38 ERRORS OF NEWTON. 



been already said in the early part of this chapter, 

 concerning his views of the aether. But here 

 again he was unfortunate in his explanation of 

 the mode in which it produces the phenomena of 

 cohesion, capillary attraction, gravitation, &c. 

 For he supposed that " the aether was more rare 

 within the bodies of the sun and planets, than in 

 the celestial spaces between them ; and that its 

 density increases perpetually in proportion as the 

 distances increase from them, thereby causing the 

 gravity of those great bodies towards one an- 

 other, and of their parts towards each other, 

 every body endeavouring to go from the denser 

 parts of the medium towards the rarer." (Optics, 

 Queries 20, 21.) 



The failure of this hypothesis has been already 

 exposed by Mr. Whewell, who justly observes 

 that all elastic fluids tend to an equilibrium ; 

 so that if the density of the aether increased 

 with the distance, the force of gravity would 

 diminish until the equilibrium was restored, 

 when it would cease ; while it is now generally 

 understood, that the density of all radiant matter 

 diminishes with every increase of distance from 



herent power of gravity, without the agency of an intermediate 

 impelling principle. And if we admit that each of the eleven 

 planets and their fourteen satellites was projected into space by a 

 primitive impulse, is it not remarkable that the continuous force of 

 that impulse should precisely correspond with the heating power 

 of the sun, and be just equal to the power of gravity ? 



