Read Ebook: An original theory or new hypothesis of the universe by Wright Thomas

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o such Thing as real nocturnal Darkness to any Part of the World.

LETTER the FOURTH.

This to any tolerable Optician, must be an evident Conviction of the Truth of the modern Astronomy, which now universally allow all those radiant Bodies the Stars to be of the same Nature with the Sun; and that as certainly they are no other than vast Globes of blazing Matter, all undoubtedly shining by their own native Light.

But how ridiculous and absurd all these Opinions and Conjectures really are, will easily appear, if we but once consider the Nature of an unbounded AEther, and the amazing Property of infinite Space.

Sherburne.

And again, in the same Poem:

The fiery Stars, and AEther that creates Infinite Orbs, and others dissipates.

But that I may not take up too much of your Time with Opinions that has been imbibed in the Infancy of Astronomy, and has long ago been exploded, I shall attempt but one Thing more to confirm your Sentiments in this new Doctrine.

Resplendent Sparks of the first Fire! In which the Beauty we admire, And Light of those eternal Rays, The uncreated Mind displays.

It remains now I think to shew, and endeavour to prove, that the Stars are not only light Bodies of the Nature of the Sun, but that they are really so many Suns, all performing like Offices of Heat and Gravity, in a regular Order, throughout the visible Creation, in opposition to an Opinion you have formerly hinted at, of their being in another Sense of a secondary Nature.

All Objects within the sensible Sphere of the Sun's Attraction, or Activity, are in some measure magnified by a good Telescope: But the Stars are all placed so far without it, that the best Glasses has no other Effect upon them than making them appear more vivid or lively, but all innate opaque Bodies, reflecting only a borrowed Light from some primary one, contrary to this Property, are all observed to lose their Light, in the same Proportion, as they are magnified, and through all Glasses become more dull than otherwise they appear to the naked Eye: And hence we may infer, without any further Evidence, that the Stars are all light Bodies endowed with native Lustre; and that Bodies, like the known Planets, from the same Reasoning, it is as clear they cannot be, because their Distance, though uncertain as to the Truth of the whole, yet such a Part of it as cannot be denied, would render them all in such a Case invisible.

A Proof of this will plainly present itself, if we consider the Course of the known Comets, who all of them, without Exception, become imperceptible, and intirely disappear; though most of them much bigger than the Earth, or any of the lesser Planets, long before they arrive at their respective Aphelions.

But we are under a kind of Necessity to believe them either Suns or Planets, that is either dark or light Bodies; and since I have shewn the Improbability; nay, I may venture to say, the Impossibility of their being the first, it is natural sure to conclude, that they must be of the last Sort; and I am persuaded, if you but once consider how ridiculous it is to imagine so vast a Number of Bodies, all rolling round a Number of invisible Suns, which must otherwise be the Case, since they are seen on all Sides of ours, and cannot possibly be enlightened by him, or any, how all of them, by any one else, you cannot possibly have any sort of Difficulty in this Determination: But that no Arguments may be wanting to enforce your Belief of what is here concluded, it will not be amiss to put you in Mind of an optical Experiment or two, which cannot fail of convincing you of the vast Probability of what is here asserted of them; and next to a moral Certainty, demonstrate the Truth of what so many of the best Astronomers have advanced, as before namely, that the Stars are all, or most of them, Suns like ours.

Place any concave Lense before your Eye, and you will find all visible Objects will appear through it, as removed to a much greater Distance than they really are at, and reciprocally as much diminished. Now, if you look upon one of these Glasses of a proper Concavity, opposed to the Sun or Moon, you will respectively have the Appearance of a real Star or Planet, the first exhibited by the Body of the Sun, the other by the Moon, and either more or less diminished in Proportion to the Surface of the Sphere the Glass is ground to.

After all these Arguments, I hope no new Difficulties will arise to retard your Belief, or deprive the Stars of their solar Nature, so justly due to them: This Point gained, the next Thing to be considered is, whether all those glorious Bodies, the far greater Part of whom being invisible to the naked Eye, were made purely and purposely for the sole Use of this diminitive World, our little trifling Earth.

