Isaac Newton's physics of interparticulate forces and the aether queries

to a conclusion, Newton suggested that an aether might be responsible for some optical phenomena and even for gravitational attraction. The aim of this article is to show that this was not a concession on Newton's part to the age-old concept of a mechanical aether, working by material contact action, but was rather a further attempt to promote the speculative physics, presented in earlier queries, which was based on the assumption that many phenomena may be explained by attractive and repulsive forces operating between the invisibly small particles of matter which were held to constitute all bodies.