THROUGH FINLAND. 
379 
“ revolutions; 3dly, that its two hemifpheres on each fide of the 
“ equator are not alike. Aftronomers, neverthelefs, having ob- 
“ ferved in the orbits of the heavenly bodies a fort of predilection 
“ for lines of the fecond order, and geometers having eflablifhed 
“ on the moft inconteftible evidence, that any fluid body whofe 
“ furface is of the fecond order, may remain in equilibrio, when 
“ the particles of which it is compofed attract in the reciprocal 
“ ratio of the fquare of the diftances, the learned have thought 
“ that they were not warranted by reafons fufliciently ftrong to 
u abandon the ellipticity of the revolution ; having due regard to 
“ the fmallnefs of the errors in the executed meafurements which 
“ might very well give occafion to all the diverfity of the refults. 
“ But to be convinced how cautious we ought to be before we 
“ decide in matters of this fort, let us recoiled: the meafurements 
“ executed by Jean Dominique Caflini over the furface of France, 
“ which at firft fight feemed to prove that the earth, far from 
“ being oblate towards the poles, was rather a little raifed or 
“ elevated. This refult, fo much the more ftriking, that it by 
“ no means agreed either *with the theory of centrifugal force 
<c advanced by Huygens, or with the principle of univerfal gravi- 
“ tation eflablifhed by Newton, having undergone a more rigor- 
“ ous inveftigation by geometers, they foon perceived, that not 
“ having perfedly feized the univerfality of the principle, they 
“ had confidered as contrary what was in fad one of its moft 
“ immediate confequences : and thus what they fuppofed was to 
(t overthrow the firfl foundation of the fyftem of attradion be» 
3 C 2 
came 