The very Supposition not only implies a profound Ignorance of the Divine Attributes, but is as impious, and full of Vanity, as it is erroneous and absurd, and even a Blindness sufficient of itself, were there no other Cause for it, to introduce Idolatry in the Minds of Mortals, by sinking the divine Nature so near to the human.

The Sun we have justly reduced to the State of a Star, why then in Reason should he have his attendant Planets round him, more than any of the rest, his undoubted Equals? No Shadow even of a Reason can be given for such an Absurdity.

If the Stars were ordained merely for the Use of us, why so much Extravagance and Ostentation in their Number, Nature, and Make? For a much less Quantity, and smaller Bodies, placed nearer to us, would every Way answer the vain End we put them to; and besides, in all Things else, Nature is most frugal, and takes the nearest Way, through all her Works, to operate and effect the Will of God. It scarce can be reckoned more irrational, to suppose Animals with Eyes, destined to live in eternal Darkness, or without Eyes to live in perpetual Day, than to imagine Space illuminated, where there is nothing to be acted upon, or brought to Light; therefore we may justly suppose, that so many radiant Bodies were not created barely to enlighten an infinite Void, but to make their much more numerous Attendants visible; and instead of discovering a vast unbounded desolate Negation of Beings, display an infinite shapeless Universe, crowded with Myriads of glorious Worlds, all variously revolving round them; and which form an Atom, to an indefinite Creation, with an inconceivable Variety of Beings and States, animate and fill the endless Orb of Immensity.

I shall offer but one Thing more to your Consideration in this Affair, and which I am in great Hopes will be sufficient to make you think these natural Suggestions a good deal more than probable, and that is this:

Is designed as a geometrical Scale to all the primary Parts of the visible Creation, with regard to the Distance of Orbits compared with the Globe of the Sun; by which at once may be conceived, and justly measured in the Mind, not only the mean Distance of the Planets with regard to one another, but also that of the Comets, and even the comparative Distances of the nearest of the Stars, which will, I guess, greatly help you to form an Idea of the vast Extent of Space necessary to comprehend the whole Creation.

Consequently no Arguments can possibly be drawn to deny the Existence of such Bodies, with any Shew of Reason, from their not having been seen by us.

"When I consider that infinite Host of Stars, or to speak more philosophically of Suns, which were then shining upon me, with those innumerable Sets of Planets or Worlds, which were then moving round their respective Suns; when I still enlarge the Idea, and supposed another Heaven of Suns and Worlds rising still above this which we discovered; and these still enlightened by a superior Firmament of Luminaries, which are planted at so great a Distance, that they may appear to the Inhabitants of the former as the Stars do to us; in short, whilst I pursued this Thought, I could not but reflect on that little insignificant Figure which I myself bore amongst the Immensity of God's Works:" This Reflection, I judge, as you are an Admirer of the Author, you will not look upon as impertinent in this Place, especially as it must enforce what I have endeavoured to shew you, namely, the Reasonableness of a Plurality of sidereal Systems, and their Multiplicity of Worlds; which, if you are yet in Doubt of, I hope you will at least forgive so well designed an Attempt with your usual Candour.

LETTER the FIFTH.

What will you say, if I tell you, it is my Belief we are so far from the real Summit of the Science, that we scarce yet know the Rudiments of what may be expected from it. This luminous Circle has often engrossed my Thoughts, and of late has taken up all my idle Hours; and I am now in great Hopes I have not only at last found out the real Cause of it, but also by the same Hypothesis, which solves this Appearance, shall be able to demonstrate a much more rational Theory of the Creation than hitherto has been any where advanced, and at the same Time give you an intire new Idea of the Universe, or infinite System of Things. This most surprizing Zone of Light, which have employed successively for many Ages past, the wisest Heads amongst the Antients, to no other Purpose than barely to describe it; we find to be a perfect Circle, and nearly bisecting the celestial Sphere, but very irregular in Breadth and Brightness, and in many Places divided into double Streams.

Represents the two Hemispheres, where its true Tract is distinguished amongst the principal Stars, and may easily be conceived by them to circumscribe and bisect the whole Heavens.

Astonishment must sure their Senses reach, To see the World's wide Wound, and Heav'n's eternal Breach.

