“Nature and Nature’s Laws lay hid in night;
God said, Let Newton be,—and all was Light.”
Finally, it was reserved for our own age and country to derive dignity and fame, from having given birth to an illustrious successor and disciple of that immortal man, in the person of the yet recently-departed Rittenhouse.
The objects of a genuine philosophy, are the discovery and promulgation of the truths which emanate from a knowledge of the laws of nature, in relation to the material world, and the inseparable influence of those truths, consequent on an acquaintance with them, in giving a right direction to the moral faculty of man. The intimate connexion subsisting between natural and moral science, is indubitable; and it is equally certain, that the accordant order, fitness and rectitude, which unite into one glorious plan of wisdom, goodness and power, all portions of creation, intellectual and sensitive as well as material, must rest on the same unerring principles. The infinite variety and boundless extent of nature’s works constitute a sublime system; manifesting a correspondent perfection in the design, and all-bountiful dispensation of good in its purposes.[[23]] The Almighty First Cause has founded this system on immutable principles; wherein truth, in relation to the moral world, may be considered as its basis,—as fitness is, when applied to the constitution of the natural world. These are, respectively, the correlatives of the one and the other: and the unity of design apparent in the whole system, plainly indicates the connexion that subsists, in the nature of things, between moral virtue, which is the result of a right perception of truth, and the fitness and order, to which all the operations of the material universe conform.[[24]]—Towards an investigation of these things, the researches of the great American philosopher were eagerly directed: such were the objects of his unwearied pursuit; and such were the views entertained by him, of the utility and importance of those sublime branches of knowledge, which he cultivated so ardently and successfully.[[25]]
The enlightened part of the people have, in every civilized nation and in all ages, very rationally valued themselves on their great men. It is both useful and proper to commemorate the renown of such as have approved themselves, in an eminent degree, Benefactors of Mankind. The Life, therefore, of so distinguished a Philosopher as Rittenhouse, must be expected to interest the feelings, as well as the curiosity, of the good and the wise, not only of our own country but of foreign nations.
With respect to the usefulness and importance of that majestic science, which was the favourite study and principal object of the pursuit of our philosopher, during a life of ordinary extent but of very extraordinary attainments and character, something may with propriety be said, with a view to an illustration of the subject. And among other evidence, which, it is presumed, may not be unaptly adduced on the occasion, the Memorialist will cite in the first place, as well as occasionally afterwards, the sentiments of a distinguished foreign astronomer, whose abilities and erudition rendered him eminently qualified to decide, in a discussion of this nature: He shall be made to speak for himself, though not in his own tongue; the great work from which the quoted extracts are made, being written in French.
Among the numerous and important advantages, then, resulting from astronomy, noticed by the celebrated Lalande (in the preface to his book, entitled Astronomie,) he remarks that it is well known, that besides the tendency of this science to dissipate many vulgar errors and prejudices,[[26]] cosmography and geography cannot go on, but by its means: that the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter has given greater perfection to our geographical and marine charts, than they could have attained by ten thousand years of navigation and voyages;[[27]] and, that when their theory shall become still better known, the method of determining the longitude at sea will be more exact and more easy.
“It is to astronomy,” says Mr. Lalande, “that we are indebted for the first voyages of the Phœnicians, and the earliest progress of industry and commerce: it is likewise to it, that we owe the discovery of the New World. If there remain any thing to desire for the perfection and security[security] of navigation, it is, to find the longitude at sea.” In continuation, he says:—
“The utility of navigation for the welfare of a state, serves to prove that of astronomy. But it seems to me, that it is difficult for a good citizen to be ignorant, now, of the usefulness of navigation; above all, (says Lalande, feelingly,) in France. The success of the English, in the war of 1764, has but too well shewn, that a marine alone governs the fortune of empires, their power, their commerce; that peace and war are decided on the ocean; and that, in fine, as Mr. Miere has expressed it,—
“Ancient chronology deduces, from a knowledge and calculation of eclipses, the best established periods in time, that it is possible to obtain: and in ages anterior to regular observations, nothing but obscurity is to be met with. We should not have in the history of nations any uncertainty in dates, if there had always been astronomers. We may perceive, above all, the connexions of astronomy in The Art of verifying Dates. It is by an eclipse of the Moon,[[28]] that we discover the error of date that exists in the vulgar era with respect to the birth of Christ. It is known that Herod was king of Judea, and that there was an eclipse of the moon immediately before the death of that prince: we find this eclipse was in the night, between the 12th and 13th of March, of the fourth year before the vulgar era; so that this era ought to be removed three years back, at least.