Page images
PDF
EPUB

make out the history of birds, fishes, and insects, of which the arrangement was so difficult, and the necessary information so widely diffused, and so obscurely related when found, that it proved by much the most laborious part of the undertaking. Thus having made use of Mr. Buffon's lights in the first part of the work, I may with some share of confidence recommend it to the public. But what shall I say to that part, where I have been entirely left without his assistance? As I would affect neither modesty nor confidence, it will be sufficient to say, that my reading upon this part of the subject has been very extensive; and that I have taxed my scanty circumstances in procuring books, which are on this subject, of all others, the most expensive.

In consequence of this industry, I here offer a work to the public, of a kind which has never been attempted in ours, or any other modern language, that I know of. The ancients, indeed, and Pliny in particular, have anticipated me in the present manner of treating natural history. Like those historians who describe the events of a campaign, they have not condescended to give the private particulars of every individual that formed the army; they were content with characterizing the generals, and describing their operations, while they left it to meaner hands to carry the muster-roll. I have followed their manner, rejecting the numerous fables which, they adopted, and adding the improvements of the moderns, which are so numerous, that they actually make up the bulk of natural history.

The delight which I found in reading Pliny, first inspired me with the idea of a work of this nature. Having a taste rather classical than

scientific, and having but little employed myself in turning over the dry labours of modern systemmakers, my earliest intention was to translate this agreeable writer, and by the help of a commentary to make my work as amusing as I could. Let us dignify natural history never so much with the grave appellation of a useful science, yet still we must confess, that it is the occupation of the idle and the speculative, more than of the busy and the ambitious part of mankind. My intention, therefore, was to treat what I then conceived an idle subject in an idle manner; and not to hedge round plain and simple narratives with hard words, accumulated distinctions, ostentatious learning, and disquisitions that produced no conviction. Upon the appearance, however, of Mr. Buffon's work, I dropped my former plan, and adopted the present, being convinced, by his manner, that the best imitation of the ancients was to write from our own feelings, and to imitate nature.

It will be my chief pride, therefore, if this work may be found an innocent amusement for those who have nothing else to employ them, or who require a relaxation from labour. Professed naturalists will, no doubt, find it superficial; and yet I should hope that even these will discover hints and remarks, gleaned from various reading, not wholly trite or elementary. I would wish for their approbation. But my chief ambition is to drag up the obscure and gloomy learning of the cell to open inspection, to strip it from its garb of austerity, and to show the beauties of that form, which only the industrious and the inquisitive have been hitherto permitted to approach.

HISTORY OF THE EARTH.

CHAP. I.

A SKETCH OF THE UNIVERSE.

THE world may be considered as one vast mansion, where man has been admitted to enjoy, to admire, and to be grateful. The first desires of savage nature are merely to gratify the importunities of sensual appetite, and to neglect the contemplation of things, barely satisfied with their enjoyment: the beauties of nature, and all the wonders of creation, have but little charms for a being taken up in obviating the wants of the day, and anxious for precarious subsistence. Philosophers, therefore, who have testified such surprise at the want of curiosity in the ignorant, seem not to consider that they are usually employed in making provisions of a more important nature; in providing rather for the necessities

than the amusements of life. It is not till our more pressing wants are sufficiently supplied, that we can attend to the calls of curiosity; so that in every age scientific refinement has been the latest effort of human industry.

But human curiosity, though at first slowly excited, being at last possessed of leisure for indulging its propensity, becomes one of the greatest amusements of life, and gives higher satisfactions than what even the senses can afford. A man of this disposition turns all nature into a magnificent theatre, replete with objects of wonder and surprise, and fitted up chiefly for his happiness and entertainment: he industriously examines all things, from the minutest insect to the most finished animal; and, when his limited organs can no longer make the disquisition, he sends out his imagination upon new inquiries.

Nothing, therefore, can be more august and

nus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, perform their constant circuits at different distances, each taking up a time to complete its revolutions proportioned to the greatness of the circle which it is to describe. The lesser planets also, which are attendants upon some of the greater, are subject to the same laws; they circulate with the same exactness; and are, in the same manner, influenced by their respective centres of motion.

striking than the idea which his reason, aided | to the planets which surround it: Mercury, Veby his imagination, furnishes of the universe around him. Astronomers tell us, that this earth which we inhabit, forms but a very minute part in that great assemblage of bodies of which the world is composed. It is a million of times less than the sun, by which it is enlightened. The planets also, which, like it, are subordinate to the sun's influence, exceed the earth a thousand times in magnitude.2 These, which were at first supposed to wander in the heavens without any fixed path, and that took their name from their apparent deviations, have long been found to perform their circuits with great exactness and strict regularity. They have been discovered as forming, with our earth, a system of bodies circulating round the sun, all obedient to one law, and impelled by one common influence.