Manilius.

The Light which naturally flows from this Crowd of radiant Bodies is mixt and confused, chiefly occasioned by the Agitation of our Atmosphere, and from a Union of their Rays of Light, by a too near Proximity of their Beams, altogether they appear like a River of Milk, but more of a pelucid Nature, running all round the starry Regions.

For in the azure Skies its candid Way Shines like the dawning Morn, or closing Day.

This, tho' I presume to call it at present only meer Hypothesis, will in a great measure account for the excessive Changes in the Constitution of our Air and Atmosphere, which we often find very unnatural to the Season; also be a Means perhaps of reconciling the vast Disproportion so very remarkable betwixt the Sun and the lesser Planets, and many other Circumstances in the System of no small Consequence in Astronomy: One of which Particulars you have frequently expressed a great Mistrust and Disapprobation of, as suspecting some kind of a Fallacy in the Computation; and the other is Matter of general Complaint, being by many attributed to a Change in the Direction of the Earth's Axis; and by some, especially the Vulgar, to too near an Approximation of the Earth to some one of the celestial Bodies. But all this will very naturally be accounted for by the Levity, or expanding Quality of the Sun's circumambient Flame, or Atmosphere; and hence, according to its various State, being more condensed, or rare, we may have Heat or Cold in the greatest Extream, and alternately so, in a perpetual Vicissitude.

I would now willingly help you to conceive the indefinite mutual Distance of the Stars, in order to give you some small Notion of the Immensity of Space; but as this will be a Task merely conjectural, I shall only desire you to believe it as far as your Reason will carry you, safely supported by an obvious Probability.

Perhaps it may be necessary here to acquaint you, that all the Stars are so far apparently of different Magnitudes, that no two of them are to be found in the whole Heavens exactly the same, either in Bigness or Brightness. The largest we have sufficient Reason to believe is the nearest to us; the next in Bigness and Brightness more remote; and so on to the least we see, which we judge to be the most remote of all.

The first Degree, or that of the largest Magnitude, we give to Syrius, the second to Arcturus, the third to Aldebaran, the fourth to Lyra, the fifth to Capella, the sixth to Regulus, the seventh to Rigel, the eighth to Fomahaunt, and the ninth to Antarus: These are all said to be of the first Class; and besides which, there are at least, within the Reach of our latest improved Opticks, nine more Denominations within the Radius of the visible Creation.

To moderate the Matter then if you please, allow me but to make use of a Mean betwixt the two fore-mentioned Numbers; and we may take it for granted, a Distance sufficiently exact, to suit all our Wants in the present Case, namely, to give a very tolerable Idea of the Extent of the visible Creation, which is all I propose in this Place to attempt; but I mean to be much more exact in another.

This I have here considered more extensively, to obviate all Objections that you may make to the Probability of the general Motion of the Stars, by shewing no Difficulty can possibly arise from their apparent Proximity, Number, or irregular Distribution: Their Distances being so immensely large, no Disorder or Confusion can be supposed in any Direction of them, or Motion whatever. The greatest Distance of the Planets, which all move undisturbed round the Sun, is about three hundred and fifty-three Million of Miles: But the least Distance of one Star from another, is upwards of two thousand eight hundred and thirty-two Times that Distance, or one Million of Millions of Miles: And as no sensible Disorder can be observed amongst the solar Planets, what Reason have we to suppose any can be occasioned amongst the Stars, or that a general Motion of these primary Luminaries round a common Center, should be any way irrational, or unnatural?

What an amazing Scene does this display to us! what inconceivable Vastness and Magnificence of Power does such a Frame unfold! Suns crowding upon Suns, to our weak Sense, indefinitely distant from each other; and Miriads of Miriads of Mansions, like our own, peopling Infinity, all subject to the same Creator's Will; a Universe of Worlds, all deck'd with Mountains, Lakes, and Seas, Herbs, Animals, and Rivers, Rocks, Caves, and Trees; and all the Produce of indulgent Wisdom, to chear Infinity with endless Beings, to whom his Omnipotence may give a variegated eternal Life.

