A FAIR, CANDID, AND IMPARTIAL

STATE OF THE CASE

BETWEEN

SIR ISAAC NEWTON

AND

MR. HUTCHINSON.

IN WHICH IS SHOWN

How far a SYSTEM of PHYSICS is capable of Mathematical Demonstration-How far Sir ISAAC's, as such a System, has that Demonstration-and consequently, what regard Mr. HUTCHINSON'S Claim may deserve to have paid to it.

He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. PROV. XVIII. 13.

Non species virium et qualitates physicas, sed quantitates et proportiones mathematicas expendens. NEWT. PRINCIP. p. 172.

I attempt not to detract from the praise which is justly due to those who by diligent and constant observations and calculations have, ascertained the proportions and measures of the motions of bodies, but only to discover the causes of those motions, which I think none ever pretended to show. HUTCH. vol. xi. P. 226.

STATE OF THE CASE, &c.

THE attention of the learned world being at present wholly turned on physical speculations and inquiries, some embracing the method of philosophizing established by Sir ISAAC NEWTON, and others as warmly standing up for the opinions of Mr. HUTCHINSON; the public will not, I flatter myself, dislike to have a fair, candid, and impartial state of the case between these two authors laid before them, that so every one, seeing what the tenets of both are, and wherein they differ, may be enabled, with very little trouble, to judge and determine for himself. Nor can this be thought a useless undertaking by any one who considers the high opinion entertained from the remotest antiquity, by the good and great, of the importance of physical knowledge, and the benefits accruing from a right understanding of it to the sons of men; the brightest parts and ablest pens in all ages and nations having ever been exercised and employed in the researches of nature. The diligent application to the study of this science, of late years more than ever, amongst the moderns, and their unwearied endeavours to improve and en

Nor

rich it with new observations and experiments, sufficiently show how much they are persuaded of its superior worth and excellence: so that mankind, however they may have differed in their opinions concerning the various and almost numberless schemes and hypotheses that have been offered to the world to explain and account for the operations of nature, yet in this are unanimous, that the study and contemplation of them are well worthy the time and thoughts of every one who has them to spare. And very right and fit it is that they should be so, since he who best knows the wants of his creature man, has thought proper, in infinite wisdom, to begin his gracious revelation to us with a description and explanation of the works of his almighty power, in the creation and formation of the world. does he teach and instruct us in "the invisible things" of himself, otherwise than through the medium of "the things that are made;" and therefore he first gave us the knowledge of the natural world, that through it we might attain to that of the spiritual. The foot of the ladder was let down to earth, that we thereon might ascend to heaven. The true knowledge of nature then being a thing of so high and momentous a concern to us, a disquisition into it, when made with modesty and humility, as all such ought to be made, can at no time be unacceptable to those who have any regard for true science. But it will, I presume to hope, be more particularly so at this time, when the surprising phænomena of electricity, and many other very nice experimental discoveries lately made, seem greatly to have awakened and

may

excited the curiosity and attention of mankind, and to promise a more just and satisfactory account of the cause of motion, and agency of nature, than the penetration of philosophers has yet been able to assign. Philosophy, we know, is a science capable of improvement; and, as it is a public treasury, open to and collected for the use of all, systematic views and private interests should have no place here, but general encouragement should be given to any the meanest contributor who can in any wise enrich it, though it be but with a mite. Mine pretends not to be more; but, such as it is, I offer it the reader, I am sure, with an humble heart, and beg he will not let it pass with him or his friends for sterling, if it appears, upon the strictest trial, not to be so.

a

The NEWTONIAN system has now been in possession of the chair for some years: but there have appeared, since its first publication, some treatises on philosophical subjects by a very curious and inquisitive person (as Mr. WHISTON justly calls him), Mr. HUTCHINSON, who thought that by the light which revelation afforded him, compared with his own observations, he saw farther into the constitution of the universe, and the operations carried on in it, than Sir ISAAC had done. As the publication of these pieces was at a time when Sir ISAAC had set the learned on a warm pursuit after physical knowledge, and as, by their titles, they certainly promised and pretended to something very great and

a The Longitude and Latitude found, &c.