Speculations in regard to a New Tkeoiy [Oct. 1, 
£i0 
Clause of which it is desirable and laii- 
■ tiiihle to examine. 
On a subject so apparently veiled from 
our senses, and so vast in comparison 
with the finite powers of mars, we may 
never perhaps arrive at a demonstrative 
certainty; and hypothesis may long rise 
on hypotliesis, mocking our limited data 
and superficial reasonings. Tlie spirit 
of philosop.hy prompts however perse¬ 
verance in enquiry, and the failure of 
some ought not to discourage the labours 
of others. It has been by adding unit 
to unitin accumulating our present stock 
of knowledge, that we have been able in 
three thousand years to withdraw the 
veil from so many mysteries of nature, 
and that tiie schools of philosophy in the 
ninetcenlli century of the Christian tera, 
are so much superior to those of Egypt 
and Babylon, in the age of Homer. The 
occult principle of gravitation which 
pervades every department of modern 
physical science, raises us however not 
many degrees above the occult philo¬ 
sophers of those distant ages; and its 
admission is one of the opprobriums of 
modern philosopliy, w hich ought, if p(^g- 
sible, to be removed. 
Notwitiistanding the contrary has 
mixed itself with the very idioms of ail 
languages, yet it may be assumed, with- 
cut the hazard of refutation, that notiiing 
passes or can pass between, or to and from, 
bodies, mutually attracted so as to oc¬ 
casion them to gravitate tozvards each 
other. Any supposed eflluvia passing 
mutually, would serve meciianically ra¬ 
ther to repel than to attract; nor could 
any invisible, detached, and unapparent 
communication, be likely to lay sucli 
bold of tlie bodies, and produce a cor- 
respondv^nt effect, occasioning masses bke 
suns, comets, and planets, to draw eiich 
other together from such immense dis¬ 
tances! In fact, no mechanical agency 
with which we are acquainted, or which 
we can conceive, could operate by means 
!'>{' detached efiluvia, orsiibtle emauaiions, 
to produce the remote phenomena of 
gravitation; yet it is grossly uiiphiloso- 
phica! to suppose, tiiat an efiect exists 
without a secondary and proximate 
cause. 
The diiliculty of giving a satisfactory 
CN planuiion of this phenc.menon, appears 
tr> me tr> have been occasioned partly by 
t-he impiely of philosophers. They liave 
presumed to restrict the creation of 
the Omnipotent and Omnipresent Deity 
to f)biects cognizable only to their owu 
£c..sesj and have iuolishiy can t ended that 
the spaces between the planets, or tbs 
infinite extension in which tire systems 
of the material and visible universe 
exist, are absolute voids— except wiier- 
ever existence is evident to their senses, 
j-rAs though the Omnipotent Deity 
could any where exist without manifes¬ 
tations of his power!—As though the ex¬ 
tension of space could only he filled by 
Omnipotence with species of creation 
subject to the laws of our senses!! — As 
though of creation, that is, coin¬ 
cidence of omnipotence and omniscience 
with omnipresence was not an imme¬ 
diate consequence and as necessary aii 
idea in conceiving the existence of th^ 
Deity, as the other essential attributes 
just named! — To believe that no other 
species of existence, besides our sensible 
matter, fills the infinite extension of 
space, is alike blasphemy!—Not to feel 
that a plenitude and unbounded variety 
of creation is necessarily coexistent in 
every portion of space, in truth, bespeaks 
a mind incapable of perceiving and ap¬ 
preciating the other essential attributes 
of the Deity! — To doubt this, is also to 
doubt onmipresence—and to doubt if, 
believing omnipresence, is to doubt om¬ 
nipotence and omniscience.—It is in a 
word, to tread on the threshold of athe¬ 
ism, and to be an atheist, so far as to set 
limits to the necessary powers and ubir 
quiry of the Deity ! 
I believe, then, in tfie existence of a 
plciiUiH (f creation^ not necessarily con¬ 
sisting of the species of matter of which 
our senses enable ns to take cognizance; 
t)ot a plenum of pure and solid carbon, 
but a plenum of its own kind, necessarily 
arising out of the ubiquity and, the infinite 
puw-er and wisdom of the Creator. 
I conceive too that a substratum, 
fluid, or medium ; fills, iufinire extensions 
something like the ether of New ton, atui 
is the agetit by which are mecliauioally 
and necessarily elFected the phenftmettq 
of gravitation, as well as many othet' 
phenomena not yet explained by me¬ 
chanical means. 
I believe that this medium, or sub¬ 
stratum, necessarily pervades the w hole 
nmverse, auvd that wherever the Deity 
has placed witkiin it any species of novel 
or distinct existence, the universal sub¬ 
stratum pervades it, or, exoeavours, or 
sor.icns, 'lo pervade iTjW'itu a force 
IN THE INVERSE EAI 10 OF ITS SOLIDITY ; 
which term, soriditi/, in fact, expresses 
not lung more than a collection of pro¬ 
perties distinct from the properties of 
the universal medium itself. 
I conceive 
