lessened pressure of the air. And again, when by the toil of ascent the respiration is hurried, and the body sinks with fatigue, still no cause is sought for all these diverse effects, but the variations in the space which the atmospheric particles occupy!

We would mention another instance of the tendency to impute otherwise unexplained phenomena to alterations in the pressure of the air. It is well known that the diurnal variations of the barometer are in some way connected with the diurnal variations in the intensity of the magnetic force as indicated by the needle. There are every day two maxima and two minima of each, the maxima of one correspond ing to the minima of the other. There is also a diurnal variation in the tension of vapor in the atmosphere; and, as vapor is believed to change the weight of the air, this is supposed to account for the oscillations of the barometer. Of course then the variation in the magnetic power is also traced to the state of the atmosphere. Thus all investigation seems to stay itself upon the condition of the air, when further research most unquestionably will show that the variations of the barometer, and of the magnetic force, and the different degrees of the tension of vapor, are traceable to one cause, to the changing position of the surface of the earth with reference to the centre of her movement, to the transfers of force which preserve the equilibrium of her motion. These changes, as extensive as the surface of the earth, corresponding to her daily movements, varying too with the seasons as she traverses the different parts of her orbit, must they not all depend upon the same cause, the force which controls her daily rotation and her annual revolution? The same force which circulates through the earth permeates the air, and in its changes and transfers this force must move

the barometer, touch the needle, and determine the rise and fall of vapor.

We asked, in a former chapter, why continue to trace all the phenomena of this beautiful world to one cause only, and that a cause,, allowing to it all the virtue and efficacy which it can reasonably claim, so inadequate for their expla nation, its only legitimate operation being to determine the position of matter, the point of space which any atom should occupy? Does it not repress inquiry, and arrest the mind in its search after truth? The belief in the attractive force of matter is not only the foundation of the structure of our present philosophy, but it places every stone of the edifice, and superintends even its finish and its ornament. The mind has no occasion to exert itself further. By gravitation is explained the act of drawing the first nourishment, and the last expiring breath; the child totters under it in its first attempts to walk, and old age resists it with its staff. We see only this force of senseless matter when the pendulum swings, when the stone falls, when the vessel floats, when the vapor rises, when the clouds hang heavy over our heads. We trace its effect in the descending rain, in the rushing of the mountain brook, in the flow of rivers, in the swell of the tides, in the outline of continents, in the shape of the earth, in the form of her orbit, in the rush of the solar system through space. We imagine even that by the whirling of “star-dust” new worlds are gradually added to the realm under the sway of the attractive power of inert matter!

We pause for one moment to glance back at the extent of ground over which we have so rapidly passed. The facts that we have endeavored to examine are numerous and varied in their character. Had we the ability, we have not

But we

the space to present them in their fulness of scientific detail,
nor is it necessary in a treatise of this nature.
have attempted in simple language, with the least possible.
use of technical phrascology, to group together many pheno-
mena under a new theory for their explanation. The result,
in spite of errors and mistakes, we hope may tend in some
degree to strengthen interest in the works of nature; for
in whatever light the world is viewed, in whatever aspect it
is considered, its beauty is apparent; and though the offered
theory be rejected, it may benefit some minds to forget for
a moment the established explanations of things, that they
may see creation with a light from a new direction touching
some of its prominent points. If we have substituted for
logical deduction an allusion to the "laughter" of the exult-
ing wave,if in place of the formula of the mathematician.
we have introduced a text of Scripture, if we have ques-
tioned the attractive power of matter, and doubted whether
it be indeed the cause of all the varying phenomena about
us,
if we refuse to admit the idea that the universe exists
in its present form from the necessity of the case, because
it could not be otherwise "considering the known proper-
tics of matter," it is because when we look at nature, wo
wish to see more than the mere external lineaments ; WO
would trace out the "Indwelling Spirit" which pervades
every part; which is the cause of all change, of all move-
ment; which is to the universe of matter what the life of
man is to the body with which he is clothed. We would feel

“A presence that disturbs us with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky."

CHAPTER IX.

"THOUGH IT BE ONE OF THE MAXIMS OF THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY,

NEVER TO SHRINK FROM A DOCTRINE WHICH HAS EVIDENCE ON ITS SIDE, IT IS ANOTHER MAXIM, EQUALLY ESSENTIAL TO IT, NEVER TO HARBOR ANY DOCTRINE WHEN THIS EVIDENCE IS WANTING.” Dr. Chalmers.

The tides are often referred to as a proof that the law of gravitation extends to the spheres. They are looked upon as the visible and tangible results of the attractive power of the sun and moon over the waters of the occan, as a fact which appeals to the senses, as an evidence of the doctrine adapted to the popular mind.

Without the tides,

it is said, "the principle of the universal attraction of matter would rest solely on abstruse reasoning, on abstract mathematical deduction." The tides indeed are presented by many, as settling the fact, that the law of falling bodies extends upward to the spheres, giving them their motions and their mutual influences.

But the tides fail altogether to answer this purpose among the unscientific. It is popularly believed that the sun and moon are, in some way or other, connected with the phcnomena; how, and why, is not understood. There are questions asked which the books do not answer; doubts entertained, which the theory of gravitation does not dissipate. There is rather an acquiescence in the statements on this subject, than a full and hearty assent. There is, too, a wide

spread rumor that philosophy itself, with all its strength, and with all its help from abstruse mathematical reasoning, is baffled in the attempt to explain the tides as a result of the law of gravitation.

We believe that, if the sun and moon do attract the waters of the earth, this attraction cannot produce the phenomena of the tides. To strengthen us in this belief we have high authority.

Professor Brande expresses the opinion that the collected facts on this subject are in advance of the theory; and that these facts wait for a more accurate determination of the principles of hydrodynamics, or the laws of the motion of water. La Place expressed the belief that the collection of more facts, at the observatory at Brest, a place well adapted for observation, would account for the discrepancy of the theory with the then established facts. Whewell, in the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, says, "The tides are a portion of astronomy, for the Newtonian theory asserts these curious phenomena to be the result of the attraction of the sun and moon. Nor can there be any doubt but this is true as a general statement, yet the subject to the present timo is a blot upon the perfection of the theory of universal gravitation, for we are very far from being ablo in this, as in other parts of astronomy, to show that theory will account for the time, magnitude, and all the other circumstances of the phenomena at every place on the earth's surface. . . . And what is the portion of our mathematics which is connected with this solitary, signal defeat of astronomy? The attempts of the greatest mathematicians, Newton, Maclaurin, Bernouilli, and La Place, to master such questions, all involve some gratuitous assumption, which is introduced because the problem cannot be otherwise mathematically dealt