422 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 131. 



And Capture. — This honour — or misfortune, 

 rather, as It proved to be — was reserved for Ad- 

 miral Sir William Monson, who, In his Naval 

 Memoirs, p. 210., makes this self-satisfied remark: 



" Sir W. Monson had orders to pursue her, which he 

 did with that celerity, that she was taken within four 

 miles of Calais, shipped in a French bark of that town, 

 iivhither she was bound." 



A. Gratan. 



NEWTON, CICERO, AND GRAVITATION. 



(Vol. v., p. 344.) 



" When shall we three meet again ? " Let no one 

 •soille at your correspondent's question, for the 

 common mode of stating Newton's claim makes It 

 natural enough to ask whether the ancients were 

 aware that bodies fall to the earth, and to produce 

 proof that they had such knowledge. But Cicero 

 had more : he not only knew the fall of bodies, but 

 he had a medius locus mundi, or centrum mundi, as 

 it was afterwards called, to which bodies must fall. 

 This was his law of gravitation, and that of his 

 time. Without describing the successive stages of 

 tbie existence of this centre. It may be enough here 

 to state, that a part of Newton's world-wide re- 

 nown arises from his having cashiered this hn- 

 nriovable point from the solar system, and sent it 

 on its travels in search of the real centre of gravity 

 of the whole universe. Newton substituted, for 

 tlie old law of gravitation towards a centre, his law 

 of universal gravitation, namely, that every particle 

 gravitates towards every other. There had been 

 some Idea of such a law In the minds of speculative 

 in:en : it was Newton who showed that one parti- 

 cular law, namely, that of the inverse square of 

 the distance, would entail upon a system, all whose 

 particles are subject to it, those very motions 

 which are observed in our system. Cicero would 

 have been startled to know that, when a body falls 

 towards the earth, the earth rises towards It, medius 

 locus and all : not quite so fast, It Is true, nor so 

 far. But it must not be supposed that we could 

 move our earth any distance In course of time by 

 continually dropping heavy weights upon it ; for 

 the truth Is, fliat when the weight Is raised the 

 earth Is a little lowered, or at least made to move 

 the other way. Archimedes said that, with a place 

 to stand on, he could move the earth ; not aware 

 that he was doing It at the time he spoke, by the 

 motion of his arm. M. 



May I ask your correspondent S. E. B. where he 

 has discovered that the world-wide reputation of 

 Newton was founded upon a notion of his being 

 the first person who pointed out that bodies are at- 

 tracted, or seem to be attracted, towards the centre 

 of the earth ? and, on the other hand, what traces 

 there are in Cicero of the real " law of gravity," 



which Newton did discover, and with such im- 

 mense labour demonstrate and illustrate, namely, 

 that attraction (that is, not to the centre of the 

 earth or world in particular, but between every 

 particle of matter and the rest) varies inversely 

 as the square of the distance ? 



To come to a minor question ; your Correspon- 

 dent reads the passage qua delata gravitate — so 

 I should read, decidedly. The whole sentence, 

 which is a long one, is a series of questions (which, 

 by-the-bye, is an additional reason against quoting 

 it as an assertion). 



" Inde est indagatlo nata .... unde essent omnia 

 orta .... quEeque cuj usque generis .... origo qu» 

 vita, .... quajque ex alio in aliud vicissltudo .... unde 

 terra, et quibus librata ponderibus, quibus cavernis 

 maria sustineantur ; qua omnia, delata gravitate, medium, 

 mundi locum semper expetant." 



It Is in qua In Ernesti, unnoticed. In was In- 

 serted by those who thought that quxi agreed with 

 terra ; which. If otherwise probable, is negatived 

 by the use of the word mundi in the clause. C. B. 



Sir Isaac Newton's discovery was the law of 

 universal gravitation, viz. that the solar system 

 is kept together by the gravity of the heavenly 

 bodies towards the sun. This was founded on 

 terrestrial gravitation, of which the falling apple 

 put him in mind, applied first to the moon, and 

 then universally to the universe. (See Penny 

 Cyclopcedia, art. "Gravitation.;" Blot, "Life of 

 Newton," In the Biographic Universelle ; or the 

 translation of It In the " Life of Newton " In the 

 Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 5.) This is very 

 different from Cicero's words ; In which* (sc. the 

 earth) all things borne downwards by their weight 

 ever seek to reach the middle point of the universe, 

 which is also the lowest point in the earth (qui est 

 idem Infimus In rotundo). Ed. S. Jackson. 



Saffron Walden. 



DEFERRED EXECUTIONS. 



(Vol.Iv., pp. 191.243.) 



Although your correspondent E. S. attempts to 

 throw discredit on M. W. B.'s narration of a de- 

 ferred execution at Winchester, and carps at the 

 mention of a "warrant," as If that militated 

 against the fact; yet doubtless, in times when 

 carelessness among official personaojes was not un- 

 common, many deferred executions may have 

 taken place. 



It must be evident, that in the case of a convict 

 respited during pleasure, that an order must at last 

 be formally made for such person's execution or 

 commutation of punishment ; during which Inter- 

 val the prisoner would remain in custody of the 

 gaoler. This in effect would be tantamount to a 



* Moser's text has in qua, &c. terra. 



