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♦»♦»»» ** v'i- * * * •
A N
ORIGINAL THEORY
O R
NEW HYPOTHESIS
OF THE
UNIVERSE,
Funded upon the
LAWS of NATURE,
AND SOLVING BY
MATHEMATICAL PRINCIPLES
'THE
General Phenomena of the Visible Creation ;
and particularly
The VIA L A C T E A.
Compris’d in Nine Familiar Letters from, the Author to his Friend.
And Illuftrated with upwards of Thirty Graven and Mezzotinto Plates,
By the Beft Masters.
___ b 7 THOMAS WRIGHT, of Durham.
One Sun by Bay, by Night ten Thoufand Jkine,
_ Ani U Z ht “ s deepjnto the Deity. Dr. Younc.
Printed for the
L ON D ON:
Author and fold by H. Chapelle* in Grofvcnor-Street ..
MDCCL.
the
PREFACE.
HR Author of the following Letters having been
flattered into a Belief, that they may probably prove of
fome Ufe, or at leafl: Amufementto the World, he has
ventured to give them, at the Requeft of his Friends,
to the Publick. His chief Defign will be found an At¬
tempt towards folving the Phenomena of the ViaLattea,
and in confequence of that Solution, the framing of a
regular and rational Theory of the known Univerfe, before unattempted
by any. But he is very fenfible how difficult a Talk it is to advance any
new DoQrinc with Succefs, thofe who have hitherto attempted to propagate
aftronomical Difcoveries in all Ages, have been but ill rewarded for their La¬
bours, tho’ finally they have proved of the greateft Benefit and Advantage
to Mankind. This ungrateful Leflon we learn from the Fate of thofe in¬
genious Men, who, in ignorant Times, have unjuftly fuffered for their fupe-
rior Knowledge and Difcoveries ; they who firft conceived the Earth a Ball
were treated only with Contempt for their idle and ridiculous Suppofition,
as it was called; and he who firft attempted to explain the Antipodes, loft his
Life by it; but in this Age Philofophers have nothing to fear of this fort,
the great Difadvantages attending Authors now, are of a widely different
A 2 Nature,
IV PREFACE.
Nature, rifing from the infinite Number of Pretenders to Knowledge in
this Science, and much is to be apprehended from improper Judges, tho*
from real ones nothing; for nothing is more certain than this, as much as
any Subject exceeds the common Capacity of Readers, fo much will the
Work in general be condemned; the Air of Knowledge is at lead in
finding Fault, and this vain Pretence generally leads People, who have no
real Foundation for their Judgment to argue from, to ridicule what they
are too fenfible they do notunderftand. Thus the fame Difadvantages too
often attend both in publick and private an exceeding good Production
equally the fame as a very bad one : But the Author is not vain enough to
think this Work without Faults, has rather Reafon to fear, from the
Weaknefs of his own Capacity, that there may be many; but he hopes
the Defign of the Whole will, in fome meafure, plead for the Imperfection
of the Parts, if the Merits of the Plan fhould be found inefficient for his
full Pardon, in attempting fo extenfive a Subject.
In a Syftem thus naturally tending to propagate the Principles of Virtue,
and vindicate the Laws of Providence, we may indeed fay too little, but
cannot furely fay too much ; and to make any further Apology fora Work of
fuch Nature, where the Glory of the Divine Being of courfe muft be the
principal ObjeCt in View, would be too like rendering Virtue accountable to
Vice for any Author to expeCt to benefit by fuch Excufe. The Motive
which induces us to the Attempt of any Performance, where no good Rea¬
fon can be fuppofed to be given for the Omiffion, or NegleCt of it, will al¬
ways be judged an unneccflary Promulgation, and confequently every At¬
tempt towards the Difcovery of Truth, the Enlargement of our Minds, and
the Improvement of our Underftandings will naturally become a Duty. If
therefore this Undertaking falls fhort of being inflrumental towards the ad¬
vancing the Adoration of the Divine Being in his infinite Creation of high¬
er Works, and proves unable to anfwer all Objections that may poffibly
arife againfi: it, yet will its Imperfections appear of fuch a Nature to every
candid Reader, as to aftord the Author a fufficient Apology for producing
tjiem to the World *. And it is to be hoped farther, that where a Work is
entirely upon a new Plan, and the Beginning, as it were, of a new Science,
before unattempted in any Language, the Author having dug all his Ideas
from the Mines of Nature, is furelv intitled to every kind of Indulgence.
To
V
PREFACE.
To thofe who arc weak enough to think that fuch Enquiries as thefe
are over-curious, vain,'and prefumptive, and would willingly, fuitable to
their own Ignorance and Comprehenfion, fet Bounds to other People’s
Labours, I anfwer with Mr. Huygens , “ That if our Forefathers had
“ been at this Rate fcrupulous, we might have been ignorant dill of the
“ Magnitude and Figure of the Earth ; or that there was fuch a Place as
<c America. We fhould not have known that the Moon is enlightened by
“ the Sun’s Rays, nor what the Caufes of the Eclipfes of each of them
iC are; nor a Multitude of other Things brought to Light by the late
“ Difcoveries in Aftronomy; for what can a Man imagine more abftrufe,
f< or lefs likely to be known, than what is now as clear as the Sun.”
Had we ftill paid that Homage to a Name,
Which only God and Nature juftly claim;
The weftern Seas had been our utmoft Bound,
Where Poets ftill might dream the Sun was drown’d;
And all the Stars that fhine in Southern Skies,
Had been admir’d by none but favage Eyes.
Dr v den.
Befides the Noblenefs and Pleafure of thefe Studies, Wifdotn and Mo¬
rality are naturally advanced, and much benefited by them, and even Re¬
ligion itfelf receives a double Luftre, <f to the Confufion of thofe who
<t would have the Earth, and all Things formed by the fhuffiing Concourfe
“ of Atoms, or to be without Beginning.” In Aftronomy, as well as in
natural Philofophy, though we cannot pofitively affirm every thing we fay
to be Fatts and Truth, yet in fo noble and fublime a Study as that of Na¬
ture, it is glorious, as Mr. Huygens fays, even to arrive at Probability.
Notwithftanding then the Difad vantages which ever have attended all
new Difcoveries, either thro’ the Ignorance of the Age, or the univerfal Paf-
fion of Ridicule in fuch contented Creatures,as can’t comprehend, yet ever at¬
tacking with a fool-hardy Refolution, the advancing Enfigns of Knowledge,
if Ignorance was Virtue, and Wifdom Vice ; I fay, regardlefs of this noify
Shore, it is fure our Duty to fpring forward, and explore the fecret
Depths of Infinity, and the wonderful hidden Truths of this vaft Ocean
of Beings. But how the heavenly Bodies were made, when they were
made
VI
PREFACE,
made, and what they are made of, and many other Things relating to
their Entity, Nature, and Utility, feems in our prefent State not to be
within the Reach of human Philofophy; but then that they do exift, have
final Caufes, and were ordained for fome wife End, is evident beyond a
Doubt, and in this Light mod worthy of our Contemplation.
He who thro’ vaft Immenfity can pierce.
See Worlds on Worlds compote one Univerfe*
Obferve how Syftem into Syftem runs.
What other Planets, and what other Suns *
What varied Being peoples ev’ry Star ;
May tell why Heav n made all Things as they are.
Pope.
To expeCt that fo new an Hypothecs fhould meet with univerfal Ap¬
probation, would be an unpardonable Vanity j nor is it reafonable every
Reader fhould think the Author obliged to remove all his Prejudices and
Partialities, fo far as to give him the perfect Picture of the Univerfe he
likes bed. In many Cafes it would be fo far from being better for the
World, if all Men judged and thought alike, that Providence feems rather
to have guarded againft it as an Evil, than any how to have promoted it
as a general Good : But the following Theory regards the Whole rather
than Individuals: And the many worthy Authors cited in the Work, who
have all greatly favoured this extenfive Way of Thinking, will, I hope
be a fufficient Excufe for forming thefe obvious Conjectures into a Theorv’
efpecially where fo great a Problem is attempted as the Solution of the Via
Latteal Phenomenon, which has hitherto been looked upon as an infur
mountable Difficulty. How the Author has fucceeded in this Point is
a Queftion of no great Confequence; he has certainly done his beft • ano
ther, no Doubt, will do better, and a third perhaps, by fome more rational
Hypothefis, may perfect this Theory, and reduce the Whole to infallible
Demon ft rat ion : The firft Syftem of the folar Planets was far from a true
one, but it led the Way to Perfection, and the laft we can never too
much admire. It is well known, that the firft Syftem of the Planets was
alfo but a Conjecture, yet none will deny that it was an happy one.
The
PREFACE. vit
The Difcovery of the Magnet Poles j the Government of the Tides ;
proportional Diftance and Periods of the Planets, &c. have all their Ules,
and undoubtedly were defigned to be known. Ignorance is the Difgrace
of Mankind, and finks human Nature almoft to that of Reptiles. Know¬
ledge is its Glory and the diftinguifhing Charadteriftic of rational Creatures.
To Enquiries of this fort, then lure we may fay with Milton, That
God’s own Ear listens delighted.
The Subject is, no Doubt, the nobleft in Nature, and as fuch, will al¬
ways merit the Attention of the thinking Part of Mankind. Men of
Learning and Science, in all Ages, have ever made it their peculiar Study.
Towards the latter End of the Republic, and afterwards in the more peace-
iible Times of Trajan and the Plijiys , we have no Reafon to doubt but
that Aftronomy was in the higheft Reputation : And notwithftanding
Greece ’ had been the chief Seat of the Philofophers, yet may we fuppole
Pome in thofe Days little inferior in the Knowledge of the Stars, when we
find Men * of the firft Figure in Life become Authors upon the Subieft.
We have many Inftances to fhew, that Aftronomy was in the greateft
Repute amongft the Antients of all Ranks, and almoft every where look¬
ed upon as one of the greateft, if not as one of the firft Qualifications of
meir beft Men. As a Confirmation of which, we find in the hiftorical
Accounts of the Argives , a very warm Conteft betwixt the two Sons of
Pdops 1205 Years before Chrifl, thus teftified by Lucian: When the Ar-
gives, by publick Confent, had decreed that the Kingdom fhould fall to
him of the two, who fhould manifeft himfelf the moft learned in the
Knowledge of the Stars, Tbyefies thereupon is faid to have made known to
them, the Conftellation, or Sign of the Zodiack call’d Aries: But Atrcus at
the fame time difeoveringto themtheCourfeof the Sun, with his various Ri-
fing and Setting, demonftrating his Motion to be * contrary to that of the
Heavens, or diurnal Motion of the Stars, was thereupon eleded King.
* Cicero tranflated the Phasnomena of A*atus into Latin Verfe Julius C^far p;,v«
thesTa\sTh?nfk ■ nd A i8 . f * id 1 ° have left fcveral ^ ooks of «he Motion of
be " ind him, derived from the DoSrine of the Enfitians Ant Ohrid ac u,; t h
Sofigm,! reformed the Roman .Year, which was firft in.enttd by Numa Pomplum.' G,rma-
inAuV r 3 f ° Ar t‘ U,S Phznomena „ into Latin Verfe Anno Dm. 15. TUxriu,
and Hadrian are alfo faid to have wrote on Aftronomy.
*,^ c , n , ce aro ^ e th f of Slin * s g° in £ backwards in the Days of Atreut, as if ftruck
with Abhorrence of his bloody Banquet. Vide Ovid's Metamorphofis.
To
vui PREFACE.
To recite more of the moft eminent Patrons and Profeffors of this kind
of Learning here, will carry me too far from my prefent Purpofej for farther
Information therefore, I (hall refer the inquifitive Reader, to that curious
Catalogue in Sherburn's Sphere of Manilius , where fo many ruling -f- Men
of all Ages and Nations fwell, and illuftrate the Number.
In aWord, when we look upon the Univerfe as a vaft Infinity of Worlds*
adted upon by an eternal Agent, and crouded full of Beings,, all tending;
through their various States to a final Perfedlion, and reffedt upon the
many illuftrious Perfonages, who have,, from time to time, thought it a
kind of Duty to become Obfervers, and confequently Admirers of this
ftupendious Sphere of primary Bodies, and diligent Enquirers into the ge¬
neral Laws and Principles of Nature, who can avoid being filled with a
kind of enthufiaftic Ambition, to be acknowledged one of the Number,
who, as it were, by thus adding his Atom to the Whole, humbly endea¬
vours to contribute towards the due Adoration of its great and divine Au¬
thor.
I judge it will be quite unneceffary to fay any thing about the Order of
the Work, fince that would be only a Repetition of the Table of Con¬
tents, to which the Reader is referred, as to the propereft Account that can
here be given.
+ Seven Emperor?, nine Kings, and as many fovereign Princes. Charlemagne wrote Epht^
merides , and named the Months and Winds in High Dutch , 770. Rich. H. &c.
r h e
Opinions of the moji eminent Authors whofe Sentiments on the following Sub¬
ject have been publiflxd in their Works; ‘
* snoU ion t yjim3l3 g'hnt-iln^M
3i3rb 2woig •aiVu'l
,okuoY ,**&
SIR ,
EFLECTING upon the agreeable Converfation of
°iir lail Meeting, which you in ay remember chiefly
turned upon the Stars, and the Nature of the planetary
Bodies * a Subyedt, which is generally allowed to give
true Pleafiire to all thofe who take Delight in mathe¬
matical Enquiries; and having not a little Regard to
1 , , the repeated Requeft in your late Letters, I have at
!t ng rr und * rtak< f , t0 explain to yoi^ as fcr as I am able, my Theory of
ihtUrnverfc, and the Ideas I have form’d of the known Creation.
The Hypothefis upon which this new Aftronomy is founded, and
now reduced into a regular Syftem, was the refult of my Agronomical
btud.es * full fifteen years ago, hence I hope you will allow, I have more
tiian obferved. Horace's celebrated Aphorifm,
•qa 3 T *odjuA bnsiovofl airfteidfed bttqmslte r: .boihupo
od oiadv/ ^S^Nonurnque prematur in annurtf. ni nwarfl ybn.
oksool 3i5 t VsVv^O IsgiiA ant bl oviinoJiii ylfDniKo 6t <\\^VN aid i^cn
* The firft Scheme of this Hypothefis was planted in the Ydar 1734, reprefentine in a'Sec¬
tion of the Creation, eighteen Feet long and one broad, feveral thoufand Workfs and Syf-
2 " d , a g re « Number of emblematical Figures, now in the Author’s PolTeffion, together
Srr.,? S n he t me of the e u nt ' rC Cr ‘ atl ° n > completed fince, nine Feet long and fix broad, more
fully illuftrating upon the fame Conftru&ion the Innumerability of Syftems and Worlds
B The
2
LETTER the FIRST.
The Subject, I have often obferved, you have lidened to with a pleafed
Attention, and I am the more incouraged to explain it at large to you,,
as I am perfwaded you don’t want to be convinced of its valuable Ufes
and Importance.
I remember you have often told me, that to apply ourfelves to the Study
of Nature, was the fured and readied Way to come at any tolerable Know¬
ledge of ourfelves, however difficult the Ta(k might prove either in the
Attempt, or the attaining it, and the lefs to be negleCted, as it never fails
to introduce a proper Knowledge of the Divine Being, as a certain Con-
fequence along with it, and fuch a Knowledge, as will naturally make every
Man, who has but a tolerable Share of common Senfe, and is not a Slave to
another’s Reafon, without any other Evidence or Motive, in all Sta¬
tions, and under all Circumdances, Act justly, Live chearful-
ly, and die full of Hope in the Expectation of a happy Sequel, in Fu¬
turity.
Eternity is written in the Skies:
Mankind’s Eternity, nor Faith alone;
Virtue grows there ■ ———
Dr, Young.
A learned Author on the Attributes, recommending thefe Studies as a
reafonable and moral Service, fays, “ Sure, it is mod becoming fuch im-
“ perfect Creatures as we are, to contemplate the Works of God with this
“ Defign, that we may difcern the Manifedations of Wifdom in them j
u and thereby excite in ourfelves thofe devout AffeCtions, and that fu-
“ perlative RefpeCt, which is the very Eflence of Praife.”
Who turns his Eye, on Nature's Midnight Face y
But muji enquire -what Hand behind the Scene,
What Arm Almighty, put thefe wheeling Globes
In Motion, and wound up the vad Machine ?
The enchanting Idea Milton had of the Subjects of Adronomy (whofe
truly fublime Way of thinking and writing perhaps was never fo nearly
equalled, or attempted before this Reverend Author’s Night-Thoughts , ap¬
pear’d is finely (hewn in the Eighth Book of his Paradife Loft, where he
makes his Adam, fo earnedly attentive to the Angel Gabriel , as to ceafe
relating the Myderies of Creation.
The
3
LETTER the FIRST.
The Angel ended, and his Adam's Ear
So charming left his Voice, that he awhile
Thought him flill fpeaking j flill flood fix’d to hear.
Milton's own Ideas of the Univerfe too, which no doubt he had ga¬
thered from aftronomical Authors, and had reconciled himfelf to, we arc
fully made acquainted with in the fame Book, where the Arch-angel fays,
in anfwer to Adam's Enquiries.
-Other Suns perhaps
With their attendant Moons thou wilt defcry
Communicating Male and Female Light,
Which two great Sexes animate the World,
Stor'd in each Orb, perhaps with fome that live:
For fuch vaft Room in Nature, unpoflefl
By living Soul, defert and defolate,
Only to fhine, yet fcarce to contribute
Each Orb a Glimpfe of Light, convey'd lo far
Down to this habitable, which returns
Light back to them, is obvious to Difpute.
But before I prefume to plan my ownDifcoveries and Conjectures into a
Theory, both in Juftice to thofe who have in fome meafure been in the
fame Way of Thinking, and alfo as a Defence of myfelf for producing fo
new an Hypothefis to the World, which otherwife (though any Apology
made to you I know will be unneceflary) may appear to too many but an
idle Chimera, of my own. I judge it will be highly proper, by way
OW ? Ar g uments > a °d adding more Weight to what
I lhall myfelf advance in the following Letters, to give you in this
the Opinions of the moft able Writers, whofe Works I have read
upon the SubjeCV. I mean fo far as relates to the now general received
Notion, that the Stars are all Suns, and furrounded with planetary Bodies,
with which I fliall fet out; and fhew you, it is not a Thing merely taken
tor granted, but has ever been the concurrent Notion of the Learned of all
as be fuf ther (hewn, in its proper Place, and as nearly as
Poffibility will admit of, demonftrated to be Truth.
The f ° llowin S is an Extract from Mr. Toland , in his Account of the
Works of
Jordanus Bruno.
The Divine Efficacy (fays this Author in his infinite Creation) cannot
“ ftand ldle * witb out the Want of Will or Power; but any Imbecillity in
B 2 “ f uc h
4 ItE??IT E R irrrH & F TK’SdTS
“ fuch a Being argues Imperfedion, andfince any finite Produce com-
pared with Infinity is as nothing, or rather as the Beginning of Good,
“ ' £ muftbe no lefs idle, and invidious in producing a finite Effect, than in
<c producing none at alL, - * TT > M « msul
“ Hence, as all Finite?, fingly confidered, are but as Commencements
" of fomething more to be expe&ed. • r • Y ha
£< Omnipotence, in making the Creation finite, will-appear to be nci
“ lefs blameable for not being willing, than for riot being able, to make it
“ otherwife ; /. e. infinite, as being an infimte Agent tSfiHTfinite Subieft,
“ which is repugnant to Reafon/*
It follows then that, Creation moll be not only extenfivdy, but inten-
fively indefinite, and beyond the Reach of the human Undemanding to
comprehend ^arid that the one is as neceflary as the other, /. e . an in¬
finite Expanfe is as recOncileable to-cfer Reafon, as infinite Parts are to our
Senfes. r aJaIolob bn* iidtab t fuo 2 §nivil y 3
All the Attributes of the Divine Being are, as any one ofihem, incom-
fibleto his Creatures; why fhould our Imagination then be fuppofed to
extend beyond the divine Activity? ’ oj W-' • rr
“ Thus, adds the above Author, the Excellency of God is adequately
V magnified, and the Grandeur of his Empire made manifeft ; ho is not
V glorified in one, but in numberlefs Suns; not in one Earth, or in onfe
“ World, but in ten thoufand thoufand of infinite Globes/’
An infinite Reprefentation of an infinite Original, and a Spectacle befit¬
ting the Excellency and Eminence of him, that can neither be fully con*
ccrved, imagined, or comprehended. vm to ra
Wh«, rod wc km! Qs^liXl
f-;
Dr. Young.;
" If the Exiftence of this one World be good or convenient, it is not
“ lefs good or convenient that there be infinite others like it.
' « The infinite efficient Caufe would be abfoluteiy defective, without an
•* infinite Effect; and befides, by conceiving the Infinity of the Univerl'e
'• and innumerable Beings; the Underftanding fefts fatisfied, and is recon-
ciled with the Idea of an Eternity; whereas, by aliening the contrary,
“ 11 unavoidably plunged into innumerable Difficulties, and unfolvable
“ Inconveniences, Paradoxes, and Abfurdities.
Again, fays the fame Writer, « Did we butconfider and comprehend
“ all this, oh l to what much further Confiderations and Comprehenfions
"Ihoud
C E T T E K'lVH 8 *PT IT $?T2 $
" (Tiould we be carried! as we might be Cure to obtain that Happinefs
by virtue of this Science, which in other Sciences is fought after inlain
imonj noqo Jifiw oj enooM‘JI3DJ cjfv/ t c: J :: -u ... ‘- 1
This Profpeft vaft, what is it ? weigh’d aright
’Tis Nature’s Syftem of Divinity,
And every Studentof the Night infpires. M
hp»A m3 on W ?ug OOP led* ; Dr * YouNG
wb ooqti sieSEB eider Scripture, writ by God’s own Hand;
zmsB slorfftefipture authentic ! uncorrupt by Man.
lioxb ivpH fiuxri *tnu£ loisc
ti “ then * s . tnat Philofophy, which opens the Senfes,which fatisfieS
*£ the Mrndj which enlarges the Underftanding, and which leads Man*’
‘f kind to the only true Beatitude, whereof they are capable according to'
their natural State and Conftitution ; for it frees us from the follicirous
“ Purfuit of Pleafure, and from the anxious Apprehenfions of Pain, mak-
“ in § us to enjoy the good Things of the prefent Hour, and not’to fear
more, than we hope from the future ;> fince that fame Providence, or
fate, or Fortune,, which caufes the Viciflitudes of our particular Being
" . will not let us know more of the one, than we-are ignorant of the
Other. •>,;}
And farther, « From thefe Contemplations, if we do but rightly confider
“ it will follow, that we ought never to be difpirited by any ftrange Ac-
" events, through Excels of Fear or Pain, nor ever be elated by any prof-
« P tf r °D S ? Vent ’ trough Excefs of Hope or Pleafure ; whence we have
the.Path to true Morality and following it, we (hall of courfe become
the magnanimous Defpifers of what Men of weak Minds fondly
‘ Elreem, and be wife Judges of the Hiftory of Nature, which would be
“ written in our Minds, and confequently be chearful and ftrift Execu-
“ tioners of the divine Laws, which would thus be ingraved in the Cen-
" ter of our Hearts. Seeking, as it were, in ourfelves, an Approbation of
<t °^qwn Adtion, which alone is capable of true Content and Happi-
Christopher Huygens,
SO ■
To whom the World is much indebted for many curious Inventions and
Discoveries, fays in his Planetary Worlds, “ I muft be of the’fame
Opinion with all the great Philofophers of our Age that the
“ Sun is of the fame Nature with the fix’d Stars; and this will give us a
“ greater
f The Pendulum Clock j the firft Difcovery of Jupiter's Satellites, and Saturn's Ring.
6 LETTER the FIRST,
“ greater Idea of the World than all other Opinions can. For then
“ why may not every one of thefe Stars, or Suns, have as g-eat a Retinue,
<c as our Sun, of Planets, with their Moons to wait upon them? Nay,
“ there is a manifefl Reafon why they fhould j for, if we imagine our-
** felves placed at an equal Diflance from the Sun and fix’d Stars, we
“ fhould then perceive no Difference at all betwixt them.
“ Why then may we not make ufe of the fame Judgment that we
** would in that Cafe ; and conclude, that our Star has no better Atten-
“ dance than the others ? So that what we allowed the Planets upon the
Account of our enjoying it, we mud likewife grant to all thofe Planets
“ that furround that prodigious Number of Suns. They mud have their
<c Plants and Animals, nay, their rational Creatures too, and thofe as great
“ Admirers and as diligent Obfervers of the Heavens as ourfelves; and
“ mud confequently enjoy whatever is fubfervient to, and requifite for
ct fuch Knowledge.
ct What a wonderful and amazing Scheme have we here of the mag-
li nificent Vadnefs of the Univerfe 1 So many Suns, fo many Earths, and
c< every one of them flock’d with fo many Herbs, Trees, and Animals
“ and adorned with fo many Seas and Mountains! And how mufl our
“ Wonder and Admiration be increafed, when we confider the prodi-
“ gious Diflance and Multitude of the Stars f”
The Opinion of Sir Isaac Newton.
This great Author, in his grand Scholia tothc Principia , fays: — <e The
“ mofl beautiful Syflemof the Sun, Planets, and Comets, could only pro-
c< ceed from the Counfel and Dominion of an intelligent and powerful
“ Being : And if the fix’d Stars are the Centers of other like Syflems, thefe
“ being form’d by the like wife Counfel, mufl be all fubjedt to the Do-
“ minion of One ; efpecially, fince the Light of the fix’d Stars is of the
“ fame Nature with the Light of the Sun, and from every Syflem Light
“ paffes into all the other Syflems. And lead the Syflems of the fix’d
“ Stars fliould by their Gravity fall mutually on each other, he (the Di-
“ vine Being) hath placed thofe Syflems at immenfe Diflances from one
tc another.’*
The
LETTER the FIRST.
7
The Opinion of Dr. Derham, in his Aftro-Theology.
" The new Syftem, fays he, fuppofeth there are many other Syf-
u terns of Suns and Planets, befides that, in which we have our
“ Refidence ; namely; that every fix’d Star is a Sun, and incompafled
** with a Syftem of Planets, both primary and fecondary, as well as ours.
“ Thefe feveral Syftems of the fixed Stars, as they are at a great and
“ fufficient Diftance from the Sun and us; fo they are imagined to be at
“ as due, and regular Diftances from one another: By which means it is
that thofe Multitudes of fixed Stars appear to us of different Magnitudes,
the neareft to us large ; thofe farther and farther, lefe and leis; and
“ fome, if not all of thofe vaft Globes of the Univerfe, have a Mo¬
tion, is manifeft to our Sight, and may eafily be concluded of all, from
M the conftant Similitude and Confent that the Works of Nature have
" with one another.’*
To this we may add,* that this Syftem of the Univerfe, as it is phyfi-
cally demonftrable, is far the moft rational and probable of any. Becaufe ,
It is far the moft magnificent of any, and worthy of an infinite
u Creator, whofe Power and Wifdom, as they are without Bounds and
Meafure, fo may they, in all Probability, exert themfelves in the Creation
" of many Syftems as well as one. And as Myriads of Syftems are more
for the Glory of God, and more demonftrate his Attributes than one ;
J fo it is no lefs probable than poflible, there may be many belides this
which we have the Privilege of living in.” And as the ftrongeft Con¬
firmation of this, “ wc fee it is really fo, as far as it is poflible it can be
“ difcerned by us, at fuch immenfe Diftances as thofe Syftems of the fixed
M Stars are from us $ and we cannot reafonably expert more.*’
Since the Sun and fix’d Stars, fays Dr. Gregory , are the only great
“ Bodies of the Univerfe that have any native Light, they are juftly
efteemed by Philofophers to be of the fame Kind, and defigned for the
“ fame Ufes ; and it is the Efteft of a Man’s Temper that fets a greater
** Value upon his own Things than he ought, that makes him judge
“ the Sun to be the biggeft of them all.”
