there will not be one left whereon to build it.” The great doctrine of gravitation and attraction, the _substratum_ of the Newtonian philosophy, is amply verified by numerous observations and experiments. Whether that which constitutes the principle of gravity be, in itself, an incorporeal or spiritual substance, or a _materia subtilis_, some very subtile kind of ethereal fluid, is a question which does not at all affect the actual existence of such a power. “We know,” as is observed by a great astronomer[180b] of our own time, “that all the bodies in our system are retained in their courses by such a power” (the power of attraction.) “And,” he adds, “it is a very singular instance of the unerring wisdom of the CREATOR, that the law which this power observes is such, that notwithstanding the mutual attractions of the bodies, the system will never fall into ruin, but is capable of preserving itself to all eternity. “Moreover,” continues the same profound writer, “the mutual attraction which takes place between distant bodies could not, of itself, either produce their motion about the sun, or the rotation about their axes: it required an external impulse to operate in conjunction with it, to produce these effects; an act, which nothing but the arm of OMNIPOTENCE could accomplish.” “An invisible power pervades the whole system, and preserves it. In the effects produced by man, we see the operation of the cause; but “the ways of the ALMIGHTY are past finding out.” “Hence,” says our author, “in whatever point of view we take a survey of our system, we trace the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of the CREATOR: his Power, in its formation; his Wisdom, in the simplicity of the means to produce the ends; and his Goodness, in making those ends subservient to our use and enjoyment. Thus we are led by our enquiries into the structure of the universe, to the proofs of the existence and attributes of a SUPREME BEING, who formed and directs the whole. Arguments of this kind produce conviction which no sophistry can confound. “Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off.” Let not therefore the ignorant declaim against those pursuits which direct us to a knowledge of our CREATOR, and furnish us with unanswerable arguments against the infidel and the atheist.”