'38 GRAVITY, WEIGHT, &C. [LesSOIl XIII. 



effects to causes, the more general are those powers 

 which we discover. Effects apparently contra- 

 dictory are found to proceed from the same prin- 

 ciple. The ascent of light bodies, as well as the 

 descent of heavy ones, is the consequence of the 

 universal gravitation of matter. Cohesion, disso- 

 lution, and various phenomena in chemistry, are 

 derived from the attractions of minute particles at 

 very small distances. And, wherever we turn our 

 view, the whole course of nature evidently points 

 but to u>, that all the various appearances which 

 we behold flow from a few very general and subordi- 

 nate causes, which more immediately depend upon 

 the ascendant power of the INK SUPREME CAUSE, 

 the Author and Governor of the Universe ! whose 

 existence and influence are manifested by every 

 the most obvious effect ; and of whose power, wis- 

 dom, and goodness we acquire higher and more 

 enlarged conceptions in proportion as we obtain 

 a more complete knowledge of his works. 



The laws of nature being discovered, as above- 

 mentioned, by analysis, particular phenomena 

 are explained synthetically, by shewing their con- 

 formity to these laws. Thus, to shewthat the Moon 

 is retained in its orbit by the force of gravity, is 

 to shew the agreement between that force and the 

 force by which a stone, or any heavy body, lends 

 lo the centre of the earth : that the Moon is con- 

 tinually bent from the tangent of its orbit, in the 

 same manner as a body near the surface of the 

 earth is turned from its rectilinear motion into a 

 curve : that both these motions are directed to the 



same 



