M. de la Place, after having so beautifully epitomised the philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton, conclude his performance with a marked and ungraceful parody on the closing reflections of Our ILLUSTRIOUS MASTER."

You will recollect, Sir, that Newton, at the close of his "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy," gives a rapid sketch of the system of his own creation; and in imitation of the Divine Creator, who on a general survey of his own stupendous works, "saw that every thing he had made was very good;" Newton, in like manner, on viewing his work, though his system directly contradicted the Divine one, magisterially declared it to be "most beautiful." Dr. Robison goes a little farther; for he says, "those who are able to follow the footsteps of Newton over the magnificent scene," (of his imaginary creation,) "must be affected as he was, and must pronounce all very good." When Newton published his work, scepticism had made no great progress, excepting among a few mathematicians, and therefore, as he had begun his work, and even carried it on to the end, without deriving any assistance whatever from the Divine History of the Creation, it would seem, in order to give it currency, that he deemed it proper to father it upon some ideal BEING: he therefore declares, that "it could only proceed

from the counsel and dominion of an INTelliGENT BEING." He then proceeds in lofty terms to declare what that Being is and what he is not; "to discourse of whom, from the appearance of things," says he, "certainly belongs to natural philosophy."

From this it would appear, that, if we wish to know any thing about this Being, we must apply to the discourses delivered by the HIGH PRIESTS of GRAVITY and ATTRACTION! La Place having been furnished by Newton with POWERS, BEINGS, or SPIRITS, sufficient for his purpose, gives Newton a sly hit upon this passage of his book; hence the notice of the marked and ungraceful parody, which offended the sensitive nerves of professor Robison. Now, Sir, I call upon the disciples of Newton to point out a single passage in their books, concerning a Supreme Being, His nature, attributes and power, that is not infinitely excelled in the various revelations of Himself which he has been pleased to have recorded in His own book; or rather, I ask them to produce a single passage that will afford us any light whatever, on that important subject, that was not previously given by himself.

If indeed we were to rely upon the assertion of Sir Isaac Newton, that to discourse of the true God certainly belongs to natural philosophy; we should find, in the first place, as I

have fully shown, in the following pages, that the constant disagreement in opinions amongst natural philosophers, would leave us nothing to rest our judgment upon; and, in the second place, if we could seriously adopt the doctrines of Newton and his followers, concerning the perturbations, derangements and destructions which they pretend to demonstrate to be the inevitable consequences of the properties which they ascribe to matter, and to their laws of motion; we should form as gross conceptions of the Divine wisdom and power in the formation and economy of the universe, as the heathens generally did of his moral attributes in the government of the nations. stead of contemplating him as a God of order, which he has declared himself to be,-we should consider Him in all things quite the reverse. In fact, our own works and our own imaginations would be the standards of our judgment concerning His power and His wisdom.

In

With regard to the moving POWERS introduced by Newton into his own system; he says "I have explained the phenomena of the heavens and our sea by the Power of Gravity: but I have not yet assigned the cause of this power; but am certain that it penetrates to the very centres of the sun and planets." He then adds, "hitherto I have not been able to

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discover the cause of those properties of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypothesis." That is to say,-the cause of an imaginary power, as I have in another place fully shown. What! if such a powerful agent really exist, was he not able to assign the cause of its properties? Could there be any other than the GREAT FIRST CAUSE of all things? Could not this most pious of mankind, when he read the first chapter of Genesis, comprehend, that God himself created the peculiar essences,' properties and qualities of all things, according to their different species, and for their respective uses? And could he not discover that whatever He, in the beginning, created, remains indestructible and essentially unalterable? But it was neither suitable nor convenient to his system, to refer to the first chapters of Genesis.

Having, in his void spaces, set his system of imaginary worlds agoing by his phantom of gravity, of the cause of which he declares himself to be ignorant, his imagination then, in his concluding paragraph, descends to the earth, and he mysteriously and oracularly tells us, of "a most subtile, electric, and elastic SPIRIT, which" he says "pervades and lies hid" (certainly no one ever saw or felt it,) "in all gross bodies. By the force and action of which spirit," (amongst other wonders, he

tells us of,) "all sensation is excited, and the members of animal bodies move, at the command of the will;" (what will?) 'namely, by the vibrations of this spirit, mutually propagated along the solid filaments of the nerves, from the outward organs of sense, to the brain, and from the brain into the muscles. But these are things that cannot be explained in few words; nor are we furnished with that sufficiency of experiments which is required to an accurate determination and demonstration of the laws by which this electric and elastic SPIRIT operates." Had he been discoursing of dead bodies, he might have applied to resurrectionmen and made his own experiments, or he might have attended at Surgeons' Hall and witnessed as many as he wished: but here he is discoursing of living bodies; and he brings forward a mysterious phantom, or spirit, as he terms it, to give sensation and motion to animal bodies; and this, without once alluding to a Creator, or, which would have been virtually the same,-to the first chapter of Genesis. But this spirit, it seems, he cannot fully unveil to us in a few words for want of experiments! Let us, then, see if we cannot explain all that can be explained on the subject, in a few words, and without experiments. Is not God the acknowledged source of life; and did not man derive his life immediately