222 MICHAEL A. HOSKIN 



and so on. There is no suggestion of a systematic refutation of 

 the text and argument in favor of Newtonian philosophy, 

 although historians who have confused the 1697 notes with 

 those of later editions have often supposed Clarke to offer just 

 this." In fact, the notes are tucked away at the back of the 

 book, and are referred to on the title page and in the Preface 

 by the diminutive annotatiunculae . They represent the tenta- 

 tive first steps of a newly-fledged graduate. 



By 1702, when a second edition was required, Clarke's inten- 

 tions had undergone a major change. His notes are now 

 enlarged to about a fifth of the length of Rohault's text and 

 are dignified with the title annotata. Some of the improvements 

 are credited to Whiston and to another Clare physicist, Richard 

 Laughton; others indicate Clarke's own interests, as when he 

 tells us of some of his experiments ^^; but it is the name of 

 Newton that appears on the title pages ^* as the chief source 

 of the notes. This promise of a more hostile attitude towards 

 the Rohault text is soon confirmed by the notes themselves. 

 Thus, when Rohault suggests that the essence of matter consists 

 in extension, Clarke retorts that a similar argument would 

 make its essence consist in existence, and that it in fact consists 

 in impenetrability.^^ Of the identification of matter and space 

 he now declares roundly. Hoc quidem falsum est,-^ and he 

 dismisses the supposed equal quantities of matter in a vessel 

 of lead and a vessel of wax with omnino hoc falsum.^'^ 



On the more constructive side, Clarke now feels at liberty 



^^ Hoadley, who clearly lacks Whiston's personal knowledge of these events, is 

 perhaps the first to fall into this error. " His aim was much higher than the making 

 of a better translation of it. He resolved to add to it such notes, as might lead the 

 young men insensibly, and by degrees, to other and truer notions " (Clarke, Works, 

 I, p. ii) . At the other extreme, R. Dugas and P. Costabel date the Newtonian notes 

 from the 1723 English edition (Histoire Generale des Sciences, ed. R. Taton [Paris, 

 1957-], n, p. 465). 



'^ " I have tried it with quicksilver . . .," notes p. 13; "I have oftentimes ordered 

 the glass . . .," notes p. 55. 



^* Plural, because the 1702 edition (like the 1710 and perhaps others) was re- 

 issued with a new title page. Newton's name occurs on both. 



" Notes, p. 2. =>« Notes, p. 3. " Notes, p. 4. 



