May I ask your correspondent S. E. B. where he has discovered that the
_world-wide reputation_ of Newton was founded upon a notion of his being
the first person who pointed out that bodies are attracted, or seem to
be attracted, towards the centre of the earth? and, on the other hand,
what traces there are in Cicero of the _real_ "law of gravity," which
Newton _did_ discover, and with such immense labour demonstrate and
illustrate, namely, that attraction (that is, not to the centre of the
earth or world in particular, but between every particle of matter and
the rest) varies inversely as the square of the distance?
To come to a minor question; your correspondent reads the passage _qua
delata gravitate_--so I should read, decidedly. The whole sentence,
which is a long one, is a series of questions (which, by-the-bye, is an
additional reason against quoting it as an assertion).
"Inde est indagatio nata ... unde essent omnia orta ... quæque
cujusque generis ... origo quæ vita, ... quæque ex alio in aliud
vicissitudo ... unde terra, et quibus librata ponderibus, quibus
cavernis maria sustineantur; qua omnia, delata gravitate, medium
mundi locum semper expetant."
It is _in qua_ in Ernesti, unnoticed. _In_ was inserted by those who
thought that _qua_ agreed with _terra_; which, if otherwise probable, is
negatived by the use of the word _mundi_ in the clause.