Abridgment of the Contemplation of Nature By Mr. Bonnet, of GENEVA

 

  1. To be self-existent, endued with almighty power, and to will with infinite wisdom, are the adorable perfections of the First Cause.

The universe is undoubtedly derived from this Cause. In vain do we endeavour by other means to account for it. We may every where observe order and ends; the effects of an Eternal Self-Exis­tent Reason.

2. What mind can fathom the depths of this abyss What thought can comprehend that power which calls things that are not as though they were God commands the universe to be: the universe is instantly produced.

A single act of his will produced the universe; the same act pre­serves it.

But you ask, why is not man as perfect as an angel You mean to say, no doubt, why is not man an angel You may as well inquire why a stag is not a man But the existence of a stag supposes that of herbs to nourish him. Would you still further have had these herbs to have been so many men Their preservation and increase would have depended on the earth, the water, the air, and the fire would you presume to insist in your inquiry, why the constituent parts of these elements were not so many dwarfs

Confess your error, and acknowledge that every being is endued with a perfection suited to the ends of its creation. It would cease to answer that end, the very moment it ceased to be what it is. By changing its nature, it would change its place, anti that which it occupied in the universal hierarchy ought still to be the residence of a being resembling it, otherwise harmony would be destroyed.

In the assemblage of all the orders of relative perfections, consist the absolute perfections of this whole, concerning which God said, that it was good.”

This immense system of co-existent and successive beings, is no less one in succession, than in co-ordination : since the first link is connected with the last by the intermediate ones. Present events make way for the most distant ones. The germ which expanded itself in Sarah’s womb, was the preparatory cause of the existence of a great people and the salvation of nations.

3. “ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work.” That sublime genius, who expressed him self with such loftiness of sentiment, was nevertheless unapprized that the stars which he contemplated, were in reality suns. lie anti­cipated the times, and first sung that majestic hymn, which future, and more enlightened ages should chant forth to the praise of the Foun­der of worlds.

This assemblage of vast bodies is divided into different systems, the number of which perhaps exceeds the grains of sand, which the sea casts on its shores.

Each system then has its centre, either a star or sun, which shines with its own light, and round which revolve various orders of opaque globes, that reflect with greater or less lustre the light they borrow from it; which renders them visible to us.

These globes, which seem to wander among the heavenly bodies, are those planets, the principal of which have the sun for the common centre of their periodical revolutions ; whilst the others, which are called secondary, move round one principal planet, which they accom­pany like satellites, in its annual revolution.

Venus and the earth, have each of them their satellite. One will undoubtedly be some time or other discovered in Mars. Jupiter has Thur. aaturn ave, and a ring or luminous atmosphere which seems to perform the office of a number of small moons: being situate far the sun, he would have received too taint a light from it, if his satellite and ring did not augment it by reflection.

We have discovered twenty-seven planets, which at present com­pose our solar system; but we are not certain that there are not more. Their number has received a great increase by the invention of telescopes more perfect instruments, and more accurate obser­vers, may probably make farther additions to them. The satellite of Venus, discovered in the last century, gives room to hope for still greater success.

4. The comets also are now found to be planetary bodies, whose long routes our astronomers calculate, foretel their distant returns, anti determine their place, appearances, and tract. Upwards of thirty of these bodies at present acknowledge the empire of our sun, and, the orbits which some trace round, are so extensive, that they do not complete their course till the end of a long series, of years, and even many ages.

The stars are innumerable ; and the constellations, which antiquity reckoned to be but few in number, amount to thousands. little diameter of the great orbit which our planet describes round the sun, is more than sixty millions of leagues, yet this vast circumfer­ence vanishes into nothing, and becomes a mere point, when made use of to measure the distance of the fixed stars.

How great then must the real bulk of these lunimous spots be, that are perceivable by us at such enormous distance! The sun is sup­posed about a million of times greater than the earth, and a hundred and ten times greater than all the planets put together.

5. Whilst the planets perform these revolutions round the sun, by which the course of their years is regulated, they effect another among themselves, which determine the alternatives of their clays and nights.

But how do these vast bodies remain suspended in space What secret power retains them in their orbits, and enables them to circulate with so much regularity and harmony Gravity, that powerful agent, is the universal principle of this equilibrium and these motions. It penetrates into the inmost parts of all bodies. By virtue of this force, they tend towards each other in a proportion relative to their distance and bulk. So that the planets tend towards the common cen­tre of the system, and they would instantly be precipitated into it, if the Creator, when he formed them, had not endued them with a centrifugal motion, by which they are continually kept at a due distance from the centre. Each planet, in constant subserviency to these two forces, describes a curve in consequence thereof. By this means, the same force which determines the fall of a stone, is the ruling principle of the heavenly motions: wonderful mechanism! whose simplicity and energy give us unceasing tokens of the profound wisdom of its Author.

The globe of earth, which is externally divided into lands and seas, nearly level in their surfaces,* is formed within, at least to a certain depth, of beds of heterogeneous matter, that are almost parallel, more or less dense, and of a finer or coarser texture.

* Comparatively so; the highest mountains on the earth’s surface, being no more in comparison of its bulk, than the small protuberances on the skin of an orange: but in another degree of comparison, some of them display a tremendous magni­tude, seeming like mighty columns shooting to the skies.

