198 BOOK OF "NATURE LAID OPE>*;, 



CHAP. XIX. 



T11E SOLAR SYSTEM. 



" Observe how regular the planets run, 



In stated times their courses round the sun : 



Different their bulk, their distance, their career. 



And diff'rent much the compass of their year; 



Yet all the same eternal laws obey, 



While GOD'S unerring finger points the way." 



FROM the consideration that, by the laws of na- 

 ture, all the lesser heavenly bodies art- made to re 

 volve round the greater, in the same manner that the 

 moon is made to move round the earth, it was to be 

 expected that the sun, the centre of a system in which 

 so many planetary and cometary bodies were made 

 to move within the sphere, or verge, of his attraction, 

 would be a body of very considerable magnitude; 

 and that he is said to be of such an extent, that his 

 solid bulk is computed to be sixty-four millions of 

 times bigger than the moon, a million of times big- 

 ger than the earth, or five hundred times greater than 

 all the other planets put together! 



From what we ourselves experience of the bene- 

 fits of this luminary, we have reason to conclude, that 

 the sun is placed in the most convenient situation in 

 the heavens, and at the most suitable distance from 

 each of the respective bodies which move around him; 

 and that, however nigh or remote their courses may 

 be to the common centre, or however slow or rapid 

 in their movements, the inhabitants of all those bo- 