That, as an elegant * Writer obferves, which we call the Morning, or
the Evening Star, is, in reality, a Planetary World j which, with the four
others, that fo wonderfully, as Milton exprefles it, ** vary their myftick
" Dance, are in themfelves dark Bodies, and fhine only by Reflexion;
** have Fields and Seas, and Skies of their own; are furnilhed with all
** Accommodations for animal Subfiftence, and are fuppoled to be the
Abodes
* Contemplations on the ftarry Heavens.
$ LETT E R -t^h e F I R S T.
“ Abodes of intellectual Life. Again, The Sun,with all its attendent Planets
“ is but a very little Part of the grand Machifie of the’Univerfe. Every
“ Star— is really a vaft Globe, like the Sun, in Size and in Glory, no lets
<{ fpacious, no lefs luminous, than the radiant Source of our Day •, fo that
every Star is the Center of a magnificent S^ftem, has a Retinue of
Worlds irradiated by its Beams, and revolves round its a&ive Influence;
“ all which are loft to our Sight in immeafurable Tta&s of iEther.
“ Could we, fays the fame Author, wing our Way to the higheft ap-
“ parent Star — we fhould there fee other Skies expanded, other Suns,
that diftribute their inexhauftible Beams of Day; other Stars, that gild
• cc the alternate Night; and other perhaps nobler Syftems eftablifhed j
tl eftablifhed in unknown Profufion, through the boundlefs Dimenfions
of Space. Nor does the Dominion of the great Sovereign end there ^
“ even at the End of this vaft Tour, we fhould find ourfelves advanced
no farther than the Frontiers of Creation; arrived only at the Suburbs
“ of the great Jehovah' 3 Kingdom.”
O for a Telefcope his Throne to reach'!
Tell me ye Learn’d on Earth! or Bteft above!
Ye learching, ye Newtonian Angels! tell, i '
Where your great Mafters Orb ? His Planets where ?
Thofe confcious Satellites, thofe Morning Stars,
Firft- born of Deity from central Love.
Dr. YoukG.‘
J . .. - • • 1 H. /. '\ rv r-; rtv:f!’*y s *
Many other Authorities might be produced from Writers of great Re¬
pute, were it neceffary to trouble you with them f; but I believe thofe
above will be abundantly lufficient for the prefent Purpofe, if even an
Apology were wanting for my own Conjedlures. I fhall therefore con¬
clude this Letter with the following Paflage out of Pope's univerjat Prayer,
and in my next fhall proceed in the Work I have undertaken.
Yet not to Earth’s contracted Span, ,w
Thy Goodnefs let me bound *
Or think thee Lord alone of Man,
When thpufand Worlds are round. ; • >
f am, 6cc.
LETTER
P^rt:cula;ly from Fontenjlle, &c,
aas/oH 3(0 ai qra unoO *
[ 9 ]
LETTER the SECOND.
Concerning the Nature of Mathematical Certainty, and the various
Degrees of Moral Probability proper for Conjetture. '
SIR,
Y O U know how much I am an Enemy to the taking of any thine
for granted, merely becaufe a Perfon of reputed Judgment has
Fanh ; r ee " *° fay * H ‘l bf0 ! Utel y h f°> an W dixit > a » d implicit
haith in fome Cafes, may be both neceffary and uleful ; but here, in A-
V mean - , ever y Reafon, by the Help of a very little
Mathematicks, is able to brmg wonderful Truths to Light without them ;
and Ttuths not only of the higheft Importance to every Individual, but
all L S I Cat ;?K d c °mmon Confequence to all Mankind : And as fuch, in
the tlft and w1f^°o£ P^fo^hTri UdSed W ° nhy *° * e " qUired int0 ’ by
,? re ‘t” ife very fenfible how far the human Undemanding is
d-.ff£ w - he - fr °m bein g infallible, and don’t want to be told, hotv
d fficult it is in a Subjed: of this Nature to arrive at any tolerable Degree of
neTmrn y ’ 7 h A ,Ch ) ef0rethe Tu yS ° f the fa S acious Euclid, and the pe¬
netrating Archimedes was a Thing not to be expefted. And many things
which were then but barelyObjeds of Conjedure and Probability, have fince
&i 0n ^ d H t0 r be infa " ibly ,! me - Time and Obfervatfon will un¬
doubtedly, atlaft, difcover every thing to us neceffary to our Natures, and
proper for us to know. As a Proof of which, we fee human Wifdom
daily increafes; and while a Capacity continues to make ourfelves ftill
more acquainted with the manifeft Wifdom and Power of God in the
Works of his Creation, who is to tell us where to flop our Enquiries ?
Or who is fo impious to let Bounds to a Science, which fo evidently
[or Tutu re Hope ?“ Infin “ y ’ ^ Attributes of God . and *n eternal Balls
This Branch, or rather Body of Aftronomy, I believe you will find
to be quite new ; and though evident Truths, are the principal Thing to
be regarded in it, yet as being in its infant State, where lineal Demon-
G ftration
10 LETTER the SECOND,
fixation fails, as in fome Cafes it cannot be otherwife, I hope you will
eive me Leave to make ufe of a weaker Way of Reafoning, to convince
you of the Point in Difpute, I mean of that by the Analogy of known
and natural Things. . ,
I (hall be extremely unwilling to affirm any thing for a tact , or l rutn,
without bearing, if not the real Evidence, at leaft a plaufible Reafon, next
to a Convidion, or moral Certainty, along with it; and therefore I will
here endeavour to explain to you what I mean by moral Certainty and
alfo by mathematical Proof.
Mathematical Proof, or Certainty, proper for Conjedures, may, to
aim oft every Capacity, be illuftrated as follows:
Suppofe you had accidentally found a very fmall Part of a vifibly
broken Medallion, with nothing more exprefs upon it, than what is repre-
fented at Fig, i. Plate I. a Perfon totally unacquainted with the mathe¬
matical Sciences, we may naturally conclude, would not be able to make
any thing of it, or in the leaft comprehend what it originally was, or
meant • but if an Aftronomer ffiould chance to fee it, who of courfe we
are to fuppofe knew the Order and Proportion of the planetary Orbits,
he would immediately conclude, and with great Probability, on the Side
of his Conjedures, that it might be Part of a Medal reprefeoting the So-
lar Syftem. In fuch a Cafe may we not very naturally fuppofe he would
reafon thus?
The Arches A and B feem to be Portions of the refpedive Orbits of
Saturn and Jupiter , and what may lead us to believe, that they are really
lb, and Part of the Solar Syftem, is the oblique Curve C, which looks
not unlike the Trajedory of a Comet.
This furely would be far from an irrational Conjedure, and come-
quently in fome Degree probable : But this is not Efficient you’ll fay ; To
prove it we muft have farther recourfe to the Mathematicks, and a Ma¬
thematician would immediately thus demonftrate it to be true.
Firft, by compleating the Circles geometrically from the fourth Book
of Euclid, by the Affiftance of any three Points E. F. G. the original
Figure will be reftored, as at Fig. 2. And fecondly, by affuming any
two Points, as F, E in the Curve C, if admitted a Parabola, by a well-
known Problem in Conic Sedions the Heliocentric Portion X. Y. Z. will
eaftly be projeded and (hewn, as in Fig. 3 - Eaftly, join this in Pofition
to the former, and it will juftly fupply the Orbit, or Path of fome one of
the Comets; and if required, even what Comet may be difcovered by
comparing the Perihelion Diftance Y. S. with their general Elements or
Theories, in Dr. Hally s Synopjis of the Motion of thefe Bodies. And if
a farther Confirmation of the Truth of thefe Conjedures were wanting,
PL ATE.I.
_
PLATE/ II
II
LETTER the SECOND.
•the fmall concentric Circles at D would now be allowed beyond a Con¬
tradiction, to reprefent the fecondary Orbits of Saturn ; and thus the
firft Prefumption being carried thro’ feveral corroborating Degrees of Pro¬
bability, almoft pad a Difpute, would become a mathematical Certainty ;
and the above imperfeCt Piece of Medallion, would evidently appear be¬
yond a Contradiction to be Part of a Reprefentation of the faid folar Syftem,
and fuch as is (hewn in Plate II. QJL D. Thus in many Cafes, it often hap¬
pens, that from a very fmall Part of orbicular Things, we are able to de¬
termine the Form and Direction of the Whole: And hence you may
conceive it no very difficult Talk to a Mathematician, to defcribe the Or¬
bits of all the Planets in the folar Syftem, though he had never obferved
them but in one and the fame Sign of the Zodiack\ thus far I have thought
it would not be amifs to explain to you the Nature of thofe Steps, by
which we arrive at moral Certainty, and where the SubjeCt will admit of
it. Mathematical Conviction, which will not a little contribute to ftreng-
then many of the Arguments hereafter made ufe of, and in fome Degree
ferve to fupply the Place of Proof, where infallible Demonftraiion can¬
not from the Nature of the Thing be difcovered.
But befides the indifputable Principles of Geometry, the univerfal
Law of Analogy and Similitude of things, have a Privilege to affift us,
in Conjectures relating to the heavenly Bodies, and though pot of equal
Force with the former, is often as concluftve as the Subject requires. This
fort of probable Evidence (as Dr. Butler obferves,) is eftentially diftin-
guifhed from “ Demonftrative by this, that it admits of Degrees; and
of all Variety of them, from the higheft moral Certainty to the very
“ lowed Prefumption; and that which chiefly conftitutes Probability, is
<c exprefled in the Word Likely, or Natural Likenefs, as to State or Being.”
This general Way of arguing, I think, is allowed to be evidently natural*
juft and concluftve, and unqueftionably to have its Weight in various De¬
grees, towards determining our Judgment: For Inftance, (hould any igno¬
rant Perfon, endowed with rational Principles, cut open a Pomegranate
of the natural Growth of England, and finding it full of fmall Globules, or
Kernels, upon being prefented with an every way fimilar Fruit, faid to be
the Produce of Italy , doubt of its being of the fame Nature, and com-
pofed of like globular Seeds within ; here indeed would be no mathemati¬
cal Evidence to affift the Judgment, the ObjeCt of Proof being invifible,
but fure from the external Similitude, the ftrongeft Probability of their
being alfo internally the fame. Again,
Is it natural to fuppofe, that the firft Perfon who found Lark's Neft,
and in it feveral of the Female’s Eggs, (hould have any Apprehenfions of
finding none in the Nightingale's , only becaufe he had never feen one be-
C 2 fore.
r 2
LETTER the SECOND,
fore, I believe the mod illiterate Perfon of theearlieft Ages, who had Curh-
olity enough for fuch a Search, would be greatly difappointed in fuch a Cafe,
and far from concluding that the Nightengale had none, -Farther, fhould
any one who had feen feveral Sorts of FHh taken out of the River Thames,
or out of the Nyle, have any fort of Sufpicion that he fhould find no fuch
Creatures in the Seme or the Ganges , though it fhould be allowed that he
hdd never feen any fuch Creatures that were known to come from thence.
Ocular Demonftration, in fuch a Cafe, would fure be unneceffary, and an
Evidence of thefirft, I believe would be abundantly fufiicient to convince
us of what we ought to look for at lead in the lalt: But then the Fifhes
of different Seas, and of Rivers are not of the fame Specie3 you’ll fay •
but as it were infinitely diverfified through all the aqueous World, this is*
and mud be granted, and alike Variety of Species mud alfo be granted, in
the former Cafe of the Birds: But no Objection can poflibly arife from any
fuch Diverfity, fince we don’t pretend to fay, nor is it at all neceffary, that
the Beings in the fidereal Planets fhould be every where the fame with
thefe of our folar Syftem, a Variety mud every where be admitted, and will
always be admired, where the Work is Nature’s, and the Defign God’s.
All then that I here pretend to argue for, is a Univerfality of rational
Creatures to people Infinity, or rather fuch Parts of the Creation, as from
the Analogy and Nature of Things, we judge to be habitable Seats for
Beings, not unlike the mortal human.
Every Animal, and every Vegetable, that, as it were, naturally exifts
by the Virtues, Properties, or Laws of the mineral Kingdom, has fome-
thing of a fecondary Nature, depending upon it as a Principle ; and to
fay that the Stars, which are a certain vifible fort of Cotemporaries in Space
with the Sun, have no like planetary Bodies with ours moving round them,
becauie we cannot poifibly fee them, is no lefs abfurd and ridiculous, than
to argue, that we can have no Reafon to exped to find, in the proper
Seafon, Grapes upon every Vine — Figs upon every Tree — Rofes upon
every Bufh — only becaufe fome of them are at fuch a Diftance, that
neither Rofe, Fig or Grape,.can be difeovered by the Eye.
This fort of Reafoning, though fome perhaps may negled it, l am
perfwaded you will look upon as abundantly fufficient for Things out of the
Reach of Science to determine j and that trhe coliedive Body of Stars
have not been difeovered, to be together a proper Subjed for fuch Con-
jedures before, can furely only proceed from the Want of Time, necef¬
fary to compleat the Obfervations proper for a Foundation to build fuch an
Hypothefis, or Theory upon. This is the great Article in which the Mo¬
derns have fo much, and ever will have, an Advantage over the Antients.
And hence.it will appear, That
The,
LETTER the SECOND. 13
The Improvements and Difcoveries of latter Ages are not at all owing
to the greater Capacity of the Moderns, but from the Advantages receiv¬
ed, or arifing from the Inventions and Progrefs made by the Ancients. We
at fir ft in a manner walked by their Leading-firings, and though many cf
them now are broke, or ufelefs, none can deny, but that formerly they
were of great Advantage in promoting and directing philofophical En¬
quiries.
In an Aflembly of the moft eminent Men of all Ages, if we may fup-
pofe fuch a Conference amongft theilluftrious Dead, on Purpofe to deliver
their feveral Sentiments familiarly together, on the mod interefting Sub¬
jects of natural Knowledge, who would not lament the Difadvantages,
poor old Thales , an Hipparchus , or a Ptolomy, would lie under, who had no¬
thing but the Eye of Reafon to direct them, in Oppofition to the Judg¬
ment of a Brahe , or a Galilceus , who reaped fo much Benefit from their
compound Opticks > But on the other hand, perhaps if the folar Syftem,
was the Topic of Difcourfe, a * Pythagorean might very pertinently fay
to a Newtonian , “ You have not gone much farther in the Light with our
“ Direction, than we did in the Dark alone; for you are ftill roving
c< round the fame Circles.” Much might be faid upon this Head ; but
I believe it would be a difficult Matter to do Juftice to all Parties: So here
I intend to leave them, only muftobferve, thatPofterity will always have
the Advantage over their Predeceffors j and that After-ages, in all Pro¬
bability, will reap fo great a Benefit from the Invention and Improve¬
ment of Fluxions, that fcarce any thing, which is the immediate Ob¬
ject of fuch Enquiry, will long lie concealed from a true mathematical
Genius.
For this, in which be has furpaffed all the Antients, and greatly advanced
the philofophical Sciences, the World is indebted to Sir Ifaac Newton .
But as many of his Difcoveries, fuch as relate particularly to the Laws
of the planetary Syftem, are but as fo many Confirmations of the Con¬
jectures and Imaginations of Aftronomers and Philofophers before him, it
perhaps will not be amifs to acquaint you a little with the Aftronomy of
the Antients concerning the Univerfe. And before I proceed to thofe of
my own, fhew you in the firft Place how far their Speculations in the vi-
fible Creation have been carried j. and with thefe I ftvall conclude this pre¬
paratory Epiftle.
The Univerfe, or mundane Space, by which the Antients comprehend
all Creation, has, from time to time, according to the Progrefs of Science,
come under a fort of Neceffity of being varioufly modeled agreeable to the
Opinion
♦ The true Syftem of the Planets have been dlicovered above two thoufand Years.
14 LETTER the SECOND.
Opinion of the feveral Authors, who have judged themfelves wife
enough to write upon it with a mathematical Foundation: And the cof-
mical Syftem, by which is meant the Co-ordination of its conftituent
Parts has undergone almoft as many Changes as its Elements are even ca¬
pable of ; every Age of the World, as Knowledge has increafed, either
from improved Imagination, or repeated Obfervations, producing fome-
thing new concerning it.
Milton, no doubt, had all this Diverfity of Opinions in View, as
appears from his fuppofed Pre-knowledge of Raphael , in the following
Paflage, Book. VIII. 5
Hereafter, when they come to model Heaven,
And calculate the Stars, how they will weild
The mighty Frame ! how build, unbuild, contrive
To lave Appearances, how gird the Sphere
With centric and eccentric lcribbl’d o’er;
Cycle, and Epicycle, Orb in Orb.
But the following Synopfis, I believe, will abundantly convince you
that from certain Obfervations only, we ought to form all our Notions of
it, if we either hope to arrive at Truth, or expedl our Ideas fhould be
lupported byReafon.
Aristotle was of Opinion, that the Univerfe, or Heaven, was all
one World, and St. Chrysostom, Tertullian, St. Bonaventure,
Tycho Brahe, Longomontanus, Kepler, Bulialdus and Tellez’
were of an united Opinion, that this one Heaven, or Univerfe, was all
fidereal and fluid. But Aegidius, Hurtadus, Cisalpinus, and Aver-
sa, believing the fame Heaven with them to be all one World, and that
fidereal, yet on the contrary held it to befolid.
Clemens, Acacius, Theodoret, Anastasius, Synaita, Pro¬
copius, Suidus, S. Bruno, and Claudianus Mamertus, fuppofed
theuniverfal mundane Space as divided into two Heavens, namely,
The Empyraeum created the firft Day,
And the Firmament created the fecond Day.
Two Heavens were alfo held by Justin Martyr, the one fidereal*
and the other aerial. The fii ft fuppofed by St. Gregory Nyssene, to be
that of the fixed Stars, and the laft, that of the Planets. But Majlrlus
and Bellutus , though agreeing in the Number of Heavens, call one the
Primum Mobile , and the other, the Starry Heaven.
Farther,
LETTER the SECOND. i 5
Farther, St. Basil, St. Ambrose, Damascene, Cassiodorus, Ge-
NEBRARDUS, SuAREZ, TaNNERUS, HuRTADUS, OviEDUS, TeLLEZ,
and Borrus, diftinguilhed the Univerfe as divided into three Portions,
or Heavens.
The firft called the Empyraeum, . Watery,
I I
The fecond fuppofed Sidereal, ^ Sidereal, Watery,
And the laft of all, Aerial. £ Aerial, ^ Sidereal.
Again, St. Athanajhis adds to thofe of the fix’d Stars, the Planets, and
the Air, that of the Empyrceum , and makes in all four Heavens.
But as the Number of the Heavens thus increafes, and will become
fubdivided in the fubfequent Account of them, to give you a better Idea
of the Order of thefe celeftial Portions of the mundane Space, it will
not be amifs to form what remains of them into regular Sections of their
proper Spheres and Syftems.
See Plate III. in which Figure, the firft reprefents a Se&ion of the
cofmical Theory of Oviedus and Ricciolus: Both confifting of five Hea¬
vens, viz.
.3 The fixed Stars, A ^ Empyrceum, - - G
Saturn , - - - - - - B -|| The Water, - - F
J j? c J u P* ter i - - - - - Cjl The fixed Stars, A
Sol , with tf, 2 and 9 included D The Planets, - H
The Moon. - - - - E The Air. - - I
Fig. II. reprefents that of venerable Bede and Rabanus , viz. of Seven
Heavens.
And according to Bede compofed of
The Air, - - — - - P
The /Ether - - - - - O
Olympus , - - - - - - N
The Element of Fire, - - - M
The Firmament, - - - - A
The Angelical Region, L
Realm of the Trinity. - K
But by Rabanus ,
The Atmofphere,
The upper Air,
The inferior Fire,
The fuperior Fire,
Sphere of the fixed Stars,
The Chryftalline Heaven,
The Empyrceum .
Fig.
r6 -LETTER the -SECOND.
Fig. III. Reprefents the Hypothefes of Eudoxus, Plato, Calippus , Cicero,
Riccius , Philo , Remigius , Aben-Ezra, Carthufianus , Lyranus , Tojlatus , £rz/-
genfis, Orontius , Cremoninus , Philalethceus , Amicus , and Ruvius alfo the
Babylonians and Egyptians .
Confiding of Eight Heavens,
All Sidereal, raz. The Sphere of the fix’d Stars, and thofe of the Se¬
ven Planets.
Fig. IV. is that of Macrobius, Haly Alpetragius, Rabbi-Jofue ,
Moyfes , Scot us, Abraham Zagutus , Sacrobofcus , Claromontius , Avigra,
and Arraiga .
All of Nine Heavens,
Comprehend a Primum Mobile Q^_ or, according to Arriaga , a folid
Empyraum. The Sphere, of fixed Stars A, and the feven Regions of the
folar Planets.
Fig. V. is that of the great Alphonfus , Fernelius, Regiomontanus ,
micus, Maurolycus and Lartgius ; alfo of Azahel, Phebit, and ijfozc Ifra~
elita ; and likewife of Gulielmus Parifienfis, and 'Johannes Antonius
Delphinus .
Confiding of Ten Heavens, made up of
A Primum Mobile — *— - S Empyrceum.
A Sphere of Tripidation in Longitude R Primum Mobile.
The Sphere of the fixed Stars — — A
And thofe of the feven folar Planets within.
iVofr, Some Authors place the Sphere of Tripidation in Longitude be¬
low that of the Aflain, or Eighth Sphere.
Ladly, Fig. VI. is the Heaven of Petrus Alliacenfis, the College of Conim-
bra, Martinenjis, (and fometime) of Clavius ; and alfo Johannes Warner us,
Leopoldus de Aujlria, Johannes Antonius Maginus ; and ladly, oCClavius.
In all Eleven Heavens containing,
T A Primum Mobile , or, as others fay, an Empyraum .
V A Sphere of Libration in Latitude.
W A Sphere of Libration in Longitude.
A The Sphere of the fixed Stars, and thofe of the Planets.
Thus you fee how many various Opinions have from time to time
been imbraced concerning the Fabric and Formation of the vifible Uni-
verfe; all of which are now and have long been exploded j and although
at firlt advanced by Men of the greated Learning, and of the deeped Pe¬
netration in natural Knowledge, it does not appear from any one of their
Opinions, that they had any the lead Notion of infinite Space, but as it
weje
LETTER the SECOND. ly
■were confined the Divine Being to their limited Notions, as one mav
fay in anEgg-ihell. If therefore what I fliall hereafter advance, extend fo
far without the known Creation, that you can pofiibly conceive no Bounds
to the Works of infinite Wifdom and Power, I hope you will be in no
Danger of looking upon it as more ridiculous, or abfurd, than what fo
many of the wifeft Men of every Age have thought proper to attempt
and have judged worthy of their Attention fo long before me. If any thinsr
lefs fo, I fliall think myfelf happy enough in having broke, or rather paf-
fed the narrow Limits to which the Creation has for fo many Years
been confined, in hopes of tempting Men of greater Talents to look up
wards, and purfue fo noble a Subjeft as far as the human Underftandine
is capable of comprehending it. 6
To the Opinions above might be added many more, particularly that
of Johannes Bapti/ia Turrianus , and Bracaftorius , who increafed the Num¬
ber of Heavens to fourteen, viz. feven on each Side the Aplane
beto grounded ^ ^ Cn ° USh 5 “ nCXt 1 fha11 P«*ecd to Matter
■And am, &c.
D
letter
1
( x8 )
LETTER the THIRD.
Concerning the Nature, Magnitude , and Motion of the Planetary Bodies
round the Sun , 6tc.
SIR,
T H E younger Pliny, if I remember right, fomewhere fays, that
there is, or ought to be, a wide Difference betwixt writing to a
Friend, and writing to the Publick : I have indeed pleafed my~
felf with the one, but am far from thinking myfelf qualified for the other ;
I muft therefore rather intreat you, though perhaps you cannot pofiibly
overlook all my Faults as an Author, to excufe them at lead; in the Friend,
and by fuch kind of unlimited Indulgence, you will give me a much grea¬
ter Chance to do the Subject fome Juftice, though I own I defpair in this
firft Attempt, to reconcile every thing I advance to your more cool and
impartial Reafoning. But to the Bufinefs :
As I have no Ambition to have the Subftance of my Theory more ad¬
mired by you than underftood, which is too often the Cafe in Works of
this Nature, I muft beg leave to repeat to you Part of a former Dif-
courfe, which will refrefh in your Ideas the principal Laws of the Syftem
of our Sun, and make you properly acquainted with fuch Things as are
neceffary to be known in the now-eftabliflied Aftronomy of * Copernicus ,
&c. before I proceed to any new Matter.
The
•Nicolaus Copernicus, ftiled by Bulialdus , Fir abfoluta fubtilitatis , was a Native
of Thorn in Polijh PruJJia , and Canon of the Church of Frawenburgh ; he was Scholar to Domi»
nicus Maria of Ftrrara , to whom he was Affiftant in his aftronomical Obfervations at Bolognt ,
and Profeflor of the Mathematicks at Rome , in his noble Work, Dt Revolutionibus Orbium Ca-
lejiium ; he fortunately revived, happily united, and formed into an Hypothefis of his own, the
fcveral Opinions of Philolaus , Heraclides Ponticus, and j Ecphantus Pythagoreus, viz. after
the Opinion of Philolaus he made the Earth to move about the Sun, as the Center of its an¬
nual Motion ; and according to Heraclides and Ecphantus , he likewife gave it a diurnal Ro¬
tation round its own Axis: Which Syftem has withftood all Oppofition ; and as Ricciolus,
(though a Diffcntcr from it) obferves, Per damna, per cades, ab ipfo furnit opes, animumque
ferro.
LETTER nt THIRD.
*9
The Sun, you are not to learn, is the reputed Center of our Planetan
by/tem mi may remember, that the Earth on which we live, and theie
hve following Erratic Stars , viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and
Mercury, have been demonllrated to move round him in the Order
and Manner following.
