ISAAC NEWTON 97 



and that its action according to the laws put forward by us is 

 proved, and sufficiently explains the motions of the heavenly 

 bodies and of our sea,'^ While in the last two hundred 

 years we have made some progress in the physics of the ether, 

 to which other phenomena, rendered more comprehensible 

 since Newton's time, belong, we can only suppose that 

 gravitation also may be a phenomenon connected with the 

 ether. The phenomena of life are seen to have their roots 

 beyond the region known to us as the ether, just as the ether 

 lies beyond matter as regards its accessibility to our under- 

 standing, but not without being very closely connected with 

 matter; a sign that ever)rthing in nature, both nearest and 

 farthest, is everywhere interlinked. 



'Hypotheses non fingo' says Newtpn^ in face of the 

 limits of his knowledge; and he means by this: 'mere supposi- 

 tion - what has not been properly deduced from phenomena 

 - is not put forward by me as science.' The warning 

 therein contained is certainly of permanent validity, if the 

 investigation of nature is to remain what all great men of 

 science have held it to be: the collection of knowledge of 

 the truth. 



Newton regards the question of the existence of God as not 

 outside the range of science; for he treats of it shortly in the 

 Principia at the close of the book.* 



^ Scolium generale. 



^ Scolium generale. 



^ End of the Scolium generale. We may note particularly the following 

 amongst all that Newton says concerning the Divinity: 'Totus est sui 

 similis . . . ; sed more minime humano . . . more nobis prorsus incognito' 

 (Wholly like to itself, but in no way human in nature ... of a nature 

 entirely unknown to us). This should most of all prevent erroneous in- 

 terpretations, which certain other of Newton's remarks have caused those 

 to fall into, who are not able to distinguish between words coming from 

 Newton's own mind, which was instructed in so high a degree by the 

 study of nature, and words which he took from the study of the Old and 

 New Testaments, the interpretation of which by the theologians he 

 obviously trusted much more than can the scientist of to-day, when his- 

 torical knowledge is much further advanced as regards the composition 

 of these writings. 



Hs 



