Astronomy And General Physics Considered With Reference To Natural Theology

ASTRONOMY AND GENERAL PHYSICS CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO NATURAL THEOLOGY.

BY THE REV. WILLIAM WHEWELL, M. A. FELLOW AND TUTOR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. Philadelphia: CAREY, LEA &amp; BLANCHARD, CHESTNUT STREET. 1833. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND CHARLES JAMES, LORD BISHOP OF LONDON....

16 minute read

Read Chapter

DEDICATION

MY LORD— I owe it to you that I was selected for the task attempted in the following pages, a distinction which I feel to be honourable; and on this account alone I should have a peculiar pleasure in dedicating the work to your lordship. I do so with additional gratification on another account: the Treatise has been written within the walls of the College of which your lordship was formerly a resident member, and its merits, if it have any, are mainly due to the spirit and habits of the place. T

1 minute read

Read Chapter

NOTICE.

The series of Treatises, of which the present is one, is published under the following circumstances: The Right Honourable and Reverend Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater , died in the month of February, 1829; and by his last Will and Testament, bearing date the 25th of February, 1825, he directed certain Trustees therein named to invest in the public funds the sum of Eight thousand pounds sterling; this sum, with the accruing dividends thereon, to be held at the disposal of the President, for t

2 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER I. Object of the Present Treatise.

The examination of the material world brings before us a number of things and relations of things which suggest to most minds the belief of a creating and presiding Intelligence. And this impression, which arises with the most vague and superficial consideration of the objects by which we are surrounded, is, we conceive, confirmed and expanded by a more exact and profound study of external nature. Many works have been written at different times with the view of showing how our knowledge of the e

5 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER II. On Laws of Nature.

When we speak of material nature as being governed by laws , it is sufficiently evident that we use the term in a manner somewhat metaphorical. The laws to which man’s attention is primarily directed are moral laws; rules laid down for his actions; rules for the conscious actions of a person; rules which, as a matter of possibility, he may obey or may transgress; the latter event being combined, not with an impossibility, but with a penalty. But the Laws of Nature are something different from th

4 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER III. Mutual Adaptation in the Laws of Nature.

To ascertain such laws of nature as we have been describing, is the peculiar business of science. It is only with regard to a very small portion of the appearances of the universe, that science, in any strict application of the term, exists. In very few departments of research have men been able to trace a multitude of known facts to causes which appear to be the ultimate material causes, or to discern the laws which seem to be the most general laws. Yet, in one or two instances, they have done

3 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IV. Division of the Subject.

In making a survey of the universe, for the purpose of pointing out such correspondencies and adaptations as we have mentioned, we shall suppose the general leading facts of the course of nature to be known, and the explanations of their causes now generally established among astronomers and natural philosophers to be conceded. We shall assume therefore that the earth is a solid globe of ascertained magnitude, which travels round the sun, in an orbit nearly circular, in a period of about three h

2 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER I. The Length of the Year.

A year is the most important and obvious of the periods which occur in the organic, and especially in the vegetable world. In this interval of time the cycle of most of the external influences which operate upon plants is completed. There is also in plants a cycle of internal functions, corresponding to this succession of external causes. The length of either of these periods might have been different from what it is, according to any grounds of necessity which we can perceive. But a certain len

12 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER II. The Length of the Day.

We shall now consider another astronomical element, the time of the revolution of the earth on its axis; and we shall find here also that the structure of organized bodies are suited to this element;—that the cosmical and physiological arrangements are adapted to each other. We can very easily conceive the earth to revolve on her axis faster or slower than she does, and thus the days to be longer or shorter than they are, without supposing any other change to take place. There is no apparent rea

9 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER III. The Mass of the Earth.

We shall now consider the adaptation which may, as we conceive, be traced in the amount of some of the quantities which determine the course of events in the organic world; and especially in the amount of the forces which are in action. The life of vegetables and animals implies a constant motion of their fluid parts, and this motion must be produced by forces which urge or draw the particles of the fluids. The positions of the parts of vegetables are also the result of the flexibility and elast

10 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IV. The Magnitude of the Ocean.

There are several arbitrary quantities which contribute to determine the state of things at the earth’s surface besides those already mentioned. Some of these we shall briefly refer to, without pursuing the subject into detail. We wish not only to show that the properties and processes of vegetable and animal life must be adjusted to each of these quantities in particular, but also to point out how numerous and complicated the conditions of the existence of organized beings are; and we shall thu

1 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER V. The Magnitude of the Atmosphere.

