Lesson I. INTRODUCTION. 3 



is kept in a pleasing expectation of making a fur- 

 ther progress ; acquiring, at the same time, higher 

 conceptions of that great Being, whose works are 

 so various, and hard to be comprehended. 



It is a melancholy consideration, that too many 

 young persons, instead of being zealous of acquir- 

 ing real and useful knowledge, suffer a kind of 

 torpor to dwell upon their minds, and give way to 

 such supineness as may, if they be not quickly 

 roused from their lethargy, be attended with fatal 

 consequences. If any such persons should peruse 

 these Lessons, let me exhort them to shake off 

 their carelessness, and endeavour to furnish their 

 minds, ere it be too late, with a true knowledge of 

 the works and wonders of the creation : let them be 

 assured that such conduct will produce the hap- 

 piest effects; for philosophical contemplations will 

 form the safest bulwark against the insidious at- 

 tacks of Atheists : because the principal intention, 

 of such inquiries is, from a consideration of the 

 effects produced, to correct our ideas with respect 

 to the Great First Cause; or, as the poet has ex- 

 pressed it, 



To look through Nature up to NATURE'S GOD. POPE, 



In these Lessons it shall therefore be my pro- 

 vince to explain to you, in a concise and familiar 

 manner, some of the wonders of the universe : I 

 will first lead you to lake a survey of the heavenly 

 bodies; and afterwards consider some of those 

 objects and some of those appearances of na- 

 B 2 ture, 



