202 DE MORGAN'S ACCOUNT OF WRIGHT'S SPECULATIONS 



Ring; which would hardly be the Case, if the Ring, or 

 Rings, were connected, or solid, since we have good Reason 

 to suppose, it would be equally attracted on all Sides by 

 the Body of Saturn, and by that means preserve everywhere 

 an equal Distance from him ; but if they are really little 

 Planets, it is clearly demonstrable from our own in like 

 Cases, that there may be frequently more of them on one 

 Side, than on the other, and but very rarely, if ever, an 

 equal Distribution of them all round the Saturnian 

 Globe. 



" How much a Confirmation of this is to be wished, your 

 own Curiosity may make you judge, and here I leave it 

 for the Opticians to determine. I shall content myself with 

 observing that Nature never leaves us without a sufficient 

 Guide to conduct us through all the necessary Paths of 

 Knowledge; and it is far from absurd to suppose Providence 

 may have every where throughout the whole Universe, 

 interspersed Modules of every Creation, as our Divines tell 

 us, Man is the Image of God himself. 



" Thus, Sir, you have had my full Opinion, without the 

 least Reserve, concerning the visible Creation, considered 

 as Part of the finite Universe ; how far I have succeeded 

 in my designed Solution of the Via Lactea, upon which 

 the Theory of the Whole is formed, is a Thing will hardly 

 be known in the present Century, as in all probability it 

 may require some Ages of Observation to discover the 

 Truth of it." 



The eighth and ninth letters, which are on the modes of 

 conceiving space and time, and contain general reflections 

 on the whole scheme, contain nothing which need be 

 quoted. Wright seems to have been the first who started 

 the idea of representing the solar system by selected objects 

 on the earth. Representing the sun by the dome of St. 

 Paul's, a sphere of eighteen inches diameter at Marylebone 

 will be the earth, and so on. There is internal evidence 

 that these letters were written in London. 



I should sum up by saying that Wright appears to have 

 been a man of great ingenuity, and of moderate learning, 

 of a strong turn for the invention of hypothesis, and great 

 power of appreciating its probability. He had a firm 

 persuasion that astronomical discovery was then very imper- 

 ifect, both in quantity and quality, a persuasion which 



