NATURAL THEOLOGY. 31 



sion would have taken place. The direct simple 

 proportion of the distance would, it is true, have 

 produced an ellipse : but the perturbing forces 

 would have acted with so much advantage, as to 

 be continually changing the dimensions of the el- 

 lipse, in a manner inconsistent with our terrestrial 

 creation. For instance ; if the planet Saturn, so 

 large and so remote, had attracted the earth, both 

 in proportion to the quantity of matter contained 

 in it, which it does ; and also in any proportion to 

 its distance, i. e. if it had pulled the harder for 

 being the further off, (instead of the reverse of it,) 

 it would have dragged out of its course the globe 

 which we inhabit, and have perplexed its motions, 

 to a degree incompatible with our security, our 

 enjoyments, and probably our existence. Of the 

 inverse laws, if the centripetal force had changed 

 as the cube of the distance, or in any higher pro- 

 portion, that is, (for I speak to the unlearned,) if, 

 at double the distance, the attractive force had 

 been diminished to an eighth part, or to less than 

 that, the consequence would have been, that the 

 planets, if they once began to approach the sun, 

 would have fallen into his body; if they once, 

 though by ever so little, increased their distance 

 from the centre, would for ever have receded from 

 it. The laws therefore of attraction, by which a 

 system of revolving bodies could be upholden in 

 their motions, lie within narrow limits, compared 

 with the possible laws. I much under-rate the 

 restriction, when I say that, in a scale of a mile, 



