Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis redacta ad unicam legem virium in natura
existentium. Editio _Veneta_ prima. By Roger Joseph Boscovich. Venice,
1763, 4to.
The first edition is said to be of Vienna, 1758.[359] This is a celebrated
work on the molecular theory of matter, grounded on the hypothesis of
spheres of alternate attraction and repulsion. Boscovich was a Jesuit of
varied pursuit. During his measurement of a degree of the meridian, while
on horseback or waiting for his observations, he composed a Latin poem of
about five thousand verses on eclipses, {165} with notes, which he
dedicated to the Royal Society: _De Solis et Lunae defectibus_,[360] London,
Millar and Dodsley, 1760, 4to.
Traite de paix entre Des Cartes et Newton, _precede_ des vies
litteraires de ces deux chefs de la physique moderne.... By Aime Henri
Paulian.[361] Avignon, 1763, 12mo.
I have had these books for many years without feeling the least desire to
see how a lettered Jesuit would atone Descartes and Newton. On looking at
my two volumes, I find that one contains nothing but the literary life of
Descartes; the other nothing but the literary life of Newton. The preface
indicates more: and Watt mentions _three_ volumes.[362] I dare say the
first two contain all that is valuable. On looking more attentively at the
two volumes, I find them both readable and instructive; the account of
Newton is far above that of Voltaire, but not so popular. But he should not
have said that Newton's family came from Newton in Ireland. Sir Rowland
Hill gives fourteen _Newtons_ in Ireland;[363] twice the number of the
cities that contended for the birth of Homer may now contend for the origin
of Newton, on the word of Father Paulian.
Philosophical Essays, in three parts. By R. Lovett, Lay Clerk of the
Cathedral Church of Worcester. Worcester, 1766, 8vo.
The Electrical Philosopher: containing a new system of physics {166}
founded upon the principle of an universal Plenum of elementary
fire.... By R. Lovett, Worcester, 1774, 8vo.
Mr. Lovett[364] was one of those ether philosophers who bring in elastic
fluid as an explanation by imposition of words, without deducing any one
phenomenon from what we know of it. And yet he says that attraction has
received no support from geometry; though geometry, applied to a particular
law of attraction, had shown how to predict the motions of the bodies of
the solar system. He, and many of his stamp, have not the least idea of the
confirmation of a theory by accordance of deduced results with observation
posterior to the theory.