SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 211 



time. In 1699 he was admitted one of the very 

 small number of foreign associates of the French 

 Academy of Sciences. Even Fontenelle, who, as 

 we have said, never adopted his opinions, spoke of 

 him in a worthy manner, in the Eloge which he 

 composed on the occasion of his death. At a much 

 earlier period too, Fontenelle did homage to his 

 fame. The following passage refers, I presume, to 

 Newton. In the History of the Academy for 1708, 

 which is written by the secretary, he says 9 , in re- 

 ferring to the difficulty which the comets occasion 

 in the Cartesian hypothesis : " We might relieve 

 ourselves at once from all the embarrassment which 

 arises from the directions of these motions, by sup- 

 pressing, as has been done by one of the greatest 

 geniuses of the age, all this immense fluid matter, 

 which we commonly suppose between the planets, 

 and conceiving them suspended in a perfect void." 



Comets, as the above passage implies, were a 

 kind of artillery which the Cartesian plenum could 

 not resist. When it appeared that the paths of 

 such wanderers traversed the vortices in all direc- 

 tions, it was impossible to maintain that these 

 imaginary currents governed the movements of 

 bodies immersed in them ; and the mechanism 

 ceased to have any real efficacy. Both these pheno- 

 mena of comets, and many others, became objects 

 of a stronger and more general interest, in conse- 

 quence of the controversy between the rival parties; 

 9 Hisi. Ac. Sc. 1708, p. 103. 



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