"Towards the close of the eighteenth century a remarkable change... apparently an abrupt departure from the current trend... but... the logical outcome of the development... After an attempt... to found mechanics on Euler’s principle of least action, Lagrange, in a subsequent treatment... declared his intention of... disregarding theological and metaphysical speculations, as... precarious and foreign to science. He erected a new mechanical system on... different foundations, and no one... will dispute its excellencies. All subsequent scientists of eminence accepted Lagrange’s view, and the present attitude of physics to theology was thus substantially determined."