The astonishing Distance of the starry Mansions undoubtedly was design'd to answer some wise End: One Consequence is this, and probably is not without its Use: To every Planet of the same System, the same sidereal Face of Heaven appears without the least Degree of Change; and as the remotest Regions upon Earth see the same Moon and Planets, so also the Inhabitants of the most distant Planets in ours, or in any other System, see the same Forms and Order of the Stars in common with the rest. The whole Sphere of Heaven being common and unchangeable through all their various Revolutions.

Devotion! Daughter of Astronomy!

and affirm with him also, That,

An indevout Astronomer is mad.

First then, that the Stars are not infinitely dispersed and distributed in a promiscuous Manner throughout all the mundane Space, without Order or Design, is evident beyond a Doubt from this vast collective Body of Light, since no such Phaenomenon could possibly be produced by Chance, or exhibited without a designed Disposition of its constituent Bodies.

If any regular Order of the Stars then can be demonstrated that will naturally prove this Phaenomenon to be no other than a certain Effect arising from the Observer's Situation, I think you must of course grant such a Solution at least rational, if not the Truth; and this is what I propose by my new Theory.

But when we consider the explanick Position of many other Stars, all of the same Nature, and not less numerous, together forming the great Sphere of Heaven, we generally find ourselves quite at a Loss how to reconcile the two apparent Classes; and I know none who have ever been successful enough to reduce them to any one general Order.

In the first Place it must be granted, that the Stars being all of the same Nature, are either all moveable, or all fixed, that is all governed by one and the same Principle.

Now to suppose them all fixed, and dispersed in an endless Disorder thro' the infinite Expanse, which has long been the Opinion of many very able Astronomers amongst the Antients, and even now received by too many of the Moderns, implies an Inactivity in those vast and principal Bodies, so much the Reverse of what may be expected, and what we daily observe through all the rest of their Attendants, namely, their own respective Satellites, that we cannot possibly upon any rational Grounds, advance one single Argument to support so much as a Conjecture towards it, without betraying the greatest Simplicity, and next to an Affirmation reduce the whole Frame of Nature, and all corporeal Beings to a wild unmeaning Chance, arising from an unnatural Discord and Confusion.

For upon the Principles of Locality and Materiality, you having allowed me the Use of my Senses and Reason, as absolutely necessary towards conceiving any Idea of our present State, or of Futurity: Upon these Principles I say, unless our Faculties are useless, if there are no other Bodies or Beings in the Universe than what we see, and are now sensible of, we must now at the Height of this our present State, be as near Perfection as we can reasonably expect, and as such ourselves the supreme Beings of all Beings. To what End then do we form Ideas of a succeeding Life, where a more exalted State cannot be hoped for.

First, it is allowed, as I have endeavoured to shew, by all modern Philosophers, that the Sun and Stars are all of the same or like Nature; consequently, that the Stars are all Suns, and that the Sun himself is a Star.

The Sun is also observed to have a Motion round his own Axis in about twenty-five Days. Now, since all the other Planets which move in Orbits round him, and are within our Observation, are found to have a like Rotation round their Axis, may we not as reasonably imagine, that that Power which was able to give the Sun a Motion round his Axis, could and would at the same time, with adequate Ease, give him also an orbitular one? and why not, since no progressive Mutability can either take from, or disturb the boundless Property of an Infinity; and besides, seeing to imagine him at rest, is to impose such an unnatural Stagnation upon the eternal Faculty, quite repugnant to that imparable Power which we suppose stands in need of neither Sleep nor Rest?

'Tis true, the Sun may be said to be the Governor of all those Bodies round him; but how? no otherwise than he himself may be governed by a superior Agent, or a still more active Force; and methinks it is not a little absurd to suppose he is not, since we have discovered by undoubted Observations, that the same gravitating Power is common to all; and that the Stars themselves are subject to no other Direction than that which moves the whole Machine of Nature.

Here follows a Table of the Change observed in the Obliquity of the Ecliptic by Astronomers of different Ages.

Now sure, if we consider this continual Decrease of the Sun's Declination, which can proceed from no other Cause than that of his having moved out of the primitive Plane; we need make no great Difficulty thus far, to think our Conjectures not irrational.

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