216 
instance the case of the sun and .pla- 
nets. If no attraction exist in) the 
sun, then nature does not require that 
monstrous hypothesis about.a projec- 
tile force and the hurling. of the. pla- 
nets into space}; nor, to confirm perpe- 
tuity on these chimeras, is it necessary, 
as is asserted, that all space should be 
a vacuum! Such absurdities are the 
consequence of an original absurdity ; 
yet: the philosophical sophists of the 
. day affect to say that it is indifferent 
whether an absurdity be the basis of 
knowledge or not. ..All who do. not 
believe it an absurdity, are however 
qualified by faith to become disciples 
of Hohenloe, and they must abandon 
their philosophy if they presume to 
decry this German-charlatan. 
If the body A attract or affect the 
body B, and B attract or affect A, so 
that.they meet in C, then A must be 
supposed to push B from the part E, 
where A is not; and B must be sup- 
posed to push A from the part D, 
where B is not. For, when A moves 
towards C; the force which moves it 
must be in the direction of the line of 
motion; and, as B is said to be the 
cause of A moying towards C, so B 
must be acting in the parts at D, 
where itis not. So also, when B 
moves towards C by a force in the 
direction B C, the force said to exist 
in A, as the attracting or moving body, 
must proceed from the part EB, where 
A is not. Both inferences are mani- 
festly absurd, — grossly and ludi- 
crously absurd; yet such are the doc- 
trines taught in the dJectures of every 
university, in every volume of the 
Transactions of the Royal Society, and 
in every authoritative modern book 
on natural philosophy and chemistry.* 
The doctrine that bodies act where 
they are not, is in trath the very basis 
* Of course it is not denied that A and 
B may have the appearance of affecting 
one another ; but such affection, whenever 
it appears, is owing to vo inherent proper- 
ties of their own, but to the action of the 
gazeous and invisible fluids in which they 
are situated, or to some action of other 
bodies near them, the cause of which, if 
honestly and carefully studied, might be 
easily explained. But, if it be assumed 
that they attract one another, and a cen- 
tral force is ascribed to the larger, we then 
get into a new and erroneous train of rea- 
soning, and build up a false system of 
philosophy. Thus the sun may act.on the 
planets, and its foree may be inversely as 
the square of the distance ; but, if it is not 
On the Miracles of Prince Hohentoe. 
[Oct. 1, 
of all the modern explications of na- 
ture. It'was promulgated in the dark 
agés, is the foundation of the entire 
system of Newton, and woe to him 
who should dare to deny or controvert 
it! He must either burn like Bruno, 
suppress like, Copernicus, be impri- 
soned for life like Galileo, or be de- 
prived of his social rank and obliged 
to vecant like Lawrence. [It is on this 
very principle that it is. pretended 
the sun attracts or pushes the planets 
from their opposite sides, that the earth 
pushes the moon on its opposite side, 
that the moon pushes up the waters 
from the bottom of the:sea, that atoms 
push éach otber in pretended chemi- 
cal affinities; and yet'the teachers of 
such doctrines deny the same princi- 
ple when it is claimed and acted on 
by Prince Hohenloe! 
Why should not this prince act 
wheré he is not, as well as A act from 
the parts E-on B, or Bin the parts D 
on A? According to the modern phi- 
losophers, it is not necessary that B 
should be at D, or Aat Ei; why, then, 
should it be necessary that » Prince 
Hobenloe should be present with his 
patients? It is not pretended that he 
might not be able to cure:them, if he 
were actually present; butif A act on 
B from the parts #, and push it from 
E towards C,. then; by parity of rea- 
soning, believers: in this last miracle 
are bound to believe in the miracles 
of Prince Hohenloe; at least not.to 
justify their incredulity by his absence, 
and they will not affect to deny, that 
if present he: might work cures lke 
other medical practitioners. 
In point of fact, it is heresy to say 
that miracles have ceased; for so con- 
vinced were the headsof the Anglican 
Church, a few years ago, of the palpa- 
ble absurdities, /humanly considered, 
of 
an attractive converging force, the doc- 
trines of projectile force and of the yvacaum 
in space become chimeras, and the New- 
tonian explication of the planetary orbits 
is erroneons. Action and re-action through 
the gas filling space is the sufficient cause 
of the law and the orbits ; and, if the suf- 
ficient and palpable cause, then miracles, 
and chimeras, and hypotheses, are wholly 
unnecessary. In simplifying nature, we 
best prove our homage: to the Creator, 
whose works require mone of the sophisti- 
cations and complicated machinery in- 
vented by, man, to,cover. his ignorance. 
Truth is the shortest and only certain 
road to knowledge. 
