LETTER the SIXTH.
Of General Motion amongst the Stars, the Plurality of Systems, and Innumerability of Worlds.
SIR,
S
Since my last, you'll find by this, speaking in the Stile of Kercher, that I have been very far from home, round almost the visible Creation. I have indeed applied myself very closely to transcribe my Thoughts to you upon the old Subject the Milky Way, which my former Letter left imperfected. To return then to the Theory of the Stars, and that yet unreconciled Phænomenon; let us reason a little upon the visible Order of the Stars in general, and see what Conclusions can be drawn from what every Astronomer knows of them, and cannot be disputed.
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 Phænomenon 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 Phænomenon 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.
To a Spectator placed in an indefinite Space, all very remote Objects appear to be equally distant from the Eye; and if we judge of the Via Lactea from Phænomena only, we must of course conclude it a vast Ring of Stars, scattered promiscuously round the celestial Regions in the Direction of a perfect Circle.
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.
You'll say probably how shall we make this chaosic Disposition of the primary Luminaries agree with the secondary Laws, and the just Harmony observed in the third [AJ]Creation, &c.
[AJ] The Moon, Satellites of Saturn and Jupiter, &c.
The Work now you see is undertaken, and chiefly at your own Request, therefore I have a Right to expect you'll be very indulgent to the Author, and pass over all his Faults, and allow him free Argument in Pursuit of these important Truths, which will in the End open perhaps a much wider Field of Contemplation to us, than at first could be supposed to be intended by the Genesis of Moses.
That Description of the Beginning of Nature is not without its Beauty and Nobleness, suitable to the Dignity both of the Author and Subject. But should we even in this knowing Age of the World pretend to account for the Original of Things, as Moses to support his believed divine Legation, was obliged in some measure to do, we should soon be reduced to talk in the same Stile, and perhaps with less Probability, than then at least appeared in his elegant Account of the Origin of the Universe, especially if we do but consider, that what he wrote, was only to the Senses of a People who had not yet learnt to make use of their Reason any other way, but from the Appearance of Things, and upon a Subject too sublime for vulgar Capacities in any Age, and had only been attempted in the deepest Learning of Egypt, which, he though well acquainted with, the Generality of them were totally Strangers to.
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.
How absurd and impious this is I leave to your own Reason and Reflection: This is the fatal Rock upon which all weak Heads and narrow Minds are lost and split upon, consequently ought to be the most carefully avoided, not only as the Nurse of Atheism, but as the dreadful Father of Despair: "For, say they, these unhappy Wretches, to be always the same, is inconsistent with a Change; and to be less than what we are, any where hereafter, is full as difficult to conceive as to be more." Thus, unless we admit of superior Seats and much more glorious Habitations than these we are sensible of, we strike at the very Root of a fair flourishing Tree of Immortality, and must become Authors of our own Despair. I have often wonder'd how thinking Men could possibly fall into so gross an Error, as that of a Spirit's Annihilation; and I should be glad to ask one of those fruitless Students, whether, upon the Evidence of our present Being, it is not much more rational, to hope for a future, than to expect a Ne plus ultra upon no Evidence at all. The Affirmative is certainly much more natural to be conceiv'd than the Negative. But if Chance were the Case, and that Chance produced all these regular and wondrous Works, 'tis to be wished at least, that Chance might do the same again; and if not Chance, of course an eternal Direction: But Chance only can effect Disorder, Discord, and Confusion; ergo, the visible Harmony and Beauty of the Creation declare for a Direction; and this must of Consequence, from its perfect Nature, proceed from the Wisdom and Power of an eternal Being, God of Infinity, the Author of all Ideas: And if this primitive Power produced us his Creatures from nothing, nothing can be wanting to revive our Frames again; and if from something, that something must remain to establish us in a future Life. But to return, how absurd it is to suppose one Part of the Creation regular, and the other irregular, or a visible circulating Order of Things, to be mixed with Disorder, and circumscribing Part of an endless Confusion, is obvious to the weakest Understanding, and consequently we may reasonably expect, that the Via Lactea, which is a manifest Circle amongst the Stars, conspicuous to every Eye, will prove at last the Whole to be together a vast and glorious regular Production of Beings, out of the wondrous Will or Fecundity of the eternal and infinite one self-sufficient Cause; and that all its Irregularities are only such as naturally arise from our excentric View: To demonstrate bsolutely and incontestibly, we shall only want this one Postulata to be granted, viz. That all the Stars are, or may be in Motion: This, if one may be allowed to judge of the Whole by the Similitude and Government of its Parts, I am perswaded you will think a very reasonable Assumption; but that you may imbibe a good Opinion of this Assumption, and entirely come into this much better to be wished Hypothesis, I would have you consult these following Arguments.
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.
Plate XVII.
