An original theory or new hypothesis of the universe: $b founded upon the laws of nature, and solving by mathematical principles the general phænomena of the visible creation; and particularly the via lactea ...Wright, Thomas
Philosophy
An original theory or new hypothesis of the universe: $b founded upon the laws of nature, and solving by mathematical principles the general phænomena of the visible creation; and particularly the via lactea ...
Wright, Thomas
Astronomy -- Early works to 1800
What an amazing Scene does this display to us! what inconceivable
Vastness and Magnificence of Power does such a Frame unfold! Suns
crowding upon Suns, to our weak Sense, indefinitely distant from each
other; and Miriads of Miriads of Mansions, like our own, peopling
Infinity, all subject to the same Creator's Will; a Universe of Worlds,
all deck'd with Mountains, Lakes, and Seas, Herbs, Animals, and Rivers,
Rocks, Caves, and Trees; and all the Produce of indulgent Wisdom, to
chear Infinity with endless Beings, to whom his Omnipotence may give a
variegated eternal Life.
The astonishing Distance of the starry Mansions undoubtedly was
design'd to answer some wise End: One Consequence is this, and probably
is not without its Use: To every Planet of the same System, the same
sidereal Face of Heaven appears without the least Degree of Change;
and as the remotest Regions upon Earth see the same Moon and Planets,
so also the Inhabitants of the most distant Planets in ours, or in any
other System, see the same Forms and Order of the Stars in common with
the rest. The whole Sphere of Heaven being common and unchangeable
through all their various Revolutions.
Thus those (the People) in the Planet _Venus_ will see the
Constellation of _Orion_ just as we do, and the People in the
Planet _Saturn_, much farther still removed, alike will view this
Constellation in all respects the same; here then, (in the System of
the Sun) the Eye removed from us must only hope to find a new Earth
surrounded with the same sort of Sky: But Beings in another System,
behold not only a new Heaven above, but also new Earths below; and
all the Frame of Nature to them puts on a new Dress, new Signs, new
Seasons, and new Planets roll, and a new Sun renews the Day.
The Heathen Fables here are all erased with all the Immortality of
their vain earthly Gods and Heroes; _Perseus_ and _Alcides_ are no
more, and both the _Bears_ are vanished; the _Pleiades_ and the
_Hyads_ join, and shining Leo, though boasting two Stars of the first
Magnitude with us, there no where can be found, lost in the common
undistinguished Herd. But still Astronomy will exist, and new-framed
Forms may fill the varied Scene.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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