The surface of the earth abounds with great inequalities. In one part of it we behold vast plains intersected by hills and vallies. To another, long chains of mountains, which lift their frozen heads to the clouds ; and betwixt them deep vallies From the bosom of these mountains, rivers spring, which after having watered divers countries, and produced ponds and lakes in several places by enlarging their beds, at length discharge themselves into the sea, and restore to it what it had lost by evaporation.

6. The sea presents us with islands scattered round its coasts, with sands, rocks, currents, gulphs, and storms, and with that regular and admirable motion whereby its waters rise and fall twice in twenty-four hours.

The lands and seas are every where replenished with plants arid animals, whose infinitely varied species resort together in every place. Men divided into nations, peoples, and families, cover the surface of the globe. They fashion and enrich it by their various labours, and build habitations from pole to pole, corresponding with their manners, genius, soil, climate.

A rare, transparent, elastic substance, encompasses all parts of the earth to a certain height: this substance is the atmosphere, the repo­sitory for the winds, the immense reservoir of vapours and exhala­tions, which being sometimes collected into clouds of a greater or lesser consistence, adorn our element by their forms and colours, or astonish us by their flashes and violent noise; and at other times melting into dews, mists, rain, snow, hail, yield back to the earth what was exhaled from it.

7. The moon, the nearest to the earth of all the planets, is that we have the best knowledge of. Its globe, which is about five and forty times less than ours, always appears to us with the same aspect, because it performs its revolution precisely in the same space of time that it revolves round the earth.

It has its gradual and periodical increase and decrease of light, according to its position with respect to the sun which enlightens it, and to the earth whereon it reflects the light of that sun.

The disk of the moon is externally divided into luminous and obscure parts. The former seems analogous to lands on our globe, and the latter to our seas.

In the luminous parts there have been observed some places brighter than the rest, which cast a shade from their side, which has been mea­sured and the tract ascertained. These parts are mountains much higher than ours, in proportion to the size of the moon, and whose tops the sun has been seen to gild when that planet is quartered; the light by little and little to the foot of these mountains, they appear at that time entirely bright. Some are by themselves, others form very long tracts .*

Venus has, like the moon, her spots and mountains. So have Mars and Jupiter- Those in Jupiter form large belts, which make consider­able motion, like the ocean’s overflowing the lands and afterward leav­ing them dry on his retreat.

Mercury and Saturn are little known to us; the first, because it is too near the sun, the second, because it is at too great a distance.

Lastly. The sun himself has spots, which seem to move regularly, and whose size equals, and very often exceeds that of such as are seen in the greatest planets.

8. Pure spirits, immaterial and intelligent substances; extensive anti solid substances : mixed beings, formed by the union of an imma­terial substance, and a corporeal; are the three general classes of beings which we have any conception of in the universe.

In the universe all is combination, affinity, connexion. There is nothing but what is the immediate effect of somewhat preceding it, and determines the existence of something that should follow It.

The Divine Mind has so closely connected every part of his work, that there is not one which has not a relation to the whole system. A mushroom, a mite, are as essential parts of it as the cedar or elephant.

So that those minute productions of nature which unthinking men judge to be useless, are not mere particles of dust on the wheels of the machine of the world ; they are small wheels intermixed with the greater.

*It is a serious question, how we can see the body of any orb, through the column of light which is emitted, or reflected from it. When we lose sight of our own at a very small distance, as is instanced in the ascent of balloons, and in the case, when we arc placed many miles distant from the object, does it not at first appear dim, then blue, then of a whitish appearance, &c. In proportion to the degrees of recession, when out at sea, the sailors first descry the distant land, it appears like a whitish cloud just emerging above the horizon. Why do they not see it as plain as when near it Is it not the intervening medium, which intercepts the vision And supposing the eye of the spectator placed at the moon, by what reason, or analogy, could we suppose, that he would there recover the powers of vision, so as to observe the mountains and vallies on the face of our earth which are no more than the small protuberances on the surface of an orange. And supposing him to approach in a direct line from the moon to the earth, would it not appear reasonable to imagine, that the brightness which he would observe at the moon, would diminish as he approximated near, and be reduced, first to white­ness, then to a duller white, then to a grey, then to a blue, until at last he got sight of the earth itself Hence it would appear to be a mistake, to suppose that the powers of vision, aided by the utmost art, are competent to observe any objects  the surface of the moon’s body.

  There is nothing then by itself. Every being has an activity peculiar to it, determined by the rank appointed for it In e universe A mite is a very small moveable creature, which acts in concert with others, whose activity extends to much greater distances. The sphere thus enlarging themselves more and more, this amazing progressive rises by degrees from the vortex of amber to the solar vortex ; from the sphere of a mite to that of an angel.

9. The elements act reciprocally on each other, according to certain laws which result from their relations; and these relations unite them to minerals, plants, animals, and to men. This last, as the principal trunk, spreads its branches all over the globe.

These species and individuals have relation to the bigness an solidity of the earth. The solidily and size of the earth have relative to the place she occupies in the planetary system.

The sun gravitates on the planets; the planets on the sun, and on each other. All gravitate on their neighboring systems ; these or more distant ones; and the balance of the universe remains in equilibrio, in the hands of the Ancient of Days.

The human soul, by being united to an organized body, maintain, an intercourse with all nature.

From these general principles proceed the connexion of causes and effects, of effects and causes.

From hence also arises that indissoluble union which forms, of past, present, future, and eternity, one entire individual whole.

The beauty of the world is founded in the harmonious diversity of the beings that compose it, in the number, extent, and quality of their effects and in the degree of goodness arising therefrom.

Chapter 2 - Of the Relative Perfection of Beings