THOUGHTS ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 37 



portions of matter (with or without the mediation of 

 something else) is a mere fiction, based on the attrac- 

 tion caused by vortication. If Newton had confined 

 his philosophy to the action of matter from what has 

 been called the atomic stage, onward to larger masses 

 his philosophy would have been unassailable, although 

 it would have been a more full and correct explanation 

 to have said that the gravitation was caused by 

 vortication. The error has been in stating gravitation 

 to be an exclusive and ^universal law, whereas it only 

 applies when combination and vortication have been 

 set up in nature. 



It is interesting to note that on this subject both 

 Descartes and Newton were right, in the main, and 

 up to a certain point, allowing for what we now can see 

 was erroneous. Newton in his idea (up to a certain 

 point) of gravitation ; and Descartes (with a margin 

 for errors) in his idea of vortices. It is the Vortices 

 not of Descartes, but of nature that causes the gravati- 

 tion (or rather vortication) that Newton sought to 

 mathematically demonstrate, and that experiment and 

 observation has confirmed. To Descartes and Clerk 

 Maxwell must ever belong the honour of drawing 

 attention thereto and doing their utmost to make clear 

 the same. But Vortices must be formed. How ? 

 Matter having motion, must have direction and 

 eventually adjacency, and collision. The collisions 



* "The great discovery which characterizes the Principia is that of 

 the principle of universal gravitation." Memoirs of Sir Isaac Neivton, 

 by Sir David Brewster. My contention is that it is not universal i.e. , 

 pertaining to all things, without exception, but is only true when 

 combination and vortication have been set up in nature ; and I appear to 

 have the support of Huygens, Descartes, and other great philosophers. 



