VOLTAIRE. 59 



bodies, destined, finally, to bring the disturbances in 

 the trajectories of comets within the theory of planetary 

 attraction^Very early, probably before Voltaire, adopted 

 the Newtonian philosophy ; for, though only fifteen 

 years old when Voltaire's < Letters' were written, he 

 had, when only thirteen, begun his admirable work on 

 Curves of Double Curvature, and it was published 

 very soon after the ' Letters' appeared. But it is certain 

 he had given nothing to the world on the theory of 

 gravitation. Maupertuis had probably, in scientific 

 circles, professed his conversion, and intimated that he 

 renounced the Cartesian philosophy ; but until after his 

 return from Lapland, in 1738, he never made any pub- 

 lic profession of his faith, his ' Commentary,' in 1732, 

 being confined to the dynamical subject of the 12th Sec- 

 tion of the ' Principia' (Book I.). Voltaire's * Letters/ 

 therefore, published in 1732, first defended generally, 

 and his ' Elements,' in 1738, defined in detail the new 

 system, and gave an explanation of it so clear and 

 popular, as in all likelihood neither Maupertuis nor 

 Clairault could have furnished. He therefore justly 

 claims the glory of first making the Newtonian sys- 

 tem accessible to the bulk of European readers, of 

 fully refuting the Cartesian errors, and of boldly op- 

 posing a doctrine which, of all philosophical tenets 

 since Aristotle's philosophy, had taken the strongest 

 hold of men's minds. Indeed, the prejudices in favour 

 of the Vortices, like those in favour of the Aristotelian 

 philosophy, appear to have partaken of the zeal, and 

 even of the intolerant spirit, which theological dogmas 

 are too often found to excite. Fontenelle, in his 

 ' Eloge' of Newton, had shown his adhesion to Des 



