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Sir Richard Phillips’s Essays on the 
Proximate Mechanical Cause of the Gen , - 
eral Phenomena of the Universe , were an¬ 
nounced to the Clas of Natural History 
by the University Professor, a few days a- ' 
go, immediately'on their receipt from the 
distinguished and ingenious anther, now 
residing at Holloway, near London. They 
contain a new and bold theory of matter, 
space and motion. The Newtonian doc¬ 
trine of gravitation , projectile force , and 
void space are utterly denied; and, as Sir 
Robert believes, proved incorrect and de¬ 
lusive. The fabric of modern philosophy 
is assailed with alarming power.—Consid¬ 
ering Space the stage, Matter the sub¬ 
ject, and Motion the agent , producing all 
the phenomena of the material system, the 
author with full possession of his design, 
ventures to give a novel explanation of 
planetary gyraons, and of the other 
modes of material existence_He rejects i 
attraction and repulsion, as unphiiosophi- 
cal and unnecessary. But deriving mo¬ 
tion from the sun, he traces it through the 
olenum (ethereal, luminous, gaseous) of 
space, to the most minute as well as the 
most bulky of natural bodies, and explains 
how much motion, impressed, becomes 
weight, approximation, rotation, and pro¬ 
gression. He contends there is no occult 
principle of attraction or gravitation con¬ 
cerned in producing any part of the celes¬ 
tial appearances—out the whole is the 
necessary result of the known laws of mo¬ 
tion; and it is suggested as a theological 
deduction, that motion, as a great second¬ 
ary cause, may be regarded in its uniform 
operation, from the great to the small, as 
the hand of Omnipotence; while as a 
principle of causation, it necessarily in¬ 
volves the attribute of Omnipresence. It 
is to be hoped this mathematical work 
will be reprinted here for general infor¬ 
mation. JV! I r . Columbian, j 
