VORTK.X. 



VOW. 



S90 



than Tycho, and more care than Copemicui, take away the motion of 

 the earth. To thu end he propose* an hypothesis, which will be very 

 fit to explain phenomena ; but only at an hypothesis, not as an abso- 

 lute truth. The fixed stars are exceedingly distant ; the sun consists 

 of a fluid and mobile matter, which would carry the circumjacent part* 

 of the heavens with it, but which does not change its place in the 

 heavens : the solar matter does not need aliment Each one of the 

 fixed stars has an immense space about it, in which there is no other 

 fixed star. The heavens are filled with fluid matter, at astronomers 

 commonly suppose, because they do not see how the phenomena of the 

 planets can be otherwise explained. Each* of the heavens carries with 

 it all bodies therein contained. The earth and every planet is at rest 

 in its heaven, though it may be carried with that heaven : the earth 

 therefore, or any one planet, may be said not to move, but all the 

 others mutt be said to move. The whole heaven of the sun is moved 

 round it in the manner of a whirlpool, " in modum cujusdam vorticis," 

 the more distant parts moving more slowly than the nearer ; and the 

 planets are carried round with this heaven. And as in the larger 

 whirlpool are sometimes seen smaller ones, which are carried round in 

 the larger ; so each planet is the centre of a smaller vortex, in which 

 itt satellites are earned round their primary. The sun and planets are 

 carried round their axea by the motion of their vortices (the inclina- 

 tions of the planetary orbits to the ecliptic have an obvious explana- 

 tion : the inequalities in longitude are mentioned without explanation). 

 It can hardly be that an hypothesis which thus explains phenomena 

 can be false : to say this would seem to be an imputation upon the 

 Deity, namely, the supposition that He made ua so imperfect, that a 

 right use of reason might lead ug to deceive ourselves (Descartes is 

 not the only one who has used this sort of argument). Nevertheless, 

 lie is willing that it should be put forward only as an hypothesis. And 

 though both religion and reason teach that Qod made the world com- 

 plete, that not only the seeds of plants were formed, but plants them- 

 selves, &c., yet the nature of things will be better explained if it can 

 be shown how, as from seed, the solar system was produced (Descartes 

 here fears the imputation which was afterwards cast upon the author 

 of the Hfliular hypothctii [SOLAR SYSTEM] ). All matter originally con- 

 sisted of particles, forming numbers of fluid heavens, revolving about 

 their several axes. These particles were originally equal in size and 

 motion ; they also became spherical, when the corners had been worn 

 down by rubbing against each other. And since no portion of space 

 can be vacuous [VACUUM], the interstices of these spheres must be 

 filled by matter, of form perpetually changing, derived from the parts 

 worn off the angles : this last kind of matter moves more quickly than 

 the other. Besides this there it a third sort of particles of matter, 

 more solid, or else of form more adapted to motion : of this planets 

 and comets are composed. There are three classes of celestial heavens : 

 the first, that of our sun and its system ; the second, the various 

 heavens of the fixed stars immediately adjoining ; the third, including 

 .ill which are beyond, and which never can be seen in this life. The 

 /irinary particles, as those are called which are obtained by attrition 

 from the secondary particles, at last become more than enough to fill 

 the intervening spaces (how this could be Descartes does not say), and 

 the residue, as fast as it arises, was forced to the centres of the vortices, 

 where it formed certain very fluid spherical bodies : these are the sun 

 and fixed stars. The secondary particles receded from the centres to 

 make room. The efflux of these primary particles from the fluid bodies 

 just described in light The centrifugal force of particles in motion 

 round a centre is then dwelt on, and the circular form of the sun and 

 fixed stars is attributed to it. The motion of the vortices must be 

 such that their contiguous parts may have a common motion. The 

 primary particles flow from the poles of each vortex towards the centre, 

 and from the centre towards the other parts. But the same must not 

 be mid of the secondary or spherical particles (the reasons given are 

 fanciful in the extreme, consisting entirely in different motive powers 

 given to the two species of particles). 



The preceding may give a sufficient idea of the sort of foundation 

 which Detcarte* builds upon, and his manner of raising the structure. 

 He proceeds through what he supposes to be explanations of nil the 

 phenomena of light, of the formation of planets and comets, and of all 

 the varieties of conformation which are seen in the solar system. 

 Why comett have tails and planets none ; how the primary particles of 

 other vortices find their way into ours, so that we can see the fixed 

 tUn ; how the planets, obtained their first motions of projection : 

 how the spots on the fun are formed, and so on, are all explained by 

 the power* of the two species of particles : an hypothesis on their 

 nature being always ready when wanted. A reader who has looked 

 into this book of Descartes's ' Principia' begins to understand two 

 thing* better than before : first, the satire on philosophical explana- 

 tions contained at the end of Moliere's ' Halade Imaginaire,' written a 

 few yean after the death of Descartes; next, the declaration of 

 Newton, Ifypethaa *t>* fgo. 



