-206 Mr. Bownoin on Light and the Wajfte of Matter s 
tion} towards that centre ; and "finally, with the whole choir 
-Df fyftems, directed by that law, arrive at it with fucceflive 
“tremendous crafhes, until the deftru&ion of the whole would 
be compleated ? And could any thing but the interpofition of 
the Power which created them, preventat ?* : 
If füch.a cataftrophé would be the effect of that law, ‘would 
it not demonftrate the wifdom, and forefight of the Creator, to 
füppofe, he provided the means of counteracting that effect at 
-the fame time he ordained the law? “And among the poffible 
means of doing it, is it not conceivable, that a hollow fphere 
or orb, analogous to that above-deftribed, might be one ? 
It has been fuggefted in what way fuch an orb might pre- 
"vent the gradual wafte and decay of the material fyftem. Let 
“us now fee, whether it might not be applied to prevent. the 
"fwifter and more dreadful cataftrophé, to which the law of gra- 
v in certain jean! fees capable of fabjecting 
“The deteribet orb, like xs other body, would potis the 
hick in different parts of a Sb might be more dri 
-denfe, as the effect, intended to be produced, might require. 
"Where a ftrong attractive power might be neceffary, the den- 
ity would be greater ; and fo, vice verd : and to affift or co- 
«operate with it, a magnetic power might be fuperadded. — 
: Pe | Thus 
| Me, Whiflon Sbferves, “Tt is by no means impoffible, that all the'bódiesin 
“the univerfe fhould approach to one another, and at laft unite in the common centre 
of gravity-of the entire fyftem : nay, from the: univerfality-of the law of gravita- 
tion, and the finitenefs of the world, in length of time, except a miraculous power 
Anterpofe and prevent it, it muft really happen." Difcourfe introdu&ory to his 
SPheory. p. 38. 
