begun tin's 12 re at work, which may be considered 

 now as in its earliest infancy. These bodies, ioo, 

 thick atmospheres, but without tails, 

 their proper places aseeftauierf, and will 1*0 ' 

 eonfouirded with bodies to which they bear no it . 

 blance or connection. 



Comets with tails have seldom been visible,' but OH 

 their recess from the sun. It is he that kh'dlos them 

 up, and gives them that alarming appearance in the hea- 

 vens. On the contrary, those without tails, have seldom, 

 perhaps never, been observed but on their ap; 

 him. I do not recollect any whose return ha 

 lerably well ascertained, 'I remember,- indeed, a lev/ 

 years ago,* a small jone, that was said io have been dis- 

 covered by a telescope, after it had passed the sun, but 

 never more became visible to the naked C 4 >e. This as- 

 sertion is easily made, and nobody can contradict ;. but 

 it does not at all appear probable, that it should have 

 been so much less luminous after it had passed ihe sun, 

 than before it approached him ; and I will own, when 

 I have heard that the return of these comets had escaped 

 the eyes of the most acute astronomers, ,1 have been 

 tempted to think that they did not return at all, but vvr,r^ 

 absorbed in the body of the sun, which their violent 

 motion toward him seemed to indicate. Indeed, I have 

 often wished that this discovery might be made, as it 

 would in some measure account for What has as yol-"bcen 

 looked upon as unaccountable; that the sun, notwith- 

 standing his daily waste from enlightening the universe, 

 never appears diminished either in .size or light. Surely 

 this waste must be h.- ueiise,and were there not in nature 

 some hidden provision for supplying it, in the space of 

 six thousand years, (supposing the world to be no older) 

 the planets must have got to a much greater .distance 

 from his body, by the vast dimuuition of his attraction : 

 they must likewise have moved much slower, and conse- 

 quently the length of ourjear must have been increased. 

 Nothiug of all this seems to be the case : he neither ap- 

 pears diminished, nor our distance from him increased ; 

 hJb light, heat, and attraction seem to be the same as 

 M 2 