Besides those bodies which make a part of our peculiar system, and which may be said to reside within its great circumference, there are others that frequently come among us, from the most distant tracts of space, and that seem like dangerous intruders upon the beautiful simplicity of nature. These are comets, whose appearance was once so Modern philosophy has taught us to believe, terrible to mankind; and the theory of which is that, when the great Author of nature began the better understood at present: we know that work of creation, he chose to operate by second their number is much greater than that of causes; and that, suspending the constant exer- the planets; and that, like these, they roll in tion of his power, he endued matter with a qual-orbits, in some measure obedient to solar influity, by which the universal economy of nature ence. Astronomers have endeavoured to calcumight be continued without his immediate as- late the returning periods of many of them; but sistance. This quality is called attraction; a experience has not, as yet, confirmed the verasort of approximating influence, which all bodies, city of their investigations. Indeed, who can whether terrestrial or celestial, are found to pos- tell, when those wanderers have made their exsess; and which in all increases as the quantity cursions into other worlds and distant systemis, of matter in each increases. The sun, by far what obstacles may be found to oppose their prothe greatest body in our system, is, of conse-gress, to accelerate their motions, or retard their quence, possessed of much the greatest share of this attracting power; and all the planets, of which our earth is one, are, of course, entirely subject to its superior influence. Were this power, therefore, left uncontrolled by any other, the sun must quickly have attracted all the bodies of our celestial system to itself; but it is equably counteracted by another power of equal efficacy; namely, a progressive force, which each planet received when it was impelled forward by the divine Architect, upon its first formation. The heavenly bodies of our system being thus acted upon by two opposing powers; namely, by that of attraction, which draws them towards the sun; and that of impulsion, which drives them straight forward into the great void of space; they pursue a track between these contrary directions; and each, like a stone whirled about in a sling, obeying two opposite forces, circulates round its great centre of heat and motion.

In this manner, therefore, is the harmony of our planetary system preserved. The sun, in the midst, gives heat, and light, and circular motion,

1 Goldsmith uses the term world here as synonymous with universe.-ED.

2 These comparative admeasurements are here expressed in language which does not profess to be that of scientific accuracy, but suffices for the purpose of the author. The reader is referred to the Supplementary Notes at the end of the chapter for more accurate and precise statements on several points touched upon by Goldsmith.-ED.

3 See Supplementary Note A, p. 61.

return?5

But what we have hitherto attempted to sketch is but a small part of that great fabric in which the Deity has thought proper to manifest his wisdom and omnipotence. There are multitudes of other bodies, dispersed over the face of the heavens, that lie too remote for examination: these have no motion, such as the planets are found to possess, and are, therefore, called fixed stars; and from their extreme brilliancy, and their immense distance, philosophers have been induced to suppose them to be suns, resembling that which enlivens our system. As the imagination also, once excited, is seldom contented to stop, it has furnished each with an attendant system of planets belonging to itself; and has even induced some to deplore the fate of those systems, whose imagined suns, which sometimes happens, have become no longer visible.“

But conjectures of this kind, which no reasoning can ascertain, nor experiment reach, are rather amusing than useful. Though we see the greatness and wisdom of the Deity in all the seeming worlds that surround us, it is our chief concern to trace him in that which we inhabit. The examination of the earth, the wonders of its contrivance, the history of its advantages, or of the seeming defects in its formation, are the proper business of the natural historian. A descrip

4 See Supplementary Note B, p. 62.
5 See Supplementary Note C, p. 63.
6 See Supplementary Note D, p. 64.

tion of this earth, its animals, vegetables, and min-world very different from any yet received, and it is erals, is the most delightful entertainment the mind can be furnished with, as it is the most interesting and useful. I would beg leave, therefore, to conclude these common-place speculations, with an observation which, I hope, is not entirely so.

