THE ELEMENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



And say of God above, or man below, 

 What can we reason but from what we know ? 



161. According to the arguments contained in 

 our preceding chapters, the power which raises the 

 counter-tides is also the power which, by counteract- 

 ing the gravitation of the planets towards the sun, 

 maintains the equilibrium of the solar system. 



We there rejected the tidal theory suggested by 

 Laplace : and postponed an investigation of the com- 

 parative merits of the Newtonian definition of centri- 

 fugal force and the theory of counter-attraction, as 

 unnecessary for our then purposes. 



This counter-attraction, inasmuch as it is a force 

 which tends to carry the bodies which compose the 

 solar system away from the centre of that system, 

 may itself, not improperly, be termed a centrifugal 

 force. But, nevertheless, the intrinsic difference be- 

 tween the nature of a centrifugal force of counter- 

 attraction proceeding from astral gravitation, and 



VOL. II. -ft E 