Saturn is found to complete one Revolution round the Sun in twenty,
mne Years, one hundred and feventy-four Days, fix Hours, and thirty-fix
RA I u“ teSi c» a i-, the P lft ? nce of about fev en hundred and feventy-feven
Million of Miles. Jupiter performs a like Revolution in about eleven
Years three hundred and feventeen Days, twelve Hours, and twenty
Mmutes; diftant from the Sun about four hundred and twenty-four Mil¬
lions of Miles. Mars compleats his Circuit in one Year, three hundred
and twenty-one Days, twenty-three Hours, and twenty-feven Minutes •
and his mean Diftance is about one hundred and twenty-three Millions of
Miles. '
Th . e l fe tbree , are ca,1 ? d Superior Planets, as being farther from the Sun
than the Earth, and circumfcribing its Orbit.
The Earth circumambiates her Orbit in one folar Year, viz. in three
hundred and fixty-five Days, five Hours, forty-eight Minutes, and fifty-
Th S o C °r ds ; f a ' the mean Dlftance °f eighty-one Million of Miles. *
, , ' * adlus of Ve ™'l .Orbit is about fifty-nine Millions of Miles; and
that of Mercury nearly thirty-two Millions, ditto.
tw^tv f ^ ell0 “ ntric Revoludon oi Venus, is made in two hundred and
twenty-four Days, fixteen Hours, forty-nine Minutes, and twenty-feven
?f t °" ds A and that °j Mercury, in eighty-feven Days, twenty-three Hours,
fifteen Mmutes, and fifty-four Seconds. Thefe two laft Planets are called
inferior Ones, as being circumfcribed by the Earth
.ofe.o.lyta. hun-
The Diameter of the Globe,
Of Mercury
Venus
the Earth
Mars
Jupiter
and Saturn
4,240
7,90° |
7 > 97 ° \
' n 4 ’ 44 ° I
01,000
6-i, 000 )
Miles.
D 2
Thus
20
LETTER the THIRD.
Thus much I have thought proper to premife, and for your immediate
InfpeCtion, have added the following Schemes, that nothing may be want¬
ing to give a general Idea of the Order of the celeftial Bodies in our own
Syftem, before I attempt to lead you through the neighbouring Regions of
the Stars to the more remote TraCts of Infinity.
PLAT E IV.
Is a true Delineation of the folar Syftem, with the Trajectories of three
of the principal Comets, wnofe Periods and Orbits have been accurately,
determined, and are represented in their true Proportion and Pofition to
one another, and the Order of the Planets round the Sun, marked with
their refpeCtive Characters, 'viz. 7 ?, for Saturn, %, Jupiter, &,Mars i ©,
the Earth, $, Venus, and 3 , Mercury. The Scale being nearly five hun-r-
dred and eighteen Millions of Miles to an Inch.
PLATE V.
Is a true Projection of the. Syftem of the known Comets; in which arc
reprefented nine of the chief Trajectories, from their Aphelii to their Pe-
rihelii , all in juft Proportion and Pofition to the Orbits of Saturn and Ju^
piter , which are alfo reprefented by the two concentric Circles, fuppofed
to be drawn round the Sun as their Center.
The Ellipfis, or Trajectory, marked A, fhews the Pofition and Path
of the Comet which appeared in the Year 1684, whofe Period is fuppofed
to be about fifty Years, and has been abferved within the Region of the
Planets once.
That mark’d B, is the Way of the Comet of 1682: jr
The Period conjectured to be about feventy-five.
Years and a half, and has been obferved thrice.
C, Way of the Comet of 1337,.
The Period about 100 Years, obferved once.
D, That of the Comet of 1661 ;
The Period about 129 Years, obferved twice.
E, TraCt of the Comet of 1618 5,
The Period about 160 Years, obferved once.
F, Way of the Comet of 1677 j
The Period about 200 Years, obferved once.
G, Way of the Comet of 1744 3
The Period about 300 Years, obferved once.
H> Way of the Comet of 1665 3
The Period about 400 Years, obferved once.
I, Way of the Comet of 1680 3
The Period about 575 Years, obferved thrice.
Ther
T
G
21
LETTER the THIRD.
The Scale of this Syftem is equal to one Third of the former.
Here I muft obferve to you, as a Thing I judge may prove of great Con¬
fluence with regard to the Syftem of Comets, which is as yet very im¬
perfect : That I am ftrongly of Opinion, that the Comets in general,
through all their refpe&ive Orbits, defcribe one common Area, that is to
fay, all their Orbits with regard to the Magnitude of their proper Planes,
are mathematically equal to one another; which, if it once could be proved*
and confirmed by Obfervation, the Theories of all the Comets that have
been juftly obferved, migfit eafily be perfected, and their Periods at once
determined, which now we can only guefs at, or may wait whole Ages for
more Certainty of. What leads me to believe, that this may prove to
be really the Cafe is this.
I find by Calculation, that the Orbits of the two laft Comets, whofe
Elements have been mod corrected by Sir Ifaac Newton and Dr. Hally , are
to one another, according to their Numbers, nearly as * 13 to f 17,
notwithftanding one of them is one of the moft erratick that ever came un¬
der our Obfervation ; and the other one of the moft neighbouring to the
Sun.
But it is well known to all Mathematicians, that the firft of thefe Co¬
mets moved in fo eccentric a Trajectory, that the leaft Error in its almoft
incredible Proximity to the Sun will produce a very fenfible Difference
in the Area of the Orbit: And accordingly, if we moderate the Pe¬
rihelion Diftance of this Comet, by making it but 1000 inftead of
t 6i2 > which i s bu * increafing it a Part of the great Ra¬
dius of the Orbit, (which is an Error every Aftronomer will readily
grant is very eafily made) and we (hall find the Orbits of the faid two
Comets to be exactly equal.
Further, I muft inform you, that the Comet of 1682, which the above
compared with, feems to have been fo accurately obferved, that it does
not appear to have altered its Perihelion Diftance half a 68th Part in one
intire Revolution. Now, if we can with any Show of Reafon, and a
Probability on our Side, bring the Areas of thefe two extream Comets,
as I may call them, to an Equality , fure we may conclude, it is a Subject
highly worthy to be more confidered and enquired into.
* 13 1 6539,968282 Comet of 1680.
+ *7 0 8'55.4644 Comet of 1682.
t The Number in Dr. Hail /s Synopfu.
PLATE
32
LETTER the THIRD.
PLATE VI.
Is a true Reprefentation of the fatellite Syftems, proportionable to one a -
nother, and to the Orb of the Sun’s Body, that a juft Idea of the Diftances
of thofe fecondary Planets, may be eafier had from their refpettive primary
ones.
S reprefents the folar Body with its Atmofphere. Fig. i. is the Syf-
tem of Saturn from the fame Scale. Fig. 2. that of Jupiter from
ditto. And Fig. 3. the Orbit of the Moon round the Earth, in the fame
Proportion.
But as you can have but a very imperfedt Idea of the Magnitude of thefe
laft Circles, with regard to the Body of the Earth or Moon,
PLATE VII.
Is a true Proje&ion of their real Globes, at their proper Diftance from
each other, with their common Center of Gravity, and the Point and
Line of equal Sufpenfion betwixt them, viz.
A, reprefents the Globe of the Earth.
B, that of the Moon.
C, Point, and C D, Line of equal Sufpenfion betwixt them.
E, Common Center of Gravity, which defcribes the Qrhis Magnus.
E, F, and B, G, is the Orbit of the Moon,
Farther, that nothing may be wanting to give a true Notion of the
whole together,
PLATE VIIL
Is a proportional Drawing of all the primary and fecondary Planets to¬
gether, diftinguifhed by their Characters, proper to attend a Globe of
twelve Inches Diameter, fuch a one being fuppofed to reprefent the Sun.
PLATE IX.
Is an exa< 5 t Scheme of the principal known Comets, in juft Proportion,
to the Globe of the Earth reprefented at A, with the Nuclus, and Part of
the Tail of the Comet of 1680, B, as it was obferved in its Aflent from the
Sun, viz. a a the Comet’s natural Atmofphere, z z z, the Denfer Matter
winding itfelf into theAxis of the Train x x, the inflam’d Atmofphere and
Tail dilated near the Sun. C, reprefents the Ball of the Comet of .1682,
D, that of 1665, E, that of 1742, and F, the Head of the Comet of
1744.
And again, that you may have Ibme Notion of the apparent Magnitudes
,of all thele Planets and Comets, &c. as they appear at the Earth,
PLATE
Plate ,-vt.
Figure.X .
a.
LETTER the THIRD.
*3
PLATE X.
Reprefents the Sun and Moon in the juft Proportion of their mean Dia¬
meters, with two of the Comets A and B, and the five erratick Planets, as
they are obferved at the Earth, in a middle State of their Diftances from it.
Fora niore full and particular Defcription of all the Parts of the folar
Syftem, and of the home Elements of Aftronomy in general, I refer you
to my Clavis Cceleftis^Q. where every thing concerning the Planets, Comets,
and Stars j and their real and apparent Motions, are at large reprefented,
explained, and accounted for, for the Benefit- of fuch as have not made
the Mathematicks their regular Study.
Now, to convince you that the Planets are all in their own Nature no
other than dark opaque Bodies, reflecting only the borrowed Light of
the Sun, I muft recommend to your Observation, this natural and Ample
Experiment, which almoft any Opportunity of feeing the Moon a little
before the Full, will put into your Power to make j but befl and eafieft
when the Sun is in any of the North Signs, i. e. in Summer.
At fuch a time, the Sun being near fetting, the Moon will appear in
the eaftern Hemifphere ; and if there be any bright Clouds northward*
or fouthward near her, you will plainly perceive, that the Light of the
one is of the fame Nature with that of the other $ I mean the Light of
the Moon, and that of the Cloud. To me there never appeared any Dif¬
ference at all ; and I am perfwaded, were you to make but two or three
Obfervations of this kind, which is from Nature itfelf, a fort of ocular
Demonftration, you cannot fail of being convinced, that the Moon's
Light, fuch as it is, without Heat, can poflibly proceed from no other
Caufe than that which illumines the Cloud: For if the Clouds, whofe
Compofition we know to be but a thin light Fluid, formed of condenfed
Vapours only, is capable of remitting fo great a Luftre, how much more
may we not allow the Moon, which, Length of Time, and many other
Circumftances, have long confirmed to be a durable and folid Body.
The Increafe of her Luftre, indeed, during the Abfence of the Sun
from us, to a lefs penetrating Genius than your’s, may poflibly afford
fome trifling Ground of Objection to the above Conclufions, as being
drawn from the Phenomena of Day-light only - by reafon in the Night,
we have no Clouds in equal Circumftances to compare with her.
But this I need not tell you, is all owing to her being feen through a
darker Medium, and not to any real Increafe of natural Light emitted
from the Sun. As a Proof of which, were it neceflary, you need only,
(hut out the Rays of the Atmofphere, by the Help of a fufficiently
long
24 LETTER the THIRD,
long Tube j and the Moon, or any other celeftial Body, will appear
through it, as bright in the Day-time as in the Night.
Thus all light Bodies of inferior Luftre, whether fhining by their own
natural Radiences, or by a borrowed Reflection, partake of the fame Ad¬
vantage, when removed from the more potent Influence of a fuperior one ;
and hence it is, that the *Hura JEtherea fhines out moft manifeft, when
the Body of the Sun himfelf is hid, the Stars, and the Via Lattea moft
lively and numerous in the Abfence of the Moon, and thofe Exhalations,
or Meteors, vulgarly called Falling-ftars, become only vifible (like
Glow-worms) in the Night.
Here it may not be improper to tell you, that the Clouds are to us in
effedl no other than as fo many Moons, whereby we have our artificial
Day prolonged to us feveral Hours after the Sun is fet, and likewife pro¬
duced as much fooner before he rifes; and were they to afeend by ftill
lironger Power of Exhalation to an Elevation, all round the Atmofphere,
fo as to form a Sphere equal to four Times the Globe of the Earth, there
would then be no fuch Thing as real noCturnal Darkneis to any Part of
the World.
The lunar Light then we may very juftly conclude, proceeds originally
from the Sun: And notwithftanding many more Arguments might be
drawn from the Demonftration of her Phafes, Eclipfes, &c. to prove it,
yet none of them need ; here be added, to what has been already faid, to
convince you of the Truth of it. This being granted, let us now confider
what EffeCt this, -or a like Quantity of borrowed Light, would have,
when removed to a much greater Diftance.
I may, I think, fuppofe, that you know fo much of Opticks as to un-
derftand, that all vifible Objects apparently decreafe in Magnitude, as their
Diftance from the Eye increafes. ConfequentLy, that, if the Moon’s Orbit
was placed as far again from the Earth as it really is,her Globe,or rather Dijk,
would then feem to be but half as big as to us (he now appears to be, and
of courfe ftill farther, were fhe placed at ten times the Diftance flie is
known to revolve at, her apparent Diameter would be reduced to a tenth
Part only of what it now appears to be in her prefent Orbit, that is, one
hundred Times lefs in vifible Magnitude ihan her neighbouring Difk is
found to be where it now is feen. And fuch, but fomething lefs, the two
Planets Venus and Jupiter, which are frequently, in their Turns, our
Morning and Evening Stars, appear to be through a common Telefcope.
Now
* An Helios, or golden Light, always attending the Sun, and fuppofed to fpread itfelf all
round his Body in the Direction of his Equator, was very vifible during the total Darknefs of
the Eclipfe of 17x5, and may be always feen about the Autumnal Equinox.
LETTER the THIRD. 2 ,
Now thefe two Planets, together with the other three, which we find
moving in regular Orbits round the Sun, are all found fubjedt to the fame
* Changes of Phenomena, in their various Afpe&s with the Sun ; and who
can doubt but that they are all of the fame or like Nature ? But you’ll fay
perhaps, how are we fure that Venus and Jupiter have no native Light of
their own, fince many of the ancient Philofophers, and in particular
Anaximander , allowed even the Moon to have fome 5 and befides, in Phi-
lolophy, as well as in Logick, I think you hold there is no proving a Ne¬
gative, at leaft at fuch a Diftance. b
To make you conceive the Impoflibility of fuch a Light, and next to a
Demonftration, convince you of the Unnaturalnefs of luch a Suppofition
I muft put you in mind, that fome time ago, when I was laft in the Coun¬
try with you, I think it was about the latter End of Autumn, near the
Winder Solftice, as we were walking one Evening, I bid you take no¬
tice cf the Moon, which was then near fetting, and about two Days old
You may remember, her whole Globe appeared to us very confpicuoufly
within a manifeft Circle. You immediately told me, that that kind of Phe¬
nomenon the Country People called a Stork, or the old Moon in the new
one’s Arms. This I then endeavoured to explain to you, and I think
made you fenfible it was intirely an Effedt of the Earth’s, and an Appear¬
ance always to be expected at that Time of the Year. The Earth being
then in the State of a Full-Moon to that Part of the lunar Orbit, and near
her Perihelion, at which time, the Earth fends back a Refle&ion to the
t Moon twenty-five times more potent than that of the Moon to us.
Now the Planet Venus , from undeniable Principles of Geometry, is
allowed to be nearly fuch another Globe as the Earth is; and fince the
Earth, as I have juft now related, is found to reflea: much more Light to
the Moon, by reafon of her fuperior Magnitude, than the Moon can pofiibly
reverberate to Earth again ; and fince alfo ’tis plain, the Earth has no
Light of its own, why then fhould we imagine Venus to be endowed with a
Luftre, which we can prove to be no more than a fimilar Body, and go¬
verned by the fame Laws as the Earth is ?
Anaximanders Miftake, in fuppofing the Moon in fome fmall Degree
a radiant Body of itfelf, lay, in not confidering, that the faint Illumination
here defcnbed, and vifible all over her Globe, foon after almoft every
Conjunction with the Sun ; and probably in Eclipfes, alfo proceeded from
the Earth 5 but the thing I think is too evident to expeCt any fort of Con-
^ tradiCtion,
Venus and Mercury in every Heliocentrick Revolution, perform all the Changes of our
Moon in a like Gradation and Defe&icn of Light, both horned and gibos’d.
f Their Diameters being nearly as 1 to 5.
26 LETTER THE THIRD,
tradiaion, therefore I hope you will admit it as a Truth, and confequently
take it for granted, that the planetary Bodies in general, are meer terrel-
trial if not terraqueous Bodies, fuch as this we live upon; which is
the ’ Thing I have chiefly in this Letter attempted to demonitrate, or
have rather explained; and now 1 hope, for the future, you will receive
the Idea of a Plurality of Worlds more favourably, and look upon aftro-
nomical Conjeflures in a lefs ridiculous Light than you ufed to do, espe¬
cially fince you muft allow, they give our unlimited Imaginations a like all
endlefs Field of Contemplation, not only full of the wonderful Works of
Nature, but alfo of a vifible Providence.
I think I cannot conclude this Letter to you more properly, than with
the following fine Lines of Mr. Addifon's from the Spectator, Vol. VI.
No. 465. which I hope you are not lb polite as to look upon as an un-
fafhionable Quotation.
The fpacious Firmament on High,
With all the blue ethereal Sky,
And fpangl’d Heav’ns, a (hining Frame,.
Their great Original proclaim :
Th’ unwearied Sun, from Day to Day,
Does his Creator’s Pow’r difplay,
And publishes to ev’ry Land
The Work of an Almighty Hand.
Soon as the Ev’ning Shades prevail,
The Moon takes up the wond’rous Tale,
And nightly to the lift’ning Earth,
Repeats the Story of her Birth :
Whillt all the Stars that round her burn.
And all the Planets in their Turn,
Confirm the Tidings as they roll,
And fpread the Truth from Pole to Pole.
What though, in folemn Silence, all
Move round the Dark terreftrial Ball ?
What tho’ nor real Voice nor Sound
Amid their radiant Orbs be found ?
In Reafon’s Ear, they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious Voice,
For everfinging, as they fliine,
<c ’The Hand that made us is divine
And am , &c*
LETTER
[ 2 7 ]
LETTER the FOURTH.
Of the Nature of the heavenly Bodies continued , with the Opinions of the
Antients concerning the Sun and Stars.
SIR ,
Y O U tell me you begin to be a tolerable good Copernican , and
would now be glad to have my Opinion further upon the Nature
of the Sun and Stars, with regard to the Suggedion of their being
like Bodies of Fire. This you fay will go a great Way towards confirm¬
ing you in the Notion you have begun to embrace of a Plurality of Sy-
ftems, and a much greater Multiplicity of Worlds than our little folar Sy-
dem can admit of. Befides, (hewing in a very evident Light, that the
Authorities cited in my fird Letter are founded upon the cleared Reafon.
Anaxagoras , you fay, believed the Sun to be a Lump of red-hot Iron;
Euripides thought it a Clod of Gold ; and others dill more ridiculoufly
have imagined it to be a dark Body, void of all Heat. That the Sun is
a vad Body of blazing Matter, notwithdanding the various Opinions of
thofe primitive Sages, will, I think, hardly admit of a Quedion : Since the
known Warmth of his prolifick Beams, and the vifible Effedt of the Burn-
ing-glafs, puts it quite out of the Power of our prefent Set of Senfes, at
lead to argue againd it; and how reafonably we may imagine the Stars to
be all of the fame or like Nature, will lufficiently appear from thefe fol¬
lowing Confiderations : Fird, it is well known to all Mathematicians, that
any vifible Object of any determined Magnitude may be reduced to the
Appearance of * aphyfical Point, by removing the Eye of the Obferver to
a proper or proportionable Didance from it, within the finite View : And
that the apparent Diameter of every luminous celedial Body, will always
be diminifhed reciprocally, in Proportion to the Didance from the Eye,
till they become altogether imperceptible.
E 2 Thus
* What is here meant by a phyfical Point, is a Point vifible to the naked Eye, which hu¬
man Art cannot divide; and fo far it partakes of the Property of a mathematical one, which is
only to be conceived, and not feen.
28 LETTER the FOURTH.
Thus the Difk of the Sun, which appears to us at Earth under an Angle
of about half a Degree, iffeen from the Planet Saturn , would appear not
much bigger than the Planet Venus or Jupiter, in their moft neighbouring
Vicinity does to us j and confequently loan Eye placed in the Aphelion
Point of the Orbit of the great Comet of 1680, his apparent Diameter
would be fo reduced as to feem but little bigger than the largeft of the
Stars ; and by the fame Analogy, or Way of Reafoning, admitting Space
and Diftance infinite, which I humbly apprehend is not to be difputed,
were all the Matter in the Univerfe united, and conglobed in one Mafs,
with refpeft to ocular Senfation, it might be diminilhed fo near to a ma¬
thematical Pun&um, as to be almoft adequate to our Ideas of Nothing.
This to any tolerable Optician, muft be an evident Convi&ion of the
Truth of the modern Aftronomy, which now univerfally allow all thofe
radiant Bodies the Stars to be of the fame Nature with the Sun; and that
as certainly they are no other than vaft Globes of blazing Matter, all un¬
doubtedly fhining by their own native Light.
But as you have often objected to what has been faid of the Diftance of
the Stars in general, and may poflibly from a Suppofition, that they are, or
may be, much nearer to us, infer, that their Light, like that of the Planets,
may be alfo borrowed from the Sun, or from fome other radiant Body,
which, from the Nature of the Suppofition, muft of Confequence be in-
vifible to us, I judge it will not be amifs to throw a few demonftrative Ar¬
guments in your Way, in order to lead you a little out of the Path of
an early Prejudice, and draw you as it were by Degrees through the Dawn
of aftrononfical Reafoning, out of your original Error, and refcue your
Imagination from the falfe Notions imbibed from Phenomena only in
your younger Years. This I guefs cannot fail of reconciling you to this
more rational Way of Thinking, and make you acquainted with
Truths of much Confequence, which perhaps you have yet been an intire
Stranger to. The grand Deceptio Vifus , which I muft firft endeavour to
remove, and which as a fort of Paradox in Nature, has, as I may fay, im-
prifoned the Underftanding of many fuperficial Reafoners, and in general
all incurious Men, is this.
Moft People are too apt to think originally, that as the Heavens appear
to be a vaft concave Hemifphere, that the Stars muft of courfe, as of
Confequence, be fixed there, like fo many radiant Studs of Fire, of various
Magnitudes j and take it for granted, chiefly defigned for no other
Purpofe than to deck and adorn the Canopy of our Night. This was long
ago the Opinion of Thales the Milefan> and wants not the Authority of
many
LETTER the FOURTH. 29
many of the Antients to back it. Others, in particular * Ptolomy of Pe -
lufium in Africa , who from his Experience in this Science, is called by
fome the Prince of Aftronomers, believed them to be Loop-holes in the
vail folid celeftial Firmament, emitting the Light of the Cryftalline Hea¬
ven through it to all within it. The famous Diogenes , Cotemporary
with Plato , conceived them to be of the Nature of Pumice-ftones, and in¬
clined to an Opinion, that they were the Spiracula , or Breathing-holes of
Heaven. Anaxagoras thought them Stones fnatched up from the Earth
by the Rapidity of its Motion, and fet on Fire in the upper Regions
above the Moon.
But how ridiculous and abfurd all thefe Opinions and Conje&ures really
are, will eafily appear, if we but once confider the Nature of an un¬
bounded iEther, and the amazing Property of infinite Space.
This, with what has been faid before, will not a little aflift your Ima¬
gination towards conceiving the Reafonablenefs of the Notion modern
Aftronomers are now confirmed in, of their being abfolutely fo many
burning Balls, and which was no doubt, many Years ago, the Opinion
of Manilius, as is evident from thefe Lines in his Poem of the Sphere^
For how can we the rifing Stars conceive
A cafual Produdtion ; or believe
Of the chang’d Heav’ns the oft renafcent State
Sol's + frequent Births, and his quotidian Fate.
Sherburne.
And again in the fame Poem:
The fiery Stars, and ifEther that creates
Infinite Orbs, and others diflipates.
Zoroajler ,
* Ptolomy fuppofed two Heavens above that of the fixed Stars, which he called the eighth .
viz. a ninth, the Cryftalline, and a tenth the Primum Mobile. See Letter the fecond.
The facred Sun, above the Waters rais’d.
Thro’ Heav’ns eternal, brazen Portals blaz’d 5
And wide o’er Earth diffus’d his chearing Ray,
To Gods and Men to give the golden Day.
Homer.
Xenophanes believed the Stars to be no other than Clods fet on Fire, quenched in the Day¬
time, and rekindled in the Night.
3 o LETTER the FOURTH,
Zoroajier , the firft of all Philofophers we read of who ftudied the Stars,
is reported to have believed them of a fiery Nature. Empedocles judged
them to be Fire aethereal, ftruck forth in its Secretion, and blazing in the
upper Regions. Plato thought them Fire, with the Mixture of other Ele¬
ments as Cements. Heraclides Worlds by themfelves, of Earth , Air , and
Fire ; and Arijlotle , fimple Bodies of the Subftance of Heaven, but more
condenfed.
But that I may not take up too much of your Time with Opinions
that has been imbibed in the Infancy of Aftronomy, and has long ago
been exploded, I (hall attempt but one Thing more to confirm your Sen¬
timents in this new Doctrine.
Firft, that the Stars are all at a Diftance, not to be determined by the
utmoft Perfection of human Art, is manifeft from their having very little,
or no fenfible Parallax ; and confequently, that any one of them isabfolutely
bigger or lets than another, from the fimple Laws of Opticks, cannot
poflibly come under our Obfervation to be afcertained ; but that they all of
them may be nearly of the fame Size or Solidity, is as impoflible, with any
Shew of Reafon to deny, fince it is a known Principle in Geometry, that all
vifible ObjeCts naturally diminifti, as has been faid before, or are magnified
in a certain Proportion to their Diftance from the Eye ; and hence we may
conclude, and not without Reafon in its ftrongeft Light to fupport us,
that the fmalleft Stars, to the very leaft Denomination, are only removed
refpeCtively more diftant from the Obferver’s Station j and that at leaft this
we may be certain of, that they are all together undoubtedly an Infinity
of like Bodies, diftributed either promifcuoufly, or in fome regular Or¬
der throughout the mundane Space: And, as Marino fays,
Refplendent Sparks of the firft Fire •!
In which the Beauty we admire.
And Light of thofe eternal Rays,
The uncreated Mind difplays.
It remains now I think to (hew, and endeavour to prove, that the Stars
are not only light Bodies of the Nature of the Sun, but that they are really
fo many Suns, all performing like Offices of Heat and Gravity, in a re¬
gular Order, throughout the vifible Creation, in oppofition to an Opinion
you
* Mr. Bradley , Aftronomer-Royal, ha?, in a great meafure, proved that the Aberration
of the Stars hitherto miftaken for a Parallax, may arife from, and indeed feems to be no other
than the progreflive Motion of Light, and Change of Place to the Eye, arifmg from the
Earth’s annual Motion and Dire&ion.
LET T E R the FOURTH. 3 ,
you have formerly hinted at, of their being in another Senfe of a fecon-
dary Nature.
