LET. V. OF THE SYSTEM OF DES CaRTES.

73

and carried round their several orbits by itsconstant circulation. Those planets which havesatellites, are likewise the centers of othersmaller whirlpools which swim in the great one;and the bodies that are placed in them, are drivenround their primaries in the same manner asthose primaries are driven round the fun.

Now as the fun turns upon his axis, the sameway that the planets move round him, and theplanets also turn round their axes, the same wayas their satellites move round them; it wasimagined, that if the whole planetary regionwas filled with a fluid matter, like that beforementioned, the fun and planets, by a constantand rapid rotation on their axes, would com-municate a circular motion to every part ofthis medium, and by that means drag along thebodies that swim in it, and give them the samecircumvolution.

This, in few words, is the celebrated systemof vortices, and the world of Des Cartes. Thefabric, it must be confessed, is raised with greatart and ingenuity, and is evidently the produceof a lively fancy and a fertile imagination. Butthen, it can be considered only as a philoso-phical romance, which amuses without instruct-ing us, and serves principally to show that themost shining abilities are frequently misemploy-ed; and will always be found inadequate, tothe arduous ta£^ of forming a complete system

of