A use, hitherto not much insisted upon, that may result from the contemplation of celestial magnificence, is, that it will teach us to make an allowance for the apparent irregularities we find

below. Whenever we can examine the works of the Deity at a proper point of distance, so as to take in the whole of his design, we see nothing but uniformity, beauty, and precision. The heavens present us with a plan, which, though inexpressibly magnificent, is yet regular beyond the power of invention. Whenever, therefore, we find any apparent defects in the earth, which we are about to consider, instead of attempting to reason ourselves into an opinion that they are beautiful, it will be wiser to say, that we do not behold them at the proper point of distance, and that our eye is laid too close to the objects, to take in the regularity of their connexion. In short, we may conclude, that God, who is regular in his GREAT productions, acts with equal uniformity in the LITTLE.

NOTE A.-Theory of Gravitation.

Although we are indebted to Sir Isaac Newton for the complete discovery of the law of universal gravitation, and its application to the explanation of the planetary motions, yet, the existence of the law had been surmised by different philosophers, both of ancient and modern times. Copernicus, the celebrated restorer of the true system of astronomy, in speaking of the gravity of terrestrial bodies, by which they tend towards the centre of the earth, and to which the figure of the earth is owing, observes, that it is highly reasonable to suppose, that by a like principle, diffused from the sun and planets, their figures are preserved in their various motions; and Fermat, a mathematician of great eminence, who lived in the 15th century, appears to have had accurate notions, to a certain extent at least, of the nature of this law; for he says, that the weight of a body is the sum of the tendencies of each particle to every particle of the earth; and among the moderns be is the first that made this remark. The justly celebrated Kepler, however, extended his views still farther; for in his Epitome Astronomia Copernicana, he says, that if there be supposed two bodies placed out of the reach of all external forces, and at perfect liberty to move, they would approach each other with velocities inversely proportional to their quantities of matter; the moon, says he, and the earth mutually attract each other, and are prevented from meeting by their revolution round their common centre of attraction, and he says, that the tides of the ocean are the effects of the moon's attraction, heaping up the waters immediately under her. Then, adopting the opinion of Dr. Gilbert, that the earth is a great magnet, he explains how this mutual attraction will produce a deflection into a curvilineal path. Dr. Hooke appears to have had very accurate general notions of the nature of the mutual attraction of the celestial bodies; for, at a meeting of the Royal Society in the year 1666, he expressed himself as follows: "I will explain a system of the

A ball

founded on the three following positions. 1. That of their parts towards their own proper centre, but all the heavenly bodies have not only a gravitation that they mutually attract each other within their spheres of action. 2. That all bodies having a simple motion, will continue to move in a straight line, unless continually deflected from it by some extraneous force, causing them to describe a circle, an ellipse, or some other curve. 3. That this attraction is so much the greater as the bodies are nearer. As to the proportion in which those forces diminish by an increase of distance, I own," said he, "I have not discovered it, although I have made some experiments to this purpose: I leave this to others, who have time and knowledge sufficient for this task." Previous to this period, Dr. Hooke had exhibited to the Society an experiment, with a view to show how a motion in a curve might be produced in consequence of a tendency in a body towards a centre. suspended by a thread from the ceiling was made to revolve about another ball laid on a table immediately below the point of suspension. When the push its deviation from the perpendicular, it described a given to the pendulous ball was properly adjusted to perfect circle round the ball on the table, but when the push was very great, or very small, it described an ellipse, having the other ball in its centre. Hooke showed that this was the operation of a from the other ball; but he added, that although deflecting force directly proportional to the distance this illustrated the planetary motions in some degree, yet it was not suitable to their cause; for the planets describe ellipses, having the sun not in the centre, but in one of their foci; therefore they are not retained by force proportional to their distance from the sun. In these remarks, we have a clear and modest account of a rational theory; and it must be inferred from them, that Dr. Hooke had anticipated Newton in describing the general nature of the planetary motions, although it is solely to the latter that we owe the discovery of the precise law of the force by which the very motions we observe are produced.

Dr.