All Objects within the fenfible Sphere of the Sun’s Attraction, or Ac¬
tivity, are in lome meafure magnified by a good Telefcope : But the
Stars are all placed fo far without it, that the belt Glafles has no other
EfFedt upon them than making them appear more vivid or lively, but all
inate opaque Bodies, reflecting only a borrowed Light from fome primary
one, contrary to this Property, are all oblerved to lofe their Light, in the
fame Proportion, as they are magnified, and through all Glaffes become
more dull than otherwife they appear to the naked Eye : And hence we
may infer, without any further Evidence, that the Stars are all light Bo¬
dies endowed with native Luftre ; and that Bodies, like the known Pla¬
nets, from the fame Reafoning, it is as clear they cannot be, becaufe their
Diftance, though uncertain as to the Truth of the whole, yet luch a
Part of it as cannot be denied, would render them all in fuch a Cafe in-
vifible.
A Proof of this will plainly prefent itfelf, if we confider the Courfe of
the known Comets, who all of them, without Exception, become im¬
perceptible, and intirely difappear; though moft of them much bigger
than the Earth, or any of the lefl'er Planets, long before they arrive at
their refpedive Aphelions.
But we are under a kind of Neceflity to believe them either Suns or
Planets, that is either dark or light Bodies j and fince 1 have fhewn the
Improbability; nay, I riiay venture to fay, the Impofiibility of their be¬
ing the firft, it is natural fure to conclude, that they muft be of the laft
Sort j and I am perfuaded, if you but once confider how ridiculous it is to
imagine fo vaft a Number of Bodies, all rolling round a Number of invi-
fible Suns, which muft otherwife be the Cafe, fince they are feen on all
Sides of ours, and cannot polfibly be enlightened by him, or any, how all
of them, by any one elfe, you cannot pofiibly have any fort of Difficulty
in this Determination : But that no Arguments may be wanting to enforce
your Belief of what is here concluded, it will not be amifs to put you in
Mind of an optical Experiment or two, which cannot fail of convincing
you of the vaft Probability of what is here afFerted of them j and next to a
moral Certainty, demonftrate the Truth of what fo many of the beft Aftro-
nomers have advanced, as before namely, that the Stars are all, or moft
of them, Suns like ours.
Place any concave Lenfe before your Eye, and you will find all vifible
Objedts will appear through it, as removed to a much greater Diftance
than they really are at, and reciprocally as much diminifhed. New, if
you
32 LETTER the FOURTH,
you look upon one of thefe Glaffes of a proper Concavity, oppofed to
the Sun or Moon, you will refpedtively have the Appearance of a real Star
or Planet, the firft exhibited by the Body of the Sun, the other by the
Moon, and either more or lefs diminiffied in Proportion to the Surface of
the Sphere the Glafs is ground to.
For Example, a double Concave, or Glafs of a negative Focus, ground to
a Sphere of about three Inches Diameter, will if oppofed to the Sun’s Difk
at a proper Diftance from the Eye, help you to a very good Idea how the
Sun appears to the Planet Jupiter and if a proper Regard be had to the
Diftance of the Planet Saturn , a Lenfe ftill more concave may be formed
to give a juft Idea of the Sun’s Appearance to Saturn. Again, one much
more concave than the former, proportioned to the Orbit of Mars , will
naturally exhibit the folar Body, as feen from that Planet.
To the Planet Venus and Mercury , the Sun appearing much larger than
to us at the Earth, to have any tolerable Notion of his varied Phenomena
to them, it will be neceffary to procure Glaffes of a fuitable Convexity,
ground to reciprocal Concaves, which may eafily be done to any Focus,
i'o as to (hew how the Sun, naturally appears to the Inhabitants of thpfe
two Planets.
The various Appearances of the Planets themfelves to us at the Earth,
may alfo well enough be had, if through Glaffes analagous to their re-
fpe&ive Diftance and Magnitude, we look at the Moon, particularly all
the Phafes of Venus , and even of Mercury , and the Gibolity of Mars ,
&C. may be juftly and beautifully represented at different Ages of the
Moon, as thofe Planets appear through the largeft and beft Telefcopes.
This Way you may convince even your Friend * * *, who you tell me
has reafoned all his Senfes ufelefs, and yet continues fo great an Atheift in
Aftronomy, as not to believe the World turns round upon its Axis, though
he gives no better Reafonfor it than that of his not being giddy.
After all thefe Arguments, I hope no new Difficulties will arife to re¬
tard your Belief, or deprive the Stars of their folar Nature, fo juftly due
to them : This Point gained, the next Thing to be conftdered is, whether
all thofe glorious Bodies, the far greater Part of whom being invifible to
the naked Eye, were made purely and purpofely for the foie Ufe of this
t diminitive World, our little trifling Earth.
-Men, conceited Lords of all,
Walk proudly o’er this pendent Ball,
Fond of their little Spot below,
Nor greater Beings care to know,
But think thofe Words, which deck the Skies ,
Were only form'd to pleafe their Eyes. Duck.
The
LETTER the FOURTH. 33
The very Suppofition not only implies a profound Ignorance of the Di¬
vine Attributes, but is as impious, and full of Vanity, as it is erroneous
and abfurd, and even a Biindnefs fufficient of itfelf, were there no other
Caufe for it, to introduce Idolatry in the Minds of Mortals, by finking
the divine Nature fo near to the human. •
It being granted that the Stars are all of the fame Kind, I think it may
be agreed, that what we evince of any one may be allowed to be true of
any other, and confequently of all the reft. This Poftulata gained, I
(hall next proceed to enquire what the real Uteand Defign of fo many ra¬
diant Bodies are, or may be made for. J
The Sun we have juftly reduced to the State of a Star, why then in Rea,
fon fhould he have his attendant Planets round him, more than any of the
reft, his undoubted Equals ? No Shadow even of a Reafon can be given
for fuch an Abfurdity. °
May we not with the greateft Confidence imagine, that Nature as juftly
abhors a Vacuum in Place, as much as Virtue does in Time ? Surely yes-
And by fuppoling the Infinity of Stars, all centers to as many Syftems of
innumerable Worlds, all alike unknown to us } how naturally do we
open to ourfelves avaft Field of Probation, and an endlefs Scene of Hope
to ground our Expectation of an ever-i uture Happinefs upon, fuitable to
the native Dignity of the awful Mind, which made and comprehends
it j and whofe Works are all as the Bufinefs of an Eternity ?
If the Stars were ordained merely for the Ufe of us, why fo much Ex¬
travagance and Oftentation in their Number, Nature, and Make ? For a
much lefs Quantity, andfmaller Bodies, placed nearer to us, would every
Way anfwer the vain End we put them to ; and befides, in all Things
elfe, Nature is moft frugal, and takes the neareft Way, through all her
Works, to operate and effe& the Will of God. It fcarce can be reckoned
more irrational, to fuppofe Animals with Eyes, deftined to live in eternal
Darknefs, or without Eyes to live in perpetual Day, than to imagine
Space illuminated, where there is nothing to be aCted upon, or brought
to Light; therefore we may juftly fuppofe, that fo many radiant Bodies
were not created barely to enlighten an infinite Void, but to make their
much more numerous Attendants vifible ; and inftead of difeovering a
vaft unbounded defolate Negation of Beings, difplay an infinite fhape-
lefs Umverfe, crowded with Myriads of glorious Worlds, all varioufly
revolving round them j and which form an Atom, to an indefinite Creation,
with an inconceivable Variety of Beings and States, animate and fill the
endlefs Orb of Immenfity.
F
That
s4 LETTER the FOURTH.
That the fidereal Planets are not vitible to us, can be no Objection to
their adual Exiftence, and being there, is plain from this; it is well
known, that the Stars themfelves, which are their Centeral, and only ra¬
diant Bodies, are little more to us at the Earth, than mathematical Points.
How ridiculous then is it to exped, that any of their fmall opaque At¬
tendance, fhould ever be perceived fo far as the Earth by us ; and bcfides, to
fhow the Impoftibility of fuch a Difcovery, we need only confider, what is,
and what is not to be expeded, or known in our own home Sy ftem. All the
Planets in this our fenfible Region, every Aftronomer knows, is far
from being vifible to one another, in every individual Sphere ; for to an
Eye at the Orb of Saturn , this Earth we live upon, which requires Years
to circumfcribe, and Ages to be made acquainted with, and is far from
being yet all known, cannot poflibly from the above Planet be feen:
And further, fince Saturn and Jupiter, two of the moft material and con-
ftderable Globes we know of, except the Sun himfeif, are Bodies a PP a ‘
rentlv of the lame kind, and are obferved to have each a Number of letter
Planets moving round them; why may we not exped with equal Cer¬
tainty and Propriety, that all other Bodies, under the fame Circumftances,
are in like manner attended ; that is, feeing the Sun is found to be the
Center of a Syftem of Bodies, all varioufly volving round him ? where lies
the Improbability of his fellow Luminaries, the Stars, being furrounded in
like fort, with more or lefs of fuch Attendance.
Ifhall offer but one Thing more to your Confideration in this Affair,
and which I am in great Hopes will be fufficient to make you think thefe
natural Suggeftions a good deal more than probable, and that is this:
The modern Aftronomers having, in a great meafure, proved that the
Stars are, in all refpeds, vaft Globes of Fire like our Sun. Let us fuppofe
a new-created Mincf, or thinking Being, in a profound State of Ignorance,
with regard to the Nature of all externalObjeds, but fully endowed with
every human Senfe and Force of Reafon, fufpended in JE ther, exadly in
the midway, betwixt * Syrius and the Sun ; in which Cafe, both of thefe
Luminaries would equally appear much about the Brightnefs of the largeft
of our Planets. Now fhould fuch a Being, determined either by Ac¬
cident or Choice, arrive at this our Syftem of the Sun, and feeing all
the planetary Bodies moving round him, I would afk you what you think
he would imagine to be round Syrius % Your Anfwer, I think I may ven¬
ture to fay, would not be nothing j and methinks I already hear you fay.
Why Planets fuch as ours.
* A Star of thefirft Magnitude in the greater Dog, and the moft neighbouring to our Sun.
PLATE
Figure I.
ORBIT of MERCURI •
LETTER the FOURTH.
35
PLATE XT.
Is defigned as a geometrical Scale to all the primary Parts of the vifible
Creation, with regard to the Diftance of Orbits compared with the Globe
of the Sun ; by which at once may be conceived, and juftly meafured in
the Mind, not only the mean Diftance of the Planets with regard to one
another, but alfo that of the Comets, and even the comparative Diftances
of the neareft of the Stars, which will, I guefs, greatly help you to form
an Idea of the vaft Extent of Space neceffary to comprehend the whole
Creation.
Fig. i. Isa Radius of the Orbit of Mercury , in true Proportion to the
Body of the Sun reprefented at S, fhewing at the fame time a fmall Por¬
tion of the opaque Planet’s Orbit, and the real Length of its Shadow at P.
Fig. 2. Is a Radius of the whole Syftem of the Planets as far as the
Orbit of Saturn in Proportion to a compleat Orbit of Mercury , much lefs
than the former 3 the former ferving as a better known Scale to confider
the amazing Diftances of the more remote Planets by.
Laftly, Fig. 3. Is a Representation of the leaft poflible Diftance of
Syrius and the Sun, proportionable to the Magnitude of the Sphere of our
Comets, &c. reprefented atS, whereby it evidently appears, that as all the
Planets of Synus muft be included within the fmall Sphere reprefented in
the Center P, none of them could poflibly be feen at the Sun, not only by
reafon of the Smallnefs of the Angle of Suftenfion, or Elongation, but al¬
io as being loft in the fuperior Light of Syrius himfelf, in fo minute an
Orb of Vicinity.
Confequently (as you muft perceive) no Arguments can poflibly be
drawn to deny the Exiftence of fuch Bodies, with any Shew of Reafon,
from their not having been feen by us.
Here I muft obferve to you, that you cannot confider this Scale of Orbits
too much before you look upon Plate XVII.
To conclude, it evidently feems to be the End and Defign of Provi¬
dence, by this vifible Variety of Beings, to lift the Minds of Men above
this narrow Earth, in Search of that powerful Being upon which we are
all fo much dependant 3 and the Creator , no doubt, in this vaft Difplay of
his Wifdom and Power, defigned the amazing Whole, as the adequate
Objeft of every Part, and as fuch equally open on all Sides, to the pene¬
trating Progrefs of human Minds, and through the moft extenfive
Faculty of Senfe, the Sight, to draw our Reafon and Underftanding by
Degrees, from finite Obje&s into Infinity 3 and as the laft Relult of ce-
leftial Contemplations place within our Reach, a certain Evidence of a
future State, and the maniftft Manfwnsof Rewards and Funijhments, fated
no doubt tnojl equitably to all Degrees of Virtue , and to every Vice .
When
36 LETTER the FOURTH.
M When I confider (fays Mr .Addifon i fpeaking as having taken particular
“ notice of a fine Evening) that infinite Hoft of Stars, or to fpeak more
“ philofophically of Suns, which were then fhining upon me, with thofe
“ innumerable Sets of Planets or Worlds, which were then moving round
“ their refpedlive Suns $ when I ftill enlarge the Idea, and fuppofed ano-
“ ther Heaven of Suns and Worlds riling ftill above this which we dif-
“ covered; and thefe ftill enlightened by a fuperior Firmament of Lu-
“ minaries, which are planted at fo great a Diftance, that they may ap-
“ pear to the Inhabitants of the former as the Stars do to us; in fhort,
“ whilft I puriued this Thought, I could not but reflect on that little
“ inlignificant Figure which I myfelf bore amongft the Immenfity of
“ God’s WorksThis Reflection, I judge, as you are an Admirer of the
Author, you will not look upon as impertinent in this Place, efpecially as
it muft enforce what I have endeavoured to fhew you, namely, the Rea-
fonablenefs of a Plurality of lidereal Syftems, and their Multiplicity of
Worlds 3 which, if you are yet in Doubt of, I hope you will at lcaft for¬
give fo well defigned an Attempt with your ufual Candour.
I am now prepared to proceed in the chief Defign of this Undertaking,
which is to folve the Phenomena of the Via Laftea 5 and propofe in my
next to anfwer more fully your farther Requeft.
I am y &c.
LETTER
( 37 )
LETTER the FIFTH.
Of the Order , Diftance , and Multiplicity of the Stars , the Via Laftea, and
Extent of the vijible Creation.
SIR ,
W E are told, and,, if I remember right, it is alfo your Opinion,
that three of the fineft Sights in Nature, are a riling Sun at Sea*
a verdant Landskip with a Rainbow, and a clear Star-light
Evening : All of which I have myfelf often obferved with vaft Delight
and Pleafure. The firft I have frequently beheld, and always with an
agreeable Surprize ; the fecond I have as often taken notice of, with no
fmall Degree of Admiration 5 but the laft I lhall never look up to with¬
out an Aftonifhment, even mixed with a kind of Rapture. The Ni«ht
you laft left us, this admirable Scene was in its full Beauty ; and, as Milton
fays.
Silence was pleas’d : now glow’d the Firmament
With living Saphirs; Hefperus that led
The ftarry Hoft rode brighteft_
I found it was impoflible to look long upon this ftupendious Scene, fo
full of amazing ObjeCts, and particularly the Via LaBea, which (the
Moon being abfent) was then in great Perfection, without being put in
Mind of my Talk. This furprizing Zone of Light being the chief Object
I have undertaken to treat of and demonftrate.
This amazing Phenomenon which have been the Occalion of fo many
Fables, idle Romances, and ridiculous Opinions amongft the Antients,
ftill continues to be unaccounted for, and even in an Age vain enough to*
boaft Aftronomy in its utmoft Perfection.
What will you fay, if I tell you, it is my Belief we are fo far from the
real Summit of the Science, that we Icarce yet know the Rudiments of what
may be expeCted from it. This luminous Circle has often engrofted my
Thoughts, and of late has taken up all my idle Hours; and I am now in
great
3 8 -LETTER the FIFTH,
great Hopes I have not only atlaft found out the real Caufeof It, but alfo
by the fame Hypothefis, which folves this Appearance, lhall be able to de-
monftrate a much more rational Theory of the Creation than hitherto has
been any where advanced, and at the fame Time give you an inure new
Idea of the Univerfe, or infinite Syftem of Things. This mod furprizing
Zone of Light, which have employed fucceffively for many Ages paft,
the wifeft Heads amongft the Antients, to no other Purpofe than barely
to defcribe it; we find to be a perfed Circle, and nearly bifeding the ce-
leftial Sphere, but very irregular in Breadth and Brightnefs, and in many
Places divided into double Streams. _ _
* The principal Part of it runs through the Eagle, the Swan,Cq//iopea,
Perfeus, and Auriga, and continues its Courfe by the Head of Monoceros,
along by the greater Dog through the Ship, and underneath the Centaur s
Feet, till having palled the Alter, the Scorpion's ‘Tail, and the Bow of
Aquarius, it ends at laft where it begun.
PLATE XII, and XIII.
Reprefents the two Hemifpheres, where its true Trad is diftmguilhed
amongft the principal Stars, and may eafily be conceived by them to cir-
cumfcribe and bifed the whole Heavens. . , ,
This is that Phsnomena I am about to explain and account for, but
before I proceed farther, I judge it will be no improper Precogmta, to give
vou the Thoughts of the Antients upon it; the Relation perhaps may re¬
quire fome Patience, but I guefs, that after reading fuch wild and extra¬
vagant Notions concerning it, you will naturally judge more favourably of
the Conjedures of the Moderns upon it, and parucularly of what is con¬
cluded in the fucceeding Pages. Tbeophraflus
*_Carried toward the oppofed Bears ,
Its Courfe clofe by the Artick Circle fleers.
And by inverted CaJJiopea tends ;
Thence by the Swan obliquely it defcends
The Summer Tropick, and Jove's Bird divides ;
Then crofs the Equator, and the Zodiack glides
’Twixt Scorpio’s burning Tail, and the left Part
Of Sagitarius , near the fiery Dart;
Then by the other Centaur's Legs and Feet,
Winding remounts the Skies (again to meet)
By Argos’ Topfail, and Heav’ns middle Sphere,
Pafling the Twins , t’ o’ertake the Charioteer;
Thence CaJJiopea feeking thee does run,
.Q'te Perfeus Head, and Ends where U begun.
LETTER theFIFTH. 3g
Theophraftm * was of Opinion, that the Hemifpheres, which, by many
of the Antients were imagined to be folid, was joined together here ; and
that this was the foldering of the two Parts into one. f Diodorus
thought it celeftial Fire, of a denfe and compadt Nature, feen through the
Clifts or Cracks of the parting Hemifphere : But as Manilius fays,
Aftonilhment mud fure their Senfes reach,
To fee the World’s wide Wound, and HeavVs eternal Breach.
Oenopides || believed it the ancient Way of the Sun, till frighted at the
bloody Banquet of Thyejiis. ** Eratosthenes fuppofed it Juno's
Milk, fpilt whilft giving Suck to Hercules, xt Plutarch makes it the
Effedt of Phaeton's confufed Erratication ; but I think it is plain ff Ovid
judged them to be Stars, and the ancient Ethnicks believed them to be
the blilsful Seats of valiant and heroic Souls.
-—Valiant Souls, freed from corporeal Gives,
Thither repair, and lead aethereal Lives.
Manilius.
* Macrobiusy lib. i. cap. 15.
Or meets Heaven here ! and this white Cloud appears
The Cement of the clofe-wedg’d Hemifpheres!
f The facred Caufes human Breads enquire.
Whether the heavenly Segments there retire,
fThe whole Mafs fhrinking, and the parting Fame
Thro’ cleaving Chinks admits the ftranger Flame.
R Orfeems that old Opinion of more Sway,
That the Sun’s Horfeshere once run adray,
And a new Path mark’d in their draggling Flight,
Of fcorching Skies, and Stars adufted Light.
** Nor muft that gentle Rumour be fuppred.
How Milk once flowing from fair Juno's Bread
Stain’d the celedial Pavement, from whence came
This milky Path, its Caufelhewn in its Name.
tt When from the hurried Chariot Light’nine fled
And fcatter’d blazes all the Skies o’erfpread ; *
By whofe Approach new Stars enkindled were.
Which flill as Marks of that fad Chance ap^ar!
ft A Way there is in Heaven’s expanded Plain
Which when the Skies are clear, is feen below
And Mortals by the Name of Milky know *
The Ground-work is of Stars. *
Manilivs.
Ovid's Met.' lib, i.
But
40
LETTER the FIFTH.
But * Democritus long ago believed them to be an infinite Number of
fmall Stars; and fuch of late Years they have been difcovered to be, firft by
GallaleOy next by Keplar> and now confirmed by all modern Aftronomers,
who have ever had an Opportunity of feeing them through a good Te-
lefcope.
PLATE XIV.
Is from an Obfervation I made myfelf, of a bright Part of this Zone near
the Feet of Antinous -> which, (by a Miftake of the Engraver) is, as it ap¬
pears through a Tube of two convex Glafles. I faw it through a very
good Refledtor, and formed the Plan by a Combination of Triangles.
Milton takes notice of this Zone in a moft beautiful Manner, where he
defcribesthe Creator’s Return from his fix Day’s Work to Heaven, he in¬
troduces it as a Simile to exprefs his Idea of the eternal Way, or Road to
.the celeftial Manfions.
-A broad and ample Road, whofe Dull is Gold
And Pavement Stars, as Stars to thee appear,,
Seen in the Galaxie , that Milky Way,
Which nightly as a circling Zone thou feeft
Powder’d with Stars.
But t6 infer from their Appearance only, that they are really Stars, with¬
out confidering their Nature and Diftance; and that nothing but Stars
could poflibly produce fuch an Effect, may perhaps be afluming too
much, when we have nothing but the bare Credit of the Belgic Glafles to
fupport our Conjectures ; and although this may be fufficient for any Ma¬
thematician, yet for your greater Satisfa/Stion, I have thought proper to
give two or three more evincing Arguments, to confirm thefe important
Difcoveries. Democritus , as I have faid before, believed them to be Stars
long before Aftronomy reaped any Benefit from the improved Sciences of
Optics ; and faw, as we may fay, through the Eye of Reafon, full as far
into Infinity as the moft able Aftronomers in more advantageous Times
have done fince, even aflifted with their beft Glades: And his Conjec¬
tures are almoft as old as the philolaic Syftem of the Planets itfelf j the
Conftru&ion of which, though attempted by many, none have ever yet
been able to confute.
The Light which naturally flows from this Crowd of radiant Bodies is
mixt and confufed, chiefly occalioned by the Agitation of our Atmo-
fphere, and from a Union of their Rays of Light, by a too near Proxi¬
mity of their Beams, altogether they appear like a River of Milk, but
more of a pelucid Nature, running all round the ftarry Regions.
Plutarch (in Placilis Phihfoph.)
For
"
LETTER the FIFTH.
4*
For in the azure Skies its candid Way
Shines like the dawning Morn, or doling Day.
There are alfo many more fuch luminous Spaces to be found in the
Heavens of the fame Nature with thefe, which we know to be Stars; in
particular the Nebula , or cloudy Star in the Prafepe of 36 ; a cloudy Star
in Orion of 21 ; * a cloudy -f* Knot not far from this in the fame Afterifm
of 80; in one Degree of the fame Conftellation 500, and in the whole
Form above ^ 2000. All of which are great Confirmations of the Truth
of our Aflertion, i. e . that this Zone of Light proceeds from an infinite
Number of fmall Stars. Here it will not be amifsto obferve, that it has
been conjectured, and is ftrongly fufpeCted, that a proper Number of Rays,
meeting from different Directions, become Flame ; and that hence it may
prove not the Sun’s real Body which we daily fee, but only his inflamed At-
mofphere. I begin to be of Opinion, and I think not without Reafon,
that the true Magnitude of the Sun is not near what the modern Aftro-
nomers have made it j and that it may not pofiibly be much above two
Thirds of what it appears to us; I don’t mean that this Expanfion of the
folar Flame is any Part of that dilated Light mentioned by Sir Ifaac New¬
ton , and conceived to be round all light Bodies in general; but you may
confider it as not much differing from it, not of an unlike Nature, only
greater in Degree, and peculiar to the Sun and Stars, who are all, as has
been before in a manner demonftrated to be actually Globes of Fire.
This, tho’ I prefume to call itatprefent only meer Hypothefis, will in a
great meafure account for the exceflive Changes in the Conftitution of our
Air and Atmofphere, which we often find very unnatural to the Seafon j
alfo be a Means perhaps of reconciling the vaft Difproportion fo very re¬
markable betwixt the Sun and the lefl'er Planets, and many other Circum-
itances in the Syflem of no fmall Confequence in Aftronomy: One of
which Particulars you have frequently expreffed a great Mifirufi: and
Difapprobation of, as fufpeCtng fome kind of a Fallacy in the Computa¬
tion ; and the other is Matter of general Complaint, being by many attri¬
buted to a Change in the Direction of the Earth’s Axis II j and by fome,
efpecially the Vulgar, to too near an Approximation of the Earth to fome
one of the celeftial Bodies. But all this will very naturally be accounted
for by the Levity, or expanding Quality of the Sun’s circumambient
* Vide Galilao.
1 Betwixt the Sword and Girdle of Orion.
Jf Vide Reitha.
|j Which, through Ignorance of the true Cafe, is commonly called 3 Shock, a Brufh, or
Shove.
G Flame,
42 LETTER the FIFTH.
Flame, or Atmofphere; and hence, according to its various State, being
more condenfed, or rare, we may have Heat or Cold in the greateft Ex-
tream, and alternately fo, in a perpetual Viciflitude.
The Truth of this Do&rine will evidently appear from the Obfervations
of the Sun’s Diameter through the Year 1660, by the indefatigable Mou-
ton: And, I muft own, I am not a little lurprized to find that no Conclufions
have been drawn from them of this Kind. I am perfwaded, if you once
compare thofe Numbers, you will be very far from thinking this an
improbable Suggeftion. But this Digreffion has led me a little too far
from the Via Ladlea, and too near home again ; I muft now think of re¬
turning to the Stars, and my next Endeavours muft be to give you fome
Idea of the Number of them. Through very good Telefcopes there
have been difcovered in many Parts of this enlightened Space, and even
out of it, feveral thoufand Stars in the Compafs of one fquare Degree 5 in
particular near the Sword of Perfeus , and in the Conftellations of * Taurus
and Orion .
PLATE XV.
Reprefents the Pleides , a well known Knot of Stars in the Sign Tau -
rus , as they appeared to me thro’ a one Foot reflecting Telefcope : And
Plate XVI. is a View of the Perjides , another furprizing Knot of Stars
in the Conftellation Perfeus , exactly as they appear through a Tube of
two convex Glafles. There are alfo other luminous Spaces in the ftarry
Regions, not unlike the Milky Way, which I have had no Opportunity
of obferving ; fuch as the Nebeculce , near the South Pole, called by the
Seamen Magellanic Clouds ; and which likewife viewed through Tele¬
fcopes, prefent us with little Nebulae , and fmall Stars interperfed: One of
thefe Kind is fituated between Hydrus and Dorado ; and another, fome-
thing lets than this, betwixt Hydrus and the Toucan .
