OF CENTRAL FORCES. 45 



attract the sun more towards that quarter than when LECT. 



II 

 they are in a manner dispersed equably around him, if ^^-s.^-v. 



he was not at that time made to describe a portion of a 

 larger circle round the common center of gravity, the 

 balance would then be immediately destroyed ; and as 

 it could never restore itself again, the whole system 

 would begin to fall together, and would in time unite 

 in a mass at the sun. 27 Of this disturbance we have a 

 very remarkable instance in the comet which appeared 

 lately ; and which, in going last up before from the sun, 

 went so near to Jupiter, and was so affected by his at- 

 traction, as to have the figure of its orbit much changed ; 

 and not only so, but to have its period altered, and its 

 course to be different in the heavens from what it was 

 last before. 



11. Take away the fork and balls from the whirling- 

 board, and place the trough A B thereon, fixing its cen- 

 ter to the center of the 

 whirling-board by the A 

 pin H. In this trough 

 are two balls D and 

 , of unequal weights, 

 connected by a wire /; and made to slide easily upon the 



Note 27. That every particle of created nature is at all times beneath 

 the controul of a good and gracious Providence, is a fact which no well 

 regulated mind, will, for an instant, attempt to controvert. But it is 

 also a fact, that the more we examine the handy works of the Divine 

 Architect of the Universe, the more reason have we to exclaim with 

 the Psalmist, " How good and great, O Lord, are all thy works, in 

 wisdom thou hast formed them all!" 



Illustrations of this truth must continually ofier themselves to the 

 attentive observer of Nature's laboratory ; and, in no case is this more 

 obvious, than in the various compensatory motions of the planetnry 

 bodies, by which every apparent inequality that has been found to oc- 

 cur in their relative situations is found to be balanced by derange- 

 ments of an equal, though opposite kind. 



