THE WILL IN NATURE.
"All bodies with which we are acquainted, when raised into the air and quietly abandoned, descend to the earth's surface in lines perpendicular to it. They are therefore urged thereto by a force or effort, the direct or indirect result of a consciousness and a will existing somewhere, though beyond our power to trace, which force we term gravity" 1
The writer who reviewed Herschel's book in the October number of the Edinburgh Review of 1833, anxious, as a true Englishman, before all things to prevent the Mosaic record 2 from being imperilled, takes great umbrage at this passage, rightly observing that it cannot refer to the will of God Almighty, who has called Matter and all its proper ties into being; he utterly refuses to recognise the validity of the proposition itself, and denies that it follows consistently from the preceding upon which Herschel wishes to found it. My opinion is, that it undoubtedly would logically follow from that (because the contents of a conception are determined by its origin), but that the antecedent itself is false. It asserts namely, that the origin of the conception of causality is experience, more especially such experience as we ourselves make in acting by means of our
1 Even Copernicus had said the same thing long before: "Equidem existimo Gravitatem non aliud esse quam appetentiam quandam naturalem, partibus inditam a divina providentia opificis universorum, ut in unitatem integritatemque suam se conferant, in formam Globi coeuntes. Quam affectionem credibile est etiam Soli, Lunae caeterisque errantium fulgoribus, inesse, ut ejus efficacia, in ea qua se repraesentant rotunditate permaneant; quae nihilominus multis modis suos efficiunt circuitus" [I believe that gravity is nothing but a natural craving instilled in all parts by the divine providence of the creator of all things so that they attain their unity and perfection by entering into the spherical form. This tendency seems to be inherent even in the sun, moon, and other planets, and by virtue of it they continue in that roundness in which they manifest themselves, despite the fact that they carry out their revolutions and rotations in many different ways.] ("Nicol. Copernici, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, Lib. I, Cap. IX. Compare Exposition des Découvertes de M. le Chevalier Newton par M. Maclaurin; traduit de l'Anglois par M. Lavirotte, Paris, 1749, p. 45). Herschel evidently saw, that if we hesitate to explain gravity, as Descartes did, by an impulse from outside, we are absolutely driven to admit a will inherent in bodies. Non datur tertium [There is no third possibility]. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
2 Which he has more at heart than all the wisdom and truth in the world. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
PHYSICAL
