263 



amazing apparatus, and yet have placed no inhabitants 

 therein 1'' 



Of their apparatus I know nothing : however if all 

 you assert be the prolability of their being inhabited, I 

 contend not. 



7. " They who aiirm, that God created those great 

 bodies, the fixed stars, only to give us a small dim light, 

 must have a very mean opinion of the Divine Wisdom." 



I do not affirm this, neither can I tell for what other 

 ends he created them : he that created them knows : but 

 I have so high an opinion of the Divine Wisdom, that I 

 believe no child of man can fathom it. Tt is our wisdom 

 to be very wary how we pronounce concerning things 

 wliich we have not seen. 



Ri 10. " Suppose some intelligent beings in one of 

 the planets, who were 



Slaves to no sect, who sought no private road, 

 But look'dt hro' nature, up to nature's God : 



viewed the earth from thence, they would argue, it must 

 be inhabited, as we argue that the other planets are. 

 But the superstitious would oppose this doctrine, and 

 call it mere uncertain conjecture/' 



I see no argument in this : but perhaps I do not un- 

 derstand it. Are you applauding the supposed inhabit- 

 ants of Venus, for not being slaves to the ckristian sect ? 

 Otherwise, what has superstition to do in the case ] Why 

 is this dragged in by the head and shoulders? If there 

 be superstition here, it is on your side, who believe be- 

 cause you will believe : who assent to what you have no 

 evidence for, and maintain what you cannot prove. At 

 present you are the volunteer in faith : you swallow what 

 choaks my belief. 



R. 1-1. " You quote Dr. Rogers," But I do not under- 

 take to defend his hypoihesis, or any other. "Our best 

 observators could never find the parallax of the sun to 



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