aSli ON THE INFEtJENCE OF COMETff. 



age, some who mAy suspect that, if there is a^y such influence, its 

 e Sects are to be traced in the brains of those who defend it. But 

 as it is sufficiently evident that, if the princii)les, which I have 

 alluded to, exist, by far the greater portion of their results may, 

 probably, be referred to the companion of our orbit, and the great 

 luminary which occupies its centre, so I conceive that we are not 

 destitute of some evidence which tends to establish the fact. 



We may easily perceive that a satellite would not have been 

 granted to us, except for some great and worthy end; but if we 

 proceed to enquire what this end may be, we shall not so easily dis- 

 cover it. That it was not principally intended to reflect light upon 

 uSj is plain from the little inconvenience we experience in its ab- 

 sence. The quantity of heat we receive from it is known to be 

 insensible. The elevation of the tides can hardly be thought a 

 primary end of its creation, because they would still have existed, 

 though in a minor degree, from the attraction of the sun, and 

 their absence in the smaller seas proves that they are not so 

 indispensible as has sometimes been supposed.* What, then, is 

 the great design of the moon? May we not suppose that its 

 presence is essential to the functions of organized bodies, the opera- 

 tions of animal and vegetable life, and the variations of the at- 

 mosphere ? Such an hypothesis might not appear improbable, even 

 a priori, to those who are not deterred from the exercise of their 

 understandings, by the popular outcry against every thing that sa- 

 vours of antiquated opinion and feeling: but when we find this an- 

 tecedent probability confirmed by the unanimous belief, founded 

 upon observation, of a great part of mankind, we cannot surely help 

 feeling that such a supposition ought not rashly to be rejected as 

 mere prejudice or superstition : it is true that it is unsupported by 

 philosophical experiments, but for this plain reason, that such expe- 

 riments seem never to have been tried.t In Herefordshire, the pre- 



• This argument may be analogically applied, with even greater force, to 

 the other planets: it is not probable that the satellites of Saturn can add 

 much light to that reflected by the ring ; and neither they, nor the satellites 

 of Jupiter, can raise any considerable tides in the seas (if there are any) in 

 those planets, because their attractions would generally neutralize each 

 other, and maintain the whole mass nearly in equilibrio. 



f It is much to be desired that some enterprising and unpreiudiced student 

 of nature, would undertake a series of experiments calculated to establish or 

 refute the fact of the lunar influence, and to ascertain its peculiar nature. 



