118 NO VACUITY IN SPACE. 



common wreck ! This apprehension greatly increases, when 

 it is considered that Newton's hypothesis of absolute vacuity 

 in the spaces through which the celestial bodies move an 

 hypothesis upon which, according to him, the equilibrium 

 between the centrifugal and centripetal forces necessarily 

 depends has proved unfounded, and that the phenomena of 

 retardation of comets in their orbits, has proved that the in- 

 terplanetary spaces are pervaded by an attenuated fluid or 

 ether, capable of exerting some resistance to their progress. 



It is here submitted, with all due deference to the superior 

 intelligence of many who have never entertained a doubt of 

 the entire truthfulness of Newton's theory, that that theory, 

 at least without essential modifications, would probably never 

 have been propounded by Newton, or adopted by others, had 

 the theory of the nebular origin of the universe, with its accom- 

 panying evidences, and natural corollaries, been previously- 

 subjected to familiar contemplation. 



We now proceed to briefly unfold a theory respecting the 

 foregoing subjects, which, whatever may be its imperfections, 

 seems to the writer, at least, much less encumbered with diffi- 

 culties than the merely mechanical theory of Newton, while 

 it is certainly more compatible with the idea of an immediate 

 and universal Divine superintendence. 