To this extent the true theory of the motions of the heavenly bodies had been discovered, or rather conjectured, when Sir Isaac Newton turned his attention to the subject. The circumstances under which he discovered the true theory of the planetary motions, are stated by Dr. Pemberton, in his preface to this View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy.' They are in substance as follows: He had retired from Cambridge to his country house in the year 1666, on account of the plague; and one day as be sat alone in his garden, reflecting on the power by which all terrestrial bodies gravitate towards the earth, it occurred to him, that as this power is not sensibly diminished at any distance to which we can recede from the earth's centre, there seemed reason to conclude that it extended much farther than was commonly supposed, and even might extend as far as the moon; and if this were true, he concluded that her motion would be influenced by it, and that probably it was this very force which retained her in her orbit. However, although the force of gravity be not sensibly less at the tops of the highest mountains, than at the ordinary level of the earth's surface, he conceived it to be very possible, that at so great a distance as that of the moon, it might be considerably different. To make an estimate of what might be the degree of the diminution, he considered that if the moon be retained in her orbit by the force of gravity, no doubt the primary planets are carried round the sun by a like power; and by comparing the periods of the several planets with their distances from the sun, he found that if any power like gravity kept them in their orbits, its strength must decrease in proportion as the squares of the dis

tances increase: but in making this conclusion he supposed that the orbits of the planets were circles, having the sun in their centre, from which figure the greater part of them do not much differ. Supposing, therefore, the force of gravity to extend as far as the moon, and to decrease according to this ratio, he computed whether that force would be sufficient to keep the moon in her orbit; but having no books at hand, by which he might ascertain the true magnitude of the earth, he was obliged to employ in his calculation the erroneous estimate at that time commonly received among geographers and seamen, namely, that a degree of latitude on the earth's surface was 60 English miles. Now, as the degree contains in reality about 69 miles, his computation of course did not agree with the phenomena; and on this account, he laid aside at that time all further consideration of the subject. Some years after, in consequence of a letter he received from Dr. Hooke, he investigated the nature of the path which a body would describe, if it were let fall from any high place, taking into account the rotation of the earth; and on this occasion, he resumed his former train of reflections concerning the motion of the moon. He had now, however, the advantage of knowing pretty nearly the exact magnitude of the earth, in consequence of the measurement of an arc of the meridian made in France by Picard; and he had the inexpres. sible satisfaction of finding that his calculation agreed exactly with what it ought to be, if the opinion he had formed was correct. He therefore concluded that his conjecture was correct, and that the moon was really kept in her order by the force of gravity, which decreased according as the square of the distance increased, agreeably to what he had supposed. It is said, that as the calculations drew to a close, the mind of Newton was so much agitated by the importance of the discovery he was on the point of making, that he was obliged to desire a friend to finish them. This is not to be wondered at, when we consider the great revolution which he foresaw he was about to produce in the opinions of mankind, and the immense fabric of science that might be built on his discovery.

On these most interesting discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Hamilton, Bishop of Ossory, remarks, [See the Bishop's works, vol. ii. p. 335,] "The property of gravitation is not confined to the matter of which our earth is formed, but is found to be a general property of all bodies that come any way under our observation. Sir Isaac Newton has demonstrated that the moon gravitates towards the earth, and is retained in her orbit merely by that force. And since the revolution of the moon round Jupiter and Saturn, and of the primary planets round the sun, are phenomena or effects of the same kind | with the revolution of our moon round the earth, he concludes, by the second rule of philosophizing, that all these effects must proceed from like causes, and therefore that the moons of Jupiter and Saturn gravitate towards their primaries, and that all the primary planets gravitate towards the sun. He has shown also, that if one body attracts another with any force, with the same force does that other body attract it; so that the earth must gravitate towards the moon, the sun towards the planets, and they all towards each other. He has proved likewise that the attractive forces of these great bodies act according to one universal and invariable law, which is, that every two of them attract each other with forces that are directly as their quantities of matter, and inversely as the square of the distance between their centres.

"Sir Isaac Newton's great discovery therefore consists in his having proved that the well known power, which we call gravity, acting throughout the solar system, according to the law above-mentioned, is the immediate cause which preserves the planets

and comets in their motion round the sun; and that this force alone is fully sufficient to account for all the irregularities of the lunar motions, for the retrogression of the equinoctial points, and for the tides in our seas whose waters gravitate towards the moon.