Now admitting the Breadth of the Via Ladlca to be at a Mean but
nine Degrees, and fuppofing only twelve hundred Stars in every fquare
Degree, there will be nearly in the whole orbicular Area 3,888,000 Stars,
and all thefe in a very minute Portion of the great Expanfe of Heaven. What!
a vaft Idea of endlefs Beings muft this produce and generate in our Minds;
and when we confider them all as flaming Suns, Progenitors, and Primum
Mobiles of a ftill much greater Number of peopled Worlds, what lefs than
an Infinity can circumfcribe them, lefs than an Eternity comprehend them,
* Gahlao, in one cloudy Star of this Conftellation, difcovered no lets than twenty-one,,
and in that of the Pratfepe thirty-fix.
or
_
LETTER the FIFTH. 43
or lefs than Omnipotence produce and fupport them, and where can our
Wonder ceafe ?
In this Place perhaps I ought not to pals over the aftonifliing Pheno¬
menon of feveral new Stars, &c. which have frequently appeared, and
foon again vanilhed, in the fame Point of the Heavens. But as the Bu-
finefs of this Theory is rather to folve the general, than any particula
Phenomenon, I (hall only here by way of Note fubjoin a Table of luch
as has been regularly obferved, and by whom they were firft difcovered.
A Table of feveral new Star s, Nebula, and double Stars, &c.
Nomina Stellarum.
Septima Pleiadum
Obfervationum.
9 Loft after the burning of Troy, but now returned ; fee
C Ricciols.
A new Star in the Swan’s Neck,
A new Star feen in the Whale,
A new Star in the Fox s Head,
v Star in the Swan's Neck.
A b The fameKe^l" t H^aTof } AnM D °'“- 9i !■ br! S ht a! » f « *' W "'
The new Star in CaJJiopea s Chair. Bright as Venus, from November ; 572 to March 1 574,
C Of the 3d Magnitude, is faid to h ave appear’d periodically,
• n 11 r r < feven Times in fix Years, i. e. every three hundred and
A new Star in C olio Le /. p thirteen Days : It was firft obferved in Auguji 1596, for
v two Months, by D. Fabricius
^-Obferved by Kepler in 1600, of the third Magnitude, till
A new Star in the Swan’s Neck, S Year 1659 ; then gradually decreeing; in . 56 . it
\ difappeared ; in 1666 it became vifible again, and is
( yet to be feen of the fixth Magnitude.
A new Star in the Right Foot of Serpen- f Bright as Venus from Oaober 1604 to October 1605 : fee
tarius , t L Kepler.
A new Star in Andromeda s Girdle, Seen by Simon Marius and Fabricius, Anno 1612.
A new Star in Antinous , Seen by Juftus Byrgius.
\ In 1638, by John Proeyclides Holuarda, of the third Mag-
A new Star feen in the Whale, nitude, which difappeared periodically, every three
L hundred and thirty Days.
, V Of the third Magnitude, feen by Hevelius in July 1670.
A new Star in the Fox s Head, A an( j t jn 167^ a lfo from March 1672 to Septem-
C her 1672
c This appear’d periodically every four hundred and four
A new Star in the Swan's Neck. < Days, and about fix Months at a Time ; it was feen at
( its brighteft, September 10, 1714.
Of the Nebulae, or Cloudy Stars.
Nebulofe in Orion's Sword.
Nrbu/oje in Andromeda's Girdle
NAulofe in the Bow of Sagitarius , Small, but very luminous.
Nebulofe in Centaurus , Never feen in England.
A Nebulofe preceding the right Foot of f Obfcure, but with a Star in the Middle of it.
N'tuinDtrfi Hcrculis, Difcovered by Dr. Hally
Befides the Nebulas, and new Stars, it appears from the ancient Catalogues of Heveh us. &c. that
r ones have intirelv vanilhed; in particular, one in the left Thigh of Aquarius, the
fome of .he old one, havMerely van , ^ ^ . Bel , ^ ^ whal the firit
“*?» T f„Zd«« aft® the Scales of Libra, and feveral oihers. Many of .he Stars alfo appear
«■*.*» «hf triple, as one in the FI,lad.,; and .he
-middle one in Orin'i Sabre. and others again, quadruple, fcfr. j wou j,j
44 LETTER the FIFTH.
I would now willingly help you to conceive the indefinite mutual Di-
ftance of the Stars, in order to give you fome fmall Notion of the Im-
menfity of Space ; but as this will be a Talk merely conjectural, I fhall
only defire you to believe it as far as your Reafon will carry you, fafely
fupported by an obvious Probability.
Perhaps it may be necelTary here to acquaint you, that all the Stars are
fo far apparently of different Magnitudes, that no two of them are to be
found in the whole Heavens exadtiy the fame, either in Bignefs or Bright-
nefs *. The larged we have fufficient Reafon to believe is the neared to us ;
the next in Bignefs and Brightnefs more remote ; and fo on to the lead we
fee, which we judge to be the mod remote of all..
The fird Degree, or that of the larged Magnitude, we give to Syrius,
thefecond to Arcturus, the third to Aldebaran, the fourth to Lyra,
the fifth to Capella, the fixth to Regulus, the feventh to Rigel, the
eighth toFoMAHAUNT, and the ninth to Antarus: Thefe are all faid
to be of the fird Clafs; and befides which, there are at lead, within the
Reach of our lated improved Opticks, nine more Denominations within
the Radius of the vifible Creation.
Now, by the certain Return of the Comets, which we find are all go¬
verned by the Laws of this Sydem, and fuppoled to be undidurbed by
any of the others, we cannot avoid concluding, if we confider them at
all to the Purpofe, that the neared Stars cannot be lefs didant than twice
the Radius of the greated Orbit belonging to the Sun. Mod Mathema¬
ticians think this a great deal too near, as it mud of courfe make all the
Sydems join, as in ContaCt 3 and I think we may fafely add, to feparate
their Spheres of Attraction, at lead one Half of this Didance more, which
will make in the Whole about four hundred and twenty Semi-orbits of the
Earth, or 33,600,000,000 Miles. This even the ingenious Mr. Huygifis
endeavours to prove dill much too little, and his Arguments are fuch as
cannot eafily be refuted. His Principle is grounded upon the known Laws
of Analogy, as confidered in the Proportion of light Surfaces, and is as
follows. Having reduced the Sun’s Dilk to the Appearance of the Star
Syrius, by the Help of a fmall Hole at the End of his Telefcope, and
comparing this Part of his Surface to the whole Difk of the Sun, he in¬
fers that the Stars Didance to that of the Sun mud be as 27,664101. Hence
Syrius f\ rom us will be nearly (avoiding Units) 2,213,120,000,000 Miles*.
But this I take to be as much too large as the former is too little 3 yet, as
* A very little Knowledge in Opticks will render this indifputable, and has been in a great
meafure demonlbated before; 1. in the Great D >g ;2. in Bootes; 3. in the Bull; 4. in the Harp
of Apollo-, 5. in Auriga-> 6. in the Lion; 7. in Orion \ 8. in the Southern Filh ; q at the
Fnd ot Erridanus, 7
Mr..
LETTER the FIFTH, 45
Mr. Bradley has, with fome Shew of Reafon, banished all the Stars out
of the Sphere of Parallax, the laft is the only Method we can poflibly
make ufe of with any kind of Confidence; and Sir Ifaac Newton endea¬
vours to recommend it with great Force of Argument, as the only pro¬
bable Means by which we can give any tolerable Guefs at thefe immenfe
Meafurements of Space.
To moderate the Matter then if you pleafe, allow me but to make ufe of
a Mean betwixt the two fore-mentioned Numbers; and we may take it for
granted, a Diftance fufficiently exadt, to fuit all our Wants in the prefent
Cafe, namely, to give a very tolerable Idea of the Extent of the vifible
Creation, which is all I propofe in this Place to attempt; but I mean to
be much more exadt in another.
Now as the Diftance from the Sun to the Earth is fo fmall in Proportion
to the Diftance of the Stars from us, and from one another, we may very
well confider the Sun as the Center of our Station, or Pofition in the general
Syftem or Frame of Nature. And as the Stars are very vifible thro’ good
Telefcopes, to the ninth or tenth Magnitude, if we multiply the primary
Diftance of Syrius , or of any other of his Clafs, by this Number of com¬
mon intermediate Spaces, the Produdt will be equal to the Radius of the
vifible Creation to the folarEye; which, by this Rule, you will find in
capital Numbers to be * nearly 6,000,000,000,000 Miles, taking in a Star
of the fixth Magnitude, and to a Star of the ninth, 9,000,000,000,000
Miles: But this Computation fuppofes a mean common Diftance of the
Stars in a fort of Syzygia, or Diredtion of a Right Line, which is not the
real Cafe; for the Stars cannot be fuppofed to diminifh in a proportional
Magnitude by any mathematical Ratio , but by fome geometrical, or ra¬
ther 5 mufical one; for Inftance, if the Diftance of a firft be 3, that of a
fecond lliould be about 5, and of a proportional Third 8,333,
ad infinitum: But as their true proportional Diftance is unknown, the above
will be fufficient for our prelent Purpofe ; which is only to fliew, without
Exaggeration, the Space we now are truly fenfible of.
This I have here confidered more extenfively, to obviate all Objedtions
that you may make to the Probability of the general Motion of the Stars,
by (hewing no Difficulty can poflibly arife from their apparent Proximity,
Number, or irregular Diftribution: Their Diftances being fo immenfely
large, no Diforder or Confufion can be fuppofed in any Diredtion of them,
or "Motion whatever. The greateft Diftance of the Planets, which all
move undifturbed round the Sun, is about three hundred and fifty-three
Million of Miles: But the lead Diftance of one Star from another, is
* If the Diftance of the Sun and Earth is found too much, which I muft own I have a vio¬
lent Sufpicion of, thefe Numbers mud be reduced in like Proportion.
v upwards
46 LETTERtheFIFTH.
upwards of two thoufand eight hundred and thirty-two Times that Di-
ftance, or one Million of Millions of Miles: And as no fenfible Dis¬
order can be obferved amongft the folar Planets, what Reafon have we
to fuppofe any can be occafioned amongft the Stars, or that a general Mo¬
tion of thefe primary Luminaries round a common Center, (hould be any
way irrational, or unnatural ?
What an amazing Scene does this difplay to us! what inconceivable
Vaftnefs and Magnificence of Power does fuch a Frame unfold ! Suns
crowding upon Suns, to our weak Senfe, indefinitely diftant from each
other j and Miriads of Miriads of Manfions, like our own, peopling In¬
finity, all fubjeCt to the lame Creator’s Wiil ; a Univerfe of Worlds, all
deck’d with Mountains, Lakes, and Seas, Herbs, Animals, and Rivers,
Rocks, Caves, and Trees ; and all the Produce of indulgent Wifdom, to
chear Infinity with endlefs Beings, to whom his Omnipotence may give a
variegated eternal Life.
The aftonifliing Diftance of the ftarry Manfions undoubtedly was defign’d
to anfwer fome wife End: One Confequence is this, and probably is not
without its Ufe: To every Planet of the fame Syftem, the fapie fidereal
Face of Heaven appears without the lead Degree of Change ; and as the
remote!! Regions upon Earth fee the fame Moon and Planets, fo alfo the
Inhabitants of the mod: diftant Planets in ours, or in any other Syftem, fee
the fame Forms and Order of the Stars in common with the red. The
whole Sphere of Heaven being common and unchangeable through all
their various Revolutions.
Thus thofe (the People) in the Planet Venus will fee the Condellation
of Orion juft as we do, and the People in the Planet Saturn , much farther
dill removed, alike will view this Condellation in all refpedts the fame ;
here then, (in the Syftem of the Sun) the Eye removed from us mud: only
hope to find a new Earth furrounded with the fame fort of Sky : But Beings
in another Syftem, behold not only a new Heaven above, but alfo new
Earths below j and all the Frame of Nature to them puts on a new Drefs,
new Signs, new Seafons, and new Planets roll, and a new Sun renews
the Day.
The Heathen Fables here are all erafed with all the Immortality of their
vain earthly Gods and Heroes ; Perfeus and Alcides are no more, and both
the Bears are vani!hed ; the PHads and the Hyads join, and (hiring Leo,
though bo .ding two Stars of the firft Magnitude with us, there no where
can be found, loft in the common undiftinguilhed Herd. But dill Aftro-
noiny will exift, and new-framed Forms may fill the varied Scene.
Perhaps you may expert that I (hould here give you my Conjectures of
what fort of Beings may be fuppoied to relide in the Ens Primum , or Sedes
Beatorum
LETTER the FIFTH. 47
Beatorum of the known Univerfe, whether mortal, immortal, or Creatures
partaking in fome Degree of the Properties of both; as fuch maybe conceiv’d
to change their Natures and States, without a total Diflolution of their Senfes-
by Death : And farther, it may poflibly be judged unpardonable in me not
to point out every blefled Abode, fuited to the Virtues, and all the various
States an immortal Soul may be tranflated to; but this is a Tafk above
the human Capacity, or is the pure Province of Religion alone j the
Bufinefs of a Revelation rather than Reafon to difcover. Befides, it is
enough for the prefent Purpofe, to prove, that Miriads of celeftial Man-
fions, are to be difcovered within our finite View, and by a kind of ocular
Revelation, which vifibly extends the human Profpe&, as it were, far be¬
yond the Grave. It matters not whether a Race of Heroes fill thefe
Worlds, cr a Tribe of happy Lovers people thofe ; whether a Peafant in
the Realms of Orion fhall ever become a Prince in the Regions of Arttu-
rus , or a Patriarch in Procion , a Prophet in the Precepa. Not to mention
all the Stages human Nature may, or have been deftined to in any one
World, as believ’d by the ancient Philofophers, befides the final Coalition
of all Beings much more naturally to be expected in the Sedes Beatorum .
I fay, whatever our Cafe may be with regard to thefe Queries and
Futurity, the Plan and Principles of this Theory will not be at all changed
by it, fince what it is chiefly founded upon may be clearly demonftrated,
fo clearly and inconteflably, that, with the Reverend Dr. Younv % we may
juftly conclude,
Devotion ! Daughter of Aftronomy !
and affirm with him alfo, That,
An indevout Aftronomer is mad.
But I find what I at firfl: propofed will prove too long for this Letter
However, I will endeavour to reward your Patience in my next, and
continue, Gfc.
LETTER
[ 43 ]
LETTER the SIXTH.
Of General Motion amongft the Stars , the Plurality of Syftems , and Innu•
merability oj IVorlds.
S I R,
S INCE my laft, you’ll find by this, fpeaking in the Stile of Ker-
cher , that I have been very far from home, round almoft the vifible
Creation. I have indeed applied myfelf very clofely to tranfcribe
my Thoughts to you upon the old Subject the Milky Way , which my
former Letter left imperfeded. To return then to the Theory of the
Stars, and that yet unreconciled Phaenomenon ; let us reafon a little up¬
on the vifible Order of the Stars in general, and fee what Conclufions can
be drawn from what every Aftronomer knows of them, and cannot be
difputed.
Firft then, that the Stars are not infinitely difperfed and diftributed in
a promifcuous Manner throughout all the mundane Space, without Order
or Defign, is evident beyond a Doubt from this vaft coliedive Body of
Light, fince no fuch Phaenomenon could poflibly be produced by Chance,
or exhibited without a defigned Difpofition of its conftituent Bodies.
If any regular Order of the Stars then can be demon ftrated that will
naturally prove this Phaenomenon to be no other than a certain Effed
arifing from the Obferver’s Situation, I think you muft of courfe grant
fuch a Solution at leaft rational, if not the Truth 5 and this is what I pro-
pofe by my new Theory.
To a Spedator placed in an indefinite Space, all very remote Objeds
appear to be equally diftant from the Eye ; and if we judge of the Via
Lattea from Phenomena only, we muft of courfe conclude it a vaft Rincr
of Stars, flattered promifcuoufty round the celeftial Regions in the Direc¬
tion of a perfed Circle.
But when we confider the explanick Pofition of many other Stars, all
of the fame Nature, and not lefs numerous, together forming the great
Sphere of Heaven, we generally find ourfelves quite at a Lofs how to re-
concileth e two apparent Clafies \ and I know none who have ever been
fuccefsful enough to reduce them to any one general Order.
You’ll
LETTER the SIXTH. 49
You’ll fay probably how (hall we make this chaofic Difpofition of the
primary Luminaries agree with the fecondary Laws, and the juft Har¬
mony obferved in the third * Creation, &c.
The Work now you fee is undertaken, and chiefly at your own Re-
queft, therefore I have a Right to exped you’ll be very indulgent to the
Author, and pafs over all his Faults, and allow him free Argument in
Purfuit of thefe important Truths, which will in the End open perhaps a
much wider Field of Contemplation to us, than at firft could be fuppofed
to be intended by the Genejis of Mofes.
That Deicription of the Beginning of Nature is not without its Beauty
and Noblenefs, fuitable to the Dignity both of the Author and Subjed.
But (hould we even in this knowing Age of the World pretend to ac¬
count for the Original of Things, as Mofes to fupport his believed di¬
vine Legation, was obliged in fome meafure to do, we {hould loon be
reduced to talk in the fame Stile, and perhaps with lefs Probability, than
then at lead appeared in his elegant Account of the Origin of the Univerfe,
efpecially if we do but confider, that what he wrote, was only to the
Senfes of a People who had not yet learnt to make ufe of their Reafon
any other way, but from the Appearance of Things, and upon a Subjed
too fublime for vulgar Capacities in any Age, and had only been attempt¬
ed in the deepeft Learning of Egypt , which, he though well acquainted
with, the Generality of them were totally Strangers to.
In* the firft Place it muft be granted, that the Stars being all of the
fame Nature, are either all immoveable, or all fixed, that is all governed
by one and the fame Principle. . r ,
Now to fuppofe them all fixed, and difperfed in an endlefs Diforder
thro’ the infinite Expanfe, which has long been the Opinion of many very
able Aftronomers amongft the Antients, and even now received by too
many of the Moderns, implies an Inadivity in thofe vaft and principal
Bodies, fo much the Reverfe of what may be expeded, and what we
daily obferve through all the reft of their Attendants, namely, their own
refpedive Satellites, that we cannot pofiibly upon any rational Grounds,
advance one Angle Argument to fupport fo much as a Conjedure towards
it without betraying the greateft Simplicity, and next to an Affirmation
reduce the whole Frame of Nature, and all corporeal Beings to a wild
unmeaning Chance, arifing from an unnatural Difcord and Confufion.
For upon the Principles of Locality and Materiality, you having al¬
lowed me the Ufe of my Senfes and Reafon, as abfolutely neceflary to¬
wards conceiving any Idea of our prefent State, or of Futurity : Upon
* The Moon, Satellites of Saturn and Jupiter , $cq.
H thefe
5 ° LETTER the SIXTH.
thefe Principles I fay, unlefs our Faculties are ufelefs, if there are no other
Bodies or Beings in the Univerfe than what we fee, and are now fenfible
of, we muft now at the Height of this our prefent State, be as near Per¬
fection as we can reafonably exped, and asfuch ourfelvesthe fupreme Be¬
ings of all Beings. To what End then do we form Ideas of a fucceeding
Life, where a more exalted State cannot be hoped for.
How abfurd and impious this is I leave to your own Reafon and Re-
fledion : This is the fatal Rock upon which all weak Heads and narrow
Minds are loft and fplit upon, confequently ought to be the moft carefully
avoided, not only as the Nurfe of Atheifm, but as the dreadful Father of
Defpair: “ For, fay they, thefe unhappy Wretches, to be always the
“ fame, is inconliftent with a Change ; and to be lefs than what we are
“ any where hereafter, is full as difficult to conceive as to be more.’’
Thus, unlefs we admit of fuperior Seats and much more glorious Habita¬
tions than thefe we are fenfible of, we ftrike at the very Root of a fair
fiouriffiing Tree of Immortality, and muft become Authors of our own
Defpair. I have often wonder’d how thinking Men could poffibly fall in¬
to fo grofs an Error, as that of a Spirit’s Annihilation j and I fhould be glad
to alk one of thofe fruitlefs Students, whether, upon the Evidence of our
prefent Being, it is not much more rational, to hope for a future, than to
expeda Ne plus ultra upon no Evidence at all. The Affirmative is*certainly
much more natural to be conceiv’d than the Negative. But if Chance were
the Cafe, and that Chance produced all thefe regular and wondrous Works,
’tis to be wiffied at leaft, that Chance might do the fame again j. and if not
Chance, of courfe an eternal Diredion: But Chance only can effetd
Diforder, Difcord, and Confufion ; ergo , the vifible Harmony and Beauty
of the Creation declare for a Diredion and this muft of Confequer
from itsperfed Nature, proceed from the Wifdom and Power of an eter¬
nal Being, God of Infinity , the Author of all Ideas: And if this primitive
Power produced us his Creatures from nothing, nothing can be want¬
ing to revive our Frames again; and if from fomething, that fomething
muft remain to eftabliffi us in a future Life. But to return, how abfurd it is
to luppofe one Part of the Creation regular,, and the other irregular, or a
vifible circulating Order of Things, to be mixed with Diforder, and cir-
cumfcribing Part of an endlefs Confufion, is obvious to the weakeft Un-
derftanding, and confequently we may reafonably exped, that the Via
La Elea, which is a manifeft Circle amongft the Stars, confpicuous to
every Eye, will prove at laft the Whole to be together a vaft and glorious
regular Produdion of Beings, out of the wondrous Will or Fecundity of
the eternal and infinite one felf-fufficicnt Caufe } and that all its Irregularities
are. only fuch as naturally arife from our excentric View : To demonftrate
which.
LETTER the SIXTH.
5 l
which abfolutely and inconteftibly, we (hall only want this one Poftulata
to be granted, viz. That all the Stars are , or may be in Motion: This, if
one may be allowed to judge of the Whole by the Similitude and Com¬
ment of its Parts, I am perfwaded you will think a very reafonable Af-
fumption; but that you may imbibe a good Opinion of this Aflumption,
and entirely come into this much better to be wifhed Hypothefis,I would
have you confult thefe following Arguments.
Firft, it is allowed, as I have endeavoured to (hew, by all modern Phi-
lofophers, that the Sun and Stars are all of the fame or like Nature ; con-
fequently, that the Stars are all Suns, and that the Sun himfelf is a Star.
PLATE XVII.
Reprefents a kind of perfpedtive View of the vifible Creation, wherein
A reprefents the Syftem of our Sun, B, that fuppofed round Syrius, and
C, the Region about Rigel. The relf is a promifcuous Difpofition of all
the Variety of other Syft’ems within our finite Vifion, as they are fuppofed
to be polited behind one another, in the infinite Space, and round every
vifible Star. That round every Star then we may juftly conjecture a
fimilar Syftem of Bodies, governed by the fame Laws and Principles with
this our folar one, though to us at the Earth for very good Reafons invi-
lible *. Secondly,
The Sun is alfo obferved to have a Motion round his own Axis in about ‘
twenty-five Days. Now, fince all the other f Planets which move in
Orbits round him, and are within our Obfervation, are found to have a
like Rotation round their Axis, may we not as reafonably imagine, that
that Power which was able to give the Sun a Motion round his Axis,
could and would at the fame time, with adequate Eafe, give him alfo an
.orbitular one? and why not, fince no progreffive Mutability can either
take from, or difturb the boundlefs Property of an Infinity j and beiides,
feeing to imagine him at reft, is to impofe fuch an unnatural Stagnation
upon the eternal Faculty, quite repugnant to that imparable Power
which we fuppofe ftands in need of neither Sleep nor Reft ?
’Tis true, the Sun may be faid to be the Governor of all thofe Bodies
round him; but how? no otherwife than he himfelf may be governed
by a fuperior Agent, or a ftill more adtive Force j and methinks it is not a
* Anaximines believed the Stars to be of a fiery Nature ; and that there were certain terre-
firial Bodies that are not feen by us, carried together round them. Stob. Eel. Phyf. cap. 25.
Pythagoras affirmed, that every Star is a Worid, containing Earth, Air, and jEther.
f Saturn, Jupiter , Mars, Venus , the Earth, Moon, and Mercury.
H 2
little
52 LETTER the SIXTH.
tvS “5,crJ“.1 Ni"“ o,b ' r Di " a “ ,h » t,; “ -«■
Thirdly, Froni many Obfervations of the polar Points, and the Obli
quny of the Earth's Equator to the Plane of herfolar Orbit compared to
fiotandtt" IS v "yJ u % ful pe£ted to have changed his fidereal Situa¬
tion , and this mull either arife from a Change in the Pofition of the Earth’s
diurnal Axis, or from, a Removal of the Sun himfelf, out of the primitive
Plane of the Or bis Magnus, I believe you are fo much of a Mathematician
as to know that if either of thefe Fads be allowed , 'I ‘™ tlclan ;
want wil! follow. I fhal. not thereforetreeterTnt t ££?rSSai
vour Confid Ut l “ WlU be neceffar y*° fubmit fome Obfervations to
whereto b?thurd f that T CO , nvi " ce [y ou that there is a Motion feme-
5h t? th dlfcovered > and whether in the Sun, or in the Stars or
don I refer yo V u fo y ° Ur ° W ° Dete “ ion . to affift your Imagina-
PLATE XVIII.
focaStK 4 ! Sgtft reJrefentf n the Ch Glfb d 1
A?glf oTvarlatforrB o' 6 , V* t “ Con ^“ence of the
wilf be produced ^sC B,’J ft 9 W * hat 3 new ec,i P tic P >*™-
,, Q P 0( xi cec v as Vr a d alfo a Varia tion in the greateft Declination
theSun, North and South from the Line °f the Equator D L Hence
5 J“. “I’" 1 /. «f'!» P, N, /„d G, F Will “S
j£ j decreafe > and 15 fll£ ™ m Quantity by the Line of Aberration
E^c °“*** of the
A Table of the Obliquity of the Ecliptic -.
Ante Chrifii Q
*24 Arato
- Hiparchus - _ _ 2 4 00 ^
Ji27 Eratosthenes _ 2 3 5 1 t
“. 2 3 5 1 t
Anm
LETTER the SIXTH.
53
Anno Dom.
140 Ptolomy - -
749 Abategnius
I0 7 ° Airahel
1140 Alomean - _
130° Profatiograd
1458 PuRBACCHlO
1490 Regiomontaus -
1500 Copernicus
1 59 2 Tycho Brahe -
1656 Cassini
2 3
5' T
- 2 3
35 t
- 2 3
34
- 2 3
33
" 2 3
3 2
■ 2 3
2 9 4
' 2 3
3o
’ 2 3
28 4
2 3
21 -i
- 2 3
2 9 4
: Sun’s
Heclina-
NT355' E ^ Hall y> Aftronomer-Royal.
i EcKptic)
Heavens, "direajy to comrade thet
chptic which leems confirmed by the Latitudes of mod of tile reft Thev
had its's££ ^nirthe fed ft ££ St^fh
Sc«h^ r, s
the Days of Hipparchus, in about 10 gr. of Taurus ouoht to’ he^h ’I
r 5 'more foutherly than at prefent, and being the 8 „ h in ^ fjj*
of Gemini , ought to be 20' more foutherlv 5 " , *5 g r *
the firit ao', a § nd the other plaCeS
find them: Nor are thefe the Errors of iSrib^ SlJ" W a™
be right by the Declination of them fet down bv R/S, a k°
'Ttmocharis, Hipparchus, and himfelf- which 1 obferved by
are the fame as thofe Authors intended As o ’ l ^ Latltud L es
W°«*l Colour, „argue totta ‘ 1 ^
I W of the Ecliptic, tat ft*, give M„”1. ‘„lt. N«h Uto*
than
S 4 LETTER THE SIXTH,
than he is now found to have j and that greater Latitude is likewife con¬
firmed by the Declinations delivered by the abovefaid Obfervations: So
then thefe three Stars are found to be above half a Degree more foutherly
at this Time than the Antients reckoned them. When, on the contrary,
at the fame time, the bright Shoulder of Oricrty has, in Ptolomy almoft a
Degree more foutherly Latitude than at prefent, what (hall we fay then?
