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form the extremity of the whole system of nature ; the 

 dense, gross air, out of which the tine ether is extracted, 

 and into which it returns. The heavens will naturally be 

 grosser and grosser, the farther from the sun, till per- 

 hapSj at the utmost extremity, they are condensed into 

 an immoveable solid. 



These are the constituent parts of the heavens. And 

 hence we have reason to conceive, that ail these parts, 

 (the sun, nioon, and, stars excepted)are no other than the 

 different states into which the ethereal fluid does, or may 

 pass. For the darkness is _the fine atoms of the heaven 

 in a state of inactivity. The spirit is the grosser parts 

 of the heavens, or masses compressed together ; while 

 the light ii> the atoms or finest part of the ether in swift 

 motion. At the centre, the commotion is greatest, and 

 gradually decreases towards the circumference, where 

 the ether is very much condensed, and this is called the 

 / density. 



He far; her supposes, that the sun is the centre of the 

 whole universe; that the fixed stars are all placed in the 

 .density, not far from each other, and abundantly nearer 

 the earth z than common astronomers imagine, and that 

 their use is not to perform the office of suns to other 

 planets, but to assist in that cold region, to supply in 

 some decree, the want of the solar fire. 



Perhaps it may not be unacceptable to the serious 

 reader, to give a more particular account of this ingenious 

 hypothesis, in the words of a late writer. The sum of 

 what Mr. Hutchinson avers, is, that beside the differ- 

 ently formed particles of which the earth, and the 

 .several solid substances in it, and in the other orbs, are 

 composed, God at rirst created all that subtle fluid which 

 DOW is, and from the creation has been, in the condition 

 of^re, light) or air, and goes under the name of the 

 heavens. 



Tiie particles of this fluid (which he calls atoms), 

 when they are single and uncompounded, are inconceiv- 

 ably minute, and so subtle as to pervade the pores of all 

 substances whatever, whether solid or fluid. When they 



