STUDY X. 69 



If Nature, for example, were governed by 

 the Laws of attraction only, according to the 

 fuppofition of thofe who have made it the bafis 

 of fo many fyftems, every thing in it would 

 be in a ftate of reft. Bodies, tending toward 

 one common centre, would there accumulate, and 

 arrange themfelves round it, in the ratio of their 

 gravity. The fubftances which compofe the 

 Globe, would be fo much heavier as they ap- 

 proached nearer to ,the centre, and thofe which 

 are at the furface, would all be reduced to a level. 

 The bafon of the Seas would be choked with the 

 wrecks of the ^and ; and this magnificent archi- 

 tecture, formed of harmonies fo various, would 

 foon become an aquatic Globe entirely. All bo- 

 dies hurled downward by one common precipi- 

 tation, would be condemned to an everlafting im- 

 mobility. 



On the other hand, if the Law of projection, 

 which is employed for explaining the motions of 

 the heavenly bodies, on the fuppofition that they 

 have a tendency to fly off in the tangent of the 

 curve which they defcribe ; if, I fay, this Law 

 predominated, all bodies, not actually adherent 

 to the Earth, would be hurled from it, like ftones 

 from a fling : our Globe itfelf, fubjected to this 

 Law ; would fly off from the Sun never to return. It 



F 3 would 



