He fuppofed, with the vulgar, who measure every thing by themselves, that the earth was fixed immoveably in the centre of the univerfe, and that the, feven planets, confidering the moon as one of the primaries, were placed near to it; above them was the firmament of fixed ftars, then the crystalline orbs, then the primum mobile, and, last of all, cælum empirium, or heaven of heavens. All these vaft orbs he fuppofed to move round the earth once in twenty-four hours; and befides that, in certain stated and periodical times. This system was univerfally maintained by the Peripatetic philofophers, who were the most confiderable fect in Europe from the time of Ptolemy to the revival of learning in the fixteenth century.

At length, Copernicus, a native of Poland, a bold and original genius, adopted the Pythagorean or true fyftem of the univerfe; and published it to the world in the year 1530. This doctrine had been fo long in obfcurity, that the restorer of it was confidered as the inventor; and the system obtained the name of the Copernican Philofophy, though. only revived by that great man.

Europe, however, was ftill immerfed in ignorance; and the general ideas of the world were not able to keep pace with those of a refined philofo phy. This occafioned Copernicus to have few abettors,

abettors, but many opponents. Tycho Brahe, in particular, a noble Dane, fenfible of the defects of the Ptolemaic fyftem, but unwilling to acknowledge the motion of the earth, endeavoured, about 1586, to establish a new fyftem of his own, which was still more perplexed and embarrassed than that of Ptolemy. It allows a monthly motion to the moon round the earth, as the centre of its orbit; and it makes the fun to be the centre of the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The fun, however, with all the planets, is supposed to be whirled round the earth in a year, and even once in twenty-four hours. This fyftem, notwithftanding its abfurdity, met with its advocates, who fo far refined upon it, as to admit the diurnal motion of the earth, though they insisted that it had no annual motion.

ABOUT the year 1610, after a darkness of great many ages, the first dawn of learning and taste began to revive in Europe. Learned men,

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in different countries, began to cultivate aftronomy. Galileo, a Florentine, introduced the use of telefcopes, which difcovered new arguments in fupport of the motion of the earth, and confirmed the old ones. The fury and bigotry of the clergy, indeed, had almost checked this flourishing bud. Galileo was obliged to renounce the Copernican fyftem, as a damnable herefy.

The happy reformation in religion, however, placed the one half of Europe beyond the reach of the papal thunder. It taught mankind, that the scriptures were not given for explaining systems of: natural philofophy, but for a much nobler purpose, to make us juft, virtuous, and humane: that, inftead of oppofing the word of God, which, in fpeaking of natural things, fuits itself to the preju- ; dices of weak mortals, we employed our faculties in a manner highly agreeable to God himself, in tracing the nature of his works. The more they are confidered, the more they afford us the greater reafon to admire his glorious attributes of power, wifdom, and goodness.

From this time, therefore, noble difcoveries were made in all the branches of aftronomy. The motions of the heavenly bodies were not only clearly explained, but the general law of nature, according to which they moved, was difcovered and illuftrated.

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by the immortal Newton. This law is called Gravity or Attraction, and is the fame by which any body falls to the ground, when difengaged from what supported it. It has been demonstrated, that this fame law, which keeps the fea in its channel, and the various bodies which cover the furface of this earth from flying off into the air, operates throughout the univerfe, keeps the planets in their orbits, and preferves the whole fabric. of nature from confufion and diforder.

CHA P. XXV.

ON MYTHOLOGY, OR THE HISTORY OF THE HEATHEN DEITIES.

MYTHO

YTHOLOGY is the religion of the Pagans, which confifted in the worship of false gods, whom their poets, painters, and ftatuaries imagined, and to whom they gave different attributes. It is the basis of history, the standard of criticism, and the guide to the ftudies of youth.

A knowledge of feigned Hiftory, or Mythology, is abfolutely neceffary to the reader of the Claffics,

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to the Painter, and to the Statuary*. We must not, therefore, overlook even the fictions of the more illustrious poets

CHA P. XXVI.

OF COELUS AND TERRA, SATURN AND CYBELE.

OELUS is faid to be the fon of the Air, great

COELUS

father of the gods, and husband of Terra, the daughter of the Earth, by whom he had the Cyclops, Oceanus, Titan, the Hundred Giants, and many other children, the most eminent of which was Saturn, or Time.

This fable plainly fignifies, that the Air and Earth were the common parent of all created beings. Coelus was dethroned by his youngest fon Saturn.

SATURN was the most ancient of all the gods. Titan, his elder brother, refigned his birth-right to him, on condition that he should destroy all his male, iffue, that the empire of the world might in time fall to his pofterity. Saturn accepted of this