FIG. 118. LAPLACE. 



CHAPTER XL 



ASTRONOMY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



A STRONOMY, by the dignity of its object and the perfection of 

 ** its theories, is the finest monument of the human understanding, 

 the most noble proof of its intelligence. Led away by the illusions of 

 his senses and by his self-love, man long looked upon himself as the 

 centre of the heavenly motions, and his vain pride was punished by the 

 fears they caused him. At length centuries of investigation removed 

 the veil that hid from his eyes the system of the world. He then found 

 himself on a planet almost imperceptible in the solar system, whose vast 

 extent is itself only an insensible point in the immensity of space. The 

 sublime results to which this discovery has led him are well calculated 

 to console him for the rank it assigns to the earth ; for the smallness 



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