“But it is not to be conceived that mere mechanical causes could give birth to so many regular motions”

— Isaac Newton, book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), Scholium Generale (1713; 1726)
Context: But it is not to be conceived that mere mechanical causes could give birth to so many regular motions: since the Comets range over all parts of the heavens, in very eccentric orbits. For by that kind of motion they pass easily through the orbs of the Planets, and with great rapidity; and in their aphelions, where they move the slowest, and are detain'd the longest, they recede to the greatest distances from each other, and thence suffer the least disturbance from their mutual attractions.

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British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern c… 1643–1727

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“But it is not to be conceived that mere mechanical causes could give birth to so many regular motions”

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