It is fcarce to be believed, that the Antients could be deceived in fo plain
a Matter, three Obiervers confirming each other. Again, thefe Stars be¬
ing the molt confpicuous in Heaven, are in all Probability the neareft to
the Earth; and if they have any particular Motion of their own, it is
molt likely to be perceived in them, which in fo long a Time as eighteen
hundred Years, may (hew itfelf by the Alteration of their Places, though
it be intirely imperceptible in the Space of one fingle Century of Years:
Yet, as to Syrius, it may be obferved, that Tycho Brahe makes him 2 Min.
more northerly than we now find himj whereas he ought to be above as
much more foutherly from his Ecliptic (whofe Obliquity he makes 2' |
greater than we efteem it at at prefent) differing in the Whole 4' i-.
One Half of this Difference may perhaps be excufed, if Refra&ion were
not allowed in this Cafe by Tycho } yet 2 Min. in luch a Star as Syrius , is
fomewhat too much for him to be miftaken in.
But a more evident Proof of this Change is drawn from the Obfervation
of the Application of the Moon to Pallidum , An . Chrif. 509. Mar. 11.
when, in the Beginning of the Night, the Moon was feen to follow that
Star very near, and feemed to have eclipfed it, tdfrctkte yip 6 arrttp™p&rvv
hZOTOfLiav ixipei tvjc Hvprvg re pi few r ov ftpovg, l. e. S'tella appoflta
erat parti per quain bifecabatur limbus Lunne illummatus , as BullialduSy to
whom we are beholden for this ancient Obfervation, has tranflated it. Now,
from the undoubted Principles of Aftronomy, this could never be true at
Athens , or near it, unlefs the Latitude of Palilicium were much lefs than
we at this Time find it *.
The Motion of Artturus feems further confirmed, from the Obferva¬
tions of Tycho Hevelius and Flamftead ; for Hevelius fets down the Diffance
of that Star from Lyra 4'greater than Tycho had obferved it feventy-
two Years before him, and Flamjlead twenty-two Years after meafured
* Vide Bull nidi AJlr . Philolaica , p t 172.
f Thefe are the neareft and greateft of the fixed Stars, the Motion of the others not having
been obferved, or being at too great a Diftance, are either imperceptible, or have not been
taken notice of.
the
LETTER the SIXTH, ss
the Diftance betwixt the fame two Stars, ftill 3'greater than Hevelim
found it ; fo that if Lyra had Aood ftill all that while, there was an Ap¬
pearance of ArBurns's having gone 7'out of his Place in the Space of
an hundred Years. See Dr. Long's Agronomy, p. 274.
It is further to be obferved, in Confirmation of the Motion of one of
thefe Stars, that Flamfiead found the Diftance of ArRurrn , from the Head
of Hercules 3'greater than it is fet down by the Prince of Heffe ; and that
his Diftance from the Lion's Tail was a little decreafed with c ; ± lefs Lati¬
tude than Tycho had obferved. Hence, to make thefe Obfervations agree,
one or both of them muft have moved together equal to 7' This Change
of Place, which is quite contrary to all known Caufes proceeding from the
Earth, muft therefore be occafioned either by the Motion of the Sun, or by
a particular Motion of their own ; but if, amongft themfelves, they muft all
move, and if all be in Motion, the Sun muft alio move.
If thefe Obfervations, delivered down to us by very able Aftrono-
mers, be either true or near it, as great Allowances have been made for
the Ignorance of the Ages in which they were taken, and the Inaccuracy
of the Inftruments, we may naturally conclude, that thefe Stars muft have
a Motion 5 and if they move, as has been before obferved, the Sun
muft alio; hence he cannot now be in the original Plane of the
Earth’s annual Diredion, or at leaft in the fame identical Place he was at
firft poffeffed of: And if fo, the Stars muft alfo have the like Motion,
though in different Directions, and all may thus be governed by the fame
impullive Power.
To illuftrate this primitive Motion of the Stars, and at the fame time to
Ihow that the Variety which appears in the Quantity of Motion can be no
Objection to it,
See PLATE XVIII. Fig . 2.
Where A reprefents the Eye of an Obferver, and B, E, F, H, various
SyItems, moving in different Directions thro’ the mundane Space; it is evi¬
dent that the Sphere B, having moved from C, and that of E, not hav¬
ing appeared to move at all, there muft be a fenfible Change in the new
Pofition of thefe two Syftems to one another, and fo of the reft; and tho’
the apparent Motion of H, be much more than that of F, from the
Point A, yet from C, they will appear lefs different, and from B, they
will appear nearly equal. And farther, as the Direction from H, is in the
Line I, H, and that of F, in the Line K, G, thofe two Syftems will ap¬
pear to approximate, and the Magnitude of the Star in the firft will be in-
creafed,
56 LETTER fM SIXTH,
creafed, and in the latter diminifhed. Thus, many of the Stars in the
oldeft Catalogues, which were faid to be of the fecond Magnitude, are now
become of the firft, and ieveral of the firft: are now judged to be of the fe¬
cond, &c.
But as this apparent Motion of the Stars at the Earth, mud, from its
Nature, be very fmall, fo as fcarce to be difcovered in fome of them in
lefs than an Age, with any Inflrument by the niceft Obferver, I judge it
will be extremely proper in this Place to propofe fome Method, by which,
in procefs of Time, the Truth of the Theory may be afcertained. The
Way I think mod likely to fucceed is this.
PLATE XIX.
Is a Plan of the principal Stars that form the Pleiades, correctly taken
by a Combination of Triangles, as in the Figure, from whence it will na¬
turally follow, all the whole Form being comprehended in much lefs than
one Degree. That the mod minute local Motion in any one of thofe Stars in
a very few Years, will be made fenfible to an Eye at the Earth. For
Inftance, if any of the Stars that form the Letter A, or T, within the
Term of ten or twenty Years, be found in the leaft to deviate from the
Lines of their prefent Pofition and Dire&ion, it will be evident beyond a
Contradi&ion, that they have a Motion amongft themfelves, and fince at
fuch a Diftance they cannot poffibly be affedted by the Earth, it mud be
a Motion of their own - y and thus if any one can be proved, to change its
Situation, with regard to the reft, we can have no new Difficulty in con¬
cluding that they all may do the fame.
Thus if any of the regular Triangles M B Z, Z P H, A Z M,
TAT , or n O I, &c. in due Time be carefully noted, we may venture
to lay with great Safety, that the thoufandth Part of a Degree will be
plainly difcovered.
PLATE XX.
Is a true Plan and Combination of the principal Stars that form the Per-
sedes, in which other Obfervations may be made in a different Part of
the Heavens, and perhaps with an Opportunity of being ftill more exadt,
the Areas of thefe Triangles, particularly that of 0 I K, and thofe of
p and 5, being much lefs than the former, where the leaft Alteration pof-
lible mud render them fenfibly diftorted. But here it mud be confidered,
ihat the real Motion of the Stars, as well as their apparent, may be, and in
all
Plate, xix.
LETTER the SIXTH. 57
all Likelihood, is extreamly flow, for the mod minute, vifible, local Mo¬
tion, will anfwer all the Purpofes we know in Nature, and the greateft
feems to be that of the proje&ile, or centrifugal Force, which not only
prefer ves them in their Orbits, but prevents them from rufliing all toge¬
ther,- by the common univerfal Law of Gravity, which otherwife, as
a finite Diftribution of either regular or irregular Bodies, they mufl at length
do by Neceflity.
I muft now inform you, that the above Obfervations were eompleated
in the Autumn Season, 1747. and were taken by myfelf j the Letters
A, T, in Plate XIX, and the W in the XXth, as you may fee, having
a very near Refemblance, or Similitude, to the Order thefe Stars are found
to be in, together with the Greek Alphabet, I judged necefiary, by way
of A/lerifm and Nomenclatura , in cafe fuch fhould be wanted, as Data in
future Difcoveries,
I come now to the principal Point in Queftion, which is to find a re¬
gular Difpofition of the Stars araongfl: themfelves, which will naturally folve
both their general and particular Phenomena, efpecially the Nebula
and Milky Way,
lam now , &c.
I
LETTER
( 5 *>
LETTER the SEVENTH.
The Hypothecs, or Theory, fully explained and demonjlrated, proving the
fidereal Creation to be finite~
SIR ,
I K N O W you are an Enemy to all Sorts of Schemes where they
are not abfolutely neceflary, and may poffibly be avoided ; and for
that Reafon I have purpofely omitted many geometrical Figures, and
other Reprefentations in this Work, which might have been inferted and
in fome Places, efpecially here I might have introduced Diagrams, perhaps
more explicit than Words; but as you have frequently obferved, they are
only of Ufe to the few Learned, and contribute more to the taking away
the little Ideas and Knowledge the more ignorant Many may be endued
with, by a prejudicial Impreffion of imperfedt Images, rather than the
adding any new Light to their Undemanding, I have purpofely avoided,
as much as poffible, both here and every where, all fuch complex Dia¬
grams as might be in Danger of betraying any the leaft fuch confcious
Diffidence in you, arifing from the Want of a proper Precogmta in the
Sciences. 4
This Imperfection, much to be lamented, as greatly to the Diladvan-
taee of all mathematical Reafoning, I would willingly always prevent, in my
Readers, and to chufe in my Friend; I (hall therefore content myfelf with
referring you to a few orbicular Figures, concave and convex, as may beft
fuggeft to your Fancy the fimpleft Way, a juft Idea of the Hypothecs I
have fram’d, and naturally enough I hope, render my Theory fo intelligible,
as to help you fufficiently to conceive the Solution aimed at, of the impor¬
tant Problem I have attempted.
As I have faid before, we cannot long obferve the beauteous Parts of
the vifible Creation, not only thofe cf this World on which we live, but
alfo the Myriads of bright Bodies round us, with any Attention, without
being convinced, that a Power fupreme, and of a Nature unknown to us,
prefides in, and govern* it.
LETTER the SEVENTH.
59
The Courfe and Frame of this vaft Bulk, difplay
A Reafon and fix’d Law, which all obey.
Sher. Manilius.
And notwithftanding the many wonderful Productions of Nature in this
our known Habitation, yet the Earth, when compared with other Bo¬
dies of our own Syftem, feems far from being the mod confiderable in it;
and it appears not only very poflible, but highly probable, from what has
been faid, and from what we can farther demonftrate, that there is as
great a Multiplicity of Worlds, varioufly difperfed in different Parts of the
Univerfe, as there are variegated Objects in this we live upon. Now, as
we have no Reafon to fuppofe, that the Nature of our Sun is different
from that of the reft of the Stars; and fince we can no way prove him fu-
perior even to the leaft of thole furprifing Bodies, how can we, with
any Shew of Reafon, imagine him to be the general Center of the whole,
i, e- of the vifible Creation, and feated in the Center of the mundane
Space ? This, in my humble Opinion, is too weak even for Conjecture,
their apparent Diftribution, and * irregular Order argue fo much a-
gainft it.
The Earth indeed has long polfelfed the chief Seat of our Syfiem, and
peaceably reigned there, as in the Center of the Univerfe for many Ages
pall i but it was human Ignorance, and not divine Wifdom, that placed
it there j fome few indeed from the Beginning have difputed its Right to
it, as judging it no way worthy of fuch high Eminence. Time at length
has difcovered the Truth to every body, and now it is juftly difplaced
by the united Confent of all its Inhabitants, and inftead of being thought
the moll majeftick of all Nature’s lower Works, now rather difgraces the
Creation, fo much it is reduced in its prefent State from what it had
Reafon to expeCt in the former.
Now it is no longer the only terreftrial Globe in the Univerfe, but is
proved to be one of the leaft Planets of the folar Syftem, and furprizingly
inferior to fome of its Fellow Worlds. The Sun, or rather the Syftem,
has almoft as long ufurped the Center of Infinity, with as little Pretence
to fuch Pre-heminence ; but now, Thanks to the Sciences, the Scene be¬
gins to open to us on all Sides, and Truths fcarce to have been dreamt of,
before Perfons of Obfervation had proved them poflible, invades our Senfes
* See the Zodaical Conftellations, you’ll find that in fome Signs there are feveral Stars of
the fir It, fecond, and third Magnitude, and in many others none of thefe at all.
I 2 with
6o LETTER the SEVENTH.
with a Subject too deep for the human Underftanding, and where our
very Reafon is loft in infinite Wonders. How ought this to humble everv
Mind fufceptible of Reafon ! *
In this Place, I believe, you will pardon a Digreflion ; which, in An-
fwer to Part of your laft Letter, I judge will not be very impertinent tho*
perhaps juft here I cannot fo well juftify it..
Your late Converfation with our Friend Mr. * * * I am perfwaded
muft have been very entertaining ; but I cannot help thinking his Reflec¬
tions upon the Wonders of Nature and the Wifdom of Providence though
I muft allow them all to be very juft and curious, inftead of elevating
the Mind to the Pitch he would have it, rather as confidered above de &
prefs it below the proper, nay I might fay neceffary, Standard of human
Ideas.
This, probably, you’ll fay is an odd Turn, and may want fome Ex¬
planation, fince every Object in the Chain of Nature, muft of Force be
granted, a Subjed worthy of our Speculations, being all together made
as in the Maximum of Wifdom : But what I mean is this, fince nothing is
more natural for Beings in every State in fearch after their own Advan¬
tages, and the Enlargement of their Ideas to look upward, fure it may be
prefumed, that Time may be mifpent, if not loft in infpedting too'nar¬
rowly Things fo little benefical in States below us as Mr. Pope fays*
Why has not Man a microfcopic Eye ?
For this plain Reafon, Man is not a Fly.
Say what the Ufe, were finer Opticks given.
To infpeft a Mite, not comprehend the Heav’n.
EJfay on Mam.
Amufement alone can never be fuppofed to be the foie End of human
Life,where even true Happinefs is a Thing we rather tafte than enjoy The
Mind we find capable of much more rational Plealure than can poflibly
fall within the Reach of human Power, either to promife or procure it •
but then this very Defetf; in our prefent State of Exiftence affords us no
lefs than a moral Affurance, that fome where in a future, we may if we
pleafe, be entitled to the very Plenum of all Enjoyments
The peculiar Bufinefs then of the human Mind naturally precedes its
Amufements, as evidently ordained to foar above all the inferior Beings of
this Wo. Id j and however our Natures may, thro’ Indolence, or ihro’
Ignorance, degenerate, that of the Man can never be fuppofed to fink into
the Mole. rr
The propereft Way then fure for Men to preferve their Pre-heminence
ever the Brute Creation,, is to make ufe of that Reafon and Reflexion,
which
LETTER the SEVENTH, Q r
which fo manifeftly diftinguiihes their natural Superiority. A right Appli¬
cation of which, mult of courfe then direa us to a forward, rather than
a backward Search in the vaft vifible Chain of our Exigence, which clearly
connects all Beings and States as under the Diredion of one fupreme Agent.
This is all J would have underflood by the foregoing Polition, which
in one Word, implies no more than that the fublimc Philofophy ou»ht
mall Reafon to be preferred to the Minute; but I hope you will not infer
from this my feeming Partiality for the celeftial Sciences, that I mean to
mfinuate, that the Study of terreftrial Phyficks is not a rational Amufe-
ment.
Mr.***, you fay, feems to lament the Tafle of Mankind in general much
in the fame Degree as you do his I readily grant you ; a Man who can talk
fo well upon an Ant, might make a more entertaining Difcourle upon the
Eagle; but I beg his Pardon, and though we are all too ready, and moil
apt to condemn all fuch Pleafures as vain or trifling, which we have no
Share in, orTafte for ourfelves; yet I don’t think it follows, that thofe in-
genious Labours of his are ufelefs. The Pleafures arifing from natural
Philofophy are all undoubtedly great ones, whether we confider Nature in
her higheft, or in her loweft Capacity ; the Beauties of the Creation are
every Day varied to us below, as much they are every Night above, and in
both Cafes, through every Object, the Creator fhines fo manifeft, that we
may juftly confider him every where fmiling full in the Face of all his
Creatures, commanding as it were an awful Reverence, and RefpeCt, due
not only to his Omnipotency, but alfo to his infinite Goodnefs and endlefs
Indulgences. This is the only Return our Gratitude can make for all thofe
Bleflings he daily beftows upon us, and to this great Author of her Laws
Nature herfelf cries aloud through Myriads of various Objects, and after
her own expreflive and peculiar Manner, feems to command us with an
attractive Grace, to oblerve her Sovereign, and admire his Wifdom. The
Majefty, Power, and Dominion of God is belt difplayed in the external
Direction of Things, his Wifdom and vifible Agency in the internal •
Hence, by proper Objects, feleCted from both, attended with juft Re-*
flections, we may certainly raife our Ideas almoft to the Pitch oflmmor-
tals; buthow far the human Imagination may poflibly go, or how much.
Minds like ours may be improved, is a Queftion not eafily determined -
but as natural Knowledge evidently increafes daily, and aftronomical En¬
quiries are the moft capable of opening our Minds, and enlarging our
Conception, of com'equence they muft be moft worthy our Attention of
all other Studies. But of this I have faid enough, and think it is now
more than Time to attempt the remaining Part of my Theory.
When
6 g LETTER the SEVENTH.
When we reflect upon the various Afpeds, and perpetual Changes of
the Planets, both with regard to their * heliocentric and geocentric Mo¬
tion, we may readily imagine, that nothing but a like eccentric Pofition of
the Stars could any way produce fuch an apparently promifcuous Differ¬
ence in fuch other wife regular Bodies. And that in like manner, as the
Planets would, if viewed from the Sun, there may be one Place in the Uni-
verfe to which their Order and primary Motions muft appear moft regular
and moft beautiful. Such a Point, I may prefume, is not unnatural to be
fuppofed, altho’ hitherto we have not been able to produce any abfolute
Proof of it. See Plate XXV.
This is the great Order of Nature, which I fhall now endeavour to
prove, and thereby folve the Phaenomena of the ViaLadlea ; and in or¬
der thereto, I want nothing to be granted but what may eafily be allow¬
ed, namely, that the Milky JVay is formed of an infinite Number of fmall
Stars.
Let us imagine a vaft infinite Gulph, or Medium, every Way ex¬
tended like a Plane, and inclofed between two Surfaces, nearly even on
both Sides, but of fuch a Depth or Thicknefs as to occupy a Space equal
to the double Radius, or Diameter of the vifible Creation, that is to take
in one of the fmalleft Stars each Way, from the middle Station, perpen¬
dicular to the Plane’s Direction, and, as near as poffible, according to our
Idea of their true Diftance.
But to bring this Image a little lower, and as near as poflible level to every
Capacity, I mean fuch as cannot conceive this kind of continued Zodiack,
let us fuppofe the whole Frame of Nature in the Form of an artificial Ho¬
rizon of a Globe, I don’t mean to affirm that it really is fo in Fad:, but
only ftate the Queftion thus, to help your Imagination to conceive more
aptly what I would explain *. Plate XXIII. will then reprefent a juft
Sedion of it. Now in this Space let us imagine all the Stars fca'ttered
promifcuoufly, but at fuch an adjufted Diftance from one another, as to
fill up the whole Medium with a kind of regular Irregularity of Objeds.
And next let us confider what the Confequence would be to an Eye fituated
near the Center Point, or any where about the middle Plane, as at the
Point A. Is it not, think you, very evident, that the Stars would there ap¬
pear promifcuoufly dilperfed on each Side, and more and more inclining to
Diforder, as the Obierver would advance his Station towards either
Surface, and nearer to B or C, but in the Diredion of the general Plane
towards H or D, by the continual Approximation of the vifual Rays,
crowding together as at H, betwixt the Limits D and G, they muft in-
* Not to mention their feveral Conjun&ions and Apulces to fixed Stars, &V. fee the State
of the Heavens in 1662, December the firft, when all the known Planets were in one Sign of
*he Zodiac, viz. Sagittarius.
fallibly
Pl.^VTK, .XXI .
LETTER the SEVENTH. 6y
Mibly terminate in the utmoft Confufion. If your Opticks fails you be¬
fore you arrive at thefe external Regions* only imagine how infinitely
greater the Number of Stars would be in thofe remote Parts, arifing thus
from their continual crowding behind one another, as all other Objects
do towards the Horizon Point of their Perfpe&ive, which ends but with
Infinity: Thus, all their Rays at laft fo near uniting, muft meeting in the.
Eye appear, as aim off, in Contact, and form a perfect Zone of Light; this
I take to be the real Cafe, and the true Nature of our Milky P/ay, and
all the Irregularity we obferve in it at the Earth, I judge to be intirely
owing to our Sun’s Pofition in this great Firmament, and may eafily be
folved by his Excentricity, and the Diverfity of Motion that may naturally
be conceived amongft the Stars themfelves, which may here and there, in
different Parts of the Heavens, occafion a cloudy Knot of Stars, as perhaps
at E.
But now to apply this Hypothefis to our prefent Purpofe, and reconcile
it to our Ideas of a circular Creation, and the known Laws of orbicular
Motion, fo as to make the Beauty and Harmony of the Whole confident
with the vifible Order of its Parts, our Reafon muft now have recourfe to
the Analogy of Things. It being once agreed, that the Stars are in Motion,
which, as I have endeavoured in my laft Letter to fhew is not far from
an undeniable Truth, we muft next confider in what Manner they move.
Firft then, to fuppofe them to move in right Lines, you know is contrary
to all the Laws and Principles we at prefent know of; and fince there are
but two Ways that they can pofiibly move in any natural Order, that is,
either in right Lines, or in Curves, this being one, it muft of courfe be
the other, i.e> in an Orbit; and confequently, were we able to view them
from their middle Pofition, as from the Eye feated in the Center of Plate
XXV. we might expeCt to find them feparately moving in all manner of
Directions round a general Center, fuch as is there reprefented. It only now
remains to fhew how a Number of Stars, fo difpofed in a circular Manner
round any given Center, may folve the Phenomena before us. There are
but two Ways poftible to be propofed by which it can be done, and one
of which I think is highly probable ; but which of the two will meet
your Approbation, I fhall not venture to determine, only here inclofed I
intend to fend you both. ’I he firft is in the Manner I have above de-
fcribed, e. all moving the fame Way, and not much deviating from the
fame Plane, as the Planets in their heliocentric Motion do round the
folar Body. In this Cafe the primary, fecondary, and tertiary conftituent
Orbits, &c. framing the Hypothefes, are reprefented in Plate XXII, and the
Confequence of fuch a Theory arifing from fuch an univerfal Law of Mo¬
tion
Q4 L E T T E R THE SEVENTH.
tion in Plate XXIII. where B, D denotes the local Motion of the Sun in
the true OrbisMagnus, and E, C that of the Earth in her proper fecondary
Orbit, which of courfeis fuppofed, as is fhewn in the Figure to change its
fidereal Pofitions, in the fame Manner as the Moon does round the Earth,
and confequently will occafion a kind of Procefiion, or annual Variation
in the Place of the Sun, not unlike that of the Equinoxes, or Motion of all
the Stars together, from Weft to Eaft round the Ecliptic Poles, and pro¬
bably may in fome Degree be the Occafion of it. This Angle is repre¬
sented, but much magnified, by the Lines F, C, G, and the Unnatural-
mefs, or Abfurdity of a right Line Motion of the Sun by the Line I, H.
The fecond Method of folving this Phenomena, is by a fpherical
Order of the Stars, all moving with different Dire&ion round one com-
.mon Center, as the Planets and Comets together do round the Sun, but
in a kind of Shell, or concave Orb. The former is eafily conceived, from
what has been already faid, and the latter is as eafy to be underftood, if
you have any Idea of the Segment of a Globe, which the adjacent Figures,
-will, I hope, affift you to. The Doftrine of thefe Motions will perhaps
be made very obvious to you, by infpe&ing the following Plates.
PLATE XXIV.
Is a Reprefentation of the Convexity, if I may call it fo, of the intire
-Creation, as a univerfal Coalition of all the Stars confphered round one
general Center, and as all governed by one and the fame Law.
PLATE XXV.
Is a centeral Se&ion of the fame, with the Eye of Providence feated
in the Center, as in the virtual Agent of Creation.
PLATE XXVI.
JReprefents a Creation of a double Conftru&ion, where a fuperior Or-
xier of Bodies C, may be imagined to be circumfcribed by the former one
A, as pofiefling a more eminent Seat, and nearer the fupream Prefence,
and confequently of a more perfect Nature. Laftly,
PLATE XXVII.
Reprefents fuch a Section, and Segments of the fame, as I hope will
give you a perfeft Idea of what I mean by fuch a Theory.
Fig. i. is a correfponding Section of the Part at A, in Fig . 2. whofe
verfed Sine is equal to half the Thicknefs of the ftarry Vortice A C, or
3 A. Now I fay, by fuppofing the Thicknefs of this Shell, 1. you may
imagine the middle Semi-Chord A D, or A E, to be nearly 6; and con¬
fequently,
PLATE, DOCST.
IKLATE ZXXVTCI.
Tigrure I.
PLATE. XXIX.
Figure I .
Fig. II .
LETTER the SEVENTH. 6 5
thus in a like regular Diftribution of the Stars, there mull of courfe be at
leaft three Times as many to be feen in this Direction of the Sine or
Semi-chord A E, itfelf, than in that of the femi-verfed Sine AC, or
where near the Direction of the Radius of the Space G. ^E. D.
But we are not confined by this Theory to this Form only, there may
be various Syftems of Stars, as well as of Planets, and differing probably
as much in their Order and Diftribution as the Zones o i Jupiter do from
the Rings of Saturn, it is not at all neceflary, that every collective Body
of Stars fhould move in the fame Diredion, or after the fame Model of
Motion, but may as reafonably be fuppofed as much to vary, as we find
our Planets and Comets do.
