CONVERSATION VI.

CAUSES OF THE EARTH'S ANNUAL MOTION.

Of the Planets, and their Motion-Of the Diurnal Motion of the Earth and Planets.

CAROLINE.

I AM come to you to-day quite elated with the spirit of opposition, Mrs. B.; for I have discovered such a powerful objection to your theory of attraction, that I doubt whether even your conjuror Newton, with his magic wand of attraction, will be able to dispel it.

Mrs. B. objection ?

Well, my dear, pray what is this weighty

Caroline. You say that bodies attract in proportion to the quantity of matter they contain, now we all know the sun to be much larger than the earth: why, therefore, does it not attract the earth; you will not, I suppose, pretend to say that we are falling towards the sun?

Emily. However plausible your objection appears, Caroline, I think you place too much reliance upon it:

when any one has given such convincing proofs of sagacity and wisdom as Sir Isaac Newton, when we find that his opinions are universally received and adopted, is it to be expected that any objection we can advance should overturn them ?

Caroline. Yet I confess that I am not inclined to yield implicit faith even to opinions of the great Newton: for what purpose are we endowed with reason, if we are denied the privilege of making use of it, by judging for ourselves?

Mrs. B. It is reason itself which teaches us, that when we, novices in science, start objections to theories established by men of acknowledged wisdom, we should be diffident rather of our own than of their opinion. I am far from wishing to lay the least restraint on your questions; you cannot be better convinced of the truth of a system, than by finding that it resists all your attacks, but I would advise you not to advance your objections with so much confidence, in order that the discovery of their fallacy may be attended with less mortification. In answer to that you have just proposed, I can only say, that the earth really is attracted by the sun.

Caroline. Take care at least that we are not consumed by him, Mrs. B.

Mrs. B. We are in no danger; but our magician Newton, as you are pleased to call him, cannot extricate himself from this difficulty without the aid of some cabalistical figures, which I must draw for him.

Let us suppose the earth, at its creation, to have been projected forwards into universal space : we know that if no obstacle impeded its course it would