The Sleepwalkers (162 page)

"It
is
inconceivable,
that
inanimate
brute
matter
should,
without
the
mediation
of
something
else,
which
is
not
material,
operate
upon,
and
affect
other
matter
without
mutual
contact;
as
it
must
do,
if
gravitation,
in
the
sense
of
Epicurus,
be
essential
and
inherent
in
it.
And
this
is
one
reason,
why
I
desired
you
would
not
ascribe
innate
gravity
to
me.
That
gravity
should
be
innate,
inherent,
and
essential
to
matter,
so
that
one
body
may
act
upon
another,
at
a
distance
through
a
vacuum,
without
the
mediation
of
anything
else,
by
and
through
which
their
action
and
force
may
be
conveyed
from
one
to
another,
is
to
me
so
great
an
absurdity,
that
I
believe
no
man
who
has
in
philosophical
matters
a
competent
faculty
of
thinking,
can
ever
fall
into
it."
³⁷

Newton,
in
fact,
could
only
get
over
the
"absurdity"
of
his
own
concept
by
invoking
either
an
ubiquitous
ether
(whose
attributes
were
equally
paradoxical)
and/or
God
in
person.
The
whole
notion
of
a
"force"
which
acts
instantly
at
a
distance
without
an
intermediary
agent,
which
traverses
the
vastest
distances
in
zero
seconds,
and
pulls
at
immense
stellar
objects
with
ubiquitous
ghost-fingers
–
the
whole
idea
is
so
mystical
and
"unscientific",
that
"modern"
minds
like
Kepler,
Galileo
and
Descartes,
who
were
fighting
to
break
loose
from
Aristotelian
animism,
would
instinctively
tend
to
reject
it
as
a
relapse
into
the
past.
³⁸
In
their
eyes,
the
idea
of
"universal
gravity"
would
amount
to
much
the
same
kind
of
thing
as
the
anima
mundi
of
the
ancients.
What
made
Newton's
postulate
nevertheless
a
modern
Law
of
Nature,
was
his
mathematical
formulation
of
the
mysterious
entity
to
which
it
referred.
And
that
formulation,
Newton
deduced
from
the
discoveries
of
Kepler
–
who
had
intuitively
glimpsed
gravity,
and
shied
away
from
it.
In
such
crooked
ways
does
the
tree
of
science
grow.

10.
Matter and Mind

In
a
letter
to
Herwart,
which
he
wrote
when
the
book
was
nearing
completion?
³⁹
Kepler
defined
his
programme:

"My
aim
is
to
show
that
the
heavenly
machine
is
not
a
kind
of
divine,
live
being,
but
a
kind
of
clockwork
(and
he
who
believes
that
a
clock
has
a
soul,
attributes
the
maker's
glory
to
the
work),
insofar
as
nearly
all
the
manifold
motions
are
caused
by
a
most
simple,
magnetic,
and
material
force,
just
as
all
motions
of
the
clock
are
caused
by
a
simple
weight.
And
I
also
show
how
these
physical
causes
are
to
be
given
numerical
and
geometrical
expression."

He
had
defined
the
essence
of
the
scientific
revolution.
But
he
himself
never
completed
the
transition
from
a
universe
animated
by
purposeful
intelligence
to
one
moved
by
inanimate,
"blind"
forces.
The
very
concept
of
a
physical
"force"
devoid
of
purpose,
which
we
take
so
much
for
granted,
was
only
just
emerging
from
the
womb
of
animism,
and
the
word
for
it
–
virtus
or
vis
–
betrays
its
origin.
It
was
(and
is)
indeed
much
easier
to
talk
about
a
"simple,
magnetic,
material
force"
than
to
form
a
concrete
idea
of
its
working.
The
following
passage
will
illustrate
the
enormous
difficulty
which
the
notion
of
the
"moving
force"
emanating
from
the
sun
presents
to
Kepler's
mind:

"Though
the
light
of
the
sun
cannot
itself
be
the
moving
force
...
it
may
perhaps
represent
a
kind
of
vehicle,
or
tool,
which
the
moving
force
uses.
But
the
following
considerations
seem
to
contradict
this.
Firstly,
the
light
is
arrested
in
regions
that
lie
in
shade.
If
then,
the
moving
force
were
to
use
light
as
a
vehicle,
then
darkness
would
bring
the
planets
to
a
standstill...

Since
there
is
as
much
of
this
force
present
in
the
wider,
distant
orbits
as
in
nearer
and
narrower
ones,
it
follows
that
nothing
of
this
force
is
lost
on
the
journey
from
its
source,
nothing
is
dispersed
between
the
source
and
the
star.
This
emanation
is
therefore
unsubstantial
as
light
is,
and
not
accompanied
by
a
loss
of
substance
as
are
the
emanations
of
odours,
or
of
the
heat
which
goes
out
from
a
glowing
stove,
and
the
like,
where
the
intervening
space
is
filled
[by
the
emanation].
We
must,
therefore,
conclude
that,
just
as
the
light
which
lights
up
everything
on
earth
is
a
non-substantial
variety
of
the
fire
in
the
solar
body,
likewise
this
force
which
grips
and
carries
the
planet-bodies
is
a
non-substantial
variety
of
the
force
which
has
its
seat
in
the
sun
itself;
and
that
it
has
immeasurable
strength,
and
thus
gives
the
first
impulse
to
all
motion
in
the
world...