XX ADVERTISEMENT. 



there was another World ; but he was the firft who 

 landed upon it. If others, in like manner, had 

 affirmed, that the Tides have their origin at the 

 Poles, no one had believed them, becaufe it was 

 an affirmation deftitute of proof. 



Before it was poffible for me to collcâ: and to 

 complete my proofs, and to render them perfedly 

 luminous, it became neceflary to difpel thofe thick 

 clouds of venerable errors, fuch as Poles flattened, 

 and wafhed with Seas clear of ice, which our pre- 

 tended Sciences had fpread between truth and us, 

 and which were fufficient to involve all our Phyfics 

 in an eternal night. Here, then, is the glory at 

 which I afpire, that of aflembling fome of the 

 harmonies of Nature, in order to form a concert 

 of them, which (hould elevate Man toward the 

 great Author of All : or, rather, I have aimed 

 only at the felicity of knowing them myfelf, and of 

 pointing them out to my fellow-creatures ; for I 

 am ready to adopt any other fyftem, which fliall 

 prefent to the human underftanding a higher de- 

 gree of probability, and , to the heart of Man a 

 purer confolation. 



To GOD alone glory is to be afcribed, and 

 peace is Man's choiceft pofTeffion, which is never 

 fo pure and fo profound as in the perception and 

 the feeling of that very Glory which governs the 



Univerfe. 