The total quantity of air of which our atmosphere is composed is another of the arbitrary magnitudes of our terrestrial system; and we may apply to this subject considerations similar to those of the last section. We can see no reason why the atmosphere might not have been larger in comparison to the globe which it surrounds; those of Mars and Jupiter appear to be so. But if the quantity of air were increased, the structure of organized beings would in many ways cease to be adapted to their plac

1 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VI. The Constancy and Variety of Climates.

It is possible to conceive arrangements of our system, according to which all parts of the earth might have the same, or nearly the same, climate. If, for example, we suppose the earth to be a flat disk, or flat ring, like the ring of Saturn, revolving in its own plane as that does, each part of both the flat surfaces would have the same exposure to the sun, and the same temperature, so far as the sun’s effect is concerned. There is no obvious reason why a planet of such a form might not be occu

6 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VII. The Variety of Organization corresponding to the Variety of Climate.

The organization of plants and animals is in different tribes formed upon schemes more or less different, but in all cases adjusted in a general way to the course and action of the elements. The differences are connected with the different habits and manners of living which belong to different species; and at any one place the various species, both of animals and plants, have a number of relations and mutual dependences arising out of these differences. But besides the differences of this kind,

13 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VIII. The Constituents of Climate.

We have spoken of the steady average of the climate at each place, of the difference of this average at different places, and of the adaptation of organized beings to this character in the laws of the elements by which they are affected. But this steadiness in the general effect of the elements, is the result of an extremely complex and extensive machinery. Climate, in its wider sense, is not one single agent, but is the aggregate result of a great number of different agents, governed by differe

5 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IX. The Laws of Heat with respect to Water.

The manner in which heat is transmitted through fluids is altogether different from the mode in which it passes through solids; and hence the waters of the earth’s surface produce peculiar effects upon its condition as to temperature. Moreover, water is susceptible of evaporation in a degree depending upon the increase of heat; and in consequence of this property it has most extensive and important functions to discharge in the economy of nature. We will consider some of the offices of this flui

17 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER X. The Laws of Heat with respect to Air.

We have seen in the preceding chapter how many and how important are the offices discharged by the aqueous part of the atmosphere. The aqueous part is, however, a very small part only; it may vary, perhaps, from less than 1-100th to nearly as much as 1-20th in weight, of the whole aerial ocean. We have to offer some considerations with regard to the remainder of the mass. 1. In the first place we may observe that the aerial atmosphere is necessary as a vehicle for the aqueous vapour. Salutary as

15 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XI. The Laws of Electricity.

Electricity undoubtedly exists in the atmosphere in most states of the air; but we know very imperfectly the laws of this agent, and are still more ignorant of its atmospheric operation. The present state of science does not therefore enable us to perceive those adaptations of its laws to its uses, which we can discover in those cases where the laws and the uses are both of them more apparent. We can, however, easily make out that electrical agency plays a very considerable part among the clouds

2 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XII. The Laws of Magnetism.

Magnetism has no very obvious or apparently extensive office in the mechanism of the atmosphere and the earth: but the mention of it may be introduced, because its ascertained relations to the other powers which exist in the system are well suited to show us the connexion subsisting throughout the universe, and to check the suspicion, if any such should arise, that any law of nature is without its use. The parts of creation when these uses are most obscure, are precisely those parts when the law

2 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XIII. The Properties of Light with regard to Vegetation.

The illuminating power of light will come under our consideration hereafter. Its agency, with regard to organic life, is too important not to be noticed, though this must be done briefly. Light appears to be as necessary to the health of plants as air of moisture. A plant may, indeed, grow without it, but it does not appear that a species could be so continued. Under such a privation, the parts which are usually green, assume a white colour, as is the case with vegetables grown in a cellar, or p

1 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XIV. Sound.

Besides the function which air discharges as the great agent in the changes of meteorology and vegetation, it has another office, also of great and extensive importance, as the vehicle of sound. 1. The communication of sound through the air takes place by means of a process altogether different from anything of which we have yet spoken: namely, by the propagation of minute vibrations of the particles from one part of the fluid mass to another, without any local motion of the fluid itself. Perhap

8 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XV. The Atmosphere.

We have considered in succession a number of the properties and operations of the atmosphere, and have found them separately very curious. But an additional interest belongs to the subject when we consider them as combined. The atmosphere under this point of view must appear a contrivance of the most extraordinary kind. To answer any of its purposes, to carry on any of its processes, separately, requires peculiar arrangements and adjustments; to answer, all at once, purposes so varied, to combin

2 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XVI. Light.

