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sion on one part of such a fluid mass would be felt on other parts of its con¬ 
fining vault, like a stroke on a fluid contained in a bladder, which however 
gentle on one side, is perceptible to the hand placed on the other, and the 
velocity with which such a concussion would travel would be that of sound, 
or thirteen miles in a minute. 
Hence Dr. Darwin has been led to conjecture in his beautiful poem on 
the oeconomy of vegetation, that the first act of the Almighty was the 
Creation of innumerable Suns. 
“ LET THERE BE LIGHT!” proclaim’d the Almighty Lord. . . . 
Astonish'd Chaos heard the potent word;— 
Through all his realms the kindling Ether runs, 
And the mass starts into a million Suns.* * 
a vast depth below, the same force required to shoot them up so high, would act against the sides of 
the volcano, and tear the whole mountain in pieces.” To all this specious reasoning particular answers 
might easily be given; as that the length of the funnel increases the force of the explosion; that the 
sides of the funnel are actually often burst with the great violence of the flame; that air may be sup¬ 
posed at depths at least as far as the perpendicular fissures descend. But the best answer is a well- 
known fact; namely, that the quantity of matter discharged from JEtna alone, is supposed, upon a 
moderate computation, to exceed twenty times the original bulk of the mountain. (Kircher, Mund. 
Subt. vol. i. p. 2 02.) The greatest part of Sicily seems covered with its eruptions. The inhabitants 
of Catanea have found, at the distance of several miles, streets and houses, sixty feet deep, over¬ 
whelmed by the lava or matter it had discharged. But what is still more remarkable, the walls of 
these very houses have been built of materials evidently thrown up by the mountain. The inference 
from all this is very obvious; that the matter thus exploded cannot belong to the mountain itself, 
otherwise it would have been quickly consumed; it cannot be derived from moderate depths, since 
its amazing quantity evinces, that all the places near the bottom must have long since been exhausted; 
nor can it have an extensive, and, if I may so call it, a superficial spread, for then the country round 
would be quickly undermined; it must, therefore, be supplied from the deeper regions of the earth; 
those undiscovered tracts where the Deity performs his wonders in solitude! Tide Goldsmith’s 
History of the Earth, Yol. I. p. pi— q6. 
* Ihis assemblage of vast bodies is divided into different systems , the number of which may per¬ 
haps exceed the grains of sand which the sea casts on its shores. 
Each system has its centei or focus, call it either a fixed star or sun, which shines with its own 
light, and lound which revolve various orders of opaque globes, which reflect with greater or lesser 
lustre the light they borrow from it, and which renders them visible to us. 
These, which seem to Wander among the heavenly bodies, are planets , the principal of which 
have what we call the sun for the common center of their periodical revolutions; whilst the others, 
which are styled secondary, move round one principal planet, which they accompany like satellites, 
in its annual revolution. 
Venus and the Earth have each of them their satellite. One will undoubtedly be some time or 
other discovered in Mars. Jupiter has four, Saturn five, and a ring or luminous body which seems 
to perform the office of a number of small moons. Being situate near three hundred millions of 
leagues from the sun, he would have received too faint a light from it, if his satellites and ring did 
not augment it by reflection. 
We have discovered twenty-seven planets, which at present compose our solar system-, but we 
