262 NATURAL THEOLOaY. 



prehend, is inconsistent with the physical laws by which the 

 heavenly motions are governed. If the planets were struck 

 off from the surface of the sun, they would return to the 

 surface of the sun again. Nor will this difficulty be got rid 

 of by supposing that the same violent blow which shattered 

 the sun's surface, and separated large fragments from it, 

 pushed the sun himself out of his place ; for the consequence 

 of this would be, that the sun and system of shattered frag- 

 ments would have a progressive motion, which indeed may 

 possibly be the case with our system ; but then each frag- 

 ment would, in every revolution, return to the surface of 

 the sun again. The hypothesis is also contradicted by the 

 vast difference which subsists between the diameters of the 

 planetary orbits. The distance of Saturn from the sun, to 

 say notliing of the Georgium Sidus, is nearly five-and-twenty 

 times that of Mercury ; a disparity which it seems impossi- 

 ble to reconcile with Buffon's scheme. Bodies starting from 

 the same place, with whatever difference of direction or 

 velocity they set off, could not have been found at these dif 

 ferent distances from the centre, still retaining their nearly 

 circular orbits. They must have been carried to their proper 

 distances before they were projected. =^ 



To conclude — in astronomy, the great thing is to raise 

 the imagination to the subject, and that oftentimes in oppo- 



* "If we suppose the matter of the system to be accumulated in 

 the centre by its gravity, no mechanical principles, with the assistance 

 of this power of gravity, could separate the vast mass into such parts 

 as the sun and planets ; and after carrying them to their different 

 distances, project them in their several directions, preserving still the 

 quality of action and reaction, or the state of the centre of gravity of 

 the system. Such an exquisite structure of things could only arise 

 from the contrivance ani powerful influences of an intelligent, free, 

 and most potent agent. The same powers, therefore, which at pres- 

 ent govern the material universe, and conduct its various motions, are 

 xcry different from those which were necessary to have produced it 

 Irom nothing, or to have disposed it in the admirable form in which 

 it now proceeds." — Maclaurin's Account of Newtonh Philosophy ^ p 

 407, edit. 3. 



