GRAVITATION. 



This will be easily understood and remembered, if the 

 reader is careful to notice the distinction which is made 

 between the whole force exerted in every direction, by any 

 central mass, which whole amount is, at every distance, 

 the same, and that particular part of this force, which 

 operates upon an attracted body, when placed at differ- 

 ent distances ; this particular part being inversely as the 

 square of the distance. 



How simple and beautiful are these laws. They are 

 not exceptions to the general principle, nor even modifi- 

 cations. They are, on the contrary, simple assertions of 

 its unvarying uniformity. From these, however few, and 

 simple, and negative in character as they are, every one 

 of the complicated and powerful effects of this principle 

 can be mathematically deduced. The motions of the 

 heavenly bodies in their orbits, the exact curves which 

 they describe, every deviation from their regular 

 paths ; the tides, both aqueous and aerial, with all their 

 fluctuations; the path of every cannon ball; the ve- 

 locity of every falling stone, and the rapidity of the vi- 

 brations of every pendulum, can all be accurately cal- 

 culated and ascertained, from this simple principle of an 

 attractive power, exerted by every particle, which, under 

 all circumstances, and at every distance, remains invari- 

 ably the same. 



EFFECTS PRODUCED BY GRAVITATION. 



It is not possible to consider within the limits of the 

 present number, the various and complicated effects pro- 

 duced by gravitation. Their variety and complication 

 arise from the operation of this principle in combination 

 with others. Strictly speaking, gravitation never pro- 

 duces but one effect, and that is a tendency of one body 

 to approach another, in the inverse ratio of the square of 

 the distance. This simple effect is, however, modified 



ment, that gravitation is the same at every distance. When it is so 

 stated, the young scholar is often surprised that Providence should 

 have adopted that exact mathematical ratio of decrease. This sur- 

 prise is removed by considering the subject in the light in which 

 we have presented it. 



VOL. I. NO. IV. 8* 



