Miscellanea Curiosa, Vol. 1: Containing a collection of some of the principal phaenomena in nature, accounted for by the greatest philosophers of this age
History
Miscellanea Curiosa, Vol. 1: Containing a collection of some of the principal phaenomena in nature, accounted for by the greatest philosophers of this age
Natural history; Science -- Early works to 1800; Voyages and travels -- Early works to 1800
And this perhaps may not without Reason be suppos'd to be the final
Cause of the admixture of the Magnetical Matter in the Mass of the
Terrestrial parts of our Globe, _viz._ To make good and maintain the
Concave Arch of this Shell: For by what the Excellent Mr. _Newton_ has
shewn in his _Principia Philosophiæ_, it will follow, that according to
the general Principle of Gravity, visible throughout the whole Universe,
all those Particles that by length of time, or otherwise, shall moulder
away, or become loose on the Concave Surface of the External Sphere,
would fall in, and with great force descend on the Internal, unless
those Particles were of another sort of Matter capable by their stronger
tendency to each other, to suspend the force of Gravity; but we know no
other Substances capable of supporting each other by their mutual
Attraction but the Magnetical, and these we see miraculously to perform
that Office, even where the Power of Gravity has its full effect, much
more within the Globe where it is weaker. Why then may we not suppose
these said Arches to be lin'd throughout with a Magnetical Matter, or
rather to be one great Concave Magnet, whose two Poles are the Poles we
have before observ'd to be fixt in the Surface of our Globe.
Another Argument, favouring this Hypothesis, is drawn from a Proposition
of the same Mr. _Newton_, where he determines the force wherewith the
_Moon_ moves the _Sea_ in producing the _Tides_: His Words are,
_Densitas Lunæ est ad densitatem Terra ut 680 ad 387 seu 9 ad 5
quamproximé. Est igitur corpus Lunæ densius ac magis terrestre quam
Terra nostra_, p. 466. Now if the Moon be more solid than the Earth, as
9 to 5, why may we not reasonably suppose the Moon, being a small Body,
and a secondary Planet, to be solid Earth, Water, Stone, and this Globe
to consist of the same Materials, only four Ninths thereof to be Cavity,
within and between the Internal Spheres; which I would render not
improbable.
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