66

Sir Isaac, from some phenomena, was induced to suspect that the immediate cause of gravitation was mechanical, and that there existed throughout the universe a most subtile ethereal fluid, whose particles are so small as to pass freely through the pores of all bodies; and that these particles are endued with an exceeding strong repelling force, which makes the fluid vastly more rare and more elastic than our air, and of consequence vastly less able to resist the motion of bodies, and much more able to press upon gross bodies by endeavouring to expand itself. This ether, he supposes, must, from its repelling force, be much rarer within the dense bodies of the sun, planets, and comets, than in the empty spaces between them; and that in passing from them to greater distances it grows denser and denser perpetually, and thereby causes the gravity of these great bodies towards each other, and of their parts towards the bodies, every body endeavouring to go from the den er parts of this ether towards the rarer. All this however he proposes only as a conjecture, and leaves the truth of it to be determined by future experiments, and I have mentioned it here only because it is the conjecture of so great a philosopher."

NOTE B.-The Planetary System.

Since Goldsmith's time, five other planetary bodies, (Uranus, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta,) belonging to our solar system, have been discovered. On the 13th of March, 1781, Dr. Herschel discovered a new planet without the orbit of Saturn, which was first named by foreign astronomers, after its observer, the Herschel, but called by Herschel himself (in honour of George III.) the Georgium Sidus-although both these names are fast sinking, and Uranus is the appellation now almost universally adopted. Uranus is the most remote of all our planets, so far as discovered, circulating about the sun at the astonishing distance of 1,800 million miles, and performing its orbicular revolution in about 80 of our years. Its diameter is 35,112 miles. It has six sec. ondary planets or moons. The other four planets are small. Ceres was discovered situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, on the 1st of January, 1801, by M. Piazzi, a Sicilian astronomer. It performs its revolution round the sun in about four years. Pallas was discovered also situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, on the 28th March, 1802, by Dr. Olbers of Bremen. Juno was discovered by Mr. Harding, at the observatory of Lilienthal, near Bremen, on the first day of September, 1804. It is likewise situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter; and performs its revolution round the sun in 5 years and 182 days. Vesta was discovered by Dr. Olbers, on the 29th of March, 1807. It is also situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter; and performs its revolution round the sun in 3 years and 182 days.-The diameters of these planets (which must, however, be considered as doubtful) have been given as follows:-Ceres, 1,024 miles; Pallas, 2,099 miles; Juno, 1,425 miles; Vesta, 238 miles. It was supposed by some astronomers that a planet existed between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. The discovery of Ceres confirmed this conjecture; but the opinion which it seemed to establish respecting the harmony of the solar system, appeared to be completely overturned by the discovery of Pallas and Juno. Dr. Olbers, however, considers that these small celestial bodies are merely the fragments of a larger planet, which had been burst asunder by some internal convulsion, and that several more might yet

[ocr errors]