Besides the hearing and sound there is another mode by which we become sensible of the impressions of external objects, namely, sight and light. This subject also offers some observations bearing on our present purpose. It has been declared by writers on Natural Theology, that the human eye exhibits such evidence of design and skill in its construction, that no one, who considers it attentively, can resist this impression: nor does this appear to be saying too much. It must, at the same time, be

10 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XVII. The Ether.

In what has just been said, we have spoken of light, only with respect to its power of illuminating objects, and conveying the impression of them to the eye. It possesses, however, beyond all doubt, many other qualities. Light is intimately connected with heat, as we see in the case of the sun and of flame; yet it is clear that light and heat are not identical. Light is evidently connected too with electricity and galvanism; and perhaps, through these, with magnetism: it is, as has already been

3 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XVIII. Recapitulation.

1. It has been shown in the preceding chapters that a great number of quantities and laws appear to have been selected in the construction of the universe; and that by the adjustment to each other of the magnitudes and laws thus selected, the constitution of the world is what we find it, and is fitted for the support of vegetables and animals, in a manner in which it could not have been, if the properties and quantities of the elements had been different from what they are. We shall here recapit

6 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER I. The Structure of the Solar System.

In the cosmical considerations which we have to offer, we shall suppose the general truths concerning the structure of the solar system and of the universe, which have been established by astronomers and mathematicians, to be known to the reader. It is not necessary to go into much detail on this subject. The five planets known to the ancients, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, revolve round the sun, at different distances, in orbits nearly circular, and nearly in one plane. Between Venus a

3 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER II. The Circular Orbits of the Planets round the Sun.

The orbit which the earth describes round the sun is very nearly a circle: the sun is about one thirtieth nearer to us in winter than in summer. This nearly circular form of the orbit, on a little consideration, will appear to be a remarkable circumstance. Supposing the attraction of a planet towards the sun to exist, if the planet were put in motion in any part of the solar system, it would describe about the sun an orbit of some kind ; it might be a long oval, or a shorter oval, or an exact ci

5 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER III. The Stability of the Solar System.

There is a consequence resulting from the actual structure of the solar system, which has been brought to light by the investigations of mathematicians concerning the cause and laws of its motions, and which has an important bearing on our argument. It appears that the arrangement which at present obtains is precisely that which is necessary to secure the stability of the system. This point we must endeavour to explain. If each planet were to revolve round the sun without being affected by the o

9 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IV. The Sun in the Centre.

The next circumstance which we shall notice as indicative of design in the arrangement of the material portions of the solar system, is the position of the sun, the source of light and heat, in the centre of the system. This could hardly have occurred by any thing which we can call chance. Let it be granted, that the law of gravitation is established, and that we have a large mass, with others much smaller in its comparative vicinity. The small bodies may then move round the larger, but this wil

3 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER V. The Satellites.

1. A person of ordinary feelings, who, on a fine moonlight night, sees our satellite pouring her mild radiance on field and town, path and moor, will probably not only be disposed to “bless the useful light,” but also to believe that it was “ordained” for that purpose;—that the lesser light was made to rule the night as certainly as the greater light was made to rule the day. Laplace, however, does not assent to this belief. He observes, that “some partisans of final causes have imagined that th

4 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VI. The Stability of the Ocean.

What is meant by the stability of the ocean may perhaps be explained by means of the following illustration. If we suppose the whole globe of the Earth to be composed of water, a sphere of cork, immersed in any part of it, would come to the surface of the water, except it were placed exactly at the centre of the earth; and even if it were the slightest displacement of the cork sphere would end in its rising and floating. This would be the case whatever were the size of the cork sphere, and even

4 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VII. The Nebular Hypothesis.

We have referred to Laplace, as a profound mathematician, who has strongly expressed the opinion, that the arrangement by which the stability of the solar system is secured is not the result of chance; that “ a primitive cause has directed the planetary motions.” This author, however, having arrived, as we have done, at this conviction, does not draw from it the conclusion which has appeared to us so irresistible, that “the admirable arrangement of the solar system cannot but be the work of an i

10 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VIII. The Existence of a Resisting Medium in the Solar System.

The question of a plenum and a vacuum was formerly much debated among those who speculated concerning the constitution of the universe; that is, they disputed whether the celestial and terrestrial spaces are absolutely full, each portion being occupied by some matter or other; or whether there are, between and among the material parts of the world, empty spaces free from all matter, however rare. This question was often treated by means of abstract conceptions and à priori reasonings; and was so

19 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IX. Mechanical Laws.

