58 
cause out of natural philosophy, feigning hypotheses for ex- 
plaining all things mechanically, and referring other causes to 
metaphysics. Whereas, the main business of natural philo- 
sophy is to argue from phenomena without feigning hypotheses, 
and to deduce causes from effects, till we come to the very 
first cause, which certainly is not mechanical; and not only to 
unfold the mechanism of the world, but chiefly to resolve these 
and suchlike questions. What is there in places almost empty 
of matter, and whence is it that the sun and planets gravitate 
towards one another without dense matter between them. 
Whence is it that Nature dpth nothing in vain; and whence 
arises all that order and beauty which we see m the world . 
To what end are comets ? and whence is it that planets move 
all one and the same way in orbs concentric, while comets 
move all manner of ways in orbs very eccentric ? and what 
hinders the fixed stars from falling upon one another . How 
came the bodies of animals to be contrived with so much art, 
and for what ends were their several parts? Was the eye 
contrived without skill in optics, and the ear without know- 
ledge of sounds? How do the motions of the body follow 
from the will? and whence is the instinct in animals t _ is not 
the sensory of animals that place to which the sensitive sub- 
stance is present, and into which the sensible species of things 
are carried through the nerves and brain; that there they may 
be perceived by their immediate presence to that substance . 
And these things being rightly despatched, does it not appear 
from phenomena that there is a being incorporeal, living, in- 
telligent, omnipresent, who in infinite space, as it were in ms 
sensory, sees the things themselves intimately, and thoroughly 
perceives them, and comprehends them wholly by their imme- 
diate presence to himself? Of which things the images only 
carried through the organs of sense into our little sensonums, 
are there seen and beheld by that which in us perceives and 
thinks. And though every true step made m this philosophy 
brings us not immediately to the knowledge of the First Cause, 
yet it brings us nearer to it, and on that account is to be 
highly valued.” . . , . 
Now Newton here insists on an axiom as impossible, to 
be evaded as any axiom of mathematical or mechanical 
science. That there is such an overwhelming evidence ot 
design manifested wherever we can trace the laws of nature ; 
that this design compels us to admit beyond all these laws 
as their originator and ruler, an all-wise, omnipotent Law- 
giver, and ever-present Ruler. And this he carries out most 
fully in his “ Principia,” where, showing that “ the planets 
and comets will indeed persevere in their orbs bv the aws 
