the simple truth, that since the earliest observation of the stars, our system has described so small a portion of its curvilineal orbit, that it cannot be distinguished from a straight line. If the buried relics of primeval life have taught us how brief has been our tenure of this terrestrial paradise, compared with its occupancy by the brutes that perish, the great sidereal truth which we have been expounding, impresses upon us the no less humbling lesson, that from the birth of man to the extinction of his race, the system to which he belongs will have described but an infinitesimal arc of that immeasurable circle in which it is destined to revolve. Such are the great sidereal movements to some of which the law of gravitation has been already applied, and nobody has ventured to doubt that all of them will, in due time, come under its rule. Every new satellite, every new asteroid, every new comet, every new planet, every new star circulating round its fellow, proclaims the universality of Newton's philosophy, and adds fresh lustre to his name. It is otherwise, however, in the general history of science. The reputation achieved by a great invention is often transferred to another which supersedes it, and a discovery which is the glory of one age is eclipsed by the extension of it in another. The fame of having invented the steam-engine has disappeared beside the reputation of the philosophers who have improved it; and the laurels which the discoverer of Ceres has worn for half a century, have been almost withered by the discovery of twenty-six similar bodies. It is the peculiar glory of Newton, however, that every discovery in the heavens attests the universality of his laws, and adds a greener leaf to the laurel chaplet which he wears. APPENDIX. No. I. (Referred to in page 34.) LETTER FROM MR. NEWTON TO FRANCIS ASTON, ESQ., A YOUNG FRIEND WHO WAS ON THE EVE OF SETTING OUT UPON HIS TRAVELS. Mr. ASTON was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1678. He was an active member, and was frequently in the Council. He was chosen one of the Secretaries on the 30th November 1681, and held that office till the 9th December 1685. He had been re-elected on the 30th of November, but, at a meeting of the Council on the 9th December," he threw up," says Mr. Weld," the Secretaryship in so sudden and violent a manner, that the Council resolved not to run the risk of being similarly treated on any future occasion, and determined on having an officer more immediately under their command." Halley's letter (dated March 27, 1686, and giving an account of this affair to Mr. William Molyneux) will better explain the circumstances of the case "The history of our affairs," says Halley, "is briefly this. On St. Andrew's day last, being our anniversary day of election, Mr. Pepys was continued President, Mr. Aston, Secretary, and 1 History of the Royal Society, vol. i. pp. 302, 303. VOL. I. 2 B |