THE Imperial Magazine ; OR, COMPENDIUM OF RELIGIOUS, MORAL, & PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. JUNE.] "SOCIAL REFINEMENT HAS NO EXISTENCE WHERE LITERATURE IS UNKNOWN." [1822. THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL WORLD. No. 6.-Extension of the Analogy to the which implies a corresponding accom visible Universe. verse; but under every sun there may be a particular genus of organization, modation of the chemical and animal states. The generic character of each may thus appear in the central step of the scale, agreeably to the great analogy typified in this world; for, as I have said, the whole is a scheme of intervolution, where every part is typical of the whole." In this way I conclude, that our solar system, or genus of organization, containing seven principal rational species, is but one of millions of other genera which exist in the universe, each of them under a Sun, or what we call a fixed star. Nay, it is highly probable, that all the fixed stars them OUR author having assumed the incorruptibility of the other worlds, as was observed in the last number, proceeds to reason the subject out in the following manner. Art. 116. "But as, in our own world, we see the phenomena of the central, or vegetable, kingdom of nature dependent on the sun, analogy leads us to conclude, that in each of the sister worlds, a state of organization not altogether unlike our own may be maintained, by the instrumentality of the same glorious luminary. The central state being thus determined, will require a corresponding che-selves which we see, together with our mical and animal nature; and thus we may regard the solar system as a genus of organization, branching into seven principal species, whereof ours is the third in order, counted from the sun. "I speak not of the satellites and comets, nor of the newly discovered diminutive planets; whose phenomena differ so widely from those of the seven worlds, that they seem to form a kind of system by themselves. "Pursuing those general views, I regard the solar system as a genus, comprehending seven principal species, whereof the human is one. The human species exhibits the microcosm of this world; and six other rational species may exhibit the microcosm of the other worlds respectively, which belong to the solar genus of organization. Thus may be completed the economy of the first heaven, or solar system, to which our world and species belong. "Thus the same analogy which leads us to reason out the phenomena of the first heavens,' leads us also to those of the second or visible uni verse. “An immense system of nature, comprehending the three central steps of the scale, may thus extend through the whole visible or conceivable uniNo. 41-VOL. IV. own sun, belong to one great cluster or congregation, and that the nebula, which are dimly seen in the nocturnal sky, are other clusters or congregations; but at such vast distances, that none of the particular suns composing them can be discerned-nothing but a dim light resulting from each congregation, as it were en masse. Thus, it is probable there are species, genera, orders, classes; or worlds, systems, congregations; all in rapid motion; orbs within orbs, wheels within wheels, in perfect systematic order. "Human imagination cannot conceive the immensity of the grandeur, the interminable variety, where the stupendous power of the Eternal has operated. We are expressly told, that the works which He hath made, far exceed the flight of human genius, in its most transcendent efforts. Let us imagine what we will, to the utmost rack and stretch of the mind immortal, still we are within, greatly within, the vast circle of the universe of God! ay, within even the second circle. For after all our imaginations are exhausted by the realities that may occur in the boundless variety which is there, the third heaven, or unimaginable 21 Such is the opinion of Herschel. state of eternity, succeeds and extends beyond all." Thus are all the works and ways of God comprehended in three great circles, like all the rays of the sun in a threefold radiance. There is first the circle of the planets in our system, (and every other system will have its circle in like manner,) extending from the sun as the centre, to the most distant planet that moves round him. There is next the circle of the visible universe, the babitation of the fixed stars, which arc innumerable, diffused throughout the whole canopy of the heavens, not only in the line of one circumference, or in the circumference of a zone of immense width, but in the line of circumferences in all directions in the concave arch of heaven,not only in the heaven which is above, but in that also which is below, and all round us. Nor are they to be conceived as stationed on a plane surface at the extremity of the vast expanse ; but the circle, immense as its radius is, must have a centre, from which to its circumference in all directions and at all proper distances, are placed worlds, systems, congregations. But beyond all this, there is in the third place, the heaven of eternity, the house of God, and the proper residence of the angelic host, the sons of God, who existed not from, but in eternity with respect to us, that is to say, ere any part of this universe was created; and who, when the millions of "morning stars sang together," these truly heaven-born sons of God shouted for joy.* This pathless heaven of eternity has no bounds of circumference like the other two. Its extremity, which we conceive, is in fact no extremity: it never comes to a termination: it is absolutely boundless, both as to time and space. Yet, in relation to the visible universe, there are two opposite points in the circle of eternity, place them in what direction you choose, perpendicular or horizontal, or in whatever angle you will,--if the line uniting them only pass through the centre, it will divide eternity, in relation to this universe, into two parts, namely, eternity ab ante, and eternity to come. And in the interval between these two points, will be comprised all the events which belong to *Job xxxviii. 7. this world, and to all other worlds, whether they regard systems or individuals, classes, orders, genera, or species. All, all must be included, from the immense whole to the minutest part. And as it is evident, that no part of this whole could give existence to itself, so in like manner, the great whole could not exist by itself. This, therefore, brings us necessarily to place at the point ab ante, in the circle of eternity, efficient causation, which gave birth to all being in the universe. And as there is evidently the strongest marks of wisdom and design manifest throughout the whole-some great and important end to be answered by such a wonderful evolution as the universe unfolds,-this, on the other hand, leads us to place at the point eternity to come, in the circle of eternity, final causation, which relates to the grand end or design for which all being in the universe was made.-And we are to conceive God as the ALL IN ALL throughout the whole, The ALPHA and ŎMEGA, The BEGINNING and the END.— And as the circumference of the earth's orbit is considered only as a point in comparison of the distance of the fixed stars, even so the circumference of the whole created universe, is to be considered but as a point in comparison of Him, who filleth all in all; and whose being, and works, and ways, are unsearchable, and past finding out. The reader having pursued these reflections, may now be prepared to take a cursory view of the three circles, exhibited in the frontispiece of our author's theory; where he has the whole symbolically represented, through the medium of his bodily organs, to those of his mind. To comprehend this sensible representation, we must imagine three circles, as in col. 303; in the innermost of which, the author places "the solar system, or first heaven :" this he calls the sphere of animal sense." Beyond this is the second circle, within the confines of which stand “the visible universe, or the heaven of heavens, the sphere of intelligence or abstraction, transcending animal sense." The third and last he calls, "the invisible state of eternity, or the third heaven, transcending animal sense and unaided reason.' Through the centres of these circles he draws & |