be discovered between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. than the united heights of the atmospheres of all the Some writers suppose the meteoritic stones which other planets, and is above a thousand times higher fall upon our earth to be small portions of this dis- than it ought to have been, according to the ratio severed planet. In Brewster's Encyclopædia a theory which exists between the globes and the atmospheres is started respecting the origin of Ceres and Pallas, of all the other bodies of the systein. Astronomers which is plausible and curious. It is thus stated. were so forcibly struck with the magnitude of these A comet appeared in the year 1770, and was care- atmospheres, that a dispute arose whether Ceres and fully observed for nearly four months by M. Messier. Pallas should be called planets or comets, and the When Prosperin and Pingre applied themselves to discussion terminated, by giving them the name of calculate the elements of its orbit, they found that a asteroids, a class of bodies which were supposed to parabolic path would not represent the observations partake of the nature both of planets and comets. of Messier, and hence they suspected that its orbit But to draw this argument still closer upon the submight be sensibly elliptical. M. Lexell of St. Peters-ject, let us inquire from what other source these burg computed its elements in an elliptical orbit, atmospheres could be derived, if they were not imand he found that its period was five years and a parted by the comet of 1770. If the four new half, and that its greatest distance from the sun did planets are the fragments of a larger body, endowed not much exceed that of Jupiter. This curicus sub- with an extensive atmosphere, each fragment would ject was investigated rather unsuccessfully by Slop, obviously carry off a portion of atmosphere proporSejour, and Lambert; and a few years ago it at- tioned to its magnitude; but two of the fragments, tracted the particular notice of the National Institute Juno and Vesta, have no atmosphere at all, conseof France. At the request of that learned body, quently the atmospheres of Ceres and Pallas could Dr. Burckhardt repeated all the calculations with not have been derived from the original planet, but the utmost care, and the result of his investigations must have been communicated to them at a period was a complete confirmation of Lexell's conclusions. | posterior to the divergency of the fragments. It Here, then, is a most singular anomaly in the motion would have been a satisfactory addition to the preof this comet. While all the other comets which ceding arguments, if we had been able to show, by have been observed, move in orbits stretching far direct calculation, that Ceres and Pallas were at the beyond the limits of the solar system, and revolve in same instant with the comet in that part of their periods of long duration, the comet of 1770 never orbits which was crossed by its path, and that the wanders beyond the orbit of Saturn, and completes position of the planes of the orbits was such, as to its revolution in the short period of five years and a permit a near approximation. But as we have no half. The return of this body, therefore, was con- data sufficiently correct for such a calculation, we fidently expected by astronomers; but though it must leave this part of the subject to some future must now have completed nearly eight revolutions opportunity. There is one fact, however, which in round the sun, and though more observations have some measure supplies its place, and which is therebeen made in the heavens during the last 40 years fore worthy of particular notice. The nodes of the than perhaps during the two preceding centuries, yet comet of 1770' lie exactly between the nodes of the comet of 1770 has never re-appeared. We are Ceres and Pallas, an arrangement which is absolutely consequently entitled to conclude, that the comet of indispensable to the truth of the preceding theory." 1770 is lost, which could happen only from its uniting with one of the planets, whose orbits it crossed. Now, if such a union took place, two consequences would obviously flow from it. The planet would When examined through a good telescope, a comet suffer a sensible derangement in its motions, and its resembles a mass of aqueous vapours encircling an atmosphere would receive a vast accession of that opaque nucleus of different degrees of darkness in nebulous matter, of which the comets are often different comets, though sometimes, as in the case wholly composed. Here, then, we have two dis- of several discovered by Dr. Herschel, no nucleus tine criteria to enable us to ascertain the individual can be seen. As the comet advances towards the planet by which the comet was attracted. The path sun, its faint and nebulous light becomes more brilof the comet intersects the orbits only of Venus, the liant, and its luminous train gradually increases in Earth, Mars, the four new planets, and Jupiter, and length. When it reaches its perihelion the intensity therefore it must have united with one of these of its light, and the length of its tail, reach their bodies, or with their satellites. Now, since the maximum, and sometimes it shines with all the year 1770, neither Venus, the Earth, Mars, nor splendour of Venus. During its retreat from the Jupiter, have suffered the smallest derangement of perihelion, it is shorn of its splendour, it gradually this kind, nor have they received any visible addition resumes its nebulous appearance, and its tail deto their atmospheres. We must, therefore, look to creases in magnitude till it reaches such a distance the four new planets for some indication of the pre- from the earth, that the attenuated light of the sun, sence of a comet, and if they exhibit any phenomena which it reflects, ceases to make an impression or that are unequivocally of this description, we must the organ of sight. Traversing unseen the remote consider such a coincidence as a strong proof of the portion of its orbit, the comet wheels its ethereal theory, or as one of the most wonderful facts in course far beyond the limits of our system. What the history of science. Two of the new planets, region it there visits, or upon what destination it is Ceres and Pallas, exhibit, in the form and position of sent, the limited powers of man are unable to distheir orbits, evident marks of some great derange- cover. After the lapse of years, we perceive it ment; but as this may have arisen from that explo- again returning to our system, and tracing a portion sive force, by which they seem to have been separ- of the same orbit round the sun, which it had forated from a larger planet, we are not entitled to merly described. It would be a waste of time to regard it as a proof of the present theory. But detail the various wild and extravagant opinions though we cannot employ our first criterion either which have been entertained respecting these interfor or against the theory, the second applies with esting stars. During the ages of barbarism and irresistible force, and we would entreat the parti- superstition, they were regarded as the harbingers cular attention of our readers to this single point. of awful convulsions, both in the political and in the The two planets, Ceres and Pallas, are actually sur-physical world. Wars, pestilence, and famine, the rounded with atmospheres of an immense size. The atmosphere of Ceres is 675 English miles high, while that of Pallas rises to the height of 468 miles. Now the height of any of these atmospheres is greater

NOTE C.-Comets.

dethronement of kings, the fall of nations, and the more alarming convulsions of the globe, were the dreadful evils which they presented to the diseased and terrified imaginations of inen. As the light of

« PreviousContinue »