Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by THOMAS EWBANK, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, Earton Building, 81, 3, and 85 Centre Street. • PREFACE. DIVERSITY of genius and tastes, of mental conformation and power, is the basis of general progress. The temple of science is not to se built up by one class of thinkers, nor that of the arts by one set of workmen. There is employment specially adapted for every class. Some minds exclude, and others are slow to admit conjecture in departments belonging to demonstrative knowledge. Others, again, are led to theorize on the possible and probable, in connexion with the actual; and they are also right, for thought is not intended to be confined by lines and angles, nor is the science of quantity necessary to an appreciation of the wonders that environ us. Astronomy presents the grandest of problems to mathematicians, but there is something more in it than can be weighed and measured. Then, natural phenomena are open to common apprehensions, and when viewed without the aid of science suggest hints valuable to the learned. Fresh truths, like fresh fires, have been kindled by insignificant sparks. With great diffidence this desultory paper is submitted to the consideration of scientific men. I am painfully sensible of its defects, and assuredly, nothing but the consciousness that nature has always new things to reveal, and that every attentive observer may pick up something overlooked by others, could have sent it to the printer. Whatever may conflict with accepted theories is propounded, not affirmed; and if the language occasionally borders on assertion, the blemish is attributable to poverty of expression, not to a positive spirit. Still, I had rather be author of novel heresies in science, than remain satisfied with what has been gained; for new views, if even erroneous, are indirect aids to discovery. There is fruit to be gathered out of beaten tracks; and while he who refuses to leave them may retail current doctrines, like a shopman other men's goods, he will rarely contribute a fresh one of his own. Of propositions deemed (perhaps erroneously) more or less new or newly illustrated, the following among others may be named: The first movement of matter the rotation of the whole, and the form and motion of the spheres a corollary of that movement. Orbital are axial motions developed in a diminishing series, and have therefore a common origin with the latter. Heat is the product of the concrete spheres, and was consequently undeveloped in the fluid universe. Every orb is, by the compression of its materials, a perpetual friction-fire-mill. The circulation or interchange of internal and external matter in the spheres, a cardinal and universal principle-the cause that arrests condensation and secures permanency to planetary and solar volumes. The central expanding or upheaving power in planets essential to vegetation, to life, and the Arts. Specific heats are natural temperatures due to diverse intensities of molecular motion. Properties of matter merge into their opposites, as exemplified in condensation giving rise to expansion. It is movable atoms that make movable masses. Circular motion the parent and most perfect of all motions. All forces, except gravitation, originate in heat in the spheres. Universal circulation of matter through all forms and conditions. Varieties of forms and qualities interminable as the permutation of atoms. Degrees of tenuity in motive fluids of living and other forces. Motion increased with every sub-division of celestial masses. The planets circulate round the sun and at the same time keep up with him in his progress through space. Moons sweep round planets and are not left behind them. All motions are frictional, and give out heat. The heat of the present universe is the effect of friction arising from the compression of its materials, and represents the force of the universe: or in other words, gravitation is the weight that moves the clockwork of creation, and by its offspring, heat, is ever winding it up. NEW YORK, Dec. 1857. CONTENTS. Two entities-Creation a Museum of wonders-Its whole material in the firmament-Artless exterior of the universe-Explorations into the infinite justifiable-No law forbidding investigation of natu- ral phenomena-Space charged with matter-Amount of matter invariable-Separated into the fluid in space, and the concrete in the spheres-The former gelid and of equal tenuity-Why the spheres are concrete; their permanency of form and volume, and uniform motions-Their illumination-The greatest part of matter in suns- Their distribution in space-A central sun-Reasons why matter was Matter mysterious as spirit-Atoms and their properties-Their all- pervading influence and universal circulation-Matter little thought of-Its metamorphoses surpass in interest the wildest imagination- Examples Provision for diversity of developments-Minerals, vege- tables, and animals, preparing material for one another-Geological and astronomical sources of change-Dissolution and renewal of worlds-Transfigurations of matter interminable as the permuta- tion of its atoms-How the infinitely varied objects in nature are exhibited in relief without one being isolated or cut off from Suspension and movements of the spheres the great problem in celestial mechanics-Various speculations on their motions based chiefly on forces which did not exist in the fluid universe-Unte- nable hypotheses-The theory of attraction questioned by some writers-Irreconcilable with common notions of weight, action of springs and ascent of dust―Their explanation of phenomena ascribed to it-New experiment on attraction of mountains proposed-With some, weight is considered a quality not an incident, and attraction the tendency of bodies to their natural bases-Attraction not more mysterious than acknowledged properties of matter-If it exist in FORCE: Analogies between mental, moral, and physical forces-Marvels of material force-It is the soul of creation, the light and life giving principle, ubiquitous, and yet arises out of matter-Its affinities material-We could not treat it as we do if it were a spiritual essence-No regular motion or form produced by it unless under the direction of mind-Admits, like matter, of indefinite division— Its material origin unpleasant to some minds-As the motive power of the universe, supposed by some to be in an especial manner in the hands of the Creator-The idea derogatory to Him-Human agency in the arts not more patent than that of the Creator in Force or power one, as matter is one-Demonstration of its essence impossible-A time-piece-Matter originally a thin fluid, and why -Mobility of atoms-Motion an absolute property of matter— Molecular motion the source of all motion-Fluids naturally assume the spherical form and revolve-Form and motion of the primordial nebula-Theory of La Place-Why subdivision of celestial matter closed with moons-Form and motion of the spheres a corollary of the universal rotation-Orbital originally axial motions-The origi- nal nebula not 'a fiery fluid '-Miniature figure of the universe— Distribution of matter substantially the same now as when all was fluid-It may still be viewed as a fluid-Attraction of gravitation an |