SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 197 



extent of the methods employed : and, of course, so 

 long as the Newtonian theory still required verifica- 

 tion, the question of the truth or falsehood of such 

 a grand system of doctrines could not but excite 

 the most intense curiosity. In what I have said, I 

 am very far from wishing to depreciate the value of 

 the achievements of modern astronomers, but it is 

 essential to my purpose to mark the subordination 

 of narrower to wider truths, the different charac- 

 ter and import of the labours of those who come 

 before and after the promulgation of a master-truth. 

 With this warning I now proceed to my narrative. 



Sect. 2. Reception of the Newtonian Theory in 

 England. 



THERE appears to be a popular persuasion that 

 great discoveries are usually received with a pre- 

 judiced and contentious opposition, and the authors 

 of them neglected or persecuted. The reverse of 

 this was certainly the case in England with regard 

 to the discoveries of Newton. As we have already 

 seen, even before they were published, they were 

 proclaimed by Halley to be something of trans- 

 cendent value ; and from the moment of their ap- 

 pearance, they rapidly made their way from one 

 class of thinkers to another, nearly as fast as the 

 nature of men's intellectual capacity allows. Hal- 

 ley, Wren, and all the leading members of the 

 Royal Society, appear to have embraced the system 



