interval of twelve hours; rising direct east, and setting due west; a temperature in our own island, and through the whole temperate zones, everlastingly similar to about the 21st of March, or a little higher; cold, to an extreme degree, in the northern regions, from those regions being never warmed by the sun's direct rays; and the greater part of the torrid zone, probably hostile to life, almost in any form, from its excess of heat. The fruits of the earth also, in Europe, at least, and all similar latitudes, would never be brought to maturity, from a deficiency of solar heat. We find at present that the sun, with a meridian altitude of 62°, is but just equal to the perfecting of our fruits, and where would the staff of life be obtained, if the sun's altitude were only that of the equinoxes, 38, and to these disastrous consequences, must be superadded, a general subversion of all the instincts and habitudes of those animals which are influenced by the interchange of seasons. It may be remarked also, that the progress of vegetation absolutely requires different degrees of heat. The tender plant is cherished by the vernal sun, which becomes gradually strengthened, as the heat increases, till it is at length matured by the full warmth of summer; but this excess of heat, in an earlier stage, would scorch and destroy the young plant. But on the supposition of a rightangular position of the axis, no variation of heat or cold, any more than summer or winter, would ever take place, in any part of the world, (except that which might arise from atmospheric changes.) All would be one dull, wearisome, and heart-withering uniformity, and yet, these are the delectable pictures of primitive happiness, before the flood, arising from a right-angular pole, with which Burnet amused the inconsiderate; in which, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, in their alternate successions, were discarded as useless accessaries to human

comfort, while the air sustained "one salubrious temperament," and the earth," an everlasting spring."

As

Another objection arises, of some magnitude. far as light and heat are concerned, the necessity for the earth's annual circuit round the sun, would be superseded by this right-angular axis, or, if continued, it would answer, in these particulars, no one end which would not be equally answered by the earth's retaining a stationary position. How, it may be asked, would this accord with the designs of the Almighty, who makes nothing in vain? and who doubtless comprehended in the earth's orbit, great, and complicated advantages, and which were unattainable by a different arrangement.*

It is not only hazardous, but presumptuous, for human beings, with their contracted perceptions, to suggest, as improvements, the least alterations in the established laws of the planetary system. The better the disposition of the universe is understood, the

* In these "complicated advantages," the centrifugal and centripetal forces were necessarily included. The preponderance of the first would carry each of the planets, from the sun, out into infinite space; and the preponderance of the second would occasion each planet, from the force of gravity, to be absorbed by the sun; but as the two forces are duly proportioned to each other, the planets adhere to and are maintained in their prescribed orbits. What stronger demonstration of design, and consequently of the GREAT DESIGNER, can be given ?

66

This thought has been well expressed by Sir Isaac Newton, in one of his letters to Bentley. He says, "If the earth, (without "the moon,) were placed any where with its centre in the orbis magnus, and stood still there without any gravitation, or projection, and there at once were infused into it, both a gravitating energy toward the sun, and a transverse impulse of a just quantity moving it directly in a tangent to the orbis magnus; "the compounds of this attraction and projection would, according

more exquisite is the adjustment which every where manifests itself; and, as a confirmation, Halley has most satisfactorily proved, that we, in latitude 51o, have

"to my notion, cause a circular revolution of the earth about the 66 sun. But the transverse impulse must be a just quantity; for if "it were too big, or too little, it would cause the earth to move "in some other line, (a parabola; an hyperbola; or an ellipsis.) Secondly, I do not know any power in nature which would cause "this transverse motion without the DIVINE ARM."

66

He goes on to say, "You sometimes speak of gravity as essential " and inherent to matter. Pray do not ascribe that notion to me. "It is inconceivable that inanimate brute matter should, without "the mediation of something else, which is not material, operate upon, and affect other matter without mutual contact; as it must do, if gravitation, in the sense of Epicurus, be essential and "inherent in it. And this is one reason why I desired you not to "ascribe innate gravity to me. That gravity should be innate, "inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon "another at a distance through a vacuum, without the mediation "of any thing else, by and through which their action, and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an 'absurdity, that I believe no man who has, in philosophical "matters, a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an Agent acting constantly according "to certain laws."