In the preceding observations we have supposed the laws, by which different kinds of matter act and are acted upon, to be already in existence; and have endeavoured to point out evidences of design and adaptation, displayed in the selection and arrangement of these materials of the universe. These materials are, it has appeared, supplied in such measures and disposed in such forms, that by means of their properties and laws the business of the world goes on harmoniously and beneficially. But a f

4 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER X. The Law of Gravitation.

We shall proceed to make a few observations on the Law of Gravity, in virtue of which the motions of planets about the sun, and of satellites about their planets take place; and by which also are produced the fall downwards of all bodies within our reach, and the pressure which they exert upon their supports when at rest. The identification of the latter forces with the former, and the discovery of the single law by which these forces are every where regulated, was the great discovery of Newton:

17 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XI. The Laws of Motion.

We shall now make a few remarks on the general Laws of Motion by which all mechanical effects take place . Are we to consider these as instituted laws? and if so, can we point out any of the reasons which we may suppose to have led to the selection of those laws which really exist? The observations formerly made concerning the inevitable narrowness and imperfection of our conclusions on such subjects, apply here, even more strongly than in the case of the law of gravitation. We can hardly concei

7 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XII. Friction.[25]

We shall not pursue this argument of the last chapter, by considering the other laws of motion in the same manner as we have there considered the first, which might be done. But the facts which form exceptions and apparent contradictions to the first law of which we have been treating, and which are very numerous, offer, we conceive, an additional exemplification of the same argument; and this we shall endeavour to illustrate. The rule that a body naturally moves for ever with an undiminished sp

13 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER I. The Creator of the Physical World is the Governor of the Moral World.

With our views of the moral government of the world and the religious interests of man, the study of material nature is not and cannot be directly and closely connected. But it may be of some service to trace in these two lines of reasoning, seemingly so remote, a manifest convergence to the same point, a demonstrable unity of result. It may be useful to show that we are thus led, not to two rulers of the universe, but to one God;—to make it appear that the Creator and Preserver of the world is

15 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER II. On the Vastness of the Universe.

1. The aspect of the world, even without any of the peculiar lights which science throws upon it, is fitted to give us an idea of the greatness of the power by which it is directed and governed, far exceeding any notions of power and greatness which are suggested by any other contemplation. The number of human beings who surround us—the various conditions requisite for their life, nutrition, well-being, all fulfilled;—the way in which these conditions are modified, as we pass in thought to other

11 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER III. On Man’s Place in the Universe.

The mere aspect of the starry heavens, without taking into account the view of them to which science introduces us, tends strongly to force upon man the impression of his own insignificance. The vault of the sky arched at a vast and unknown distance over our heads; the stars, apparently infinite in number, each keeping its appointed place and course, and seeming to belong to a wide system of things which has no relation to the earth; while man is but one among many millions of the earth’s inhabi

15 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER V. On Inductive Habits;

The object of physical science is to discover such laws and properties as those of which we have spoken in the last chapter. In this task, undoubtedly a progress has been made on which we may well look with pleasure and admiration; yet we cannot hesitate to confess that the extent of our knowledge on such subjects bears no proportion to that of our ignorance. Of the great and comprehensive laws which rule over the widest provinces of natural phenomena, few have yet been disclosed to us. And the

20 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VI. On Deductive Habits;

or, on the Impression produced on Men’s Minds by tracing the consequences of ascertained Laws. The opinion illustrated in the last chapter, that the advances which men make in science tend to impress upon them the reality of the Divine government of the world, has often been controverted. Complaints have been made, and especially of late years, that the growth of piety has not always been commensurate with the growth of knowledge, in the minds of those who make nature their study. Views of an ir

19 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VII. On Final Causes.

We have pointed out a great number of instances where the mode in which the arrangements of nature produce their effect, suggests, as we conceive, the belief that this effect is to be considered as the end and purpose of these arrangements. The impression which thus arises, of design and intention exercised in the formation of the world, or of the reality of Final Causes , operates on men’s minds so generally, and increases so constantly on every additional examination of the phenomena of the un

14 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VIII. On the Physical Agency of the Deity.

1. We are not to expect that physical investigation can enable us to conceive the manner in which God acts upon the members of the universe. The question, “Canst thou by searching find out God?” must silence the boastings of science as well as the repinings of adversity. Indeed, science shows us, far more clearly than the conceptions of every day reason, at what an immeasurable distance we are from any faculty of conceiving how the universe, material and moral, is the work of the Deity. But with

9 minute read

Read Chapter