2 HISTORY OF 



we can attend to the calls of curiosity ; so that in 

 every age scientific refinement has been the latest 

 effort of human industry. 



But human curiosity, though at first slowly ex- 

 cited, being at last possessed of leisure for indulg- 

 ing its propensity, becomes one of the greatest 

 amusements of life, and gives higher satisfactions 

 than what even the senses can afford. A man of 

 this disposition turns all nature into a magnificent 

 theatre, replete with objects of wonder and sur- 

 prise, and fitted up chiefly for his happiness and 

 entertainment : he industriously examines all 

 things, from the minutest insect to the most 

 finished animal ; and, when his limited organs 

 can no longer make the disquisition, he sends out 

 his imagination upon new inquiries. 



Nothing, therefore, can be more august and 

 striking than the idea which his reason, aided by 

 his imagination, furnishes of the universe around 

 him. Astronomers tell us, that this earth which 

 we inhabit forms but a very minute part in that 

 great assemblage of bodies of which the world is 

 composed. It is a million of times less than the 

 sun, by which it is enlightened. The planets also, 

 which, like it, are subordinate to the sun's in- 

 fluence, exceed the earth a thousand times in 

 magnitude. These, which were at first supposed 

 to wander in the heavens without any fixed path, 

 and took their name from their apparent devia- 

 tions, have long been found to perform their cir- 

 cuits with great exactness and strict regularity. 

 They have been discovered as forming, with our 

 earth, a system of bodies circulating round the 



