Cosmology and Newton’s Magic

Science, as it was once practiced, devoted much of itself toward the sacred. I've heard this said many times, and, in general, understand something about what this means, but only a little. For help, I came across this quote in an anthology called The Practical Cogitator (I highly highly recommend it). John Maynard Keynes says this about Isaac Newton, a great mathematician whose discovery or "invention" of calculus made modern technology possible, a man who, in his later years, was chastised by the Church of England for his scandalous conclusions, such as a Creator needing to be unlike His creation, if only we looked closely at nature to fully realize that. Anyhow, here's what Keynes says about Newton and what went through his mind as he examined the world:

Why do we call [Isaac Newton] a magician? Because he looked on the whole universe and all that is in it as a riddle, as a secret which could be read by applying pure thought to certain evidence, certain mystic clues which God had laid about the world to allow a sort of philosopher’s treasure hunt to the esoteric brotherhood. He believe that these clues were to be found partly in the evidence of the heavens and in the constitution of elements. . . . He regarded the universe as a cryptogram set by the Almighty—just as he himself wrapt the discovery of calculus in a cryptogram when he communicated with Leibnitz.