1811 .] of the Cause of centrifugal Forces^ S I $ 
less, systems of sups are thus main¬ 
tained in their several places, in the 
order in which we find them arranged 
through infinite extension. 
The fluid oscillating part of planetary 
bodies is so evidently the provision of 
nature for elfectinii tlieir centrifugal 
force, and for continuing their rotation 
on their axes, that it seems unaccounu 
able how it could hitherto have escaped 
the mature attention of philosophers. 
The oscillations of the waters necessa¬ 
rily change constantly the centre of the 
«arth’s motions, and force it to perform 
its daily motion round that centre, being 
at once an effect of the motion, the cause 
of its continuance, and also the cause 
of the centrifugal impulse] 
Such oscillation of the fluids, too, is a 
cause abundantly equal to the effect. 
The swing of so vast a body would ac¬ 
tually require a great centripetal force 
to overcome it. The distance of the 
earth from the sun might however have 
been so regulated, as that one force 
should exactly balance the other, though 
either were but a few pounds; yet for 
our centrifugal force we have the os¬ 
cillation of the vast Pacific ocean, ten 
thousand miles over, besides the Atlantic 
of three thousand, and the vast seas 
round the south pole, adapted in that 
situatio7i to increase the centrifugal force 
when the earth is in Us perihelion. 
Nor does this doctrine destroy the 
connection of the tides with the rela¬ 
tive positions of the lutninaries; because 
the whole system moves on a balance of 
forces, all in unison, and in constant de- 
pendance one part on the other; each 
motion serving at the same time as the 
cause of other motions which so exactly 
correspond, that cause and effect are 
blended and coexistent. 
It must be evident, that the elliptical 
form of the planetary orbits, and the ob¬ 
liquity of the planes of orbits and equa¬ 
tors, will be a necessary consequence of 
an arrangement, ^sucli as that which we 
actually find on the globe of the earth. 
An excess of water or oscillation in 
either hemisphere, as in our southern 
hemisphere, and an excess of land or 
defect of oscillation in the other hemi¬ 
sphere, as in our northern hemisphere,, 
will occasion corresponding increases and 
decreases of centrifugal force and mo¬ 
tion, producing an obliquity of the eclip¬ 
tic, and leading to all the varied pheno¬ 
mena of the seasons. 
The illustrious Newton called in su¬ 
pernatural agency, when he sought to 
account for impulses of centrifugal mo¬ 
tion; but those varied impulses are to be 
found in the varied and accumulated 
forces arising out of the checked and 
accumulated oscillations of the preponde¬ 
rating fluids on the earth’s surface. In 
the months of November, December, 
and January, the earth is the nearest, 
and the centripetal force is then th« 
greatest; but in these months the di¬ 
rection of the forces is in the southern 
hemisphere, where we find a vast excess 
of oscillating fluid, harmoniously in¬ 
creased in quantity by the melting of 
that vast sea of ice; and of course the 
tides, or oscillations, become equal to 
the increased centrifugal force required 
to counteract the increase of centripetal 
force. 
We know well, likewise, that even in 
our own hemisphere, where so large a 
proportion of the waters are become 
rigid, that the tides, notwithstanding, 
are greater in those months than in any 
other season. At lei gih, the accumu¬ 
lated force of the oscillations peculiar to 
the motions of a fiuid agent, and too well 
known to navigators in both hemispheres 
at that season, counteracts the centri¬ 
petal pressure, and the earth ascends 
from its perihelion. The centrifugal 
force is now constantly diminished, be¬ 
cause the direction of the forces, that is, 
of the oscillations of the fluids, constantly 
approaches parallels of latitude in which 
there is a vast increase of inert matter 
so great, that, notwithstanding the dis¬ 
tance of the earth is increased, the pres¬ 
sure towards the sun gets the better of 
the centrifugal force, and the earth thea 
descends from its aphelion. 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
I. The rotatory motion of a planetary 
body subject to a uniform external pres¬ 
sure^ from a uniformly diffused medium, 
is therefore a consequence of a peculiar 
and nicely adjusted disposition of the com* 
ponent parts, in regard to their density, 
II. A rotatory and centrifugal motiors 
is a consequence of the lighter parts being 
fluid, and producing oscillations against 
the denser parts of co7'respxmding and 
competent force, varying at the sayiie time 
the centre of motion. 
Ilf. A motion of that centre in a cir» 
cular o?'bit, is a consequence of the com¬ 
bined force of. the oscillations, with the 
dbninished pressure of the near or inner 
side of the body, in regard to a larger 
or centrical body, as injh^ earth and sun^ 
IV, An dlipikal o'cbU imlinsd to the 
plane 
