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per objects near enough to be benefited by their They are influence. Whoever imagines that they were created probably surround. only to give a faint glimmering light to the inhaed by pla- bitants of this globe, must have a very superficial

ricts.

The stellar planets

knowledge of astronomy, and a mean opinion of the Divine Wisdom: since, by an infinitely less exertion of creating power, the Deity could have given our Earth much more light by one single additional

moon.

9. Instead then of one Sun and one world only in the universe, as the unskilful in astronomy imagine, that science discovers to us such an inconceivable number of suns, systems, and worlds, dispersed through boundless space, that if our Sun, with all the planets, moons, and comets, belonging to it, were annihilated, they would be no more missed, by an eye that could take in the whole creation, than a grain of sand from the sea-shorethe space they possess being comparatively so small, that it would scarce be a sensible blank in the universe. Saturn, indeed, the outermost of our planets, revolves about the Sun in an orbit of 4884 millions of miles in circumference; and some of our comets make excursions upwards of ten thousand millions of miles beyond Saturn's orbit; and yet, at that amazing distance, they are incomparably nearer to the Sun than to any of the stars. This is evident from their keeping clear of the attractive power of all the stars, and returning periodically by virtue of the Sun's attraction.

10. From what we know of our own system, it may be ha- may be reasonably concluded that all the rest are bitable, with equal wisdom contrived, situate, and provided with accommodations for rational inhabitants. Let us therefore take a survey of the system to which we belong, the only one accessible to us, and from thence we shall be the better

*The Georgian planet, discovered since Mr. Ferguson's time, revolves round the Sun in an orbit 5673 millions of miles in circumference.

enabled to judge of the nature and end of the other systems of the universe. For, although there is an almost infinite variety in the parts of the creation, which we have opportunities of examining, yet there is a general analogy running through and connecting all the parts into one scheme, one design, one whole.

as our so

lar planets

11. And then, to an attentive considerer, it will appear highly probable, that the planets of our system, together with their attendants called satellites or moons, are much of the same nature with our Earth, and destined for the like purposes. They are all solid opaque globes, capable of supporting are. animals and vegetables. Some of them are larger, some less, and some nearly of the same size of our Earth. They all circulate round the Sun, as the Earth does, in shorter or longer times, according to their respective distances from him; and have, where it would not be inconvenient, regular returns of summer and winter, spring and autumn. They have warmer and colder climates, as the various productions of our Earth require: and in such as afford a possibility of discovering it, we observe a regular motion round their axes like that of our Earth, causing an alternate return of day and night; which is necessary for labour, rest, and vegetation; and that all parts of their surfaces may be alternately exposed to the rays of the Sun.

thest from

12. Such of the planets as are farthest from the The farSun, and therefore enjoy least of his light, have that the Sun deficiency made up by several moons, which con- have most stantly accompany, and revolve about them; as our enlighten

moons to

Moon revolves about the Earth. The remotest their planet has, over and above, a broad ring encom- nights. passing it; which, like a lucid zone in the heavens, reflects the Sun's light very copiously on that planet: so that if the remoter planets have the Sun's light fainter by day than our earth, they have an addition made to it morning and evening by one or more of

• Saturn is now known to have two of these lucid zones or rings.

Our Moon their moons, and a greater quantity of light in the

mountain

ous like night-time.

the Earth.

Number

less suns

and worlds.

13. On the surface of the Moon, because it is nearer to us than any other of the celestial bodies are, we discover a nearer resemblance of our Earth. For, by the assistance of telescopes, we observe the Moon to be full of high mountains, large vallies, and deep cavities. These similarities leave us no room to doubt, that all the planets and moons in the system, are designed as commodious habitations for creatures endowed with capacities of knowing and adoring their beneficent Creator.

14. Since the fixed stars are prodigious spheres of fire like our Sun,* and at inconceivable distances from one another, as well as from us, it is reasonable to conclude, they are made for the same purposes that the Sun is; each to bestow light, heat, and vegetation on a certain number of inhabited planets; kept by gravitation within the sphere of its activity. 15. What an august, whan an amazing conception, if human imagination can conceive it, does this give of the works of the Creator! Thousands of thousands of suns, multiplied without end, and ranged all around us, at immense distances from each other; attended by ten thousand times ten thousand worlds, all in rapid motion, yet caim, regular, and harmonious, invariably keeping the paths prescribed them; and these worlds peopled with myriads of intelligent beings, formed for endless progression in perfection and felicity!

