The Scholium Generale,' at the end of the Principle, has been so often quoted, alluded to, attacked, or brought forward as Newton's final explanation of the metaphysics (if that be a proper word) of his system, that even as a matter of reference we may be justified in trans lating it entire. It is not found in the first edition. Two notes, as marked, are Newton's.
" The hypothesis of vortices is encumbered with many difficulties. Since a planet's radius describes areas proportional to the times, the periods of the parts of the vortex should be in the duplicate ratio of their distances from the sun. And since the planets' periods are in the scsquiplicato ratio of their distances, the periods of the parts of the vortex should also be in that ratio. Since the minor vortices about Jupiter, Saturn, &c., preserve their rotation, and swim quietly In the vortex of the sun, the periodic times of the parts of the solar vortex should be equal. The revolutions of the sun and planets about their axes, which should agree with the motions of the vortices, differ from all these proportions. The motion of comets is highly regular, follows the same laws as that of the planets, and cannot be explained by vortices. They are carried most excentrically to all parts of the heavens, which could not be unless the vortices were removed.
"Projectiles, in our atmosphere, feel only the resistance of the air ; take that away, as in Boyle's vacuum, and the resistance ceases, since the light feather and the solid gold fall with the same velocity in this vacuum. And such is the case in the celestial spaces which are above the atmosphere of the earth. All bodies in those spaces must move perfectly freely ; and hence the planets move perpetually, according to the laws explained, in orbits of given form and position. They will persevere in their orbits by'the laws of gravity; but they could by no means originally have taken that regular orbital path by the same laws.
" The six principal planets revolve about the sun in circles concentric with the sun, in the same direction, and very nearly in the same plaue. The ten moons revolve about the earth, Jupiter, and Sattun, in con centric circles, in the same direction, and very nearly in the plane of their planets' orbits. And all these regular motions have no origin in mechanical causes •; for the comets are freely carried in orbits, and through all parts of the heavens. By such motion comets pass freely and easily through the planetary orbits, and in their aphelia, where they move more slowly and remain longer, they are very distant from each other, and attract each other very little. This most elegant group of sun, planets, and comets can only arise from the design and government of a powerful and intelligent being. And if the fixed stars be centres of like systems, all these constructions of a similar design must be under the dominion of one being : the more since the light of the fixed stars is of the same nature as that of the sun, and all the systems give light to each other. And that the systems of the fixed stars may not fall into each other, he has placed them at immense distances from each other.
" He rules all things, not as the soul of the world, but as the lord of all things. And from his dominion, God the Ruler is often called narroKparcup. For God is a relative term, which refers to his servants; and deity is the rule of God, not over his own body, as those think who call him the soul of the world, but over his servants. The most high God is a being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect ; but a being however perfect, without dominion, is not God the Ruler. For we say, my God, your God, the God of Israel, the God of gods, the Ruler of rulers ; but we do not say, my eternal one, your eternal one, the eternal one of Israel, the eternal one of gods; we do not say, my infinite one, or my perfect one. These appellations have no relation
to servants. The word God always t signifies ruler ; but every ruler is not God. The rule of a spiritual being makes him God, true rule a true god, the highest rule the highest god, a feigned rule a feigned god. And from the reality of his dominion it follows that the true God has life, intellect, and power ; and from his other perfections, that he is the highest or most perfect being. The Eternal is infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient ; that is, endures from eternity to eternity, and is present from infinity to infinity ; he rules all and knows all that is or can be. lie is not eternity nor infinity, but eternal and infinite ; he is not time nor space, but endures and is present. lie endures for ever, and is everywhere present; and by his universal existence, both in time and apace, he is the creator .t of time and space. Since any particle of space always is, and also some one indivisible moment of duration, certainly the framer and ruler of all things can never be nonexistent at any time or in any place. Every thinking soul is, at different times, and in its different organs of sense or motion, the same indivisible person. There are parts of time suc cessive, and parts of apace co-existing; but neither in the person of man, that is, in his thinking principle, and much less in the thinking substance of God. Every man, considered as a sentient existence, is one and the same man throughout his whole life, and in every one of his organs of perception. God is one and the same God always and everywhere. He is omnipresent, not only virtually but substautially ; for the first without the second cannot be. In him § all things are contained and moved, but without mutual ,effect from each other. God no way feels the motion of bodies : they feel no resistance from the omnipresence of God. All men confess that the most high God exists necessarily, and by the same necessity always and everywhere. Whence also he is throughout alike, all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all thought, understanding and action, not in the human or corporeal manner, but in one altogether unknown. As a blind man has no idea of colour, so we have no ilea of the modes in which the all-wise God perceives and understands all thinge. Ile is altogether without body or figure, and thence can neither be seen, heard, touched, nor worshipped under the likeness of any corporeal thing. We have ideas of his attributes, but we know nothing of the substance of any thing. We see only the figures and colours of bodies, we hear only sounds, we touch only external surface, we smell only odours, and taste tastes : we can perceive the inmost substance by no sense, by no reflected action ; much less can we have an idea of the substance of God. Him we know only by his properties and attributes, and by the most wise and excellent structure and final causes of things ; and we wonder at him for his perfections, but we venerate and worship him for his dominion. NN e worship him as servants, and a God without dominion, providence, and final causes is nothing else but fate and nature. From a blind metaphysical necessity, which is certainly the Fame always and everywhere, no variation of things can aria°. Every diversity of created things in space and in time can only arise from the ideas and the will of a necessarily existing being. But God is said allegorically to sec, hear, speak, laugh, love, hate, desire, give, receive, rejoice, be mado angry, fight, work, build, and construct. For every expression eon. corning God is drawn from human affairs by a certain figure of similitude, not perfect indeed, but something like. And this much of God, of whom it certainly belongs to natural philosophy to treat from phenomena.