How would the world admire! but speaks it less
An agency divine, to make him know

His moment when to sink, and when to rise,

Age after age, than to arrest his course?
All we behold is miracle; but seen
So duly, all is miracle in vain.

Where now the vital energy that mov'd,
While summer was, the pure and subtle lymph
Through th' imperceptible meandering veins
Of leaf and flower? It sleeps, and th' icy touch
Of unprolific winter has impress'd

A cold stagnation on th' intestine tide;

But let the months go round, a few short months,
And all shall be restor'd. These naked shoots,
Barren as lances, among which the wind
Makes wintry music, sighing as it goes,
Shall put their graceful foliage on again;

And more aspiring, and with ampler spread,

Shall boast new charms and more than they have lost,

From dearth to plenty, and from death to life,

Is nature's progress when she lectures man

In heavenly truth; evincing, as she makes

The grand transition, that there lives and works
A soul in all things, and that soul is God.
The beauties of the wilderness are his,
That makes so gay the solitary place,

Where no eye sees them. And the fairer forms,
That cultivation glories in, are his.

He sets the bright procession on its way,
And marshals all the order of the year.

*

He feeds the secret fire

By which the mighty process is maintain'd;

Who sleeps not, is not weary; in whose sight
Slow circling ages are as transient days;
Whose work is without labour; whose designs
No flaw deforms, no difficulty thwarts;
And whose beneficence no change exhausts.

OF THE LUNARIUM.

Plate 12, fig. 2.

Having thus illustrated the phenomena, which arise particularly from the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of the ecliptic, from its rotation round its axis, and revolution round the sun; I now proceed to explain, by this instrument, the phenomena of the moon. But in order to this, it will be necessary to speak first of the instrument, which is put in motion, like the preceding one, by the teeth of the fixed wheel; it is also to be placed upon the same socket as the tellurian, and confined down by the same milled nut.

The sloping ring DQ represents the plane of the moon's orbit, or path, round the earth; so that the moon, in her revolution round the earth, does not move parallel to the plane of the ecliptic, but on this inclined plane; the two points of this plane, that are connected by the brass wire, are the nodes, one of which is marked , for the ascending node, the other , for the descending node. The moon is, therefore, sometimes on the north, and sometimes on the south side of the ecliptic, which deviations from the ecliptic are called her north or south latitude; her greatest deviation, which is when she

is at her highest and lowest points, called her limits, is 5 deg. 18 min. ; this, with all the other intermediate degrees of latitude, are engraved on this ring, beginning at the nodes, and numbered both ways from them. At each side of the nodes, and at about 18 deg. distant from them, we find this mark 0, and at about 12 deg. this ), to indicate that when the full moon has got as far from the nodes as the mark), there can be no eclipse of the moon, nor any eclipse of the sun; when the new moon has passed the mark O, these points are generally termed the limits of eclipses. The nodes of the moon do not remain fixed at the same point of the ecliptic, but have a motion contrary to the order of the signs.

TX is a small circle parallel to the ecliptic; it is divided into 12 signs, and each sign into 30 deg. ; this circle is moveable in its socket, and is to be set by hand, so that the same sign may be opposite to the sun, that is marked out by the annual index. These signs always keep parallel to themselves, as they go round the sun; but the inclined plane with its nodes go backwards, so that each node recedes through all the above signs in about 19 years. RS is a circle, on which are divided the days of the moon's age; XY is an ellipsis, to represent the moon's elliptical orbit, the direct motion of the apogee, or the line of the apsides, with the situation of the elliptical orbit of the moon, and place of the apogee in the ecliptic at all times.

To rectify the Lunarium.

Set the annual index on the large ecliptic, to the first of Capricorn; then turn the plate, with the moon's signs upon it, until the beginning of Capricorn points directly at the sun; turn the handle till the annual index comes to the first of January ; then find the place of the north node in an ephemeris, to which place among the moon's signs, set the north node of her inclined orbit, by turning it till it is in its proper place in the circle of signs; set the moon to the day of her age,

GENERAL PHENOMENA OF THE MOON.

Having rectified the lunarium for use, on putting it into motion it will be evident,

1. That the moon, by the mechanism of the instrument, always moves in an orbit inclined to that of the ecliptic, and consequently in an orbit analogous to that in which the moon moves in the heavens.

2. That she moves from west to east.

3. That the white or illuminated face of the moon is always turned towards the sun.

4. That the nodes have a revolution contrary to the order of the signs, that is, from Aries to Pisces; that this revolution is performed in about 19 years,

as in nature.

5. That the moon's rotation upon her axis is effected and completed in about 27 days, whereas it is 29 days from one conjunction with the sun to the next.

6. That every part of the moon is turned to the sun, in the space of her monthly or periodic revolution.

To be more particular. On turning the handle, you will observe another motion of the earth, which has not yet been spoken of, namely, its monthly motion about the common centre of gravity between the earth and moon, which centre of gravity is represented by the pin Z. From hence we learn, that it is not the centre of the earth which describes what is called the annual orbit, but the centre of gravity between the earth and the moon, and that the earth has an irregular, vermicular, or spiral motion about this centre, so that it is every month at one time nearer to, at another further from, the sun. It is evident from the instrument, that the moon does not regard the centre of the earth, but the centre of gravity, as the centre of her proper motion; that the centre of the earth is furthest from the sun at new-moon, and nearest at the full-moon; that in the quadratures the monthly parallax of the earth is so sensible, as to require a particular equation in astronomical tables, These particulars were first applied to the orrery, by the late learned and ingenious Mr. Benjamin Martin.