Note 649 — THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. A SERIES OF MYTHOLOGICAL FABLES.616 (continued 2)
Reading edition
Many philosophers have certain speculations to this purpose. Sir Isaac Newton, in particular, suspects that the earth receives its vivifying spirit from the comets. And the philosophical chemists and astrologers have spun the thought into many fantastical distinctions and varieties.—See Newton, Princip. lib. iii. p. 473, &c.