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CHAP. XVI.

ON A PLURALITY OF WORLDS.

'HE Sun, with all its attendant planets, is but

THE

a very little part of the grand machine of the univerfe. The ftars which we behold in the firmament, though owing to their immenfe and inconceivable distance they appear very small, are no less fpacious and luminous than the radiant fource of our day. Every ftar, as was before mentioned, is the centre of a fyftem,-has a retinue of worlds enlightened by its beams, and revolving round its attractive influence.

Were it poffible that we could be conveyed to the most distant of those twinkling luminaries, that are within the reach of our fight, even when affisted by human art, we should there fee other skies expanded, another fun diftributing his inexhaustible beams by day, other ftars that gild the horrors of the alternate night, and other, perhaps nobler, fyftems established, in unknown profufion, through the boundless dimenfions of space.

Job, after a moft beautiful differtation on the works of God, as they are diftributed through univerfal nature, clofes the account with this acknowledgment,

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ledgment, "Lo! these are parts of his ways; or, as the original word more literally fignifies, and may perhaps be more elegantly rendered, "Thefe are only the outermoft borders of his works;" no more than a small province of God's univerfal empire.

It is obferved by a very judicious* writer, "That if the fun himfelf, which enlightens this part of the creation, was extinguifhed, and all the hoft of planetary worlds, which move about him, were annihilated, they would not be miffed, any more than a grain of fand upon the fea-fhore. The bulk of which they confift, and the space which they occupy, is fo exceedingly little, in comparison of the whole, that their lofs would fcarce leave a blank in the immenfity of God's works. The chaẩm would be imperceptible to an eye, that could take in the whole compass of nature, and pass from one end of the creation to the other."

A celebrated † philosopher carries this thought so far, that he does not think it impoffible there may be stars, fo far removed from this earth, that their light has not as yet reached to us, fince their first creation.

There is no queftion but the universe has certain bounds fet to it; but when we confider that it is

*Mr. Addison.

+ Huyghens.

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the work of infinite wifdom, prompted by infinite goodness, with an infinite space to exert itself in, how can our imagination fet any bounds to it?

What an auguft, what an amazing conception, if human imagination can conceive it, does this give of the works of the Creator! Thoufands and thousands of funs, multiplied without end, and ranged all around us, at immenfe diftances from each other, attended by ten thousand times ten thoufand worlds, all in rapid motion, yet calm, regular and harmonious, invariably keeping the paths prefcribed them; and thefe worlds, in all probability, ́ peopled with myriads of intelligent beings, formed for endless progreffion in perfection and felicity.. - If fo much power, wisdom, goodness, and magni-: ficence are displayed in the material creation, which is the least confiderable part of the universe, how wife, how good muft HE be, who made and governs the whole!

CHA P. XVII.

ON THE ATMOSPHERE, OR SURROUNDING AIR.

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'HE atmosphere is a thin, invifible fluid, which furrounds the earth to a confiderable height. It accompanies it in its diurnal motion round its

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own axis, and in its annual motion round the fun. The vapours float in it. The clouds are fufpended by it. It furnishes wind and rain. In fhort, it is that in which we live and breathe.

According to Dr. Keill, and other astronomical writers, it is entirely owing to the atmosphere that the heavens appear bright in the day-time. For, without the atmosphere, only that part of the heavens would shine in which the fun was placed; and if we could live without air, and should turn our backs towards the fun, the whole heavens would appear as dark as in the night, and the ftars would be feen as clear as in the nocturnal sky.

In this cafe we should have no twilight. There would be a fudden transition from the brighteft funfhine to the blackeft darknefs, immediately after fun-fet; and from the blackeft darkness to the brighteft funshine, at fun-rifing. This would be extremely inconvenient, if not blinding to all mortals. But, by means of the atmosphere, we enjoy the fun's light, reflected from the aërial particles, for fome time before he rifes, and after he fets. For when the fun has defcended below the horizon, and confequently is out of our fight, the atmofphere, being higher than we are, has his light ftill imparted to it, and reflects it to us. This light, or rather twilight, gradually decreases, till the fun

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has got eighteen degrees below the horizon; and ^ then all that part of the atmosphere, which is above us, is dark.

From the length of the twilight, the Doctor has calculated the height of the atmosphere (fo far as it is dense enough to reflect any light) to be about forty-four miles. But it is feldom denfe or heavy enough, at two miles height, to bear up the clouds. The higher it goes, the thinner and lighter it becomes, and a smaller quantity of it occupies a larger fpace. Its real height, however, cannot be afcertained.

CHAP. XVIII.

CONCERNING THE INHABITANTS OF THE

PLANETS.

THE magnificence of Nature shines forth in all her works. Could that all-powerful hand which weighed the foundations of the universe, which fufpended from the lamp of heaven millions of luminous globes, which gave them the first impulfe, and which created planets like thofe which we inhabit, find obftacles to prevent it from peopling thefe orbs, as it has peopled ours?

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