The Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 4 (1794-1796): The Age of ReasonPaine, Thomas
Religion
The Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 4 (1794-1796): The Age of Reason
Paine, Thomas
Philosophy and religion; Political science; Rationalism
If we take a survey of our own world, or rather of this, of which the
Creator has given us the use as our portion in the immense system of
creation, we find every part of it, the earth, the waters, and the air
that surround it, filled, and as it were crowded with life, down from
the largest animals that we know of to the smallest insects the naked
eye can behold, and from thence to others still smaller, and totally
invisible without the assistance of the microscope. Every tree, every
plant, every leaf, serves not only as an habitation, but as a world to
some numerous race, till animal existence becomes so exceedingly
refined, that the effluvia of a blade of grass would be food for
thousands.
Since then no part of our earth is left unoccupied, why is it to be
supposed that the immensity of space is a naked void, lying in eternal
waste? There is room for millions of worlds as large or larger than
ours, and each of them millions of miles apart from each other.
Having now arrived at this point, if we carry our ideas only one
thought further, we shall see, perhaps, the true reason, at least a
very good reason for our happiness, why the Creator, instead of making
one immense world, extending over an immense quantity of space, has
preferred dividing that quantity of matter into several distinct and
separate worlds, which we call planets, of which our earth is one. But
before I explain my ideas upon this subject, it is necessary (not for
the sake of those that already know, but for those who do not) to show
what the system of the universe is.
CHAPTER XIV.
SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE.
That part of the universe that is called the solar system (meaning the
system of worlds to which our earth belongs, and of which Sol, or in
English language, the Sun, is the center) consists, besides the Sun, of
six distinct orbs, or planets, or worlds, besides the secondary bodies,
called the satellites, or moons, of which our earth has one that
attends her in her annual revolution round the Sun, in like manner as
the other satellites or moons, attend the planets or worlds to which
they severally belong, as may be seen by the assistance of the
telescope.
The Sun is the center round which those six worlds or planets revolve
at different distances therefrom, and in circles concentric to each
other. Each world keeps constantly in nearly the same tract round the
Sun, and continues at the same time turning round itself, in nearly an
upright position, as a top turns round itself when it is spinning on
the ground, and leans a little sideways.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account