a certain proportion of time to the purpose of divine worship, of the importance of religion in seasoning our minds with piety and virtue; and in fortifying them against temptation.

CHAPTER III.

ON THE CREATION.

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THE foregoing Chapter has principally related to matter in its chaotic state; we now come to those modifications of it, to which systematic arrangements have been given. We find in the Mosaic account, that on the third day, both heaven and earth had been created; and on the fourth day, "God made two great lights; the B. C. greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also." To enter into scientific disquisitions on these subjects, would be to exceed the limits of this work; we must therefore confine ourselves to general observations; and briefly notice that astronomy seems to have engaged the attention of mankind in the simplest ages, and from the most remote antiquity.

The antediluvians are said to have had considerable skill therein. The Chinese appear to have made astronomical observations soon after the flood; their skill has been attributed to in

structions received from Noah, supposed to be the Fohi of the Chinese. And Confucius, who lived 551 years before the Christian era, has recorded many eclipses.

The Chaldeans and Egyptians were noted in antiquity for their skill in astronomy. The countries they inhabited, from the general clearness and purity of the air, were exceedingly favourable to astronomical observations.

In those warm climates, where the sky is generally serene, and where it is the practice of the inhabitants, to this day, to sleep on the tops of their houses, and for the shepherds to watch their flocks by night, they would naturally be led to a contemplation of the firmament; and would soon remark that the multitude of stars observed the same course as the sun.

As that orb performed his course from east to west, and afforded to the world the advantages of day, the stars also and the moon glided along in coinciding circuits, during the cool refreshing season of night; and one star only, seemed to keep its place, and to be a centre of revolution to the other luminaries: this orb they called the polar star.

By the motion of the spheres, their ideas of time would be regulated; and all its divisions depend on their regular revolutions and stated

returns. In these, simple ages of antiquity, and before the powers of vision were increased by the invention of the telescope, it was usual to express an innumerable multitude, an unbounded number, by the stars of heaven, or by the sand upon the sea shore e.

8 But Hipparchus, the Herodian, who lived 120 years before the Christian era, reckoned the stars to be 1022. This shining host, however numerous it may appear from the scattered and irregular disposition of the stars, when it is reduced into forms, can be more easily numbered than might be imagined; all the stars to be seen with the naked eye, in our hemisphere, do not much exceed 1000.

It is manifest from the deductions which all nations have made from God's Works, particu larly from those of the heavens, that there is a God; and that such as have pretended to atheism, and have deduced these wonderful works from chance, are singular and monstrous in their opinions 8.

Plutarch, the Roman historian, who lived in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, saith; Men began to acknowledge a God, when they saw the stars maintain so great a harmony, and the days and nights, both in summer and winter, to observe their stated risings and settings."