2^8 OF THE MENSURATION

things; nature is uniform in all her operations,and it is her peculiar excellence, that she oftenproduces the greatest effects from the most ap-parently trivial causes. To discover this hiddencorrespondence, is the privilege only of superiorminds; and such is the ignorance and envy ofthe multitude, that the man who first announcesthese truths to the world, is often considered asno other than a troublesome innovator of newdoctrines, which serve only to disturb the peaceand happiness of mankind. Newton, the greatfather of philosophy, was more happily circum-stanced ; he had the good fortune to live in anenlightened age, when bigotry and superstitionwere every day losing ground: his genius sethim at such a height above the rest of mankind,that but few, even among the learned, wereproper judges of his merit; they admired hisresearches, but doubted the truth of his conclu-sions. II a fallu (fays Mons. Lastly) du terns &de longues etudes pour cornprendre Newton,& fe rendre digne de recevoir ses lemons.

The figure of the earth, however, is a mathe-matical truth, which is confirmed by analogy;for by means of a good telescope, it is easy to per-ceive, that the planet Jupiter is flattened abouthis poles, in nearly the fame manner as has beenasserted of our earth. What exists in one planet,therefore, is possible in another; and as it appearshighly probable, that matter is every where en-n dowed