per of our bodies, and of all other things here below. Had we been much nearer the fun, our world would have been burnt up and wafted; the waters in the first place would have been all turned into vapours, and dried up; vegetation have foon ceafed, and all things would have foon been wafted, if not burnt and confumed. Or had we been not at so very great a distance, but only a little nearer the fun than now we are, fuppofe a few thoufands of miles, ftill the heat would be as the fquare of the distance; and confequently too great, if not for the polar, yet for the æquatorial parts. And, on the contrary, had we been fet at a greater diftance from the fun, fo would the fun's heat have been abated in proportion to the fquare of that distance. And in this cafe, if the diftance had been very great, we and all things muft have been perpetually frozen up; or if it had been not fo great, the world would have fuffered by cold, the polar at leaft; if the æquatorial parts could have escaped.

And in this cafe, when our globe should thus be parched up with everlasting heat, or be everlaftingly frozen with exceffive cold; instead of

an

Newton, Princip. p. 466.

an habitable, pleafant, and comfortable world, it muft become a defart, a place of irkfomeness, misery, and everlasting punishment. But the great Creator having fo wifely and indulgently ordered the distance between the earth and fun, the fun's light and heat are incomparably accommodated to the ftate and temper of all things here below, and our world is well fitted for habitation, well provided with every thing that may minifter to the fupport, the comfort, and pleasure of its inhabitants. By thofe indulgent rays, all things are enlightened, and we and all the reft of the animal kingdom are enabled to dispatch our bufinefs, to feek and provide our food, and to pafs from place to place, as our occafions or pleasures lead us. By its cherishing beams all things are warmed and comforted, vapours in fome measure made to rife for the forming of clouds and rain: trees and plants are enabled thereby to put on their verdure and gaiety, and to yield us the benefit and pleasure of their grain and fruit. By the prefence of this great fountain of light and heat, we, and even nature too, is awake and excited; and by its abfence, grows torpid and dull: its ab, fence by night difpofes us to reft and fleep; and even vegetables too fhut up their flowers

then", and in a manner betake themfelves to reft and its abfence in winter, how doth it change the whole face of nature, diveft vegetables of their gay attire, force animals to places of shelter and fafeguard, and give an aspect of melancholy and horror to all things!

Thus it is manifeft, how wifely and indulgently the great Creator hath provided for the good of our planet, by fo critically adjusting its pofition to, and its diftance from the fun, to the ftate and temper of it and all things thereon. And although the reft of the planets encompaffing the fun, are fome of them near to, fome of them farther from it, yet there is no great queftion to be made, but the fame wife Contriver hath made as good a provifion for them as for us, either by contempering their denfity to their distance from the fun, or by fome other the wifeft and beft courfe; as we have very just reafon to fufpect, from that grand and folemn apparatus I fhall fpeak of, of fecondary planets. Which leads me to confider the provifions made for the supply of the fun's abfence, and its greater distance,

CHAP.

See Phyfico-Theol. Bk. X. Note (a) page 130, vol. 2.

СНАР. III.

THE NECESSITY OF LIGHT, AND THE PROVISION FOR IT BY THE ATMOSPHERE.

BEFORE I come to the other planets, it will

be convenient to confider how the fun's abfence is fupplied here upon the earth, as alfo, probably, how it is fupplied in her concomitant, the moon,

And first as to the earth. Of fuch abfolute neceffity is light (not to mention heat) that our world could not well be in the leaft utterly without it, because if there fhould be utter abfolute darkness (befides the great inconveniences it might bring to vegetables, minerals, and every other fuch like part of the creation, befides this I fay) it would certainly put animals under an abfolute incapacity of performing their most necessary business, and acting in that office which the Divine Providence hath appointed them, although

Y 4

although of greatest use to themselves, or the reft of the world. Men, for inftance, whose bufiness and occafions oftentimes neceffitate them to borrow a part of the night; and all other animals, particularly fuch whofe fafety, or temper, or conftitution of parts (as of their eye, for instance, or fome other parts) confine them to their dens and places of retirement and reft by day,` and are therefore in courfe compelled to feek their food, and wander about on their most neceffary occafions of life by night; all thefe, I fay, would at once be cut off from one of the grand benefits of life, from acting that part they bear in the creation, during fuch time as they should be put into abfolute darkness. But to prevent this, the infinitely wife Contriver of the world hath made divers admirable provifions, both in our own, and the other planets too. One provifion which he hath made in our own globe, and I may add that of the moon alfo, is by encompaffing both with an atmosphere, which, among

▾ Mr. Huygens, in his Cofmotheor. p. 115. concludes the moon to have no air or atmosphere, because we fee its limb fo clearly and accurately defined, and because he thought there are no feas or rivers in the moon. But he was mistaken both in his conclusion and patt of his premifes. For in the folar eclipfe May 1, 1706, which in Switzerland was total, they could manifeftly perceive the moon's atmosphere, as may be feen in the accounts given in Philof. Trans.

No.