SECT. XVI. The Weakness of our Conceptions. Now forafmuch as all the great Services which the Sun renders to Men, Beafts and Plants, are not to be number'd; forafmuch as we fee them daily renewed; forasmuch as if we had been blind before, or remain'd always in Darkness, we should be ftruck with Wonder, and as it were tranfported at the Glory of the Sun's firft Appearance. I have often ftood amazed, how it was poffible, that not only the Atheifts (who a& herein according to their Principles) but likewife others that acknowledge a God, and that pretend to worship him upon other Occafions, are fo little affected with all the Advantages that accrue to them from the Sun: For inftance, how few are truly thankful for this great Benefit, that God causes the Sun to rife in the Morning and enlighten the World, and to fet in the Evening and produce the Night, by the Shadow of the Earth, in order to give Reft to all Creatures that have been tired by the Labour of the Day; and fo in other Matters. But particularly even those who are now entirely convinced of the Magnitude of the Sun, and its great Distance from the Earth, by the Mathematical Demonftrations of the Aftronomers, as well as by fo many Places of the Holy Scriptures; fuch as Pf. lxxiv. v. 16. Thou haft prepared the Light and the Sun; and Pf. cxxxvi. v. 7. To him that made great Lights; and many others, have feen that the Spirit of God himself has appointed this great and glorious Body for a certain Proof of the Infinite Power of the Maker and Ruler thereof; and yet they hardly feem to have formed a right Notion of it. Befides Cuftom, the Weakness of our Imaginations feems to be the principal Cause thereof, which is unable, as well by reafon of the Smallness of many Creatures that we are forced to view with Microscopes, as because of the Greatness of these heavenly Bodies, to represent them properly to us: And tho' no Body that understands Demonftration can doubt thereof, yet every one will find how defective his Imagination is in forming juft Ideas of their real Greatness or Smallnefs: Of this we have no occafion to produce any Proofs; let every Man only examine himself, and fee whether he does not discover within him, what many of the greatest Mathematicians are obliged, with Shame, to confefs, that they themselves experience concerning this Matter: See what Mr. Huygens fays about it in his Cofmotheoros, P. 124, and 125, who, to obviate this Weakness of the Humane Imagination, endeavours to make use of another Means, to impress more ftrongly upon our Minds the Greatnefs of the Works of our adoreable Creator, and of the Distance of the Sun from the Earth; fhewing, that if we fuppofe with him, that the faid Distance amounts to 12000 Diameters of the Earth (which yet is much less than what the Modern and moft Accurate Aftronomers do with good Reafon maintain) that a Bullet fhot out of a great Cannon, and moving in an equal Degree of Velocity, will be 25, or at least 24 Years in paffing from the Earth to the Sun. SECT. XVII. How much Time is required for a Cannon Bullet to pass from the Earth to the Sun. Now that what has been advanced by Mr. Huygens does not exceed the Truth, will appear: I. Because, according to the moft exa& Menfuration by the French Mathematicians, a Degree of a Great Circle upon the Globe of the Earth Earth amounts to 57060 Toifes or Fathoms of fix Foot; from whence it follows, that the Diameter thereof amounts to 6.538,594 of the like Fathoms, according to the faid Mr. Huygens and Whifton in his Pralect. Aftron. p. 13. II. This being multiplied by 12000, the Diftance of the Sun from the Earth, amounts to 78,463,128,000 of French Fathoms. III. Now by the Experiments of Merfennus, a Cannon-Bullet advances in a Pulfe, or the Second of a Minute, about a hundred of the aforefaid Fathoms, it therefore requires 784,631,280 Seconds to pass with the like Swiftnefs from the Earth to the Sun. IV. This Number is fomewhat fmaller than 788,940,000 which are the Sum of the Seconds of Twenty five Years, if one allows to each of 'em 365 Days and 6 Hours, as may appear by the Calculations of the faid Mr. Huygens. SECT. XVIII. How much Time is required for a Ship, or any Living Creature that can run Fifty Miles in a Day and a Night, to pass from the Earth to the Sun, and Convictions from thence. Now if the Swiftnefs of a Cannon-Bullet fhould too much dazzle any ones Imagination; let him fuppofe a nimble Animal, fuch as 2 Horse, a Deer, a Bird, as also a Ship, either of which, if they can advance Fifty Miles every Twenty four Hours, will at least require 1100 Years, either to run, fly, or fail, fuch a Space, as is between the Sun and the Earth, which may be eafily computed, if one again fuppofes: I. That the Sun is distant from the Earth 12000 Diameters thereof. II. That a Degree, according to a Pilot's Calculation, being fifteen Dutch Leagues, the Circumference ference of the Earth will amount to 5400, and its Diameter to 1718 Dutch Leagues. III. This being multiply'd with 12000, the Product of Dutch Leagues between the Sun and Earth, will be 21,616,000. IV. This being divided by 50, or the Miles that a Ship will fail in a Day, or a Horfe run, the Amount will be 412,320 Days, or about 1129 Years. I thought I could not do amifs in being fomething the more large upon this Subject, and in fhewing the Sun's Diftance from the Earth after more than one manner; fince Mankind are wont, upon this Occafion, to reprefent to themselves a Giant like a Dwarf; and the great Firmament, and those glorious Bodies which it contains, and efpecially the Sun, with respect to its Magnitude and Distance, incomparably smaller than they really are, and confequently make the dreadful Power of the CREATOR, Contemptible instead of Wonderful and Infinite. SECT. XIX. The Swiftnefs of LIGHT. LET. the Atheist now go on with us, and Contemplate that Wonder of all Wonders, that furprizing Creature the LIGHT, in its Properties only, fo far as they are known to us, and in the first Place, its unconceivable, and (if it had not been proved experimentally, its altogether) incredible Velocity. It may perhaps appear ftrange to many, and even not to be admitted by moft, if we fhould affirm that Light requires fome Time for the Parts of it to defcend fucceffively from the Sun to us, and in that manner to be emitted from all Parts of that Glorious Body: Forafmuch as the chief chief Philofophers of the laft Age, and many others of this, to whom the latest Obfervations of the Aftronomers are not yet known, have thought, and with great Appearance of Truth too, that Light moved much after the fame manner as a Stick lying between the Sun and us, whereof one End being protruded from the Sun, the other in an inftant, and without any Space of Time, would be likewife moved; fo that properly and according to this Hypothefis, the Light does not come down to us from the Sun, but that which is near and about us is only put into a continual Motion by the Sun, or by the Power of its heavenly Matter. But they that are of this Opinion, will be yet much more shock'd, if we should tell them, that this Light is not only derived to us continually from the Sun, and that it requires fome Time to pass to us, but even that it is protruded with fo great a Swiftnefs, that it does not take up more than half a Quarter of an Hour, or about 7 Minutes to pafs from the Sun to us, that is to fay, to run fo many Millions of Miles. SECT. XX. An Experiment to prove that Light really moves and comes from the Sun. AN actual Proof that Light moves, and that even when the Rays of it are collected in any Quantity, it will protrude Bodies it meets in its Course, and, as it were, blow them away, may be found in the Hiftory of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 1708, p. 25. where Mr. Homberg relates, That a Light Matter, fuch as the Amianthus, or Plume-Allum, being fuddenly brought into the Focus of a Burning-Glafs, upon a Wood-Coal, was driven off by the concurring Rays of Light; and that the Spring of a Watch, one End of which faften'd |