16. If so much power, wisdom, goodness, and magnificence be displayed in the material creation, which is the least considerable part of the universe, how great, how wise, how good, must HE BE, who made and governs the whole !

*Though the Sun may not, strictly speaking, be a great sphere of fire, yet it is undoubtedly the principal source of light and heat to the other bodies in the system.

17.

CHAP. II

A brief Description of the SOLAR SYSTEM.

TH

Fig. 1.

HE Sun, with the planets and comets Plate 1. which move round him as their centre, constitute the solar system. Those planets which are near the Sun not only finish their circuits sooner, but likewise move faster in their respective orbits, The Solar than those which are more remote from him. Their System. motions are all performed from west to east, in orbits nearly circular. Their names, distances, magnitudes, and periodical revolutions, are as follows:

18. The Sun O, an immense globe of fire, is The Sun, placed near the common centre, or rather in the lower* focus of the orbits of all the planets and cometst; and turns round his axis in 25 days 6 hours, as is evident by the motion of spots seen on his surface. His diameter is computed to be 763,000 Fig. 1. miles; and by the various attractions of the circumvolving planets, he is agitated by a small motion

*If the two ends of a thread be tied together, and the thread be then thrown loosely round two pins stuck in a table, and moderately stretched by the point of a black-lead pencil carried round by an even motion, and light pressure of the hand, and oval or ellipsis will be described; and the points where the pins are fixed are called the foci or focuses of the ellipsis. The orbits of all the planets are elliptical, and the Sun is placed in or near one of the foci of each of them: and that in which he is placed, is called the lower focus.

† Astronomers are not far from the truth when they reckon the Sun's centre to be in the lower focus of all the planetary orbits. Though, strictly speaking, if we consider the focus of Mercury's orbit to be in the Sun's centre, the focus of Venus's orbit will be in the common centre of gravity of the Sun and Mercury; the focus of the Earth's orbit in the common centre of gravity of the Sun, Mercury, and Venus; the focus of the orbit of Mars in the common centre of gravity of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and the Earth; and so of the rest. Yet the focuses of the orbits of all the planets, except Saturn, will not be sensibly removed from the centre of the Sun; nor will the focus of Saturn's orbit recede sensibly from the common centre of gravity of the Sun and Jupiter.

Plate I. round the centre of gravity of the system. All the planets, as seen from him, move the same way, and according to the order of the signs in the graduated circle 8, &c. which represents the great ecliptic in the heavens: but, as seen from any one planet, the rest appear sometimes to go backward, sometimes forward, and sometimes to stand still. These apparent motions are not in circles nor in ellipses, but in looped curves, which never return into themselves. The comets come from all parts of the heavens, and move in all directions.

19. Having mentioned the Sun's turning round his axis, and as there will be frequent occasion to speak of the like motion of the Earth and other planets, it is proper here to inform the young Tyro in astronomy, that neither the Sun nor planets have material axes to turn upon, and support them, as The axes in the little imperfect machines contrived to repreof the pla-sent them. For the axis of a planet is an imginary

nets, what.

Their or.

bits are

same

line, conceived to be drawn through its centre, about which it revolves as if on a real axis. The extremities of this axis, terminating in opposite points of the planet's surface, are called its poles. That which points toward the northern part of the heavens, is called the north pole; and the other, pointing toward the southern part, is called the south pole. A bowl whirled from one's hand into the open air, turns round such a line within itself, while it moves forward; and such are the lines we mean, when we speak of the axes of the heavenly bodies.

20. Let us suppose the Earth's orbit to be a thin, not in the even, solid plane; cutting the Sun through the centre, and extended out as far as the starry heavens, plane with where it will mark the great circle called the ecliptic. This circle we suppose to be divided into 12 equal parts, called signs; each sign into 30 equal parts, called degrees; each degree into 60 equal parts, called minutes; and each minute into 60

the eclip

tic.

* As represented in Plate III. Fig. 1. and described § 138.

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