CVlll. PROLEGOMENA. 



conclusions respecting the laws of celestial 

 mechanism, and the passage of light, to which 

 it leads the philosopher ; — in proportion, I say, 

 as we come to such conclusions, our astonish- 

 ment will be enhanced, and feeling like mere 

 sentient atoms on the surface of a globe, which is 

 itself, together with the whole solar system of 

 which it is a part, merely a point amidst the 

 myriads of suns filling eternal space, by whicli 

 we seem surrounded, various in colour, in laws 

 of motion, and in their principle of aggregation, 

 we shall remember the words of David, Lord 

 what is man that thou art mindful of him, or 

 the son of man that thou regardest him ? And 

 getting some faint notion of the greatness of God, 

 and of our longed for abode in heaven, we sliall 

 exclaim with St. Ignatius, Heu quam sordet mihi 

 terra dum, coelum aspicio ! We shall then 

 perhaps enter into the astronomical theories of 

 Copernicus, Gallileo, and Tycho Brahe, the 

 mechanical illustrations of Hugens, and the great 

 superfluous hypothesis of attractions established ' 

 by Newton. The study, however, of these works 

 will lead only to a refinement of wonders ; for when 

 we havje seen developed the apparent laws of 

 motion, into which all the movements of the solar 

 and sideral systems of stars and groupes of stars 

 may be resolved ; when we have proved that 

 most comets, like planets, describe equal areas in 



