INTRODUCTION. IxxxV 



expansive force consolidates that whereon its 

 impact is, whence our translation renders the 

 word, after the Greek, s-tpw/m, the firmament, 

 that which renders all things firm, the action 

 of which produces the cohesion of the atoms 

 of bodies, and their agglomeration round a 

 partial or general centre : in this last accep- 

 tation it is synonymous with the term attrac- 

 tion, and in the former with that of repulsion. 

 From these considerations we may readily 

 understand why the Psalmist calls it, The 

 Firmament of his power or strength. 1 



The terms expansion, then, and firmament, 

 express the matter of the heavens in a state of 

 action, going from or returning to its central 

 fountain ; for every system, as well as its own 

 sun and planets, has doubtless its own hea- 

 vens, probably never stagnant, but incessantly 

 issuing from a centre of irradiation, as the 

 blood from the heart in a positive state, and 

 returning in a negative state to that centre 

 where it is, as it were, again oxygenated, and 

 circulates to the fiammantia mcenia mundi ; 

 and so 



riturj et labetur in omne volubilis eevum, 

 i Ps. d. 1. 



VOL. I. g 



