were, new empires, which, constituting continual triumphs of civilization over barbarism, and knowledge over ignorance, open a magnificent panorama to the mind; and exhibiting to men, who now live, undoubted evidence, that the very best of their attainments, whether in art, in philosophy, or in the science of legislation, are but the rudiments of future knowledge.

II.

Nature secondary to that Being, " of whom, through whom, and to whom, are all things,”—not only changes shapes and properties herself, but she has delegated to man a power of operating in a similar, though in a limited, degree. By observing the properties of vegetables, the qualities and affinities of minerals; and, having gained a knowledge of the effects of fire, water, and fermentation, he produces, at will, the most curious transformations in bodies; determines the limits of quantities; and decides the nature of qualities; by all the different methods of solution, deliquation, and depuration; by precipitating, distilling, and evaporating; by the arts of chrystallization, sublimation, and exsiccation; and by pressure, pulverizing, fusion, and calcination. While, by the uniting of bodies, he is capable of combining the most volatile of all fluids; and by the application of acids and salts, of dissolving the most obstinate of all minerals.

The Stoics, (who were ignorant of the power, which electricity possesses, of giving ife, it were,

to the four elements of matter), resolved air, earth, fire, and water into each other1 and as magnetism is said to have the faculty of suspending gravitation, so they imagined (as Nature delights in circles and ellipses), that there existed a quality, which had the power of suspending the progress of events; and which, after a certain era, caused them to revert into their respective original channels: as water resolves into vapour by heat; and vapour resolves into water by cold. So that every accident and event was supposed to be bound perpetually to recur; the same number and description of plants, insects, birds, and animals, again to animate and adorn the earth; and the same beings, feeling their prior passions, again to exercise the same virtues and vices, and to be liable to the same calamities and disorders, to which they were subject, in their state of antecedence.

It is certain, that no new plant, fish, animal, or mineral, has been introduced into the world's economy since

Hence Milton speaks of elements, "that in quatermian run."-Book v. v. 180.

• Speaking of the changes of civilization and barbarism, Tacitus remarks, that the world is subject to changes and vicissitudes, the periods of which are unknown to us; but their revolution is by alternate succession of rudeness and politeness, civilization and barbarism, ignorance and knowledge, as the sun is attended by alternate succession of seasons. It is curious, that the Abbé du Bos* should quote the passage, of which this is an abstraet, in detail, as conclusive of his argument in respect to climate: whereas, if it apply to climate at all, it militates against the influence, which the Abbé supposes it to have on the mental vigour of ages.

• Reflect. on Poetry, Painting, and Music, vol. ii., ch. xx.

the first creation of its present form, though it has subsisted for such a multitude of ages. This is sufficient to prove, that the world is perfect in its kind :—and, as the whole system of Nature is founded upon the principle of motion, and upon a system too extended even for the doctrine of fluxions, it is not absolutely absurd to suppose (though from such a state of immortality, may righteous Heaven defend us!), that there may be a circle' for the movement of events and passions, as well as for bodies: and as they are drawn to one end of the circle's diameter by an attractive force, they may be thrown back by a repulsive one:-in the same manner, as globes ascend and descend by a centripetal and centrifugal necessity.

4

This opinion was maintained by the Brahmins, the Egyptians, and the modern Siamese. Plato and Virgil3 admitted it, with some modifications. It is implied in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, and is fully described in the Dabistan.5 The period of revolution is supposed to close, and another to begin, when all the planets are in conjunction; alternately in the signs Cancer and Capricorn:6-at which time another impulse will be given, and a new circuit will com

mence.

1 Vide Herodotus, clio. ccvii.

2 Philos. Trans. confirmed by Geeta, p. 94.

3 Virg. En. vi. 74. Ecl. iv. 5.

5 Asiat. Miscel. p. 99.

4 Lib. iii.

6 The Druids believed in these periodical changes, which were sometimes to arise from the power of fire; and at others from that of

*Strabo, lib. iv. p. 197.

The Jews believe, that when the world has attained the age of six thousand years, there will be an eternal sabbath.' Newton appears to have coincided with the idea of a complete period, and the beginning of a new era, so far as to suppose, that the fabric

2

water. Cicero entertained a similar belief; as well as Seneca.+ Be rosus taught, that when all the planets meet in Cancer, the world is changed by a conflagration; and when in Capricorn by a deluge.

Nicias believed, that the sun during the space of eleven thousand years had changed his place of setting from east to west, and from west to east. Some have taught, that in twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty years, the north pole will be viewed as the south pole; and that in twenty-five thousand nine hundred and twenty years, it will again revert to the north.

Ptolemy, Tycho, Riccioli, and Cassini, believed our system to have a fixed period of career, varying from twenty-four thousand eight hundred years to thirty-six thousand years: Copernicus to two hundred and fifty eight thousand.

It has been calculated, that from the time in which Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are next in conjunction, they will be in conjunction again after a period of two hundred and eighty thousand years;-after making the following revolutions.

1 This prophecy is received from Elias, the Cabbalist. Two of these before the law: two under the law and two immediately under the guidance and protection of the Messiah.

2 The Scandinavians believed in the destruction of the world,

* In Somn. Scipionis. + Epist. ix.

Senec. Nat. Quæst. iii. 29.

of the universe cannot subsist for ever without being renewed by the hand of the Creator. This idea was started by Hipparchus, immediately upon discovering the recession of the equinoxes. Timæus, on the other hand, insisted, that the universe was perfect in beauty; and that it would never stand in need either of correction or renewal,

III.

It is remarkable, that though we see change to be the law of the globe, yet in the heavens all appear to the naked eye to retain unvarying aspects. The sun rises and sets; the moon exhibits her periodical changes; planets perform their stated courses; and their satellites undergo their respective series of eclipses. On earth every object has its period of decay but the planets and the fixed stars seem

which they called the "twilight of the Gods ;" and in the renovation of it. Then sprang into existence another universe, of a far more perfect formation; another earth, springing from the cause of causes; emerging from the bosom of the ocean, rolling in the blue expanse, and producing, with a voluntary impulse, every description of flower and fruit.

This renovation was believed by the ancient Brachmans, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and the Persians. Orpheus imported the hypothesis into Greece; and Pythagoras transplanted it into Italy. Chrysippus calls it apocastasis ;* Marcus Antoninus palingenesia ; and Numerius‡ resurrection and restitution. The natives of Pegu also believe in an eternal succession of worlds.