674 
remote antiquity. The planet Uranus 
‘had escaped the observation of ancient 
astronomers from its minuteness.  Flam- 
stead at the end of the last century, and 
. Mayer, and Le Monnier in this, had ob- 
served it asa smallstar. But it was not 
till1781that Dr. Herschel discovered its 
motion, and soon after, by following this 
star carefully, 1t has been ascertained to 
bea true planet. Like Mars, Jupiter, 
and Saturn, Uranus moves from west to 
€ast round the earth. The duration of 
its siderial revolution is 306894.* Its mo- 
tion, which is nearly in the. plane of the 
€cliptic, begins to be retrograde when, 
previous to the opposition, the planet is 
$115° distant from the sun. It ceases to 
be retrograde when, after the opposition, 
the planet in its approach to the sun is 
only 115° distant from it. The duration 
of its retrogradation is about 151 days, 
and its are of retrogradation, {4 degrees. 
If the distance of Uranus were to be es- 
timated by the slowness of its motion, it 
shi.uld be on the confines of the planetary 
system. Its apparent: diameter is very 
S:nall,and hardly amounts to 12".§ Dr. 
Herschel, by means of a very. powerful 
telescope, has discovered six satellites 
moving round this planet, in orbits al- 
most circular and nearly perpendicular 
to the plane of the ecliptic.” 
Sit Isaac Newton, Maclaurin, and 
others of our countrymen, have thought 
with Aristotle, “‘ That to treat of the 
world without saying any thing of its 
author would be impious,” because we 
meet with nothing more frequently and 
constantly in nature, than the traces of 
an all-governing Deity.‘ And the phi- 
Josopher,” says the learned and truly ex- 
cellent Maclaurin, ‘ who overlooks these, 
contenting: himseif with the appearances 
of the material universe only, and the 
mechanical laws of motion, neglects what 
is most excellent, and prefers what is 
imperfect to what is. supremely perfect, 
finitude to infinity, what is narrow and 
weak, to what is unlimmted and almighty, 
and what is perishing to what endures 
for ever.” Laplace does not go so far 
asthe great English astronomers, in de- 
Monstrating the certainty of a superin- 
tending and infinitely intelligent Being, 
whom we call Gop, but he gives the 
most decisive reasons to prove, that the 
' System. of the world could not have been 
the result of chance. Speaking of the 
eon, he says,“ This laminary not only 
1 Os wets (8 
Ai ay Fg, 
‘ 
Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Astronomy. 
acts by its attraction upon all these 
globes, the planets and comets, and 
compels them to move around him, 
but imparts to them both light and heat ; 
his benign influence gives birth to the 
animals and plants which cover the sur- 
face of the earth, and analogy induces us - 
to believe, that it produces similar effects 
on the planets ; for, itis not natural to 
sippose that matter, of which we see 
the fecundity, develope itself in such 
various ways, should be sterile upon a 
planet so large as Jupiter, which, like 
the earth, has its days, its nights, and its 
years, avd on which observation disco- 
vers changes that indicate very active 
forces. Man, formed for the temperature 
which he enjoys upon the earth, could 
not, according to all ‘appearance, live 
upon the other planets; but ought there 
not to be a diversity of organization suited 
to the various temperatures of .the globes 
of this universe? If the difference of ele- 
ments and climates alone, causes such 
variety inthe productions of the earth, 
how infinitely diversified must be the 
productions of the planets and. their 
satellites? he most active imagination 
cannot form any just idea* of them, 
but still their existence is extremely 
probable, 
“‘ However arbitrary the system of the 
planets may be, there exist between 
them some very remarkable relations, 
which may threw light on their origin; 
considering them with attention, we are 
astonished to see all the planets move 
round the sun from west to east, and 
nearly im the same plane, ‘all the satel- 
lites moving round their respective plas. 
netsin the same direction, and nearly 
in the same plane with* the planets. 
Lastly, the sun, the planets, and those 
satellites in. which a motion of rotation 
has been observed, turn on their own 
axis, in the same direction, and nearly 
in the same plane as their motion of 
projection.) oa 
‘“* A phenomenon su extraordinary, 18 
‘not the effect of chance ; it indicates an 
universal cause, which has determined 
-all these motions.” — » 
In reference to the future progress of 
astronomy, and the sublimity of the scie — 
ence, he observes, “ There still remain 
numerous ¢iscoveries to be made in our 
own system. The planet Uranus and its 
satellites, but lately known to us, leave» 
room to suspect the existence of other 
planets, hitherto unobserved. We can-: 
not yet determine the rotatory motion, or - 
the . flattening of many of the pa 
Wai kala iy EL 
, 
we 
tes ue 
\ 
re 
