This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
in English
r
The Hypothesis of deriving the frame of the world
by mechanical principles from matter eavenly spread
through eth
I had considered it very little before your letters
put me upon it, & therefore trouble you th
line or two more about it if this come not too
late for r
that e
not be derived from gravity but required a divin
power to impress them. And thô gravity might give
the Planets a motion of descent towards the Sun
either directly or th
yet the transverse motions by ch
their several orbs required the divine Arm to im
press them according to e
I would now add that the Hypothesis of matters
being at first eavenly spread through the hea
vens is, in my opinion, inconsistent the
thesis of innate gravity without a supernatural
fers a Deity. ffor if there be innate gravi
ty its impossible now for the matter of the
earth & all e
them & become eavenly spread throughout
all the heavens without a supernatural power.
& certainly that ch
without a supernatural power could never
be heretofore th
You queried whether matter eavenly
spread throughout a finite space of some other
figure then spherical, would not in falling down
towards a centrall body cause that body to be
of the same figure the
I answered, Yes. But in my answer it's to
be supposed that e
downwards to t
diurnal rotation. This r
add to my former Letters. I am
r
Is. Newton
Cambridge.
Feb. 11. 1693.
For Mr Bently at the
Palace in
Worcester.
d Letter from Mr Newton