238 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



There are, therefore, manifest reasons, why, of 

 all laws which could occupy the place of the first 

 law of motion, the one which now obtains is the 

 only one consistent with the durability and uni- 

 formity of the system ; the one, therefore, which 

 we may naturally conceive to be selected by a 

 wise contriver. And as, along with this, it has 

 appeared that we have no sort of right to attribute 

 the establishment of this law to anything but se- 

 lection, we have here a striking evidence of design, 

 suited to lead us to a perception of that Divine 

 mind, by which means so simple are made to 

 answer purposes so extensive and so beneficial . 



CHAPTER XII. 



Friction* 



WE shall not pursue this argument of the last 

 chapter, by considering the other laws of motion 

 in the same manner as we have there considered 

 the first, which might be done. But the facts 

 which form exceptions and apparent contradic- 

 tions to the first law of which we have been 

 treating, and which are very numerous, offer, we 

 conceive, an additional exemplification of the 



* Though Friction is not obviously concerned in any cosmical 

 phenomena, we have thought this the proper place to introduce 

 the consideration of it ; since the contrast between the cases in 

 which it does act, and those in which it does not, is best illus- 

 trated by a comparison of cosmical with terrestrial motions. 



