Copy 1, Volume 1

A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith.

  • Oliver Goldsmith
Date:
[between 1800 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    organs ean no longer make the disquisition, he sends out his iniagination upon new inquiries. Nothing, therefore, can be more august and striking^ than the idea which his reason, aided by his imagination, furnishes of the universe around him. Astronomers tell us, that this earth which we inhabit forms but a very mi- nute part in that gi eat assemblage of bodies of which the world is composed. It is a million of times less than the sun, by which it is enlightened. The planets also, which, like it, are subordinate to the sun’s influence, exceed the earth a thousand times in magnitude. These, which were at first supposed to wander in the heavens without any fixed path, and that took their name from their apparent ‘ deviations, have long been found to perform their circuits with great exactness and strict regularity. They have been discovered as forming, with our earth, a system of bodies circulating round the sun, all obedient to one law, and impelled by one common influence. Modern philosophy has taught us to believe, that, when the great Author of nature began the work of creation, he chose to operate by second causes; and that, suspending the constant exertion of his power, he endued matter with a quality, by which the universal economy of nature might be continued without his immediate assistance. This quality is called attraction; a sort of approximating influence, which all bodies, whether terrestrial or celestial, are found.to possess; and which in all increases as the quantity of matter in each increases. The sun, by far the greatest body in our system, is, of consequence, possessed of much the greatest share of this attracting power; and all the planets, of which our earth is one, are, of course, entirely subject to its superior influence. Were this power, therefore, left uncontrolled by any other, the sun must quickly have attracted all the bodies of our celestial system to itself; but it is equally counteracted by another power of equal efiicacy; namely, a progressive force, which each planet received when it was impelled forward by the divine Architect, upon its first formation. The heavenly bodies of our system being thus acted upon by tw o opposing powers; namely, by that of attraction^ wiiich draws them towards the sun; and that of impulsion^ which drives them straight forward into the great void of space;
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