SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 423 



his philosophy in the universities of England. These are often repre- 

 sented as places where bigotry and ignorance resist, as long as it is 

 possible to resist, the invasion of new truths. We cannot doubt that 

 such opinions have prevailed extensively, when we find an intelligent 

 and generally temperate writer, like the late Professor Playfair of 

 Edinburgh, so far possessed by them, as to be incapable of seeing, or 

 interpreting, in any other way, any facts respecting Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge. Yet, notwithstanding these opinions, it will be found that, in 

 the English universities, new views, whether in science or in other 

 subjects, have been introduced as soon as they were clearly estab- 

 lished ; that they have been diffused from the few to the many more 

 rapidly there than elsewhere occurs; and that from these points, the 

 light of newly-discovered truths has most usually spread over the land. 

 In most instances undoubtedly there has been something of a struggle, 

 on such occasions, between the old and the new opinions. Few men's 

 minds can at once shake off a familiar and consistent system of doc- 

 trines, and adopt a novel and strange set of principles as soon as pre- 

 sented; but all can see that one change produces many, and that 

 change, in itself, is a source of inconvenience and danger. In the case 

 of the admission of the Newtonian opinions into Cambridge and 

 Oxford, however, there are no traces even of a struggle. Cartesianisin 

 had never struck its roots deep in this country ; that is, the peculiar 

 hypotheses of Descartes. The Cartesian books, such, for instance, as 

 that of Renault, were indeed in use ; and with good reason, for they 

 contained by far the best treatises on most of the physical sciences, 

 such as Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Optics, and Formal Astronomy, 

 which could then be found. But I do not conceive that the Vortices 

 were ever dwelt upon as a matter of importance in our academic 

 teaching. At any rate, if they were brought among us, they were 

 soon dissipated. Newton's College, and his University, exulted in his 

 fame, and did their utmost to honor and aid him. He was exempted 

 by the king from the obligation of taking orders, under which the 

 fellows of Trinity College in general are ; by his college he was relieved 

 from all offices which might interfere, however slightly, with his stu- 

 dious employments, though he resided within the walls of the society 

 thirty-five years, almost without the interruption of a month. 2 By the 

 University he was elected their representative in parliament in 1688, 



3 His name is nowhere found on the college-books, as appointed to any of the 

 offices which usually pass down the list of resident fellows in rotation. This might 

 be owing in part, however, to his being Lucasian Professor. The constancy of hi* 



