1 And now for a close, I fhall take this opportunity of publicly owning, with all honour and thankfulness, the generous offer made me by fome of my friends, eminent in their stations, as well as fkill and abilities in, the laws, who would have made me a prefent of the May-pole in the Strand (which was to be taken down) or any other pole I thought convenient for the management of Mr. Huygens's glafs. But as my incapacity of accepting the favour of those noble Mecœnates, hath been the occafion of that excellent glafs being put into better hands; fo, I affure myself, their expectations are abundantly anfwered, by. the number and goodness of the observations that have been, and will be made therewith. A PRE A PRELIMINARY DISCO URSE, CONCERNING THE SYSTEMS OF THE HEAVENS, THE HABITABILITY OF THE PLANETS, AND A PLURALITY OF WORLDS, USEFUL FOR THE READING OF THE FOLLOWING BOOK, MY Phyfico-Theology having met with fo quick a fale as to come to a third impreffion before the year was expired, but especially the folicitations of many learned men, both known and unknown, have given me great encouragement to fulfil my pro nife, in fending abroad this other part, relating to the heavens: which fhould fooner have feen the light, but that I was minded not to interrupt the reader's patience with many notes (which I could not well avoid in my Phyfico-Theology, and which my rough draught of this was burthened with) and therefore I threw the greatest part of them into the text which neceffitated me to tranfcribe the whole. And when my hand was in, I new made fome part of it, and added many new obfervations of my own, which I have lately made with fome very good long glaffes, I have in my Vol. II. M hands; opinion, bearing the teft of ages, and confirmed by the length of time. "For," faith he, "time "wears out the figments of opinions, but con"firms the judgments of nature; or fuch notions "as are grounded upon the true judgment and "nature of things. For which reason, faith he, both among ourfelves, and in other nations, "the veneration of the gods, and the facred"nefs of religion, augment and improve every "day more and more." Thus the heavens declare the glory of God," even to the heathen world; fo manifeftly are they the handy-work of God. And that they are his work, will appear by taking a view of these feven particulars, 1. The magnitude of the heavens. 2. The great number of the heavenly bodies, 3. Their diftances. 4. Their motions. 5. Their figures. 6. Their gravity. 7. Their light and heat, and the admirabla provifions made for thofe benefits, BOOK BEFORE the invention of the telescope, the universe was thought to be confined within far more narrow bounds than it is fince found to be, the fixt stars being imagined to be all placed in the ftarry heavens (which they called the firmament) at equal diftances from the earth (the centre) like so many golden nails driven in the top of fome arched roof, or other circular concave, concave, encompaffing our eye. Thefe, although far more narrow bounds, and a more fcanty reckoning than it fhould be, yet was fufficient to fhew who was the maker of fuch a ftupendous arch, and fo noble a train as is contained therein. But according to the modern reckoning (which is far the most rational, and grounded upon better phænomena) we fhall find this branch of the creation far more magnificent, and worthy of its infinite Creator, than thofe former computations made it. And how grand and magnificent a ftructure the heavens are, will appear by a distinct confideration of the magnitude of the heavenly bodies themselves; and of the space in which they are. CHAP. |