As the hypothesis of vortices is initially represented, it has a certain 

 reasonableness of appearance, which no doubt makes many wonder 

 why it should be so universally contemned. If a fluid mass were 

 whirled round the sun, it would carry the planet* with it : and the 



The matter In the ipac* (boot a planet, or >Ur, which 1* under the Influence 

 < f thlt p!nrt, I called In krarn. 



supposition of minor vortices, one round each planet which has a 

 satellite, is perfectly consistent v. ui, the In.-, of hydrostatics. When 

 Newton proposed to refute the system of Descartes, he was obliged to 

 have recourse to numerical considerations : he could not but admit 

 that a planet, in one of Detoartes's vortices, would have an orbit ; but 

 he showed, from the nature of fluid motion, that it could not have the 

 orbit which, from the time of Kepler, it was known to have. The 

 quality of a phenomenon is knonn i . f.ire itt amount is measured; 

 and it is natural to expect, in the history of philosophy, that explana- 

 tions which serve to account for the nature of a phenomenon, but are 

 irreconcilable with its amount, should precede those which are drawn 

 from consideration of both. The possibility of the planetary in 

 finding their proximate cause in the rotation of a fluid mass 

 fills the solar system, it a thing which did suggest ittelf, and ought to 

 have suggested ittelf, to the inquirers of the time which elapsed be- 

 tween Copernicus and Newton. Descartes says expressly, ' put . 

 eat, non tantum Solis et Fixarum. Bed totius ctiatn conli m.v 

 fluidam ease: quad jam vulgo omnet attronomi concfdunt, qtiia vid.-nt 

 phenomena planetarum vix aliter posse cxplicari." No mechanical 

 difficulty stood iu the way in their time ; and those who had seen 

 particles of dust whirled about by the air would have no difficulty in 

 imagining the hypothesis of a vortex. Now we find this fault with 

 the common notion of Deacartes's system : the disparagement v. Inch 

 belongs to it of a whole to the primary and secondary particles which. 

 though obtained from the same original particles, yet have <u 

 laws of motion, and to the gratuitous deduction of everything irm 

 this fancy is conveyed to their readers by writers who only present 

 the most rational extract which could be uiade, namely, the idea of a 

 vortex. This is the sort of syllogism on which such writers proceed : 

 " Descartes's system is ridiculous ; all I know of that system is its 

 vortices ; therefore I must laugh at the vortices." Yet not only ;is 

 Newton obliged to have recourse to his most powerful weapons to 

 refute these vortices, but it is not at all a settled point that his refuta- 

 tion is sound ; that is, his mathematical refutation. His remark that 

 comets could not find their way through the vortex is much more to 

 the purpose, though Descartes has hit way out of this difficulty, as out 

 of every other. 



VORTICES. [VORTEX.] 



VOUSSOIR, one of the stones of an arch. [ARCH.] 



VOW (from the Latin " votura," through the French), a promise to 

 perform some future act, or to pursue some future line of conduct, 

 confirmed by an appeal to the Supreme Being, or at least to some 

 supernatural power, to punish or be propitious to the maker of tho 

 promise according as he breaks or keeps his word. Abraham mode 

 his steward swear that he would faithfully discharge the mission to 

 seek out a wife for Isaac ; this is an example of the vow which is 

 supposed to bind a man to perform one definite act or incur some 

 supernatural punishment ; and the oath taken by witnesses, in courts 

 of justice, at the present day, to speak the truth, belongs to the same 

 class. [OATH.] Some vows again are understood to bind those who 

 make them to the performance of certain limited duties for the whole 

 of their future life such are the marriage vow, as contemplated by the 

 Church of Rome and the law of England, and the coronation oaths of 

 kings. Some vows are even intended to give a particular form and 

 direction to the whole of a man's future emotions, thoughts, and 

 actions such are the priestly and monastic vows. The view < 

 tained of the character and operation of a vow has differed materially 

 at different periods. The vow originated in a religious conception, in 

 the recognition of some unseen power superior to and exercising a 

 control over visible nature and man's destinies. But as the moral 

 faculties of society expanded, the vow came to be regarded as a solemn 

 form of making a promise, in which the appeal to the Divinity was 

 meant to remind the utterer of the oath of what men are too apt to 

 forget, that the eye of Qod was upon him, and that His universal and 

 unfailing law punishes crime and falsehood. The operation of a vow 

 is different upon two different classes of minds. To the ignorui 

 superstitious it affords a motive (their fears) for adhering to a course 

 of action that their fickleness or dishonesty might have tempted them 

 to swerve from. In the more enlightened it awakens a stronger 

 of the importance of the act they are about to undertake, t 

 them more cautious to pledge themselves beforehand, mure resolute in 

 performing a promise once made. 



The instances in which, in a rude state of society, advantages are 

 derived from vows or promissory oaths, are perhaps not few in 

 number, but they are still exceptional The bad influence of tho 

 superstitious view of the nature of a vow is permanent : it perverts 

 men's moral opinions by leading them to regard actions as vicious and 

 virtuous, not because of their own inherent character, tint because of 

 their being consistent or inconsistent with a promise made beforehand. 

 Hen have thus been led to see criminality in the non-performance of a 

 crime they hod pledged themselves to commit The danger with 

 regard to vows, understood in the more rational sense, consist* in their 

 too frequent use, or in their employment upon trivial occasions. The 

 public promise of a king ascending the throne to govern with equity 

 the pledge of man and wife to know one undivided interest till death 

 the promise to give true and faithful evidence where the property. 

 life, or honour of a fellow-being are at stake are worthily and usefully 

 accompanied by an appeal to the Divinity, that reminds the makers of 



