WE discover in Nature a tendency of every portion of matter towards every other. This tendency is called _gravitation_. In obedience to this power, a stone falls to the ground, and a planet revolves around the sun. We may contemplate this subject as it relates either to phenomena that take place near the surface of the earth, or in the celestial regions. The former, _gravity_, is exemplified by falling bodies; the latter, _universal gravitation_, by the motions of the heavenly bodies. The laws of terrestrial gravity were first investigated by Galileo; those of universal gravitation, by Sir Isaac Newton. Terrestrial gravity is only an individual example of universal gravitation; being the tendency of bodies towards the centre of the earth. We are so much accustomed, from our earliest years, to see bodies fall to the earth, that we imagine bodies must of necessity fall "downwards;" but when we reflect that the earth is round, and that bodies fall towards the centre on all sides of it, and that of course bodies on opposite sides of the earth fall in precisely opposite directions, and towards each other, we perceive that there must be some force acting to produce this effect; nor is it enough to say, as the ancients did, that bodies "naturally" fall to the earth. Every motion implies some force which produces it; and the fact that bodies fall towards the earth, on all sides of it, leads us to infer that that force, whatever it is, resides in the earth itself. We therefore call it _attraction_. We do not, however, say what attraction _is_, but what it _does_. We must bear in mind, also, that, according to the third law of motion, this attraction is mutual; that when a stone falls towards the earth, it exerts the same force on the earth that the earth exerts on the stone; but the motion of the earth towards the stone is as much less than that of the stone towards the earth, as its quantity of matter is greater; and therefore its motion is quite insensible. But although we are compelled to acknowledge the _existence_ of such a force as gravity, causing a tendency in all bodies towards each other, yet we know nothing of its _nature_, nor can we conceive by what medium bodies at such a distance as the moon and the earth exercise this influence on each other. Still, we may trace the modes in which this force acts; that is, its _laws_; for the laws of Nature are nothing else than the modes in which the powers of Nature act. We owe chiefly to the great Galileo the first investigation of the laws of terrestrial gravity, as exemplified in falling bodies; and I will avail myself of this opportunity to make you better acquainted with one of the most interesting of men and greatest of philosophers.