»s«t. iv.) DISSERTATION SECOND. 119 



uncertain, but the new translation, from its better Latinity, 

 and the name of the editor, was readily admitted to all 

 the academical honours which the old one had enjoyed* 

 Thus, the stratagem of Dr. Clarke completely succeeded ; 

 the tutor might prelect from the text, but the pupil would 

 sometimes look into the notes, and error is never so sure 

 of being exposed as when the truth is placed close to it, 

 side by side, without any thing to alarm prejudice, or 

 awaken from its lethargy the dread of innovation. Thus, 

 therefore, the Newtonian philosophy first entered the uni- 

 versity of Cambridge under the protection of the Carte- 

 sian. 1 



If such were the obstacles to its progress that the new 

 philosophy experienced in a country that was proud of 

 having given birth to its author, we must expect it to ad- 



1 The universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh were, I be- 

 lieve, the first in Britain where the Newtonian philosophy was 

 made the subject of the academical prelections. For this dis- 

 tinction they are indebted to James and David Gregory, the first 

 in some respects the rival, but both the friends, of Newton. 

 Whiston bewails in the anguish of his heart the difference in this 

 respect between those universities and his own. David Grego- 

 ry taught in Edinburgh for several years prior to 1690, when he 

 removed to Oxford ; and Whiston says, " He had already caused 

 several of his scholars to keep acts, as we call them, upon seve- 

 ral branches of the Newtonian philosophy, while we at Cam- 

 bridge (poor wretches) were ignominiously studying the ficti- 

 tious hypotheses of the Cartesian.' 1 (Whiston's Memoirs of his 

 own Life ) I do not, however, mean to say, that from this date 

 the Cartesian philosophy wasexpelled from those universities ; 

 the Physics of Rohault were still in use as a text, at least occa- 

 sionally, to a much later period than this, and a great deal, no 

 doubt, depended on the character of the individual professors. 

 Keil introduced the Newtonian philosophy in his lectures at Ox- 

 ford in 1097 ; but the instructions of the tutors, which constitute 

 the real and efficient system of the university, were not cast in 

 that mould till long afterwards. The publication of S'Graves- 

 ande's Elements proves that the Newtonian philosophy \ 

 taught in the Dutch universities before tne date of 1720. 



