ASTRONOMY. 
215 
either. It will be our business to offer, under each of these 
heads, a few instances, such as best admit of a popular ex¬ 
plication. 
I. Amongst proofs of choice, one is, fixing the source 
of light and heat in the centre of the system. The sun is 
ignited and luminous; the planets which move round him, 
cold and dark. There seems to be no antecedent neces¬ 
sity for this order. The sun might have been an opaque 
mass; some one, or two, or more, or any, or all the planets, 
globes of fire. There is nothing in the nature of the heav¬ 
enly bodies, which requires that those which are stationa¬ 
ry should be on fire, that those which move should be cold; 
for, in fact, comets are bodies on fire,* or at least capable 
of the most intense heat, yet revolve round a centre; nor 
does this order obtain between the primary planets and 
their secondaries, which are all opaque. When we con¬ 
sider, therefore, that the sun is one; that the planets 
going round it are at least seven;! ^ ls indifferent to 
their nature, which are luminous and which are opaque; 
and also, in what order, with respect to each other, these 
two kinds of bodies are disposed; we may judge of the im¬ 
probability of the present arrangement taking place by 
chance. 
If, by way of accounting for the state in which we find 
the solar system, it be alleged (and this is one amongst the 
guesses of those who reject an intelligent Creator) that the 
planets themselves are only cooled or cooling masses, and 
were once, like the sun, many thousand times hotter than 
red-hot iron; then it follows, that the sun also himself 
must be in his progress towards growing cold; which puts 
an end to the possibility of his having existed, as he is, 
* It may be reasonably doubted whether comets are ever absolutely 
“ on fire,” and yet some of them, from their near approach to the sun, 
must certainly be “ capable of intense heat.” If we conceive the earth’s 
distance from the sun to be divided into 1000 parts,'the comet of 1680 
was, at one time, not more distant than six of those parts from the sun. 
From hence Sir I. Newton calculated that it was exposed to a heat which 
was 2000 times greater than that of a red-hot iron.— Paxton. 
f The seven planets here alluded to are Mercury, Venus, the Earth, 
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Georgium Sidus : we now know that there 
are four more, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta; the first of these was discov¬ 
ered in 1801, the second was observed in March, 1802, the third was not 
discovered till 1804, nor the last till 1807. Now Dr. Paley’s dedication 
is dated July, 1802; it is very possible, therefore, that this 2'2d chapter 
was written before he had heard of Pallas, and even while it was yet 
doubtful whether Ceres was a comet or a planet. This will explain the 
reason for his having qualified the expression, and having said “ at least 
*even.” 