Hence we may imagine fome Creations of Stars may move in the Di¬
rection of perfect Spheres, all varioufly inclined, dired and retrograde;
others again, as the primary Planets do, in a general Zone or Zodiack, or
more properly in the Manner of Saturn' s Rings, nay, perhaps Ring with¬
in Ring, to a third or fourth Order, as fhewn in Plate XXVIII. nothing
being more evident, than that if all the Stars we fee moved in one vaft:
Ring, like thofe of Saturn , round any central Body, or Point, the gene¬
ral Phtenomena of our Stars would be folved by it; fee Plate XXIX. Fig. i .
and 2. the one reprefenting a full Plane of thefe Motions, the other a Pro¬
file of them, and a vifible Creation at B and C, the central Body A, be¬
ing fuppofed as incognitum, without the finite View ; not only the Phe¬
nomena of the Milky Way may be thus accounted for, but alfo all the cloudy
Spots, and irregular Diftribution of them v and I cannot help being of
Opinion, that could we view Saturn thro’ a Telefcope capable of it, we
fhould find his Rings no other than an infinite Number of lefler Planets infe¬
rior to thofe we call his Satellites: What inclines me to believe it, is this
this Ring, or Colledion of fmall Bodies, appears to be fometimes very excen-
tric, that is, more diftant from Saturn's Body on one Side than on the other,
and as vifibly leaving a larger Space between the Body and the Ring • which
would hardly be the Cafe, if the Ring, or Rings, were connefted, or
folid, fince we have good Reafon to fuppofe, it would be equally attract¬
ed on all Sides by the Body of Saturn , and by that means preferve every
where an equal Diftance from him ; but if they are really little Planets,
it is clearly demonftrable from our own in like Cafes, that there may be*
frequently more of them on one Side, than on the other, and but very
rarely, if ever, an equal Diftribution of them all round the Saturnian
Globe.
How much a Confirmation of this is to be wifhed, your own Curiofity
may make you judge, and here I leave it for the Opticians to determine.
I fhall content myfelf with obferving that Nature never leaves us without
K a fuffi-
66 LETTER the SEVENTH,
a fufficient Guide to conduct us through all the neceffary Paths of Know¬
ledge ; and it is far from abfurd to fuppofe Providence may have every
where throughout the whole Univerfe, interfperfed Modules of every
Creation, as our Divines tell us, Man is the Image of God himfelf.
Thus, Sir, you have had my full Opinion, without the leaft Referve,
concerning the vifible Creation, confidered as Part of the finite Univerfe $
how far I have fucceeded in my defigned Solution of the Via Lafiea,
upon which the Theory of the Whole is formed, is a Thing will hardly
be known in the prefent Century, as in all Probability it may require fome
Ages of Obfervation to difcover the Truth of it.
It remains that I fhould now give you fome Idea of Time and Space j
,b;it this will afford Matter fufficient for another Letter.
I am , 6cc.
LETTER
( (>7 )
LETTER the EIGHTH.
Of Time and Space,
with regard to the known Objects of Immenfity and
Duration .
SIR,
T H E Opportunity you gave me in your laft Vifit, of /hewing you
my general Scheme of the Univerfe, I find, befides the Pleafure
it then gave, is now attended with many ufeful Advantages.
I now not only hope to be better underftood for the future, but have
reafon to expeCt what I now write will merit your Attention more, and
have Tome Title to your Approbation. The Ideas I have fram’d of
Time and Space, will now more gradually fill your Imagination both
with Wonder and Delight, before they can arife fo high as to be loft in
an Eternity and the Infinity of Space. And I am fully perfwaded your far¬
ther Inquiries into thefe vaft Properties of the Deity, will here be anfwered
intirely to your Satisfaction. You muft allow me now to be in fome
meafure a Judge of what I think will pleafe you moft, from the Obferva-
tions you have made upon my general Syftem, or otherwife you would have
reafon to think me perhaps too prefuming: But I flatter myfelf the great
Difficulty is now over j and what remains to be faid, will alfo naturally
follow from what has gone before, that this Letter, I guels, will go near
to furnifh you with all the Ideas you wi/h to form upon the SubjeCt.
To what you have faid of my having left out my own Habitation in my
Scheme of the Univerfe, having travell’d fo far into Infinity as both to lofe
fight of, and forget the Earth, I think I may juftly anfwer as Ariftotle did
when Alexander , looking over a Map of the World, enquir’d of him for the
City of Macedon ; ’tis faid the Philofopher told the Prince, That the
Place he fought for was much too fmall to be there taken Notice of, and
was not without fufficient Reafon omitted.
The Syftem of the Sun compar’d but with a very minute Part of the
viflble Creation, takes up fo (mall a Portion of the known Univerfe, that
in a very finite View of the Immenfity of Space, I judg’d the Seat of the
Earth to be or very little Confequence, could 1 have poflibly reprefented
it,, as not only being one of the fmaileft ObjeCts in our Regions, but in a
& 2 manner
68 LETTER the EIGHTH.
manner infinitely lefs than even her own annual Orbit, and had nothing to
do with my main Defign, which was to reprefent all our planetary Worlds
as one collective Body, and begin my comparative Scale of Magnitude
from the Sun only and his Sphere of activity; as the fmalleft ObjeCt I
could with any Propriety pretend to exprefs in fuch a Plan.
In fome Meafure to convince you that I have committed no Error
in this, I will try by fome lefs mathematical Method than that of meer
Numbers, to imprint an Idea in your Mind of the true Extent of the fo-
lar Syftem, and the Magnitude of all its moving Bodies, by natural Ob¬
jects moft familiar to your Senfes. When we endeavour to form any Idea
of Diftance, Magnitude, or Duration, by Numbers only, we fo foon ex¬
ceed the Limits of Conception, that this way we find our Faculties of
reafoning as finite as our Senfes; and no doubt ’tis right it fhould be fo,
Providence, as it were, having ordain’d that the firft (hould only attend
the laft, in fuch an adequate Degree to a determin’d Diftance j but what
Diftance or Degree of Knowledge is deftin’d to human Nature, none
but the Power that gave it can tell. ’Tis certain that beyond the third or
fourth Place of our Nomenclator, we receive but very faint Impreflions
of the thing expreft, and can frame fcarce any Notion at all of either
Number, Diftance, or Magnitude, fignified beyond it : Hence Aftro-
nomers are frequently oblig’d to have recourfe to mixt Ideas, and make
Things of different Natures and Properties afiift each other, to excite
more adequate Ideas of what they would have conceived. Thus to ex¬
prefs immenfe Diftances and Magnitude, they frequently apply themfelves
to Time and Motion j and vice verfa y to fignify a long Duration, they
have often recourfe to Diftance and Matter, removing, in Imagination,
Worlds of Sand, Grain after Grain, to fome remote known Region.
HeJiodj * to exprefs his Idea of the Diftance from his higheft Heaven
to Earth, and from Earth to Hell, or Tartarus , fuppofes an Anvil to be
let fall from one to the other, which he fays in nine natural Days would
reach the Earth from Heaven, and in the fame time would fall from the
Earth to Hell, f Homer makes his Vulcan fall from Heaven to the Bland
of Lemnos in much lefs Time, not exceeding one full artificial Day.
* From the high Heaven a brazen Anvil calf.
Nine Nights and Days in rapid Whirls would laft.
And reach the Earth the Tenth, whence ftrongly hurl’d j
The fame the Pillage to th’ infernal World.
CooKI,
f Hurl'd headlong downward from th’ etherial Height j
Tofs’d all the Day in rapid Circles round,
Nor till the Sun defeendeu touch’d the Ground.
Pope.
Modern
LETTER the EIGHTH. 69
Modern Aftronomers have made ufe of the fwifteft Velocity of a Can¬
non-Ball as continued thro’ the Space they would fo defcribe, and in this
Light, the Diftance to the Sun has been by many compar’d to twenty-
five Years Motion of a Cannon-Ball, fuppofing it to travel at the Rate of
100 Fathom in a Moment, Le. the Pulfe of an Artery ; and that a Jour¬
ney fo performed to one of the neareft fix’d Stars, would take the fame
Body at leaft 100,000 Years before it could arrive there. But the Method
I have chofe to convey my Ideas of the Magnitude of the planetary Bo¬
dies, and the Extent of the vifible Creation to you, I am willing to hope
you will find ftill more familiar, com prehen five, and eafy : And it only
depends upon your Remembrance of a very few known Objeds, and their
neighbouring Diftances, which may be prefumed you are, or have been,
very well acquainted with. You have not only very lately but very often
been in London , and muft, I think, retain fome Idea of the Dome of St.
Paul's, tho’ I own I ought not to be forry if you fhould chance to have
forgot it, provided it might prove a Means of making your Vifits more
frequent. The Diameter of the Dome of this Church is 145 Feet: Now
if you can imagine this to reprefent the Surface of the Sun, a fpherical
Body 18 Inches diameter, will juftly reprefent the Earth in like Propor¬
tion j and another of only five Inches diameter, will reprefent the Moon.
The Truths of thefe Proportions I have lhewn in my Clovis Caleftis; and
the Reafon why I have here fixt upon the Dome of this Church for my
firft Objed of Comparifon, will naturally appear from what follows.
From the Magnitude of the Earth on which we live, as from a known
Scale with refped to its Parts compar’d with our own Bodies, we natu¬
rally frame our firft Ideas of Extent, and fix our Rationale of Remotenefs;
by which we are fufficiently enabled to judge of all other fenfible Di¬
ftances within one finite View. And hence by the undoubted Principles
of Geometry, having firft given the Meafurement of the Earth in any
known Proportion with any other Quantity moft familiar to our Senfes,
and the Angle of Appearance, or Parallax to any perceivable Objed, we
can eafily find in homogenial Parts its true Diftance from the Eye. And
thus allowing for fome fmall tho’ unavoidable Errors, that may pdffibly
arife from the Difficulties of Obfervation (efpecially fmall Angles and mi¬
nute Quantities) we can always determine to a fufficient, and very fre¬
quently to a juft Exadnefs, the relative Diftance of all vifible Bodies, re¬
mote or near, fuch as the Planets, Comets, and the Sun.
• In this Manner Aftronomers having procur’d a comparative Standard,
reduc’d to fome known Meafure, as E?iglijh Miles, Leagues, Semi-Orbs or
Orbits,
* Parallax is the changeable Pofition of Bodies to different Situations of the Eye. Firft
having found the Quantity of a Degree ( 7 . e. a 6oth Part of the Circumference) upon the
Earth's
7 o LETTER THE EIGHTH.
Orbits, with all the Force of analogical Reafoning, clearly can demonftratc
the Place and Diftance of any ObjeCt within the Reach of Obfervation,
and judge of Diftances almoft indefinite.
PLATE XXX.
Will help you to very correct Ideas of the real Magnitude of the Globe
of the Earth, compar’d with the juft Extent of the Ifland o f Great-Britain,
which you will find with Ireland , and the reft of its Elands, feated near
the Center of the Projedion. This as a Standard will enable you to judge
of all other Diftances more perfedly and firft I fhall confider that of
the Sun.
The Sun is found to be mean diftant from the Earth nearly 81 Mil¬
lions of Miles, or 6877,5 Diameters of the Earth ; and a Saturn, the remo-
teft Planet from him is at his greateft Diftance from us about 858 Mil¬
lions of Miles : Yet thefe Diftances are but the beginning, of Space* and
only ferve to open our Ideas for farther ..Search,
The great Comet of 1680, as I have fome where laid before, was
found to move in fo vaft an excentrick Orbit, that in its aphelion Point
it would be 14,4 Times as far from the Sun, as the Orbit of Saturn , and
hence at lead eleven thoufand and two hundred Millions of Miles from us.
Now fince the wife Creator hath fo difpos’d all the independent Parts of
the Creation, fuch as the feveral Syftems of primary and fecondary Pla¬
nets, at fo great a Diftance from each other, that the Laws of any one
in no wife (hall interfere, difturb, or interrupt the Principles of another;
this Comet, which we can eafily prove belong’d to our own Sun, we
may well imagine came not near any other; and tho’ at that vaft Diftance
from the folar Body, yet ftill there muft have remain’d a Space fufficient
to divide or feperate the fenfible activity of neighbouring Syftems, that
they may not rufh upon each other. Hence we may reafonably fuppofe,
that the neareft Star can be no nearer than a triple Radius of its active
Sphere ; and provided they are all in regular Order, and much of the fame
Magnitude with one another (which no Arguments can poflibly contra¬
dict) this Radius we may juftly make 2000 times the Diftance of our
Earth. For admitting the utmoft Limits of the Sun’s Attraction to ex¬
ceed this Sphere of the Comets,, as far as the Sphere of the Comets
Earth’s Surface, rfratofthenes difcover’d that the Magnitude of the whole was eafily known ;
and then from the Moon’s horizontal Parallax having given the Radius of the Earth, the Dif¬
tance of the Moon is foon determined ; next by the menftrual Parallax of the Lunar Orbit,
the Diftance of the Sun is found ; and by the Elongation of the inferior Planets, their mutual
Diftance from each other; and, laftly, from the annual Parallax of the Earth’s Orbit, all
the othe* Orbits of the fuperior Planets are eafily found.
exceeds
I
THE
EARTH
PLATE XXX.
LETTER the EIGHTH. 7 i
exceeds that of the Planets, which is nearly 14,4 times, the Radius of the
folar Syftem will be extended every way 200 Radius’s of the Orbit of Sa¬
turn, and confequently the Diftance from Star to Star will not be lefs
than 6000 times the Radius of our Orbis Magnus , and confequently up¬
wards of 480,000,000,000 Miles. That this is even lefs than the real
Truth, and may be defended as a very moderate Computation, ground¬
ed upon Reafon, we have infallible Demonftration to witnefs, and make
appear as thus.
We know from the Nature of Diftance and Motion that the Stars may
have an annual Parallax, but it is fo very fmall, that the very beft Aftronoiners
have never yet been able to aflign what the Quantity really is. Yet it is
allow’d by univerfal Confent, that it can’t poflibly be more that one Mi¬
nute of a Degree, and may probably be much lefs. Mr. Flamjlead, by re¬
peated Obfervations, made it in fome of them upwards of 40 /y ; but Mr.
Bradley has endeavour’d to prove it is every where too fmall to be de¬
termined, and afligns this Angle to another Caufe. This way then we
cannot make their Diftance lefs j and to prove that it is fomething more
than I have faid it is, let us even increafe the doubtful Parallax of 40 " to
the moft it poflibly can be, viz. to 60 n or i'j and by the Solution of
the Triangle, we fhall find that the neareft Star is 6875 times the Radius
of the Earth’s Orbit from the Sun : And this tho’ more than any other
Proportion makes them, is ftill undeniably lefs than the Truth, which
every Mathematician will of courfe be convinc’d of; and you yourfelf of
force muft believe, when you are told, that the fmaller the Angle of Pa¬
rallax is, the farther the Body is remov’d from us. By which Rule, ac¬
cording to Mr. Flamjlead 's Obfervations, the Diftance muft be ftill greater:
By the optical Experiment of * Mr. Huygins, greater ftill than this; and
according to Mr. Bradley , fo much more as not even too be determin’d.
Now if the reft are in general from each other, allowing the fame
Extent of Syftem, and as much to part the like Extreams of adive Vir¬
tue, be in fuch Proportion of aerial Space, it will appear, that to pafs
from any one Star to another, we muft fly thro’ fo vaft a Trad of pure
Expanfe or Ether, that to vifit any one of the moft neighbouring Syftems,
could we travel even as faft as the fwifteft Eagle fljes, for Inftance, 500 Miles
per Day, yet lhould we be 3,000,000 of Years upon our way before we
could arrive there; and if continuing on to view the Regions of the reft
within the known Creation, Myriads of Ages would be fpent, and yet
we could not hope to fee the whole of but the fmalleft Conftellation.
* 27664 Radius’s of the Orbis Magnus, equal to the Diftance of Syrius, whofe Parallax
ihould be to anfwer it but 14" 48"'.
But
7 2 LETTER the EIGHTH.
But what Idea of Diftance can you receive from this fort of Eftima-
tion, where Numbers arife fo very high. I own to you mine are foon
quite loft by this Method of counting, either, Diftances or Duration.
I believe few People can range their Ideas with fuch Perfpicuity, as to
arrive at any adequate Notion of any Number above a thoufand.
To give you therefore a clearer Idea of Diftance, and imprefs the Pro¬
portions of Space more ftrongly and fully in your Mind, let us fuppofe
the Body of the Sun, as I have faid before, to be reprefented by the Dome
of St. Paul' s; in fuch Proportion a fpherical Body eighteen Inches Dia¬
meter, moving at Mary-le*bone , will juftly reprefent the Earth, and ano¬
ther of five Inches Diameter, defcribing a Circle of forty-five Feet and
a half Radius round it, will reprefent the Orbit and Globe of the Moon.
A Body at the Tower of 9,7 Inches, will reprefent Mercury ; and one
of 17,9 Inches at St. James's Palace will reprefent the Planet Venus- ; Mars
may be fuppofed at a Diftance, like that of Ken/ington or Greenwich , 10
Inches Diameter: Jupiter , imagined to be at Hampton-Court , or Dartford
in Kent; and Saturn , at Cliefden, or near Chelmsford: The firft repre¬
fented by a Globe 15 Foot 4 Inches Diameter, the latter by one of 11 Feet-J
and his Ring four Feet broad : Thefe would all naturally reprefent the
planetary Bodies of our Syftem in their proper Orbits and proportional
Magnitudes, as moving round the Cupola of St. Paul* s, as their common
Center the Sun. And preferving the fame natural Scale, the Aphelion
of the firft Comet would be about Bury, the fecond at Bri/lol , and the
third near the City of Edinburgh. But if you will take into your Idea
one of the neareft Stars ; inftead of the Dome of St. Paul's , you muft
fuppofe the Sun to be reprefented by the gilt Ball upon the Top of it, and:
then will another fuch upon the Top of St. Peter's at Rome reprefent one
of the neareft Stars.
The whole Syftem exhibited in the above Proportion, would be nearly
as follows:
Diameter of the Sun 145 Feet.
Saturn 11,587, his Ring 27,54, its Breadth 4.
Jupiter, 15,39.
Mars , 10,15 Inches,
the Earth, 18,125*
Venus , 17,98
Mercury , 9,715
and the Moon, 4,93
Diftance
71
LETTER the EIGHTH.
* Diftance of Saturn from the Sun, 27 Miles, and 1700 Yards.
Jupiter, 15 Miles, and 458 Yards.
Mars, 4 Miles, and 751 Yards,
the Earth, 2 Miles, and 1632 Yards.
y°nus, 2 Miles, and 217 Yards.
Mercury , 1 Mile, and 267 Yards,
and of the Moon, from us, 45 Yards and a half.
That of the mod diftant Comet 390, and the neareft of the Stars not
lefs than 6875, f Radius’s of the Or bis Magnus .
Now, if like Creations crowd the vaft Depths of Infinity, and if each
are adapted to receive Beings of different Natures, where mud our Won¬
der and Ideas have end ?
As it is evident in the Sign Taurus , in Perfeus , and Orion , that we
can plainly perceive Stars to the fixth and ninth Magnitude, the former
with our naked Eye, the other by the Help of Telefcopes, the vifional
ocular Creation cannot be lefs than 4.320,000,000,000 Miles in femi Dia¬
meter, and admitting a regular Diftribution of thofe primordial Bodies
amongft themfelves, the Depth, or mod remote Limits of the Vortex
Magnus from Side to Side, cannot be lefs than 8 m, m, 640 thoufand of
Million of Miles, admitting it is no more than what we fee; and laftly,
fup,pofing our Syftem to be fituated nearly in the Middle of the Vortex
Magnus (which, from the vifible Order of the Stars, we may juftly con¬
jecture, with the highefl Probability of Truth) the neareft Diftance of the
Ens Primum , in the Realms of eternal Day, will rife to 30,000,000,000,
000 Miles, but more probably to 100,000,000,000,000 Miles, making
the Confines of Creation from Verge to Verge in the firft Cafe, upwards
of 68 Million of Millions of Miles, Diameter, and bythelaft above 200'.
But, if we compute the Diftance of the Stars after the Manner oiHuy¬
gens, for his Diftance of Syrius from the Sun, the Diftance of the Re¬
gion of Immortality without exceeding Probability may rife to near
1,000,000,000,000,000 Miles.
Now to pafs by any progreftive Motion from the outward Verge, or
Borders of the Creation, thro’ the ftarry Regions of Mortality, if I may call
* Of the Satellites of Saturn in the above Proportion.
The 1 ^ u r 27,96 The i
And thofe of Jupiter .
10*224 ( Feet ^*^ ant him.
• Radius, or Sign of
Sine fubftrad of
Hence the Diftance 6875,5 — ——
3,8373039
them
74 LETTER the EIGHTH.
them fo, as far as the Center of the EmPrimum , or Sedes Be at or um, accord¬
ing to Homer , or Milton's Manner of meafuring Space, a Body falling, or
a Being moving with a Velocity-but of 1000 Feet per Minute, i. e. at the
Rate of 2o',ooo Yards per Hour, or about 300 Miles per Day, would be at
leaft 300,000,000 Years upon its Journey thither, if not 1,000, m, and
perhaps much more, without offending Probability ; but even three Million
Centuries, or Ages, lure is enough to be employ’d, in paffing from one Place
to another ; therefore, we may conclude, the Soul mutt have fome other
Vehicle than can be found in the Ideas of Matter to convey it fo far, at
leaft at once. Hence we may truly infer, that the Soul muft be immaterial,
and that in all Probability there may be States in the Univerfe fo much
more longer lived than ours, that, compared with the Age of Man, the
Age of fuch Beings may be almoft as an Eternity, or rather, as that of
the human Species to that of a Sun-born InfeCt.
Again, if there are (till Stars beyond all thefe of other Denomination,
which we do not here perceive, how vaftly muft thefe Numbers be in-
creafed, to exprefs, almoft without Idea, the amazing Whole of this one
vifible Creation ; but what has been already faid, 1 judge wiH be fufficient
to fhow the Immenfity of Space, and help you to conceive the ftupendi-
ous Nature of an endlefs Univerfe 5 every where the home Pofleflion,
Production, and inftantaneous Cate, of an infinite good Being, perfedly
wife* and powerful, of whom we can have no Idea more, than a Being in
dark Privation can have of Light, but through the Luftre of his own re-
fplendent Attributes.
Thus, having attempted to enlarge your Ideas of the Creation in general,,
and in fome meafure having conftdered the Indemnity of Spate, I fhall in
the next Place proceed to give you fome Account of rriy Notions of Time..
As Diftance is the Meafure of Magnitude and of all Extent, and helps otir
Imagination to the Ideas of Space, fo are progreftive Moments the Meafure
of Velocity, and makes us feniible of Duration : And as Space may be ex¬
tended through all Infinity, fo Time may be continued as to Eternity. This
Succcftion of temporal Ideas impreffed, or excited in the Mind, as an
EffeCt of Matter in Motion, producing a perpetual Change, both of Ob-
je&s earthly and celeftial, enables us not only to reflect upon paft Vicifli-
tudes of Nature, but from, their regular Courfes, known Order and Returns,
predict Phenomena to come, and prove the periodical EffeCts of Na¬
ture’s conftant Laws fo juft and certain, that Time may be faid with
Truth, to co-exift with Motion.
Meafure being a certain Quantity of Senfation interwove with our Ideas
of Diftance and Duration, proceedings from a Reflection of what is im-
prefled upon the Mind by fome external ObjeCt, I muft again return to
aur Mother of Ideas the Earth, and from thence, as I did, of Diftance,
frame
LETTER this EIGHTH. 7S
frame the original Images bed fuited to the Underdanding, proper for our
Judgment of Duration.
Time takes its fird Denomination from the diurnal Rotation of the
Earth upon its Axis, which we call a natural Day, and this for obvious
Reafons we fubdivide in twenty-four Parts or Hours. This diurnal Mo¬
tion having been fuccefftvely repeated, and the Day renewed three hun¬
dred and fixty-five Times, we find that all the vegetable World has gone
through all its Variegations, and Nature has again put on the fame Face,
adapted to the Seafon ; during which Time, and indeed which occafions
this general Change and Repetition, the Earth is found to make one intire
Revolution round the Sun. This Space, or Period of Time, we call a
folar, or rather a natural Year; and from our Senfibility of this, and its con¬
diment Parts, both horary and diurnal, we form our general Judgment
of Duration.
Saturn, the mod remote, and mod regular Planet in our Sydem, as has
been faid before, performs one Revolution round the Sun in about twenty-
nine of the above folar Years: The great Comet of 1680 makes but one
periodical Return in five hundred and feventy-five of thofe Years, and the
general Motion of the Stars, arifing from the Procefiion of the Equinoxes,
altogether continually changing their Afpedt, or Pofition, at the Rate of
50 ,l per Year round the ecliptic Poles, compleats but one Revolution in
25920 Years; in which Time the whole fidereal Frame of Heaven
has changed, and every Star returned to the fame Point of the folar Sphere
it fet out from. This is by many called the great Saturnian Year : Con¬
cerning which, Mr. Addifon has thus tranflated an eminent Author.
When round the great Saturnian Year has turn’d,
In their old Ranks the wandering Stars fhall dand,
As when fird marfhall’d by the Almighty’s Hand.
Addison*
Now, if this fidereal Revolution, arifing from a fecondary Caufe, require
this Number of Years to perfedt one Rotation, what mud their primitive
Orbits take to circumfcribe th e Vortex Magnus.
It has been obferved, that the bigged Star to us fcarce moves a Minute
in an hundred Years, and the mod remote as inienfibly for Ages, from
whence.and what has been already faid of the imagined Didance of the ge¬
neral Center, we may frame this probable and well-grounded Guefs, that the
mean Revolution of a Star near the Middle of the Vortex Magnus , cannot be
made in lefs than a Million of Years, and though to us imperceptible, our
Sun in his own orbicular Diredtion, may be moving many Miles per Day.
Befides, if local Motion can be proved amongd the Stars, what lefs than an
Eternity can again redore them to their original Order and primitive State.
L 2 Such
76 LETTER the EIGHTH,
Such vaft Room in Nature, as Milton finely expreffes it, cannot be with¬
out its Ufe and nothing but abfolute Demonflration is wanting (which
from their Nature and Diftance cannot be expedted) to confirm the grand
Defign, fo fuited to the Deity’s infinite Capacity, and of eternal Benefit
to all his Creatures, efpecially Beings of a rational Senfe, and in particular
Mankind.
Of thefe habitable Worlds, fuch as the Earth, all which we may fup-
pofe to be alfo of a terreftrial or terraqueous Nature, and filled with
Beings of the human Species, fubjedt to Mortality, it may not be amifs in
this Place to compute how many may be conceived within, our finite
View every clear Star-light Night.. It has already been made appear, that
there cannot poffibly be lefs than 10,000,oco Suns, or Stars, within
the Radius of the vifible Creation; and admitting them all to have each
but an equal Number of primary Planets moving round them, it fol¬
lows that there muft be within the whole celeftial Area 60,000,000
planetary Worlds like ours.. And if to thefe we add thofe of the fe-
condary Clafs, fuch as the Moon, which we may naturally fuppofe
to attend particular primary ones, and every Syftem more or lefs of them
as well as here - y fuch Satellites may amount in the Whole perhaps to
100,000,ooo, : or more, in all together then we may fafely reckon
170,000,000, and yet be much within Compafs, exclufive of the Comets
which I judge to be by far the mod numerous Part of the Creation.
