250 
THE UNITY OF THE DEITY. 
One principle of gravitation causes a stone to drop towards 
the earth, and the moon to wheel round it. One law of at¬ 
traction carries all the different planets about the sun. This 
philosophers demonstrate. There are also other points of 
agreement amongst them, which may be considered as 
marks of the identity of their origin, and of their intelli¬ 
gent Author. In all are found the conveniency and stability 
derived from gravitation. They all experience vicissi¬ 
tudes of days and nights, and changes of season. They all, 
at least Jupiter, Mars, and Venus, have the same advanta¬ 
ges from their atmosphere as we have. In all the planets, 
the axes of rotation are permanent. Nothing is more prob¬ 
able, than that the same attracting influence, acting accord¬ 
ing to the same rule, reaches to the fixed stars: but, if this 
be only probable, another thing is certain, viz. that the 
same element of light does. The light from a fixed star 
affects our eyes in the same manner, is refracted and reflect¬ 
ed according to the same laws, as the light of a candle 
The velocity of the light of the fixed stars is also the same 
as the velocity of the light of the sun, reflected from the 
satellites of Jupiter. The heat of the sun, in kind, differs 
nothing from the heat of a coal fire. 
In our own globe, the case is clearer. New countries 
are continually discovered, but the old laws of nature are 
always found in them: new plants perhaps, or animals, but 
always in company with plants and animals which we 
already know: and always possessing many of the same 
general properties. We never get among such original, or 
totally different, modes of existence, as to indicate, that we 
are come into the province of a different Creator, or under 
the direction of a different will. In truth, the same order 
of things attends us wherever we go. The elements act 
upon one another, electricity operates, the tides rise and 
fall, the magnetic needle elects its position in one region 
of the earth and sea as well as in another. One atmos¬ 
phere invests all parts of the globe, and connects all; one 
sun illuminates; one moon exerts its specific attraction upon 
all parts. If there be a variety in natural effects, as, e. g. 
in the tides of different seas, that very variety is the result 
of the same cause, acting under different circumstances. 
In many cases this is proved; in ail, is probable. 
The inspection and comparison of living forms, add to 
this argument examples without number. Of all large ter¬ 
restrial animals, the structure is very much alike; their 
senses nearly the same; their natural functions and pas¬ 
sions nearly the same; their viscera nearly the same, both 
