chapter 1, verse 2,[44]) we must acknowledge their correctness; and I

think it will be admitted, that they are at least as much in favour of this new theory as the old.

The skilful and attentive observer of nature, whether examining the most minute or the most sublime, will discover that infinite wisdom, judgment, and ingenuity, equally prevail throughout. The principal aims of the great author of all things, appear to have been animation, diversity, and usefulness; the air we breathe, the water we drink, the vegetables on which we feed; indeed every leaf and plant of the forest and field――all teem with animal life. Why then should we believe, or even presume to think, that the Almighty Fiat, which spoke matter into existence, for the support and maintenance of living creatures, innumerable, and endless in the variety of their organization, their colours, their passions, and their pursuits――why, I say, should we then presume, that the omnifick word would create even the smallest particle of any of the immense, the innumerable orbs in the universe, of inert or useless matter, devoid of activity and design? This earth, when compared with the magnitude and number of other planets we know, is but as a point; yet we can hardly conceive, small as she appears by comparison, that she was only designed to have animate life on her surface, and all the rest to remain useless! Such an idea seems unworthy of the Divine Being, whose essence is all perfection. Can we for a moment suppose, that the interior parts of the earth, have received less attention from the Creator, than the objects which are under our immediate inspection? On the contrary, may it not be more rationally inferred, that, for the object of more widely disseminating animation, spheres are formed within spheres, concentric with each other, each revolving on its own axis, and thus multiplying the habitable superfices?

Great and sublime as our conceptions of the Deity must be, when we contemplate the earth and its inhabitants――if we turn our attention to the solar system, our world dwindles into a little insignificant ball. Yet if we cast our eyes still beyond, and contemplate the eighty millions of fixed stars, which a good telescope brings to our view, each the centre of a mighty system of revolving worlds; and then reflect that all this is only one little dark corner of creation, we are lost in the magnitude of the contemplation. But when we come to consider each of these fixed stars, with their planets, and they with their satellites, all consisting of concentric spheres, revolving within each other, in due order, and adapted to the support and comforts of life, for countless millions of beings; we are struck with ten-fold astonishment and admiration, and bow with reverential awe, before Him who sits at the head of the universe, and governs the whole by unvarying laws. It would seem to me, that in contemplating this new order of creation, the imagination must break through and soar beyond its old boundaries. It would seem that on embracing this doctrine, the spirit must expand with increased devotion, and be entirely absorbed in the infinite wisdom and power of Him, who was competent to devise, and able to execute, such a beautiful arrangement of matter.

FOOTNOTES:

[38] Physical World, p. 105.

[39] Barrington and Beaufoy, p. 106, and Purchas, v. 3, pp. 499, 500.

[40] The late George Adams, in his Philosophy, treating of refraction, states, that "at the horizon, in this climate, (England) it is found to be about thirty-three minutes. In climates near the equator, where the air is pure, the refraction is less; and in the colder climates, nearer the pole, it increases exceedingly, and is a happy provision for lengthening the appearance of the light at those regions so remote from the sun. Gassendees relates, that some Hollanders, who wintered in Nova-Zembla, in latitude seventy-five degrees, were agreeably surprised with a sight of the sun seventeen days before they expected him in the horizon. This difference was owing to the refraction of the atmosphere in that latitude."――Adams' Philosophy, v. 4, p. 112, Philadelphia, 1807.

[41] Keith on Globes, p. 144.――

[42] Ibid, p. 149.

[43] Sir Isaac Newton, in his Principia, under prop. 16, book 3, lays down the following proposition, viz: that "_the heat of the sun is as the density of his rays, that is reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the sun_." From this principle, it has been assumed by some of our modern astronomers, that but few of the planets can be inhabited, as if the effect of light and heat are reciprocally proportionate to the squares of the distances from the centre of their propagation; and if you divide the square of the earth's distance from the sun, the quotient will show, that the light and heat, which Mercury receives, are about seven times greater, making it more than twice as hot as boiling water. The light and heat communicated to Saturn, being only the one hundredth part of that of the earth, the difference is more than seven times as great as that between our summer heat and red hot iron, if the light and heat of the sun are only in proportion to the density of his rays. Such extremes of heat and cold, we would naturally conclude must totally preclude all material being, if in the least degree resembling those we are acquainted with; nor could any of the vegetable world, known to us, germinate in either extreme; nay, even the matter of our globe would scarcely withstand it, our oceans would be dissipated in vapour, on Mercury, and frozen to the bottom on Saturn. Considerations like these must induce us to conclude, that light and heat cannot be communicated exactly on the plan laid down by Newton, viz: that the heat of the sun is simply as the density of his rays: for though the sun's rays may be the _sine qua non_, without which no light or heat would be communicated, yet the _quantum_ of heat may depend on the density and co-operation of the medium through which it passes, or upon some other circumstance not known to us, and perhaps impossible for us to know.

[44] I am indebted to an excellent Hebrew scholar for the following:

NOTE. The words תהו ובהו _Theoo_ and _Beoo_, (Genesis, chapter 1, verse 2,) which has been rendered by the translators of our bible, "Without form and void," might perhaps, with equal propriety, have been translated "without form and hollow."

1. _Theoo_, the root, agreeably to the Hebrew grammar, is found as a noun תה or תהה _The_ or _Thee_, and, is rendered _confusion_, loose, unconnected, without form, order, or the like; and so well understood.

2. _Be-oo_, the root, is, according to the same rule, found in בה――_Be_, (_Bethhey_) _hollow_; it occurs not only in this form but――

1. As a noun בהו Beoo――Hollow, empty, having nothing in it but air, filled only _vacuo aere_, with empty air, as Lucan calls it, Lib. 5, line 94.

2. As a noun fem: in reg: בת‏‎, בת עין Bet, Bethoin, the apparent hollow, or pupil of the eye, &c. Comp. בבת Bebath, under, בב Beb.

3. As a noun fem: תבה _Thebe_ in Reg: תבת Thebeth, an ark, a hollow vessel, under 2d head of בב Beb. occurs not as a verb in kab, but

1. As a _participial_ noun, or participle in Nipth נבוב Neboob, hollow, made hollow, &c.

2. It is applied spiritually, hollow, empty, vain.

3. To the sight, or pupil of the eye; that part of the eye which appears hollow, and admits the light. See Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon.

Had the learned translators of our bible possessed a knowledge of the theory of concentric spheres, it is probable they would have given the English reader the most correct meaning of the words, תהו ובהו "_without form and hollow_," or "_shapeless and hollow_."