66

66

66

He further says, "In my former letter, I represented, that the "diurnal rotations of the planets could not be derived from gravity, "but required a DIVINE ARM to impress them. And though "gravity might give the planets a motion of descent towards the 66 sun, either directly, or with some little obliquity; yet the "transverse motions by which they revolve in their several orbs, required the Divine Arm to impress them, according to the tangents "of their orbs. I would now add that the hypothesis of matter being "at first evenly spread through the heavens, is, in my opinion, in"consistent with the hypothesis of innate gravity, without a Super"natural Power to reconcile them; and therefore it infers a DEITY. "For if there be innate gravity, it is impossible now for the "matter of the earth, and all the planets and stars, to fly up from "them, and become evenly spread throughout all the heavens,

a greater quantum of heat, with our present angle of the axis, than we should have, if the sun were constantly

66

"without a Supernatural Power; and certainly that which can never be hereafter without a Supernatural Power, could never be "heretofore without the same Power."

This apprehension of matter, in its more subtle particles, being evenly spread through the universe, (so strenuously contended for by the Cartesian School,) by which, from some uncommunicated quality in matter, vortices were formed, and, ultimately, planetary systems, has been so triumphantly refuted by the great author of the Principia, that the insertion, to many readers, cannot but prove acceptable, both from the subject, and as a fine instance of close consecutive reasoning.

66

He remarks, "It seems to me that if the matter of our sun and planets, and all the matter of the universe, were evenly scattered throughout all the heavens, and every particle had an innate gravity toward all the rest, and the whole space, throughout "which this matter was scattered, was but finite; the matter on "the outside of this space would, by its gravity, tend toward all "the matter on the inside, and, by consequence, fall down into "the middle of the whole space, and there compose one great

spherical mass. But if the matter were evenly disposed through" out an infinite space, it could never convene into one mass; but 66 some of it would convene into one mass, and some into another, so as to make an infinite number of great masses, scattered "at great distances from one to another, throughout all that "infinite space. And thus might the sun and fixed stars be formed, supposing the matter were of a lucid nature. But how the "matter could divide itself into two sorts; and that part of it, " which is fit to compose a shining body, should fall down into one mass, and make a sun; and the rest, which is fit to compose an opaque body, should coalesce, not into one great body, like the shining matter, but into many little ones. Or if the sun at "first were an opaque body, like the planets, or the planets lucid "bodies like the sun, how he alone should be changed into a

shining body, whilst all they continue opaque; or all they be "changed into opaque ones, whilst he remains unchanged, I do not "think explicable by mere natural causes, but am forced to ascribe "it to the counsel and contrivance of a VOLUNTARY AGENT, –

on the equator, whilst the heat in the torrid zone is less! An adjustment which bespeaks its author! (See Keil, on one part of this subject.)

"The same power, whether natural or supernatural, which "placed the sun in the centre of the six primary planets, placed "Saturn in the centre of the orbs of his five secondary planets; "and Jupiter in the centre of his four secondary planets; and the "Earth in the centre of the moon's orb; and therefore, had this "cause been a blind one, without contrivance or design, the Sun "would have been a body of the same kind with Jupiter, and "Saturn, and the Earth; that is, without light or heat. Why "there one body in our system qualified to give light and heat "to all the rest, I know no reason, but because the AUTнor of THE SYSTEM thought it convenient; and why there is but one

"body of this kind, I know no reason, but because one was

"sufficient to warm and enlighten all the rest.

"The motions which the planets now have, could not spring "from any natural cause alone, but were impressed by an INTEL68 LIGENT AGENT. For since comets descend into the region of

our planets, and here move all manner of ways; going sometimes "the same way as the planets; sometimes the contrary way; and "sometimes in cross ways; the planes inclined to the plane of the "ecliptic, and at all kinds of angles, it is plain that there is no "natural cause which could determine all the planets, both primary "and secondary, to move the same way, and in the same plane, "without any considerable variation: this must have been the "effect of COUNSEL. To make this system, therefore, with all its "motions, required a cause which understood and compared together, "the quantities of matter in the sun and planets, with their "velocities, and the gravitating powers resulting therefrom."

From the reasoning of Sir Isaac Newton, it appears, that if there be, not an innate, but a communicated quality in matter to attract, and be attracted, in proportion to the dense quantity of matter each body may possess, or, to use more philosophical language, if all bodies attract each other, in the direct ratio of their masses, and in the inverse ratio of the squares of their distances, this direction toward the centre of gravity must be uniform, and above all neutralizing influences in the same body. To suppose a natural tendency in matter toward the centre, and at