confident, as we shall see, that certain empirical facts open to anybody's observation, implied unqualifiedly the existence of a God of a certain definite nature and function. God was not detached from the world that science seeks to know; indeed, every true step in natural philosophy brings us nearer to a knowledge of the first cause 82, and is for this reason to be highly valued-it will enlarge the bounds of moral philosophy also, inasmuch as so far as we can know by natural philosophy what is the first cause, what power he has over us, and what benefits we receive from him, so far our duty towards him, as well as that towards one another, will appear to us by the light of nature." 83 So, although religion and science and science are fundamentally different interpretations of the universe, each valid in its own. way, yet for Newton in the last analysis, the realm of science was dependent on the God of religion, and led the reverent mind to a fuller, assurance of his reality and a readier obedience to his commands. Thus in spite of their incommensurable character and his considerable success in banning religious prejudices from his positive scientific theorems, the fact that God's existence and control was never questioned by the man who wrote almost as many theological

66

dissertations as scientific classics had its strong and significant reactions on positions which he would have called purely scientific.

(A) Newton as Theologian

A

Newton's place in the religious unsettlement of his era would be an interesting topic for studious application. He was accused by the ultra-orthodox of being an Arian, apparently on ample grounds. Among other heretical suggestions, he wrote a brief essay on Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture 4, in each case the effect of his thesis being to cast doubt on the traditional assumption that the doctrine of the Trinity was taught in the New Testament. strongly Arian flavour pervades most of his theological efforts, from which we shall take a quotation or two for another purpose, namely to show that religion was something quite basic to him and in no sense a mere appendage to his science or an accidental addition to his metaphysics. Newton believed that scientific fact involved theism, but he would have been a theist had his scientific powers remained forever dormant. Newton evidently cherished a kind of religious experience, nourished largely, of course, by tradition, that was in the main detachable from the theism postulated as a corollary to science. This fact has its relevant bearings on his clear and continued conviction that the world of science is by no means the whole world.

"We are, therefore, to acknowledge one God, infinite, eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, the creator of all things, most wise, most just, most good, most holy. We must love him, fear him, honour him, trust in him, pray to him, give him thanks, praise him, hallow his name, obey his commandments, and set times apart for his service, as we are directed in the third and fourth Commandments, for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not

Opera, Vol. V.

grievous. I John v. 3. And these things we must do not to any mediators between him and us, but to him alone, that he may give his angels charge over us, who, being our fellow-servants, are pleased with the worship we give to their God. And this is the first and the principal part of religion. This always was, and always will be the religion of God's people, from the beginning to the end of the world."85

Newton's longer theological treatises, such as the Observations on the Prophecies 86, but confirm these indications that he was a pious, believing Christian in all that the term then implied, as well as a master scientist.87 His Arianism was radical for the age, but it did not prevent his approaching the world of science under the necessity of seeing it cloaked by a divine glory and suffused with the religious significance that followed from the conviction that it had been created and ordered by the hands of the God who had been worshipped from his youth as Father of the Christian

"From a manuscript entitled, On our Religion to God, to Christ, and the Church, Brewster, II, 349, ff., the following excerpts are illustrative:

"There is one God, the Father, ever living, omnipresent, omniscient, almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus....

"The Father is omniscient, and hath all knowledge originally in his own breast, and communicates knowledge of future things to Jesus Christ; and none in heaven or earth, or under the earth, is worthy to receive knowledge of future things immediately from the Father but the Lamb. And therefore the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, and Jesus is the Word or Prophet of God. ....

"We are to return thanks to the Father alone for creating us, and giving us food and raiment and other blessings of this life, and whatsoever we are to thank him for, or desire that he would do for us, we ask of him immediately in the name of Christ.

"To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. That is, we are to worship the Father alone as God Almighty, and Jesus alone as the Lord, the Messiah, the Great King, the Lamb of God who was slain, and hath redeemed us with his blood, and made us kings and priests."

In a very interesting tract on church union, Brewster, II, 526, ff., Newton adds to his propaganda as a pioneer in that field some propositions on church government:

"It is therefore the duty of bishops and presbyters to govern the people according to the laws of God and the laws of the king, and in their councils to punish offenders according to those laws, and to teach those who do not know the laws of God; but not to make new laws in the name of either God or the king.

"The Church is constituted and her extent and bounds of communion are defined by the laws of God, and these laws are unchangeable.

"The laws of the king extend only to things that are left indifferent and undetermined by the laws of God, and particularly to the revenues and tranquillity of the church, to her courts of justice, and to decency and order in her worship; and all laws about things left indifferent by the laws of God ought to be referred to the civil government. . . .

"To impose any article of communion not imposed from the beginning is a crime of the same nature with that of those Christians of the circumcision who endeavoured to impose circumcision and the observation of the law upon the converted Gentiles. For the law was good if a man could keep it, but we were to be saved not by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, and to impose those works as articles of communion, was to make them necessary to salvation, and thereby to make void the faith in Jesus Christ. And there is the same reason against imposing any other article of communion which was not imposed from the beginning. All such impositions are teaching another gospel.

"After baptism we are to live according to the laws of God and the king, and to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, by practising what we promised before baptism, and studying the Scriptures, and teaching one another in meekness and charity, without imposing their private opinions, or falling out about them."