■e HISTOR\ OF 



Nothing, therefore, can ba more august and striking than the 

 idea which his reason, aided by his imagination, furnishes of tlie 

 iniiverse around him. Astronomers tell us, that this earth 

 .ihich we inhabit, forms but a very minute part in that great as- 

 semblage of bodies of which the world is composed. It is a 

 million of times less than the sun, by which it is enlightened. 

 The planets also, which, like it, are subordinate to the sun's in- 

 fluence, exceed the earth a thousand times in magnitude. These, 

 which were at first supposed to wander in the heavens without an^j 

 fixed path, and that took their name from their apparent devia- 

 tions, have long been found to perform their circuits with great ex- 

 actness and strict regularity. They have been discovered as form- 

 ing, with our earth, a system of bodies circulating round the sun, 

 all obedient to one law, and impelled by one common influence. 

 Modem philosophy has taught us to believe, that, when the great 

 Author of nature began the work of creation, he chose to operate 

 by second causes ; and that, suspending the constant exertion of 

 his power, he endued matter with a quality, by which the uni- 

 versal economy of nature might be continued without his im- 

 mediate assistance. This quality is called attraction ; a sort of 

 approximating influence, which all bodies, whether teiTestrial or 

 celestial, are found to possess j and which in all increases as the 

 quantity of matter in each increases. • The sun, by far the 



• Although we are indebted to Sir Isaac Newton for the complete dis- 

 covery of the law of universal gravitation, and its application to the explan- 

 ation of the planetary motions, yet, the existence of the law had been surmised 

 by different philosophers, both of ancient and modern times. Copernicus, 

 the celebrated restorer of the true systemof astronomy, in speaking of the 

 gravity of terrestrial bodies, by which they tend towards the centre of the 

 '•arth, and to which the figure of the earth is owing, observes, that it is 

 highly reasonable to suppose, that by a like principle, diffused from the sun 

 ;ind planets, their figures are preserved in their various motions ; and Fer- 

 mat, a mathematician of great eminence, wJio lived in the 15th century 

 .ippears to have had accurate notions, to a certain extent at least, of the 

 II ature of this law ; for he says, that the weight of a body is the sum 

 " f the tendencies of each particle to every particle of the earth ; and 

 among the moderns he is the first that made this remark. The justly 

 celebrated Kepler, however, extended his views still farther; for in his 

 Epitome Astronomic Copernicante, he says, that if there be supposed two 

 bodies placed out of the reach of all external forces, and at perfect liberty to 

 move, they would approach each other with velocities inversely proportionat 

 to their quantities of matter ; the moon, says he, and the earth mutually at. 

 tract each other, and are prevented from meeting by their revolution rounj 



