104 SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



phenomena to those in our immediate neighbourhood. The agitations of the atmosphere, 

 its masses of clouds, and its refractive and reflective properties the rise and subsidence 

 of the great waters the alternations of light and darkness and a diversity of seasons, 

 are universal over the globe. Columbus opened a new world to the knowledge of the 

 old, but in the new as in the old the general laws of nature were the same the tides 

 flowing and ebbing along the coasts, electricity operating in the atmosphere, the magnetic 

 needle pointing to the pole, day and night, summer and winter interchanging. The 

 general structure and physical properties of its human inhabitants, its plants and 

 animals, are accordant, and their subordinate diversities may in most cases be traced to 

 the action of laws which universally produce the same effects where the circumstances 

 are the same. But leaving the ball upon which we live, and viewing the kindred orbs 

 associated with it in the solar universe, the intimations of uniform plan are equally 

 strong. Let us dwell upon some of the unities of the system. Omitting for obvious 

 reasons the telescopic planets, though in many respects they harmonize with the rest, the 

 following phenomena are prominent: 1. All the planets have a projectile motion in 

 space in the same direction from west to east. 2. They move in nearly the same plane. 

 Taking the plane of the earth's orbit as a horizontal base, the planes of the other orbits 

 exhibit only a slight divergence from it. 



Inclination. Inclination. 



Mercury - - - 7 0' 9' 



Venus - - 3 23 28 



Mars - - - 1 51 6 



Jupiter- - - 1 18' 51" 



Saturn - - 2 29 35 



Uranus- - - 46 28 



3. All the satellites move in the same direction as their primaries, and nearly in the 

 same plane, with the exception of the moons of Uranus. 4. The orbits of the planets 

 and satellites exhibit only slight variations in their amount of eccentricity. 5. These 

 different bodies have a motion of rotation in the same direction with the sun, and their 

 own motions of projection. 6. The planets exhibit traces of atmospheres more or less 

 decided. These are confessedly striking phenomena. They clearly exclude the opera 

 tion of chance-medley from the system. They are unities which speak intelligibly of 

 One causing and governing Mind, and significantly proclaim the simultaneous origin of 

 the solar universe under the control of common laws. When we consider that the bodies 

 which compose it maintain their present stations, motions, and distances, by their mutual 

 action on each other that neither could be where it is, nor as it is, unless they were 

 all co-existent the inference is strong, and seems philosophically certain, that they 

 obtained contemporaneously, or nearly so, that arrangement, and those positions in 

 which we now behold them, under the action of the same physical cause. The force of 

 the solar attraction to Mercury is in some degree counteracted by that of Venus and the 

 Earth, and the orbital motions of the former are the result of the nice adjustment of 

 these complicated forces. This fact, true of all the planets, is a strong indication that 

 their formation was simultaneous. 



But if, in relation to the terrestrial world, uniformity characterises the general plan, the 

 detail displays an endless diversity. Its great divisions of land and water, its mountains, 

 plains, and valleys, have each distinguishing peculiarities. Plants of the same genus have 

 no perfect similarity, nor have their stems, flowers, and leaves. The grains of sand 

 and the blades of grass differ. The same fact is true of the human race, and of animals 

 of the same species; and hereby property can be claimed in the latter, friendship 

 recognise its objects of affection, and justice its criminals, in the former. In like manner, 

 all the knowledge we have of the creation exterior to our globe assures us of the stamp 

 of variety being impressed upon it. Thua the planets, alike in dependence upon a ceil- 



