Memoranda for Materialists 63 



the falling of a stone to the ground. There is a 

 passage in the preface to the first edition of the 

 Principia, which shows that Newton was penetrated, 

 as completely as Descartes, with the belief that 

 all the phenomena of nature are expressible in 

 terms of matter and motion : 



" 'Would that the rest of the phenomena 

 of nature could be deduced by a like kind of 

 reasoning from mechanical principles. for 

 many circumstances lead me to suspect that 

 all these phenomena may depend upon certain 

 forces, in virtue of which the particles of 

 bodies, by causes not yet known, are either 

 mutually impelled against one another, and 

 cohere into regular figures, or repel and 

 recede from one another ; which forces being 

 unknown, philosophers have as yet explored 



NATURE IN VAIN. But I HOPE THAT, EITHER BY 

 THIS METHOD OF PHILOSOPHISING, OR BY SOME 

 OTHER AND BETTER, THE PRINCIPLES HERE LAID 

 DOWN MAY THROW SOME LIGHT UPON THE 

 MATTER.' " 



Here is a full-blown anticipation of an 

 intelligible exposition of the Universe in 

 terms of matter and force : the substantial 

 basis of what smaller men call materialism 

 and develop into what they consider to be 

 a materialistic philosophy. But there is no 

 necessity for anything of the kind ; a 



