The Newtonian System of Philosophy: Explained by Familiar Objects, in an Entertaining Manner, for the Use of Young Persons |
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air-pump amazing animals appear ARMILLARY SPHERE atmosphere attraction and gravitation birds called candle clouds colour contained conveyed cricket-ball distance dium earth earth and water eclipse effluvia elastic electrical eruptions explain fall fire fixed stars flected fluid force Georgian glass globe Harry Thomson heat idea inhabitants inspec ivory ball Jupiter lecture lighter looking-glass Madam manner matter means Mentor metals miles mind mist moon motion mountains move round nature nourishment of plants objects observed occasioned orrery particles of water perceive piece placed polypus produce quantity quicksilver rain rainbow rarefaction rarefied rays of light reason receive reflect refraction replied the philosopher retina rivers rubbing salt Saturn says Lady Caroline says the philosopher scents seen senses Sicily solar system sopher sound springs stones sun's suppose surface Telescope things thou thunder tion trees tube turns round vegetables whence wind wonderful young
Popular passages
Page 20 - Graeco-Egyptian mathematician and geographer who believed that the earth was the centre of the universe and that the sun and planets revolved around it.
Page 75 - Vespasian, there was such a dreadful eruption of impetuous flames, that great quantities of ashes and sulphureous smoke were not only carried to Rome by the wind, but also beyond the Mediterranean, into Africa, and even into Egypt. Moreover, birds were suffocated in the air, and fell down dead upon the ground, and fishes perished in the neighbouring waters, which were made hot and infected by it. There happened another eruption in Martial's time, which he elegantly describes in one of his Epigrams,...
Page 6 - Gravity, my dear friends, is that universal disposition of matter which inclines or carries the lesser part towards the centre of the greater part; which is called weight or gravitation in the lesser body, but attraction in the greater, because it draws, as it were, the lesser body to it. Thus all bodies on or near the earth's surface have a tendency, or seeming inclination, to descend towards its middle part or centre; and but for this principle in nature, the earth (considering its form and situation...
Page 80 - ... part opposite to it on the contrary side, being least attracted, is also higher than the rest. And these two opposite rises of the surface of the water in the great ocean, following the motion of the moon from east to west, and striking against the large coasts of the continents that lie in...
Page 76 - ... happened within a few years) then were the neighbouring fields burnt up, and the highways made dangerous to travellers. "A mountain in Java, not far from the. town of Panacura, in the year 1586, was shattered to pieces by a violent eruption of glowing sulphur (though it had never burnt before) ; whereby (as it was reported) ten thousand people perished in the under-land fields.
Page 121 - ... that two and two are equal to four, &c. it is called immediate perception, or intuitive knowledge; and as the truth of these and the like propositions is so evident as to be known by a simple intuition of the ideas themselves, they are also called self-evident propositions. Mediate perception, is when the agreement or disagreement of two ideas is made known by the intervention of some other ideas: Thus if it be affirmed that my Lord's bay horse is as high as my father's, the agreement or disagreement...
Page 62 - But besides the great similarity existing between lightning and electricity, what fully proves them to be the same is, that the matter of lightning may be actually brought down from the clouds by means of...
Page 63 - ... above the clouds, where they ferment, and, taking fire, the explosion of one portion kindles the next, and the flashes succeed one another till all the vapour is set on fire.