Natural Theology: Or, Essays on the Existence of Deity and of Providence, on the Immateriality of the Soul, and a Future State, Volume 1

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Page 500 - Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands ; Thou hast put all things under his feet : All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field ; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
Page xxi - Where am I, or what ? From what causes do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I return ? Whose favour shall I court, and whose anger must I dread? What beings surround me, and on whom have I any influence, or who have any influence on me ? I am confounded with all these questions, and begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable, environed with the deepest darkness, and utterly deprived of the use of every member and faculty.
Page 368 - Greeks found that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection; and their knowledge reached no further than to such simple deductions from this as their geometry sufficed for.
Page 217 - ... a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws ; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my readers.
Page 217 - That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which, their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it.
Page 217 - I desired you would not ascribe innate gravity to me. That gravity should be innate, inherent and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance through a vacuum, without the mediation of...
Page 395 - Hoc qui existimat fieri potuisse, non intelligo, cur non idem putet, si innumerabiles unius et viginti formae literarum vel aureae, vel quales libet,* aliquo conjiciantur, posse ex his in terram excussis annales Ennii, ut deinceps legi possint, effici ; quod nescio an ne in uno quidem versu possit tantum valere fortuna.
Page 409 - If we see a house, Cleanthes, we conclude, with the greatest certainty, that it had an architect or builder because this is precisely that species of effect which we have experienced to proceed from that species of cause. But surely you will not affirm that the universe bears such a resemblance to a house that we can with the same certainty infer a similar cause, or that the analogy is here entire and perfect.
Page xvii - He took her hand with an air of kindness: she drew it away from him in silence; threw down her eyes to the ground, and left the room. - "I have been thanking God," said the good La Roche, "for my recovery." - "That is right,
Page 504 - Maclaurin, by a fluxionary calculation, which is to be found in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London. He has determined precisely the angle required ; and he found, by the most exact mensuration the subject could admit, that it is the very angle in which the three planes in the bottom of the cell of a honey-comb do actually meet...

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