Though nearly all competent critics admitted the validity of the conclusions, some little time elapsed before it affected the current beliefs of educated men. I should be inclined to say (but on this point opinions differ widely) that within ten years of its publication it was generally accepted in Britain as giving a correct account of the laws of the universe. It was similarly accepted within about twenty years on the continent, except in France, where the Cartesian hypothesis held its ground until Voltaire, in 1733, took up the advocacy of the Newtonian theory.