OF THE FIGURE AND MOTION

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ter, Saturn, and the Georgium Sidus, on theother side, more remote, it follows, from ana-logy, that, being of the fame nature as theyare, it must also partake of the fame fort ofmotions. And as the earth is in the middle,between Venus and Mars, so the period likewisein which it performs its course round the sun,is a mean between the periods of those planets,being greater than the one, and less than theother, as would naturally follow from such amotion.

The absurdity of supposing the earth a seden-tary and immoveable body, is sufficiently ex-posed in the following speech of Adam to theangel Raphael, when he is enquiring concerningthe nature of the celestial motions:

" When I behold this goodly frame, this worldOf heav’n and earth consisting, and computeTheir magnitudes, this earth, a spot, a grain,

An atom, with the firmament compar’d

And all her number'd stars, that seem to roll

Spaces incomprehensible (scr such

Their distance argues, and their swift return

Diurnal) merely to officiate light

Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot,

One day and night; in all their vast surveyUseless besides; reasoning I oft admireHow Nature, wife and frugal, could commitSuch disproportions.”-

Milton’s Paradise Lost.

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