from the ignorance of our true relation with nature: errors so much the more fatal, as social order can only rest on the bases of those relations. TRUTH, JUSTICE; these are its immutable laws." This is a dark passage; and I agree with professor Robison, that it contains "more than meets the ear;" but what is this great benefit that these philosophers have imparted to mankind? Do their efforts induce a belief, that the operations of the elements of matter, are left to their imaginary physical and mechanical powers, and to chance? Are we no longer to believe, that He who formed the world does not superintend its movements; that He no longer sends His signs; nor convulses the elements; that desolating earthquakes and storms are not under His direction; and in short, that He does not manifest Himself in any way to make mankind stand in awe of His almighty power? If such be not the meaning of this dark oracle, I cannot conceive what it is. As to such a belief inspiring terror, I am well persuaded, both from experience and observation, that those who really hold it, are infinitely less under the dominion of fear than those who reject it. But these sublime discoveries, he says, have destroyed the "errors springing from the ignorance of our true relation with nature: errors so much the more fatal, as social order can only rest on the bases of these relations." There he has left us again to feel our way in the dark. How is the knowledge of these sublime discoveries to influence or regulate social order; or how does an ignorance of them produce fatal errors? Supposing that all the world believed the earth, when compared with the other parts of the universe, to be an insensible point; and, that this insensible point was formed by attraction out of a solar atmosphere: what, in the name of wonder, has this to do with social order? But if he

mean, that his creation, ought to supplant the scriptural account of creation; his laws of motion, the true order of nature; and his dictum, the laws of God: in that view I know what to think concerning his dark muttering about fatal errors. Truth and Justice he says are its immutable laws. The laws of what? If he mean, that truth and justice ought to form the bases of the laws of social order, all must assent to so evident a truism. He then abruptly concludes with this passage, "Far from us be the dangerous maxim, that it is sometimes useful to mislead, to deceive, and enslave mankind to insure their happiness. Cruel experience has at all times proved, that with impunity these sacred laws can never be infringed." So ends what professor Robison termed, the ungraceful parody upon the concluding reflections of his illustrious master. Tyrants and selfish individuals may have adopted such a Machiavelian maxim, for the purpose of advancing their own private views, or for the accomplishment of some oppressive scheme; but never for the purpose of "ensuring the happiness of mankind." He has left us as much in the dark concerning his sacred laws-as to where they are to be found,as he has concerning his obscure suns. Solomon, who had learned astronomy from a greater master than Newton, though a king himself, has not left us to grope our way on that subject: he clearly points to those LAWS which are TRULY SACRED; which contain the bases of the only practical system of equality; which equally protect governors and the governed in their just rights; and which award the same punishments to all for violation of them. He well knew that those laws, if duly administered, would secure the prosperity of both kings and people; and as La Place seems to point to governments, I will quote the following passage from Solomon's

admirable book in which he treats on the duty of kings. "Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth. Give ear, you that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations. For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels. Because being ministers of His kingdom, ye have not judged aright, nor kept the Law, nor walked after the counsel of God. Horribly and speedily shall he come upon you; for a sharp judgment shall be to them that be in high places. If your delight be then in thrones and sceptres, O ye kings of the people, honor wisdom that ye may reign for evermore."-Wisdom, chap. vi.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE NEWTONIAN THEORY OF GRAVITY;-ITS APPLICATION TO ACCOUNT FOR THE PLANETARY MOTIONS AND TO WEIGH THE SUN AND PLANETS;-TO EXPLAIN THE EBBING AND FLOWING OF THE TIDES; -TO REMEDY THE DECAYS OF THE UNIVERSE, BY THE OCCASIONAL DESTRUCTION OF OLD SUNS, AND THE FORMATION OF THEM INTO NEW ONES IN THE HERSCHELLIAN LABORATORIES OF THE UNIVERSE!

A SYSTEM which has been founded in error, if continued, must necessarily be supported on false principles of reasoning. Therefore philosophers having imagined that their worlds are formed of innumerable emanations from innumerable suns, they have further imagined what they term laws of motion, which they say are absolutely necessary to uphold and sustain them in their several courses. And, in order that the reveries of their imaginations may assume the substantial character of realities, they, by an unpardonable prostitution of mathematics, make a great and mysterious parade of figures and symbols; and so impose upon the world phantoms of the brain for demonstrations of essential truth.*

* I am not singular in this opinion, of the occasional misapplication of mathematics. Mr. O'Gallagher in his "Essay on the Investigation of the First Principles of Nature,” vol. 1, page 95, makes these observations. "Neither are mathematical calculations, however ingenious, to be looked upon as a confirmation of a physical system, or as responsible proofs of the actual being of the agents supposed;

They begin by supposing a bullet to be shot from the top of a high mountain; and they tell us, that if it were not prevented by the resistance of the air and the attraction of the earth, it would fly onward in a straight line to all eternity!* Having sufficiently supposed that, they then proceed, upon an idea of Plato and Galileo, further to suppose, that their solar worlds were similarly projected and deflected in spaces where no air obstructs; and after having brooded over the astonishing supposition until they believe, or affect to believe, it to be a reality; wrapt up in wonder they exclaim, "what a PRODIGIOUS attractive power must the sun then have to draw all the planets and satellites of the system towards him; and what an AMAZING POWER must it have required to put all these planets and moons in such rapid motions at first! AMAZING indeed to us because impossible to be effected by the strength of all the living creatures in an

because mathematics only compute and ascertain the ratio and proportion of the forces supposed; but never indicate the nature or cause of those forces; it being very easy to adjust ratios on false principles."

* Newton's account of this imaginary experiment is as follows: "If a leaden ball, projected from the top of a mountain by the force of gunpowder with a given velocity, and in a direction parallel to the horizon, is carried in a curve line to the distance of two miles before it falls to the ground; the same if the resistance of the air was took away, with a double, or decuple velocity, would fly double or ten times as far. And by increasing the velocity, we may at pleasure increase the distance to which it might be projected, and diminish the curvature of the line, which it might describe, till at last it should fall at the distance of ten, thirty, or ninety degrees, or even might go quite round the whole earth before it falls; or lastly, so that it might never fall to the earth, but go forward into the celestial spaces, and proceed in its motion in infinitum." Thus Newton begins to set his worlds in motion! he increases the velocity and distance of his leaden ball, as he says, at pleasure, until at length he sends it quite round the globe! and this he effected with the same facility with which he created his worlds out of the sediments of solar light. He had only to imagine it and the thing was done!

!