PRINCIPLE OF GRAVITATION. 29 



which, acting constantly, would eventually draw it 

 into the body of the sun itself; but that it is op- 

 posed by the other, centrifugal force, and the varying 

 momentum of the revolving mass ; that the same 

 force acting from the centre of the earth itself, and 

 from the centre of every -particle of its substance, 

 resolves the whole into a globular form. 



The principle of Gravitation* is that force which 

 resides in every form of matter, by which particle is 

 attracted by particle, and mass -by mass, the less 

 towards the greater. What this may be, we scarcely 

 dare to speculate. In the vast area of its action, which 

 opens before the eye of the mind, we see a power span- 

 ning all space, and linking together every one of those 

 myriads of worlds which spangle the robe of the Infi- 

 nite, and we are compelled to pause. Is this principle 

 of gravitation a property of matter, or is it a power 

 higher than the more tangible forces, is the question 

 which presses on the mind. If we regard it as a subtile 

 principle pervading all space, we compel ourselves to 

 look beyond it for another power yet more refined ; and 

 we cannot halt until, ascending from the limitable to 

 the illimitable, we resolve gravitation and its governing 

 influences to the centre of all power the will of the 

 eternal Creator. 



Science has developed the grand truth, that it is by 

 the exercise of this all-pervading influence that the 

 earth is retained in its orbit that the pellucid globe of 

 dew which glistens on the leaf is bound together that 

 the debris which float upon the lake accumulate into 

 one mass that the sea exhibits the phenomena of the 

 tides and the aerial ocean its barometric changes. In 

 all things this force is active, and throughout nature it 

 is ever present. Our knowledge of the laws which it 



* See the article On Gravitation, Penny Cyclopaedia, from the 

 pen of the Astronomer-Royal. 