In this great Celeflial Creation, the Cataftrophy of a World, fiich as
ours, or even the total Diflolution of a Syllem of Worlds, may poffibly
be no more to the great Author of Nature, than the mod common Ac¬
cident in Life with us, and in all Probability fuch final and general Doom-
Days may be as frequent there,, as even Birth-Days, or Mortality with us
upon the Earth.
This Idea has fomething fo chearful in it, that I own I can never look,
upon the Stars without wondering why the whole World does not become-
Aftronomers j and that Men endowed with Senfe and Reafon, ffiould ne¬
glect a Science they are naturally fo much interefted in, and fo capable of
inlarging the Undemanding,. as next to a Dfemonftration, mud convince
them of their Immortality, and reconcile them to all thofe little Difficulties
incident to human Nature, without the leaft Anxiety.
Such a Prothelis can fcarce be called lefs than an ocular Revelation, not
only fhewing us how reafonable it is to expeft a future Life, but as.it were,
pointing out to us the Bufinefs of an Eternity, and what we may with the
greatefl Confidence expert from the eternal Providence, dignifying our
Natures with fomething analogous to the Knowledge we attribute to An¬
gels ; from whence we ought to defpife all the Viciffitudes of adverfe
Fortune, which make fo many narrow-minded Mortals miferable.
I am ncnv } &c.
( 77 )
LETTER the NINTH.
Reflections, by Way of General Scolia, of Confequences relating to the Immor-
tality of the Soul, and concerning Infinity and Eternity .
SIR,
T HIS my laft Letter to you, I mean my final agronomical
one, I propofe as a General Scolia to the reft, the principle
Matter being Reflections upon what is gone before, with fome
Conclufion naturally following or appendant to what has been already faid;
but which, I could not in any other Place, fo properly remark to you.
The Probability of the foregoing Conjectures, chiefly built upon very
diftant Obfervations, (hew an apparent Neceffity for fome other kind of
DoCtrine permitted by Providence, to give Mankind a Knowledge of
their Immortality and Dependance upon it, in the firft Ages of the
World. °
And for the fame Reafon it evidently appears, that the ancient Phi-
lofophers had it not in their Power to prove a fupream Being and Di¬
rector of all Things this Way.
And yet, as by a Sort of Inftind, or natural Reafon, and Confcioufnefs
of a good Principle , we fee how many noble Steps they made towards
it, and was convinc’d at laft of this great Truth, that fince there was a
JSdtnd in fo lmperteCt a Creature as IVIan, the perfect XJmverfe , which
comprehended all Things, could not poflibly be without one / and as
Sir Ifaac Newton has juftly obferved in his Principia, > “ If every Par-
" hcle of Space be always, and every individual Moment of Duration
“ wry •where fin ely the Maker and Lord of all Things, cannot be never
M and no where.'*'
To make manifeft the infinite Empire and Agency of God, from ce-
leftial Motion, became the Talk, but of very late Years ; and I can’t help
being of Opinion, that by means of thefe primary Bodies, only, we (hall
at length be able to trace the greater Circulations, and Laws of Nature, to
their real original and fountain Head,
Thek
7 8 BETTER the NINTH.
Thefe, were any thing wanting, befides the Miracle ourfelves , to con¬
vince us of a divine Origination, are all infallible Proofs, that the Univerfe
is governed by an intelligent and all-powerful Being, whofe Exigence is too
nearly related to a felf-evident Truth to be more clearly demonftated, than
it is manifeft of itfelf, both from the particular Laws of Nature, and the ge¬
neral Order of Things. An Argument which has been thought of no fmall
Force, and well worth obferving in the Infancy of Chriftianity . The invi -
fible Things of God are clearly feen , being underjlood by the Things that
are made , even his eternal Power and Godhead. Rom. i. 20.
But ’tis now high time to look back upon my Theory, and tell you
it is a vain Suppofuion, to imagine I (hall ever be able to convince every
Reader, either of the Truth or Probability of what I have advanced to
you : Mathematical Afliftance not being to be expected, where perhaps
it has never been thought of * and I allow you, it is much moro^ea-
fonable to expeCt, that fifty Perfons will read thefe Letters without per¬
ceiving the Reafonablenefs of them, than that five fhould confider them
with proper judgment.
I muft ingenuoufiy confefs to you, that nothing is wanting to convince
me intirely of the Certainty of what I here advance by way of Con¬
jecture to you. But this you muft only look upon as an happy Partiality,
which generally attends all Authors, and always will be the chief Support
of their tedious Labours. I afliire you, I have neither Hopes nor Expec¬
tation, no, not the weak Breath of a Wifb, to be admitted a proper
Judge of my own Works. But I fhall always take their Imperfection to be
rather, (like my own Faults) to be too near me to be feen ; I therefore
truil all to my Friend, and if I am fo fortunate as to excite his Appro¬
bation, I lhall think myfelf very happy in a very favourite Point; which is.
The advancing nothing which a rational Reader would willingly overlook,
or be ignorant of.
But if I have been fo happy as to come fo near the Mark, as to border
upon Truth, I believe you will allow me to carry my Conjectures a little
further, and point out fome farther pleafing Confequences, which I begin
to perceive may naturally follow.
Should it be granted, that the Creation may be circular or orbicular,
I would next fuppofe, in the general Center of the whole an intelligent
Principle, from whence proceeds that myftick and paternal Power, pro¬
ductive of a?l Life, Light, and the Infinity of Things.
Here the to-all extending Eye of Providence, within the Sphere of its
Activity, and as oinniprefently prefixing, feated in the Center of Infinity,
I would imagine views all the Objects of his Power at once, and every
Thing immediately direct, difpenfinginftantaneouflyits enlivening Influence,
to
LETTER t he NINTH. 7$
to the remoteft Regions every where all round. I know you‘11 fay Aftrc-
nomers are never to be fatisfied, and I muft own where there is fo much
rational Entertainment for the human Mind, and fo fuitabie to the-
true Dignity of God, and moft worthy of Mart, it is not eafy to
know where to flop in fuch a Scene of Wonders.
Having, I fay, once granted that all the Stars may move round one
common Center, I think it is very natural to one, who loves to purfoe
Nature as far as we may, to enquire what moft likely may be in that
Center; for fince we muft allow it to be far fuperior to any other Point
of Situation in the known Univerie, it is highly probable, there may be
fome one Body of liderial or earthy Subftance feated there, where the divine
Prefence, or fome Corporeal Agent, full of all Virtues and Perfections*
more immediately prefides over his own Creation. And here this pri¬
mary Agent of the omnipotent and eternal Being, may fit enthroned, as
in the Primum Mobile of Nature, a&ing in Concert with the eternal
Will. To this common Center of Gravitation, which may be iuppofed
to attrad all Venues, and repel all Vice, all Beings as to Perfection
may tend; and from hence all Bodies fir ft derive their Spring of Action,
and are directed in their various Motions.
Thus in the Foctis , or Center of Creation, I would willingly introduce
a primitive Fountain, perpetually overflowing with divine Grace, from
Whence all the Laws of Nature have their Origin, and this I think would
reduce the whole Univerfe into regular Order and juft Harmony, and
at the fame time, inlarge our Ideas of the divine Indulgence, open our
ProfpeCt into Nature**s fair Vineyard, the vaft Field of all our future
Inheritance.
But what this central Body really is, I fhall not here prefume to fay,
yet I can’t help obferving it muft of Neceffity, if the Creation is real and
not merely Ideal, be either a Globe of Fire fuperior to the Sun, or
otherwife a vaft terraqueous or terreftial Sphere, furrounded with an
iEtherlike our Earth, but more refined, transparent and ferene. Which
of thefe is moft probable, I fhall leave undetermined, and muft acknow¬
ledge at the fame time, my Notions here are fo imperfed, I hardly dare^
conjecture. ’Tis true, I have ventur’d to think it may be one of thefe,
and fince fo glorious a Situation can hardly be fuppofed without its pro¬
per Inhabitants, ’tis moft natural to conclude it may be the latter. In
the firft Cafe, befides our having no Idea of Beings exifting in Fire, it
would not, notwithftanding its Diftance, be fo eafy to account for its being
invifible; and fince the Luftre of the Stars are all innate, they could
receive no Benefit from it, and confequently fuch a Nature as a folar Com-
pofition, muft in this Place be render’d ufelefs $ but in the latter Sup-
8£> LETTER thi NINTH,
pofition of its being a dark Body, we have no Difficulty attending us,
having ieveral Inftances of like Bodies, moving round an opaque one.
Now when we confider, that all thofe radient Globes, which adorn the
Skies, thofe bright aetherial Sparks of elemental Fire, thick ftrewed like
Seeds of Light all round our Hemifphere, are each to us the Embrio
of a glorious Sun 5 how awful and ftupendious muft that Region be,
where all their Beams .unite and make one inconceivable eternal Day ?
Though the Deity, fays a learned Writer " be effentially prefent thro*
<c all the Immenftty of Space, there is one Part of it in which he difco-
“ vers himfelf in a moft tranfcendent and vifible Glory. This is that Place
ct which is mark’d out in Scripture, under the different Appellations
cc of Paradice ; the third Heaven ; the Throne of God, and the Habi -
K tat ion of his Glory'*
This continues the fame Author, is “ that Prefence of God, which
** fome of the Divines call his glorious, and others his majeftick Pre-
u fence/’
It is here, and here only, as in the Center of his infinite Creations,
where he refides in a fenfible Magnificence, and in the midft of thofe
Splendors, which can Effed the Imagination of his Creatures j and though
the moft facred and fupreme Divinity be allowed as effentially prefent in
all other Places as well as in this, as being a Being whofe Center is every
where, and Circumference no where j yet it is here only, or in fuch
Senforium of his Unity, where he manifefts his corporeal Agency,
as in the Foci of his infinite Empire over all created Beings. It is to
this majeftick Prefence of God, we may apply thofe beautiful Expreffions
of Scripture, tc Behold even to the Moon and it Jhineth not ; yea the Stars
“ are not pure in his Sight."
“ The Light of the Sun, and all the Glories of the World, on which
et we live, are but as weak and fickly Glimmerings, or rather Dark-
“ nefs it felf, in Comparifon of thofe Splendors, which encompafs this
“ Throne of God.’*
Here Heav’ns wide Realms an endlefs Scene difplays,
And Floods of Glory thro’ its Portals blaze j
The Sun himfelf loft in fuperior Light,
No more renews the Day, or drives away the Night;
The Moon, the Stars, and Planets difappear,
And Nature fix’t makes one eternal Year.
Glory, we
Perfedions,
Here and here alone center’d in the Realms of inexpreffible
juftly may imagine that primogenial Globe or Sphere of all
LETTER the NINTH. g*
fubjeCt to the Extreams of neither Cold nor Heat, of eternal Temperance
and Duration. Here we may not irrationally fuppole the Vcrtues of the
meritorious are at laft rewarded and received into the full Poflefflon of
every Happinefs, and to perfect Joy. The final and immortal State ordain’d
for fuch human Beings, as have palled this Vortex of Probation thro’ all
the Degrees of human Nature with the fupream Applaufe.
What vaft room is here, for infinite Power and Wifdom to adt in, and
that fo vifibly takes Delight to blefs all his Beings with his Bounty. And
endlefs as his Prefcience, Attributes, and Goodnefs, are undoubtedly all
thofe natural and apparent Joys with which he manifefts his Love to all
his Creatures, a Multiplicity of Objedts not to be enumerated. For where-
foever we turn our Eyes, and follow with our Reafon, we may meet with
Worlds of all Formations, fuited no doubt to all Natures, Taftes, and
Tempers, and every Clafs of Beings.
Here a Groupe of Worlds, all Vallies, Lakes, and Rivers, adorn’d with
Mountains,Woods,and Lawns,Cafcades and natural Fountains; thereWorlds
all fertile Illands, cover'd with Woods, perhaps upon a common Sea,
and fill’d with Grottoes and romantick Caves. This Way, Worlds all
Earth, with vaft extenfive Lawns and Viftoes, bounded with perpetual
Greens, and interfperfed with Groves and Wildernefles,. full of all Varieties
of Fruits and Flowers. That World fubfifting perhaps by foft Rains, this
by daily Dews, and Vapours 5 and a third by a central, fubtle Moifture,
arifing like an Effluvia, through the Pores and Veins of the Earth, and
exhaling or abforbing as the Seafon varies to anfwer Nature’s Calls.
Round fome perhaps, fo denfe an Atmofphere, that the Inhabitants may
fiy from Place to Place,, or be drawn through the Air in winged Cha¬
riots, and even fleep upon the Waves with Safety j round others pofflbly,
fo thin a fluid, that the Arts of Navigation may be totally unknown to it,
and look’d upon as impracticable and abfurd, as Chariot flying may be
here with us ; and fome where not improbably, fuperior Beings to the hu¬
man, may refide, and Man may be of a very inferior Clafs j the fecond,
third, or fourth perhaps, and fcarce allow’d to be a rational Creature.
Worlds, with various Moons we know of already ; Worlds, with Stars
and Comets only, we equally can prove is very probable ; and that there
may be Worlds with various Suns, is not impoflible. And hence it is
obvious, that there may not be a Scene of Joy, which Poetry can paint,
or Religion promife j but fomewhere in the Univerfe it is prepared for
the meritorious Part of Mankind. Thus all Infinity is full of States of
Blifs j Angelic Choirs, Regions of Heroes, and Realms of Demi-Gods $
Elyfian Fields, Pindaric Shades, and Myriads of inchanting Manfions,
M. not
82 LETTER the NINTH,
not to be conceived either by Philofopby or Fancy, affifted by the ftrongeft
Genius and warmed: Imagination.
All harmonioufly crowded and provided with every ObjeCt of Bea¬
titude, that Friendfhip, Love, or Society can infpire, the Mufes or the
Graces Frame; and all as permanent and perfect, that is deftin’d to a
Duration, fuited to the Nature of their Existence and Degree of Cogni-
fance j for as a very learned Writer obferves upon this fame Subject;
“ How can we tell, but that there may be above us Beings of greater
“ Powers, and more perfect Intellects, and capable of mighty Things,
<c which yet may have corporeal Vehicles as we have, but finer and
4( invifible? Nay, who knows, but that there may he even of thefe
<f many Orders , riling in Dignity of Nature, and Amplitude of Power,
" one above another ? It is no Way below the Philofophy of thefe Times,
“ which feeins to delight in inlarging the Capacities of Matter, to affert
“ the Poffibility of this.”
From thefe amazing Ideas of Space in general, and from the particu¬
lar Diltance of the Stars, which feparates as it were, one Syftem of
Bodies from another, and by fo prodigious an extent, as fcarce to be
fuppos’d a temporal Talk. I think it naturally follows, had we no other
Way to prove it, or any other Reafon to believe it, that the Soul mull of
Neceffity be immaterial ; for as this Space feems fo impaffible to Matter,
as not to be undertaken and performed without the Lofs of Ages, in a
State only of Transmigration, we may well imagine, that Change of
Place is not effected this Way, but by fome other Vertue or Property,
more immediate, if not inllantaneous.
I own next to Annihilation is the State of Oblivion, and this Way we
may folve all Difficulties with regard to our being fenfible of fuch a Lofs
of Exiftence j but if we allow the Soul to be immaterial, it no longer
has any thing to do with Space, but as operating by Reflection only, or
the Faculty of Thinking; it may be like the Imagination where it pleafes
in a Moment.
Objects of the Mind abftraCted from the Senfes of the Body, has no
real or comparative Magnitude ; that is, I would fay, an Inch, a Foot,
a Yard, a Mile, or a Million of Miles are all equally indefinite, and is
thus prov’d ; every finite Line is formed of an infinite Number of Points,
and no finite Line can be folv’d into more. Thus if you will allow me
the Expreffion, the Mind being magnified as all ObjeCts are diminiffied,
what feems impracticable in the natural State of Things, in an Ideal one,
becomes very poffible; that is, to make myfelf more intelligible, though
we can hardly conceive, how any Being can pafs from Syrius to the Sun, by
natural Laws in their proper State, yet if proportionally reduced by a
new
LETTER the NINTH. 3j
new Modification of Ideas, to the Bignefs of a Ball 6 Feet Diameter,
and to be only 680 Miles afunder; the Thing is very comprehcnfive
and eafy.
Hence Vifion, Light, and Electrical Virtue, feem to be propagated
with fuch Velocity, that nothing but God can poflible be the Vehicle ;
and hence we may juftly fay with St. Paul> Afts xvii, 28. In him we
live , in him we move , in him we have our Being,
It will further appear, from the foregoing Letters, that all the Stars
and planetary Bodies within the finite View, are altogether but a very
minute Part of the whole rational Creation; I mean that vaft collective
Body of habitable Beings, which I have endeavoured to demonftrate, are
all govern’d by the fame Laws, though varioufly revolving round one
common Center, in which Center we may not impertinently venture
to fuppofe the prime Agent of our Natures ; or otherwife, the moft
perfect of all created Beings, illimitable in his Ideas and Faculties of
Senfation particularly prefide.
But tho’ pad all diffus’d, without a Shore
His Eflence; local is his Throne, (as meet)
To gather the difperft, (as Standards call
The lifted from afar ) to fix a Point;
A central Point, collective of his Suns,
Since finite ev’ry Nature, but his own. Dr. Hung.
And farther fince without any Impiety j fince as the Creation is, fo is
the Creator alfo magnified, we may conclude in Confequence of an In¬
finity, and an infinite all-aCtive Power; that as the vifible Creation is
fuppofed to be full of fiderial Syftems and planetary Worlds, fo on, in like
fimilar Manner, the endlefs Immenfity is an unlimited Plenum of Creations
not unlike the known Univerfe. See Plate XXXI. which you may if you
pleafe, call a partial View of Immenfity, or without much Impropriety
perhaps, a finite View of Infinity, and all thefe together, probably diver-
fified; as at A, B and C. in Plate XXXII. which reprefents their Sections,
if all may be a proper Term for an infinite or indefinite Number, we may
juftly imagine to be the ObjeCt of that incomprehenfible Being, which
alone and in himfelf comprehends and conftitutes lupreme Perfection.
That this in all Probability may be the real Cafe, is in fome Degree
made evident by the many cloudy Spots, juft perceivable by us, as far
without our ftarry Regions, in which tho’ vifibly luminous Spaces, no one
Star or particular constituent Body can pofiibly be diftinguifhed ; thofe in
all
84. LETTER the NINTH.
all likelyhood may be external Creation, bordering upon the known one,.
too remote for even our Telefcopes to reach.
With the raptur’d Poet may we not juftly fay
O, what a Root! O what a Branch is here !
O what a Father! what a Family!
Worlds! Syftems! and Creations \
And in Confequence of this
In an Eternity, what Scenes (hall ftrike ?
Adventures thicken ? Novelties furprize ?
What Webs of Wonder fhall unravel there ?
A light Thoughts ..
So many varied Seats where every Element may have its proper Beings
and all adapted to partake of every thing fuited to their Natures, argue
fuch Maturity of Wifdom, and the vaft Production fuch myfterious-
Power ; ’tis hardly poflible for Mortals not to fee divine Intelligence
prefide, and that every Being fomcwhere mu ft be happy.
A Univerfe fo well defigned, and fill’d with fuch. an endlefs Structure
of material Beings, and all the Refult of Prefcience and infinite reflected
Reafon, flowing from a Mind all perfeCt, full of all Ideas, could never
be defigned in vain ; and tho’ our narrow Bounds of Reafon limited,
by finite Senfes, cannot direCtly fee the Confequence dependant on a Sequel,
yet from what we do fee, great Room we have to hope the next Stage of
Exiftence willbe more lading and more perfeCt;. and it is highly proba¬
ble, the nobleft Suggeftion of the moft luxuriant Fancy may fall infi¬
nitely fhort of what we are defigned for.
But here, even in this World, are Joys which our Ideas of Heaven can
fcarce exceed, and if Imperfection appear thus lovely, what muft Perfection
be, and what may we not expeCt and hope for, by a meritorious Acqui-
elcenee in Providence, under the Direction, Indulgence, and Protection
of infinite Wifdom and Goodnefs, who manifeftly defigns perfeCt Felicity,
as the Reward of Virtue in all his Creatures, and will at proper Periods
anfwer all our Wifhes in fome predeftined World.
All this the vaft apparent Provifion in the ftarry Manfions, feem to pro-
mife : What ought we then not to do, to preferve.our natural Birthright to
it and to merit fuch Inheritance, which alas we think created all to grar
tify alone, a Race of vain-glorious gigantick Beings, while they are con¬
fined to this World, chained like fo many Atoms to a Grain of Sand.
Lam ,
A
LIST
OF THE
SUBSCRIBERS.
A.
L ORD Anfon.
Hon. Mr. Archer.
Charles Ambler, Efq;
B.
Duke of Beaufort.
Duke of Bedford.
Dutchefs of Beaufort.
Lord Berkely, of Straton.
Miles Barne, Efq;
Lancelot Barton, Efq ;
Hon. Antoine Bentinck.
Hon. John Bentinck.
Norbone Berkely, Efq;
John Brown, Efq;
•-Blaman, Efq;
Thomas Brand, Efq;
J. Bevis, M. D.
Rev. T. Bonney, A. M.
C.
Countejs of Cunengelby.
Lord Cornwallis.
Lady Cornwallis.
Edward Cave, Efq;
John Chamock, Ffq;
Hon. and Rev. Dr. Cowper.
Mr. Richard Chad.
Mr. Henry Chape 11 .
Jf. Colepepper.
Mr . George Conyers.
D.
Rev. John Dealtary, A. M.
Mr. Samuel Dent.
F.
Charles Fitzrea Scudamore, Efq;
Kean Fitzgerald, Efq;
Thomas Fonnerau, Efq ;
Robert Rakes Fulthorpe,’ Efq;
Mr. Samuel Farrant.
Mr. Paul Fourdrinier.
G.
Marchionefs Grey.
Lord Glenorchy.
Francis Godolphin, Efq;
Roger Gale, Efq;
James Gibbon, Efq ;
Ralph Goward, Efq;
Ralph Gowland, Efq;
Ralph Gowland, Junior , Efq;
Dr. Gregory.
Dr. Griffith.
Rev. John Griffith, A. M.
Rev. Middlemore Griffith.
H.
Lord Hardwick, Lord High Chan -
cellor of Great-Britain.
Hon. James Hamilton.
Mr. Thomas Heath.
Mr. Thomas Holt.
John Hughes, Efq ;
Earl
4 L I S T of the
I.
Earl of Jerfey.
Richard Jackfon, Efq ;
Rev. Mr. Jones.
K.
- Knowles, Efq-,
Dr. Kendrick.
Mrs. Kennon, 4.
L.
Lady Vicountefs Limerick.
Sir William Lee, Bart.
William Letter, Efq-,
Rev. Dr. Long, Mafter of Pem-
broke-hall, Cambridge.
William Lloyd, Efq-,
Mr. Andrew Lawrence.
M.
R. J. Mead, M. D.
Richard Meyrick, M. D..
Owen Meyrick, Efq }
Pierce Meyrick, Ejq-,
N.
Duke of Norfolk.
Lord North.
Lord Bifop of Norwich.
Richard Nicholls, Efq-,
Mrs. Norfa.
P.
Duke of Portland.
Earl of Pembroke, £fc. 2
Countefs of Pembroke, &c.
Lady Palmerfton.
Robert Money Penny, Efqy
Sir Francis Pool.
Sir John Pool.
John Probyn, Efq-,
Rev. Mr. Pierce.
SUBSCRIBERS.
Mr. Dominick Pile.
Mr. Powel, of Cambridge,.
R.
Dutchefs of Richmond, &c. &c.
James Ralph, Efq ;
Allan Ramfey, Efq ;
William Read, Efqy 2.
Henry Reveley, EJq ;
William Reveley, Efq ;
S.
Sir George Savile.
--- Serle, Efqy
Rev. Dr. Smith, Majler of Trinity
College, Cambridge,
Mifs Stonehoufe.
’William Symonds, Efq- y
Mr. James Scot.
Mr. James Stephens.
T.
Lord Vijcount Townlhend.
John Temple, Efq-,
James Theobald, Efq-,
Charles Townfhend, Efqy
Mrs. Mary Trevor.
Mr. James Thornton*.
V.
Lord Vifcount Villiers.
W.
Lady Frances Williams..
Mijs Williams.
Mifs Charlotta Williams.
Rev. Thomas White, A. M.
- -White, Efq-,
Charles Louis Wiedmarkter, Efq-,
Mr. Ward. Y.
Hon. Philip York.
Dr. Arthur Young, Preb. of Cant.
THE
CONTENTS.
LETTER the FIRST.
f^Oncerning the Opinions of the moji eminent Authors whofe Sentiments upon
^ this SubjeB have been publijhed in their Works. Page i
LETTER
SECOND.
Concerning the Nature of Mathematical Certainty, and the various Degrees
of Moral Probability properfor ConjeXure. 9
LETTER the THIRD.
Concerning the Nature, Magnitude, and Motion of the Planetary Bodies
round the Sun. 18
LETTER the FOURTH.
Of the Nature of the heavenly Bodies continued', with the Opinions of the
Antients concerning the Sun and Stars . 27
LETTER the FIFTH.
Of the Order, Difiance, and Multiplicity of the Stars y the Via Ladtea, and
Extent of the vifible Creation. 37
LETTER
SIXTH.
Of General Motion amongfl the Stars, the Plurality of Syflems, and Innu-
merability of Worlds. 48
LETTER
SEVENTH.
The Hypothecs, or Theoryfully explained and demonjlrated, proving the f de-
real Creation to be finite. 58
LETTER the EIGHTH..
Of Time and Space,, with regard to the known Objects of Immenfity and
Duration, 67
LETTER the NINTH.
Reflexions, by way of General Scolia, of Confequences relating to the Im¬
mortality of the Soul, and concerning Infinity and Eternity. 77
D I R E C-
Directions for placing the P L
Plate.
Page.
I.
10
II.
ii
III.
16
IV.
20
V.
ibid.
VI.
22
VII.
ibid.
VIII.
ibid.
Plate.
Page.
IX.
22
X.
23
XI.
35
XII.
3 8
XIII.
ibid.
XIV.
40
XV.
42
XVI.
ibid.
Plate.
Page.
XVII.
S 1
XVIII.
5 2
XIX.
5 6
XX.
ibid.
XXI.
62
XXII.
6 3
XXIII.
64
XXIV.
ibid.
ATES.
Plate. Page.
XXV. 64
XXVI. ibid.
XXVII. 64
XXVIII. 65
XXIX. ibid.
XXX. 70
XXXI. 83
XXXII. ibid.
Some of the Principal ERRATA.
Page
7.
4
16
21
33
34
43
49
61
62
65
67
69
Line
ult.
3
15
12
28
37
20
24
*9
28
4
IS
29
Words
to ceafc relating
Phenomenon
incomfible
comprehend
compared
form
volving
immoveable
much
XXIII.
where
alfo
Read.
ceafing to relate
Phenomena
incomprehenfible
comprehending
is compared
from
revolving
moveable
much as
XXI.
any where
all fo
Plate X. read the Charaflers of the Planets in this Order % 5 1j & 9
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