MINING ALL WITHIN 221 



on light Newton comes more into his own, for Clarke gives 

 an account of his work on refraction and its implications for 

 the construction of telescopes/^ He also lists phenomena asso- 

 ciated with prisms, and after mentioning the views of Descartes, 

 Hooke and Barrow, continues: His igitur OTuissis, propero ad 

 Clariss. Newtoni Theoriam {nam hypothesim earn appellare 

 fas non duco) qua superius memorata phaenomena, aliaque 

 omnia luculentissime explicantur. Clarke then shows how 

 each of the phenomena can be explained by Newton, and 

 concludes with a hint of better things to come: Permulta alia 

 omni luce dignissima de colorum natura et proprietatibus 

 invenit Clariss. Newtonus, quae aliquando in lucem edere 

 dignetur efflagitat orhis literarius.^^ 



In the cosmology of Part II, Newton is quoted for a more 

 exact estimate of the shape of the earth ^^ and for the relative 

 density of the earth and moon ^®; and in a note on comets 

 Newton's doctrine of their essential similarity to planets is 

 shown to be consistent with their observed behavior/^ Newton 

 is not mentioned in the notes to Part III, on terrestrial phe- 

 nomena, and Clarke at no time provided any notes to Part IV, 

 on physiology and medicine. 



The reader of Clarke's notes, then, would learn something 

 of Newton's prismatic experiments and his doctrine of colors; 

 but of his great cosmological synthesis, little more than his 

 views on the nature of comets. Newtonian attraction is not so 

 much as mentioned. The Cartesian plenum, the three elements, 

 Rohault's condemnation of attraction, all are allowed to pass 

 without comment. It is true that the notes on the prism and 

 on comets are the longest of all, but the other notes of substance 

 are usually confined to discussions of the views of Cartesian 

 commentators. Clarke gives the views on solidity of Descartes, 

 Malebranche and Perrault,^^ the laws of Regis on elastic im- 

 pact,^^ the views of Regis, Perrault, Malebranche and Le Clerc 

 on rest,-° Perrault's explanation of the direction of free fall, 



" II, pp. 212-3. i« II, p. 227. " II, pp. 191-3. 



^* n, pp. 214-9. " II, pp. 227-30. =» II, pp. 189-90. 



" II, p. 225. i« n, pp. 198-200. " II, pp. 231-2. 



21 



