[38] Physical World, p. 105.
[39] Barrington and Beaufoy, p. 106, and Purchas, v. 3, pp. 499, 500.
[40] The late George Adams, in his Philosophy, treating of refraction, states, that "at the horizon, in this climate, (England) it is found to be about thirty-three minutes. In climates near the equator, where the air is pure, the refraction is less; and in the colder climates, nearer the pole, it increases exceedingly, and is a happy provision for lengthening the appearance of the light at those regions so remote from the sun. Gassendees relates, that some Hollanders, who wintered in Nova-Zembla, in latitude seventy-five degrees, were agreeably surprised with a sight of the sun seventeen days before they expected him in the horizon. This difference was owing to the refraction of the atmosphere in that latitude."—Adams' Philosophy, v. 4, p. 112, Philadelphia, 1807.
[41] Keith on Globes, p. 144.—
[42] Ibid, p. 149.
[43] Sir Isaac Newton, in his Principia, under prop. 16, book 3, lays down the following proposition, viz: that "the heat of the sun is as the density of his rays, that is reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the sun." From this principle, it has been assumed by some of our modern astronomers, that but few of the planets can be inhabited, as if the effect of light and heat are reciprocally proportionate to the squares of the distances from the centre of their propagation; and if you divide the square of the earth's distance from the sun, the quotient will show, that the light and heat, which Mercury receives, are about seven times greater, making it more than twice as hot as boiling water. The light and heat communicated to Saturn, being only the one hundredth part of that of the earth, the difference is more than seven times as great as that between our summer heat and red hot iron, if the light and heat of the sun are only in proportion to the density of his rays. Such extremes of heat and cold, we would naturally conclude must totally preclude all material being, if in the least degree resembling those we are acquainted with; nor could any of the vegetable world, known to us, germinate in either extreme; nay, even the matter of our globe would scarcely withstand it, our oceans would be dissipated in vapour, on Mercury, and frozen to the bottom on Saturn. Considerations like these must induce us to conclude, that light and heat cannot be communicated exactly on the plan laid down by Newton, viz: that the heat of the sun is simply as the density of his rays: for though the sun's rays may be the sine qua non, without which no light or heat would be communicated, yet the quantum of heat may depend on the density and co-operation of the medium through which it passes, or upon some other circumstance not known to us, and perhaps impossible for us to know.
[44] I am indebted to an excellent Hebrew scholar for the following:
Note. The words תהו ובהו Theoo and Beoo, (Genesis, chapter 1, verse 2,) which has been rendered by the translators of our bible, "Without form and void," might perhaps, with equal propriety, have been translated "without form and hollow."
1. Theoo, the root, agreeably to the Hebrew grammar, is found as a noun תה or תהה The or Thee, and, is rendered confusion, loose, unconnected, without form, order, or the like; and so well understood.
2. Be-oo, the root, is, according to the same rule, found in בה—Be, (Bethhey) hollow; it occurs not only in this form but—