18 
more likely I fhall be ta advance in what- 
ever can enlarge my knowledge, or dig- 
nify my nature. But if I were tocirs 
cumf{cribe my attainments, and to make 
a being little fuperior to myfelf the ob- 
ject of my veneration, I fhould certainly 
weaken my incitements to aétion, and 
xelax my endeavours for improyement, 
Jf the objeét of my veneration were not 
pertect, I thould not ftrive after perfec~ 
zion; and if I conceived him to pe fub- 
ject to error, J fhould not be very folici- 
tous for the difcovery of truth. 
To have an exalted notion of the Deity, 
muit tend toexalt the man; tobow down 
with folemn veneration to any thing infe- 
rior, muft tend to degrade him. Pope 
has faid, “what muft be the prieft where 
a monkeyis the God :’” What is the inde- 
pendence or difcernment of that ming 
-which could venerate a ftatue ? 
Burt J am not an enemy to any reafon- 
able tokens of approbation which diftin- 
guished merit may obtain. They ferve 
to excite emulation andio 2waken ardour. 
To build a monument, or to crf a fta- 
tue for the perpetuity of heroic virtue, is 
a debt of public gratitude, intended for 
the apvlaule rather than the adulation of 
the bchoider. 
J fhould rejoice to fee a public hall filled 
with bufts of the mof celebrated patriots 
and philofophers, and to attend lectures 
delivered in it. Fancy might induce me 
to fuppofe them as ftill living, and the 
fuccets of the leéturer might be encreafed 
by the fuppofition. 1 can fay with truth 
that my ideas never took a wider range, 
than whilft palling through the village 
where the illuftrious Sir Iiaac Newton 
was born ; but in the height of my tran{- 
port J fhould-have {corned the fervility of 
worfhipping him as a god. 
But if it be intended to bring the moft 
fupei lative example of human excellence 
in competition with the-deity of the uni- 
verfe, then*] muft think that the com- 
mand, ‘* thou thalt have no other Gods 
before me,”’ with the fucceeding paflages*, 
are fufficiently clear to filence the fubter- 
fuges of equivocation, and to prevent the 
mifconceptions of ignorance. 
I hope, fir, your correfpondent will 
excufe the, fréedom, and: that you will 
pardon the length, of thefe obfervations 
from your humble fervant, R.S. 
R.S. Dr. Johnfon, in his Journey to 
the Weftern Iflands, has a paffage more 
congenial to my ideas than any your cor- 
refpondent has given: 

® Exodus, ch. xX, vers 3) 4) Se 
Ou Hera Worfoip. ..Earth's Orbit. 
[Jan. 
‘¢ Far from me, and frem my friends,” 
fays he, ‘¢be fuch frigid philofophy as 
may conduvét us indifferent and unmoved 
over any ground which his been digni- 
fied by wifdom, bravery, or virtue. That 
man is little to be envied whofe patriot. 
ifm would not gain force upon the plain 
cf Marathen, or whofe picty would not 
grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.’ 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Mr. Epitor, 
— the Monthly Magazine appears te 
be a receptacle of general erudition, 
I avail myfelf of it.to point out an in- 
confiftency in the generally-received hy- 
pothefis relating to the EKarth‘s annual 
motion. Thofe aftronomers who confine 
themfelves to this hypothefis contend, 
that the earth’s orbit is an eilipfis, hav- 
ing the fun in one of its foci; and that 
the eccentricity of this ellipiis, z. ¢. the 
ciftance of each focus from the middle 
point of the ellipfts is 1,617,941 miles, 
and hence that the two foci are 3,225,332 
miles diftant from cach other. 
Admitting that the earth’s mean dif- 
tance from the fun be 95 millions of miles, 
by adding and fubtraéting 1,617,941 miles, 
we have the earth’s diftance from the fun 
at her aphelion and perihelion ; the for- 
mer being 96,617,941 miles, and the lat- 
ter 93,382,059 miles, making a difference 
of 3,235,882 miles—twice the eccentri- 
city of the earth’s orbit. 
But give me leave to enquire. whether 
this pofition is, or is not, contrary to 
faéts well known? When the fun Is in 
the Tropic of Cancer, the earth is at 
that tinie in her aphelion ; and when the 
fun is inthe Tropic of Capricorn, the 
earth is then in her perihelion, and nearer 
tothe fun by more than three millions of 
miles. From this difference of diftance 
the degree of heat mutt be confiderably 
greater under the tropic of Capricorn, 
or lat. 23° 28’ §. than under the tropicof 
Cancer, or lat. 23° 28! N. when the fun 
is in the zenjth of thofe places which are 
fo fituated, . 
To find the proportion of heat at thofe 
different latitudes, we have only to fquare 
the different diftances of the carth trem 
the fun, and the proportion of heat 
which is inverfely as the fquares of the 
dijtances, will be given, and found to be 
as yoto 8, or 5 to 4, early. But the 
heat is not as sto 4, /.¢. itis not } hot- 
ter at 23° 28'S. lat. than at 23° 28’N. Jar. 
when the fun is in the zenith of each 
parallel, Confequently, thy hypothefs 
4° 
29 
