SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 209 



of the tides was distributed between Daniel Ber- 

 noulli, Euler, Maclaur;n, and Cavallieri; the last 

 of whom had tried to patch up and amend the 

 Cartesian hypothesis on this subject. 



Thus the Newtonian system was not adopted in 

 France till the Cartesian generation had died off; 

 Fontenelle, who was secretary to the Academy of 

 Sciences, and who lived till 1756, died a Cartesian. 

 There were exceptions; for instance, Delisle, an 

 astronomer who was selected by Peter the Great of 

 Russia, to found the Academy of St. Petersburg; 

 who visited England in 1724, and to whom New- 

 ton then gave his picture, and Halley his Tables. 

 But in general, during the interval, that country 

 and this had a national difference of creed on 

 physical subjects. Voltaire, who visited England 

 in 1727, notices this difference in his lively man- 

 ner. " A Frenchman who arrives in London, finds 

 a great alteration in philosophy, as in other things. 

 He left the world full, he finds it empty. At Paris 

 you see the universe composed of vortices of subtile 

 matter, in London we see nothing of the kind. 

 With you it is the pressure of the moon which 

 causes the tides of the sea, in England it is the 

 sea which gravitates towards the moon ; so that 

 when you think the moon ought to give us high 

 water, these gentlemen believe that you ought to 

 have low water; which unfortunately we cannot 

 test by experience ; for in order to do that, we 

 should have examined the moon and the tides at 



VOL. II. P 



