with e Conjecture, Juzxehing a Mean, Gc. Do»? 
ceffion, its effluent light ; and thereby obviate the evil effects, 
that might otherwife follow from the efflux. 
Js it not conceivable, that round the folar fyftem, and the fe- 
eral fyftems, which compofe the vifible heavens, there might 
have been formed a hollow fphere, or orb, made of matter fui 
generis, or of matter like that of the planets, and furrounding 
the whole: having its inner or concave furface at a proper dif- 
tance therefrom ; beyond which furface light could not pafs, 
and between which, and the particles of light, there fhould be 
a mutual repulfion ? And might not the fun, or fource of light, 
of each fyftem, have been fo placed, in refpe& of each other, 
and the concave furface of the furrounding orb, that there fhould 
ibe, by dire& and repeatedly indirect reflections, an interchange 
of rays between them, in fuch a manner, as that to each there 
fhould be reftored the quantity it had emitted ; and thereby the 
wafte of its matter be prevented : and this at the fame time it 
difpenfed its light to its particular fyftem ? 
. This ufe of fuch an orb is here meant to be confidared as a 
Wesabe or incidental ene ; to which it might be applied : 
but the principal or primary ufe of it, as a-counter-balance to 
the gravitating principle of the fyftems contained within it, will 
be feen in its proper place. | 
There is a remarkable phenomenon in the folar fyftem, to 
which the ideal one, juft mentioned, bears fome refemblance, 
and by which it was fuggefted : I mean the ring or arch,which 
furrounds the planet Saturn. We are told by aftronomets, that 
its width, and alfo its diftance from Saturn, is about 25,000 
miles ;—forming around that planet a beautiful arch, which 
may be defigned, among other purpofes, to increafe ‘its light 
and heat, by refle&ing upon it, like a concave mirror, the fun’s 
Bb2 rays : 
