INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 181 



combined. Even Newton's countrymen, though 

 they were long before they applied themselves to 

 the method thus opposed to his, did not produce 

 anything which showed that they had mastered, or 

 could retrace, the Newtonian investigations. 



Thus the Problem of Three Bodies 20 , treated 

 geometrically, belongs exclusively to Newton; and 

 the proofs of the mutual action of the sun, planets 

 and satellites, which depend upon such reasoning 

 could not be discovered by any one but him. 



But we have not yet done with his achievements 

 on this subject ; for some of the most remarkable 

 and beautiful of the reasonings which he connected 

 with this problem, belong to the next step of his 

 generalization. 



5. Mutual Attraction of all Particles of Matter. 

 That all the parts of the universe are drawn and 

 held together by love, or harmony, or some affection 

 to which, among other names, that of attraction 

 may have been given, is an assertion which may 

 very possibly have been made at various times, by 

 speculators writing at random, and taking their 

 chance of meaning and truth. The authors of such 

 casual dogmas have generally nothing accurate or 

 substantial, either in their conception of the general 

 proposition, or in their reference to examples of it ; 

 and therefore their doctrines are no concern of ours 

 at present. But among those who were really the 



30 See the history of the Problem of Three Bodies, ante, p. 104. 



