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. This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being. And if the fixed stars are the centers of other like systems, these being form'd by the like wise counsel, must be all subject to the dominion of one; especially, since the light of the fixed stars is of the same nature with the light of the sun, and from every system light passes into all the other systems. And lest the systems of the fixed stars should, by their gravity, fall on each other mutually, he hath placed those systems at immense distances one from another.

Isaac Newton

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