All the obfervations of the moderns tend to perfuade us that our moon has an atınosphere; parts more elevated and enlightened than others; parts lower and obfcurer; and others, which reflecting lefs light, and prefenting a furface always equally fmooth, are thought to be a large collection of waters. Have we not every reason then to infer, according to our notions of the wifdom of God, that he has placed there beings of fome kind or other, to inhabit that planet, in order that all these phanomena may not be entirely loft? We can never perfuade ourselves that Nature, or the Supreme Architect of the world, fhould have made any thing in vain.

Father Kircher transported himself in idea to all the planets, and has given a description of their inhabitants according to his exalted imagination. Saturn, he fays, is peopled with melancholy old men, who have pale vifages and ftern looks, and who, cloathed in difmal dreffes, march along with a flow pace, bearing in their hands flaming torches. In Venus he obferved young people, of the finest figure and most exquifite beauty, fome of whom danced to the found of harps and cymbals, whilft others fcattered, in great profufion, odours and perfumes.

The

The fuperftition and enthusiasm mixed with these i leas, cannot deftroy thofe truths which are blended. with them.

Whoever imagines that fo many glorious funs, were created only to give a faint gliminering light to the inhabitants of this globe, must have a very fuperficial knowledge of aftronomy, and a mean opinion of the divine Wisdom. There are many ftars which are not visible without the affistance of a good telescope; and therefore, inftead of giving light to this world, they can only be feen by a few astronomers. By an infinitely lefs exertion of creating power, the Deity could have given our earth much more light by a fingle additional

moon.

Fontenelle has fecured himself from the objections of divines, by not placing men in the other planets, but inhabitants of a different nature. But it was far from being neceffary for him to do fo. The fcripture, indeed, informs us, that all mankind are defcended from Adam, but this is only meant of those men who inhabit, our globe. Other men, may inhabit other planets, and may have fprung from fome other father than Adam. Dare we, who, in comparison of the univerfe, are mere infects, creeping over the furface of that little spot called the earth, prefcribe bounds to all Nature!

With great reafon, then, do all philofophers now admit as many folar fyftems, more or lefs like ours, as there are fixed ftars. Even thofe minds, which are the least tinctured with philofophy, begin to be familiarized with this idea of millions of worlds; which, in fome meafure, may be afcribed to the elegant work of Fontenelle on this fubject.

CHAP. XIX.

CHE CELESTIAL BODIES PROVE THAT THERE

WH

IS A GOD.

HO that lifts up his eyes to the heavens, and beholds the wonders of the firmament, can entertain the least doubt of the existence of a Supreme Being?" There "There is no fpeech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." To imagine such effects without a caufe, or to afcribe them to a caufe less than divine, is bidding defiance to the faculty of intelligence, and renouncing the character of a rational being. The reasonings of an ancient philosopher on this point are excellent. "Let us fuppofe,"

fays

fays he, certain perfons to have been born, and to have lived in fubterraneous habitations, till they came to the years of maturity and difcretion, and then to be introduced into this fair world, which we inhabit. Let them be imagined to behold the face of the earth, diverfified with hills and vales, with rivers and woods; the wide extended ocean, the lofty fky, and the clouds carried along by the winds. Let them behold the fun, and obferve his tranfcendent brightness, and wonderful influence, as he pours down the flood of day, over the whole earth, from east to west. And when night covered the world with darkness, let them behold the hemisphere, befpangled and adorned with innumerable ftars. Let them obferve the various appearances of the moon, in her increase and decrease. Let them have leifure to mark the rifing and setting of the celeftial luminaries, and to understand that their established courfes have been going on from age to age. When, fays he, they had surveyed and confidered all these things, they would infallibly conclude, that they were the workmanship of a Being, poffeffed of all thofe perfections, which are generally ascribed to the great Creator."

The heavenly bodies fpeak intelligibly to all mankind. There is no people fo uncivilized, no nation fo barbarous, which may not receive both C 6

con

conviction and inftruction from them. So wonderful and grand a scene must certainly strike even the rudeft minds, and produce awful impreffions, as well as devout acknowledgments.

CHAP. XX.

ON THE DIVINE WISDOM, DISPLAYED IN THE

HEAVENLY BODIES.

WHAT

'HAT fkill lefs than divine could have poised the stars with inexpreffible nicety, and meted out the heavens with a fpan? where all is grand, and vast, and various, but yet most exact. All the fpheres proceed in eternal harmony; keeping fuch time, and observing fuch laws, as are moft exquifitely adapted to the perfection of the whole.

Surely the wisdom of the Deity manifefts itself in the heavenly bodies, and fhines on the contemplative mind with a luftre incomparably brighter than that, which their united fplendors transmit to the eye.

9

"There