LET. VII.

AND DISCOVERIES.

IO7

mind seem inadequate to a higher pursuit. Any-thing beyond it, must be the science of pureintelligence.

From a genius like this, what had we notto expect ? His account of the universe, andthe laws by which it is regulated, is foundedupon the most indubitable principles of reason,science, and observation. We are no longer com-pelled to wander through the intricate mazes ofhypothesis and conjecture. Nature appears againin all her primitive simplicity. Newton has dis-solved the chaos, and separated the light fromthe darkness. His inimitable work, The Ma-thematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,contains the true astronomical faith; and thosewho reject its doctrines are the worst of heretics,as they shut their eyes against the .clearest of alllight, Demonstration.

To give a perspicuous and methodical accountof all his investigations and discoveries, wouldbe a work of great difficulty, and what, fromthe incompetency of your present acquirements,could afford you but little instruction. Con-fining myself, therefore, to those which are themost familiar and interesting, I shall begin withhis speculations upon gravity and attraction, andrelate from the authority of his commentatorand friend, Dr. Pemberton, the simple incidentwhich is laid to have given birth to them.

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