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The hypothefis of matter evenly difpofed through infinite space, feems to labour with fuch difficulties, as makes it almost a contradictory supposition, or a suppofition deftructive of itself.

Matter evenly difpofed through infinite fpace, is either created or eternal; if it was created, it infers a Creator: if it was eternal, it had been from eternity evenly spread through infinite space; or it had been once coalefced in maffes, and afterwards been diffused. Whatever state was first, must have been from eternity, and what had been from eternity could not be changed, but by a cause beginning to act as it had never acted before, that is, by the voluntary act of some external power. If matter infinitely and evenly diffused was a moment without coalition, it could never coalefce at all by its own power. If matter originally tended to coalefce, it could never be evenly diffused through infinite space. Matter being fuppofed eternal, there never was a time when it could be diffufed before its conglobation, or conglobated before its diffufion.

This Sir Ifaac feems by degrees to have underfood: for he fays, in his fecond Letter, "The reason

why matter evenly fcattered through a finite space "would convene in the midft, you conceive the fame "with me; but that there fhould be a central par"ticle, fo accurately placed in the middle, as to be

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always equally attracted on all fides, and thereby "continue without motion, feems to me a fuppofition fully as hard as to make the sharpeft needle ftand

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upright upon its point on a looking-glafs. For if "the very mathematical centre of the central particle "be not accurately in the very mathematical centre "of the attractive power of the whole mafs, the par

"ticle will not be attracted equally on all fides. And "much harder is it to fuppofe all the particles in an "infinite space should be fo accurately poifed one

among another, as to stand still in a perfect equili"brium. For I reckon this as hard as to make not "one needle only, but an infinite number of them (fo

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many as there are particles in an infinite space) ftand

accurately poised upon their points. Yet I grant it "poffible, at least by a divine power; and if they "were once to be placed, I agree with you that they "would continue in that pofture, without motion for

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ever, unless put into new motion by the fame power. "When therefore I faid, that matter evenly spread "through all space, would convene by its gravity into one or more great maffes, I understand it of matter "not refting in an accurate poife."

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Let not it be thought irreverence to this great name, if I observe, that by matter evenly spread through infinite fpace, he now finds it neceffary to mean matter not evenly spread. Matter not evenly Spread will indeed convene, but it will convene as foon as it exifts. And, in my opinion, this puzzling question about matter is only how that could be that never could have been, or what a man thinks on when he thinks of nothing.

Turn matter on all fides, make it eternal, or of late production, finite or infinite, there can be no regular fyftem produced but by a voluntary and meaning agent. This the great Newton always afferted, and this he afferts in the third letter; but proves in another manner, in a manner perhaps more happy and conclufive.

"The

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"The hypothefis of deriving the frame of the "world by mechanical principles from matter evenly fpread through the heavens being inconfiftent with my fyftem, I had confidered it very little before your letter put me upon it, and therefore trouble you with a line or two more about it, if this comes 66 not too late for your ufe.

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"In my former I reprefented that the diurnal ro"tations of the planets could not be derived from "gravity, but required a divine arm to imprefs them. "And though gravity might give the planets a mo"tion of defcent towards the fun, either directly, or "with fome little obliquity, yet the tranfverfe mo"tions by which they revolve in their feveral orbs,

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required the divine arm to imprefs them according "to the tangents of their orbs. I would now add, "that the hypothefis of matter's being at first evenly

fpread through the heavens, is, in my opinion, in"confiftent with the hypothefis of innate gravity, "without a fupernatural power to reconcile them, and "therefore it infers a Deity. For if there be innate

gravity it is impoffible now for the matter of the "earth, and all the planets and ftars, to fly up from "them, and become evenly fpread throughout all the heavens, without a fupernatural power; and certainly that which can never be hereafter without a fupernatural power, could never be heretofore without the fame power."

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'JOURNAL of EIGHT DAYS JOURNEY, 'from PORTSMOUTH to KINGSTON UPON THAMES, 'through SOUTHAMPTON, WILTSHIRE, &C.

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'WITH

• Miscellaneous THOUGHTS, moral and religious;

IN SIXTY-FOUR LETTERS:

Addreffed to Two LADIES of the Partie.

To which is added,

• An Essay on TEA, confidered as pernicious to Health, ob. ftructing Industry, and impoverishing the Nation: with an • Account of its Growth, and great Confumption in these · Kingdoms; with feveral political Reflections; and Thoughts ⚫ on Publick Love: in Thirty-two Letters to Two Ladies.

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[From the Literary Magazine, Vol. II. N° xiii. 1757-1

OUR readers may perhaps remember, that we

gave them a fhort account of this book, with a letter extracted from it, in November 1756. The author then fent us an injunction to forbear his work till a fecond edition fhould appear: this prohibition was rather too magifterial; for an author is no longer

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the fole master of a book which he has given to the publick; yet he has been punctually obeyed; we had no defire to offend him, and if his character may be eftimated by his book, he is a man whofe failings may well be pardoned for his virtues.

The fecond edition is now fent into the world, corrected and enlarged, and yielded up by the author to the attacks of criticifm. But he fhall find in us no malignity of cenfure. We with indeed, that among other corrections he had fubmitted his pages to the infpection of a grammarian, that the elegancies of one line might not have been difgraced by the improprieties of another; but with us to mean well is a degree of merit which overbalances much greater errors than impurity of ftyle.

We have already given in our collections one of the letters, in which Mr. Hanway endeavours to show, that the confumption of Tea is injurious to the intereft of our country. We fhall now endeavour to follow him regularly through all his obfervations on this modern luxury; but it can fcarcely be candid, not to make a previous declaration, that he is to expect little justice from the author of this extract, a hardened and fhameless Tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infufion of this fafcinating plant, whose kettle has fcarcely time to cool, who with Tea amufes the evening, with Tea folaces the midnight, and with Tea welcomes the morning.

He begins by refuting a popular notion, that Bohea and Green Tea are leaves of the fame fhrub, gathered at different times of the year. He is of opinion, that they are produced by different fhrubs. The leaves

of

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