OF THE PERSONALITY OF THE DEITY. 229 
absence or of an equilibrium of attractions. It proves also, 
that a projectile impulse was originally given to some of the 
heavenly bodies, and not to others. But farther; if attrac¬ 
tion act at all distances, there can be only one quiescent 
centre of gravity in the universe: and all bodies whatever 
must be approaching this centre, or revolving round it. 
According to the first of these suppositions, if the duration 
of the world had been long enough to allow of it, all its 
parts, all the great bodies of which it is composed, must 
have been gathered together in a heap round this point. 
No changes, however, which have been observed, afford us 
the smallest reason for believing, that either the one su v 
position or the other is true: and then it will follow, that 
attraction itself is controlled or suspended by a superior 
agent; that there is a power above the highest of the pow¬ 
ers of material nature; a will which restrains and circum¬ 
scribes the operations of the most extensive.* 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
OF THE PERSONALITY OF THE DEITY. 
Contrivance, if established, appears to me to prove 
everything which we wish to prove. Amongst other things, 
it proves the personality of the Deity, as distinguished from 
what is sometimes called nature, sometimes called a prin- 
* It must here, however, be stated, that many astronomers deny that 
any of the heavenly bodies are absolutely stationary. Some of the 
brightest of the fixed stars have certainly small motions; and of the rest 
the distance is too great, and the intervals of our observation too short, 
to enable us to pronounce with certainty that they may not have the same. 
The motions in the fixed stars which have been observed, are considered 
either as proper to each of them, or as compounded of the motion of our 
system, and of motions proper to each star. By a comparison of these 
motions, a motion in our system is supposed to be discovered. By con¬ 
tinuing this anology to other, and to all systems, it is possible to suppose 
that attraction is unlimited, and that the whole material universe is revolv¬ 
ing round some fixed point within its containing sphere or space.— Paley. 
<The milky way is known to derive its appearance from a congeries of 
very small stars, but there are luminous spots in the heaven, which cannot 
be separated into distinct stars by the most powerful telescopes; these 
have been observed in some instances to alter their form, which Sir W. 
Herschell attributed to the mutual attraction of the luminous particles 
which composed them. 
U 
