LX ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



'^ Action at a distance without a medium, ^vllich Xewton deduced from 

 " his law of gravitation, and wliich became one of the most serious and 

 " most dangerous dogmas of later physics, does not afford the slightest 

 '' explanation of the causes of attraction; indeed it long obstructed 

 '•' our way to the real discovery of them. I cannot but suspect that his 

 " speculations on this mysterious action at a distance, contributed not a 

 " httle to the leading of the great English mathematician into the ob- 

 " scure labyrinth of mystic dreams and theistic superstition in which he 

 " passed the last thirty-four years of his life." 



''' Mystic dreams " and " theistic superstition " is Haeckel's answer 

 to N"ewton's noble h3Tnn to the Creator at the close of the immortal 

 " Principia." 



Compare with this ISTeAvton's expression of his views in a letter to 

 Bontley, quoted with approval by Faraday, and again, by Sir George 

 Stokes. The liery indignation which is felt in Newton s words, even 

 after the lapse of two centuries would have burnt itself into the memory 

 Oi any man who had taken care enough to consult N"ewton himself for 

 iVewton's own thoughts instead of taking, without verification, any ver- 

 sion presented m a passing publication. 



These are his words: — 



" That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter 

 " so tliat one body may act on another at a distance through a vacuum 

 " without the mediation of anj'thing else, by and througfh which their 

 " action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so 

 " great an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosophical mal- 

 " ters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it." 



Indian Atomic Theory. 



It has been asserted that the atomic theory really had its origin in 

 India, and Democritus, who inherited great wealth from his father is said 

 t J have itraA^lJled to India, so that his views on arf;oms may have been 

 modified there. 



Of this Indian atomic theory Max Millier gives an account when 

 writing of the Six Philosophical Systems of India. The distinguishing 

 feature of one of these systems was the Atomic Theory — which maintains 

 that there must l^e smallest particles admitting no further analysis' — 

 that these smallest and invisible particles are eternal in themselves, but 

 non-eternal as aggregates — that as aggregates again, they may be or- 

 ganized or inorganic. The atoms are supposed first to form an aggre- 

 gate of two, then of three double atoms, then of four triple atoms, etc. 

 WMle single atoms are indestructible, composite atoms are, by their 

 very nature, liable to decomposition, and in that sense to destruction. 



