1 86 THE HAMBURG ACCOUNT OF WRIGHT'S THEORY. 



state of a star, why then in reason should he have his 

 attendant planets round him more than any of the rest, 

 his undoubted equals ? No shadow even of a reason can 

 be given for such an absurdity. May we not, with the 

 greatest confidence, imagine that nature as justly abhors 

 a vacuum in place, as much as virtue does in time ? 

 Surely, yes ! And by supposing the infinity of stars, all 

 centres to as many systems of innumerable worlds, all 

 alike unknown to us, how naturally do we open to our- 

 selves a vast field of probation and an endless scene of 

 hope to ground our expectation of an ever future happi- 

 ness upon, suitable to the native dignity of the awful 

 Mind which made and comprehends it, and whose works 

 are all as the business of an eternity ! If the stars were 

 ordained merely for the use of us, why so much extra- 

 vagance and ostentation in their number, nature, and make ? 

 For a much less quantity and smaller bodies placed nearer 

 to us would everyway answer the vain end we put them to ; 

 and besides, in all things else nature is most frugal and 

 takes the nearest way through all her works, to operate 

 and effect the will of God. It scarce can be reckoned 

 more irrational to suppose animals with eyes destined to 

 live in eternal darkness, or without eyes to live in perpetual 

 day, than to imagine space illuminated where there is 

 nothing to be acted upon or brought to light ; therefore 

 we may justly suppose that so many radiant bodies were 

 not created barely to enlighten an infinite void, but to 

 make their much more numerous attendants visible ; and 

 instead of discovering a vast, unbounded, desolate negation 

 of beings, display an infinite shapeless universe, crowded 

 with myriads of glorious worlds, all variously revolving 

 round them ; and which, from an atom to an indefinite 

 creation with an inconceivable variety of beings and states, 

 animate and fill the endless orb of immensity." After 

 having remarked that there can be no objection raised 

 against the actual existence of the planets of the Fixed 

 Stars, because their revolution around these stars is in- 

 visible, and further because the stars themselves appear 

 to us upon the earth almost as mathematical points, it 

 must therefore be impossible to discover their dark attend- 

 ants, he adds : " Let us suppose a new created mind, or 

 thinking being, in a profound state of ignorance with regard 



