) 
: 
1799. ] 
orbits of the inferior planets, Venus and 
Mercury, interfect the orbit of the fun 
round the earth ; but tlfole of the fuperior 
ones, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the 
Georgian Sidus, extend beyond. It was 
objected to this theory, that when, the 
earth intervened between the fun and a fu- 
perior planet, its greater attraction would 
deprive the {un of his attendant; and in 
this manner all the fuperior planets, in 
time, would become, like the fun himleif, 
fatellites of the earth. Our lefturer ex- 
tricated himfelf from this difficulty, by 
that felicity of invention, which is the 
true tokenof genius. Inmy fyltem, fays 
he, there isno attraction; for in the various 
denfities of ether, which furround us, 
every body finds its own level :---thus the 
~ earth, moon, and {un, have ftationed them- 
felves ; and as for the ftars, they may be 
compared to cork or feathers, that float 
on the furface of the univertal fluid. I 
thought the elncidation quite fufficient, 
but he proceeded,---fire, air, and water, 
confirm my doétrine! 
Admirable conje&ture ! faid I to myfelf, 
revolving in my mind thefe lines— | 
Ignea convexi vis, et fine pondere celi 
Emicuit, fummagque locum fibi legit in arce. 
Proximus eft aér illi levitate, locoque. 
Denfior his tellus, elementaque grandiatraxit, 
Et prefla eft gravitate fui. Circumfluus humor 
Ultima pofledit, folidumque coercuit orbem. 
How great wits fometimes jump together ! 
This man certainly never read either San- 
choniathon, Trifmegiftus, or Ovid ; yet 
he thinks like them! I am half inclined 
to be a Pythagorean ! 
He continued his lecture.---Newton’s 
philofophy teaches, that the equatorial 
poles always point tothe north and fouth 
poles in the heavens: now if the earth 
moves in a pofition round the fun, vertical 
to the poles of the eclipgic, how is it pof- 
fible that the poles of the equator fhould 
always point to the fame part of the hea- 
vens? Here the old gentleman fmiled.— 
It was aiked in reply, if he confidered the 
infinite diftance of thofe points in the hea- 
vens, which we called poles; and the 
imallnets theretore of the annual parallax 
of the earth’s orbit? By his an{wer, it 
was conjectured, that infinite diftances 
and minute parallaxes, had never entered 
into his conception. To put the matter 
beyond a doubt, it was enauired, if he 
knew the properties of a triangle? It was 
a three cornered figure: fo is my hat—but 
could you, faid I, by having two fides of 
a triangle given, and one angle; or two 
apgles and one fide; find out the other 
Attempt to refute the Newtonian Sy/tem. 
379 
fides and angles? Here, I am forry to fay, 
our lecturer was quite at a lois; and 
though he could talk very fluently of eclip- 
tics, poles, and equators, he knew nothing 
of trigonometry; nor confequently, of 
parallaxes. The honeft citizen and his 
fon fhook their heads; nor did the high 
polifh of the brafs circles, or the number 
and beauty of the wheels, attraét any 
longer their complacent regards. 
Our attention was now called to another 
part of the room, where the flux and re- 
flux of the tides were explained.’ Unfor- 
tunate Ariftotle, why did{# thou not live 
to fee our days, and fave thyfelf from the 
martyrdom of ignorance !—A glafs {phere 
was here exhibited, nearly filled with wa- 
ter, and madetoturn round on an axis, like 
the earth in the center of the univerfe ; 
which it was meant to reprefent, If, in 
the forementioned orrery, the works of 
nature appeared intricate and confufed ; in 
this machine, by way of atonement, I 
fuppofe, they were beautifully fimplified: 
Obferve, faid the le&turer, as he turned it 
round, how the water uniformly finks to 
the bottom, and retreats trom the top !|— 
this is the whole theory of tides. An in- 
timation was thrown out, that as water 
fhewed fuch a difpofition to defcend, and 
the earth was equally devoid of a glafs 
cafe, as it was of attraction, there was 
fome danger on his plan, of the ocean’s 
running off into infinite fpace, and in- 
undating the fin, moon, and ftars. To 
this, our lecturer replied, that the ether 
lormed an impenetrable barrier round the 
earth, which kept every thing in its proper 
place. This laft fentence caught the 
ears of the already exafperated citizen ; 
and he exclaimed vociferoufly, “ Ether 
impenetrable! How the duce then can 
your fyftem move? Give me back my 
men¢y---you are an impottor, I perceive, 
and know no more of aftronomy, than the 
horfe I ride-—My money, I fay, or TJ] 
expofe you to all the world,” 
This was a fally of intemperate refent- 
ment ; heightened it fee.ns, by fhame and 
difappointment: and therefore not to be 
jultified, or excufed. But to judge dif. 
paflionately—Mr. Marvin, from. his 
pertinacity in argument, his ingenuity in 
fubterfuge, and his happy affurance, would 
be able to detend his fyftem, more to the 
{atisfaétion of the world at large, than the 
modeit Sir Ifaac Newton, fhould he rife 
from the dead, as I at firt thoucht there 
was fome danger of, could his, It is 
highly popular, and en¢éumbered with 
neither problem, lemma, nor calculation. 
I haye 



