PRELUDE TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 143 



the first matter will be collected to the center of 

 each vortex, while the second, or subtle matter, 

 surrounds it, and, by its centrifugal effort, consti- 

 tutes light. The planets are carried round the sun 

 by the motion of his vortex 7 , each planet being 

 at such a distance from the sun as to be in a part 

 of the vortex suitable to its solidity and mobility. 

 The motions are prevented from being exactly cir- 

 cular and regular by various causes; for instance, 

 a vortex may be pressed into an oval shape by 

 contiguous vortices. The satellites are, in like 

 manner, carried round their primary planets by 

 subordinate vortices ; while the comets have some- 

 times the liberty of gliding out of one vortex into 

 the one next contiguous, and thus travelling in a 

 sinuous course, from system to system, through the 

 universe. 



It is not necessary for us to speak here of the 

 entire deficiency of this system in mechanical con- 

 sistency, and in a correspondency to observation in 

 details and measures. Its general reception and 

 temporary sway, in some instances even among 

 intelligent men and good mathematicians, are the 

 most remarkable facts connected with it. These 

 may be ascribed, in part, to the circumstance that 

 philosophers were now ready and eager for a physi- 

 cal astronomy commensurate with the existing state 

 of knowledge ; they may have been owing also, in 

 some measure, to the character and position of 



" Prin. c. 140, p. 114. 



