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be reduced, cannot be considered as a straight line. Any 

 attempt of making rectilinear and curvilinear figures equiva- 

 lent by reduction, must be considered as merely merging into 

 indivisibles and inadmissibles, if there be any truth in the laws 

 of geometry. Indeed the question on the condition of forces 

 necessary to produce given effects is clear and divested of all 

 metaphysical obscurities, not requiring the differential calculus, 

 and other methods of geometrical analysis that are so objection- 

 able in their logic and conclusions. All we require to account 

 for the moon being retained in her orbit, and the planets again 

 in the atmosphere of the sun, and all moving in one definite 

 direction, is the admission of magnetism, i. e. that mysterious 

 power w r hich we know to exist, circulating from pole to pole of 

 every individual body, with a power varying inversely as the 

 square of the distance, rendering the respective compounds or 

 fluids of each body of variable density ; and this again accom- 

 panied by an equatorial current or circular motion. 



The application of the Newtonian laws of motion to the comets 

 is still less satisfactory than it is to the planetary bodies. The 

 comets appear to be gaseous bodies as rare as vapour ; yet it is 

 assumed that bodies so light move round the sun, and pass 

 through the dense atmosphere of the latter by means of tangen- 

 tial and centripetal forces. Conceive a body, say T a feather, to 

 be drawn from a distance by means of a radial pow r er increasing 

 in force as the distance diminishes, and that it should arrive at 

 the focus of the radial power, that the said feather should turn 

 round such a focus, and move again from it, simply by means 

 of the velocity generated in moving towards it, and thus continue 

 to circulate in an elongated ellipsis round the centre : it is con- 

 trary to all analogy. If we apply magnetism, and assume that 

 the sun is governed by a similar power, we have no difficulty in 

 explaining the nature of the motion of comets. According to 

 the law r s of magnetism, a combination of magnetic globes in a 

 state of equilibrium will have their respective poles dissimilar, 

 i. e. the north end of one corresponding to the south end of the 

 other, as described in Plate II. Hence it follows that the pole of 

 the moon corresponding to our south pole must be the attractive, 

 and that the pole of the sun corresponding to our north pole 

 must be the repulsive. If we now suppose a comet a luminous 



