AND THEORY OF THE HEAVENS. 57 



orbits. Although, therefore, it is more in accordance with 

 the nature of a force which seems to be incorporated in 

 the essence of matter, to be unlimited, and it is also 

 actually recognized to be so by those who accept 

 Newton's principles, yet we would only have it granted 

 that this attraction of the sun extends approximatively 

 to the nearest fixed ' star ; also that the fixed stars, as 

 being so many suns, exercise an action around them in a 

 similar range ; and, consequently, that the whole host of 

 them are striving to approach each other through their 

 mutual attraction. Thus all the systems of the universe are 

 found so constituted by their mutual approach, which is 

 incessant and is hindered by nothing, that they will fall 

 together sooner or later into one mass, unless this ruin 

 is prevented by the action of the centrifugal forces, as 

 in the globes of our planetary system. These forces, by 

 deflecting the heavenly bodies from falling in a straight 

 line, bring about, when combined with the forces of 

 attraction, their perpetual revolutions, and thereby the 

 structure of the creation is secured from destruction and 

 is adapted for an endless duration. 



Thus all the suns of the firmament have movements 

 of revolution, either round one universal centre or round 

 many centres. But we may here apply the analogy which 

 is observed in the revolutions of our Solar System, namely, 

 that the same cause that has communicated to the planets 

 the centrifugal force, in virtue of which they perform their 

 revolutions, has also so directed their orbits that they are 

 all related to one plane. And so also the cause, what- 

 ever it may be, which has given the power of revolving 

 to the suns of the upper world, as so many wandering 

 stars of a higher order of worlds, has likewise brought their 



