Two systems of astronomy: first, the Newtonian system, showing the rise
and progress thereof, with a short historical account; the general
theory with a variety of remarks thereon: second, the system in
accordance with the Holy Scriptures, showing the rise and progress from
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, the prophets, Moses, and others, in the
first Testament; our Lord Jesus Christ, and his apostles, in the new or
second Testament; Reeve and Muggleton, in the third and last Testament;
with a variety of remarks thereon. By Isaac Frost.[809] London, 1846,
4to.
{395}
A very handsomely printed volume, with beautiful plates. Many readers who
have heard of Muggletonians have never had any distinct idea of Lodowick
Muggleton,[810] the inspired tailor, (1608-1698) who about 1650 received
his commission from heaven, wrote a Testament, founded a sect, and
descended to posterity. Of Reeve[811] less is usually said; according to
Mr. Frost, he and Muggleton are the two "witnesses." I shall content myself
with one specimen of Mr. Frost's science:
"I was once invited to hear read over 'Guthrie[812] on Astronomy,' and when
the reading was concluded I was asked my opinion thereon; when I said,
'Doctor, it appears to me that Sir I. Newton has only given two proofs in
support of his theory of the earth revolving round the sun: all the rest is
assertion without any proofs.'--'What are they?' inquired the
Doctor.--'Well,' I said, 'they are, first, the power of {396} attraction to
keep the earth to the sun; the second is the power of repulsion, by virtue
of the centrifugal motion of the earth: all the rest appears to me
assertion without proof.' The Doctor considered a short time and then said,
'It certainly did appear so.' I said, 'Sir Isaac has certainly obtained the
credit of completing the system, but really he has only half done his
work.'--'How is that,' inquired my friend the Doctor. My reply was this:
'You will observe his system shows the earth traverses round the sun on an
inclined plane; the consequence is, there are four powers required to make
his system complete:
1st. The power of _attraction_.
2ndly. The power of _repulsion_.
3rdly. The power of _ascending_ the inclined plane.
4thly. The power of _descending_ the inclined plane.
You will thus easily see the _four_ powers required, and Newton has only
accounted for _two_; the work is therefore only half done.' Upon due
reflection the Doctor said, 'It certainly was necessary to have these
_four_ points cleared up before the system could be said to be complete.'"
I have no doubt that Mr. Frost, and many others on my list, have really
encountered doctors who could be puzzled by such stuff as this, or nearly
as bad, among the votaries of existing systems, and have been encouraged
thereby to print their objections. But justice requires me to say that from
the words "power of repulsion by virtue of the centrifugal motion of the
earth," Mr. Frost may be suspected of having something more like a notion
of the much-mistaken term "centrifugal force" than many paradoxers of
greater fame. The Muggletonian sect is not altogether friendless: over and
above this handsome volume, the works of Reeve and Muggleton were printed,
in 1832, in three quarto volumes. See _Notes and Queries, 1st Series_, v,
80; 3d Series, iii, 303. {397}
[The system laid down by Mr. Frost, though intended to be substantially
that of Lodowick Muggleton, is not so vagarious. It is worthy of note how
very different have been the fates of two contemporary paradoxers,
Muggleton and George Fox.[813] They were friends and associates,[814] and
commenced their careers about the same time, 1647-1650. The followers of
Fox have made their sect an institution, and deserve to be called the
pioneers of philanthropy. But though there must still be Muggletonians,
since expensive books are published by men who take the name, no sect of
that name is known to the world. Nevertheless, Fox and Muggleton are men of
one type, developed by the same circumstances: it is for those who
investigate such men to point out why their teachings have had fates so
different. Macaulay says it was because Fox found followers of more sense
than himself. True enough: but why did Fox find such followers and not
Muggleton? The two were equally crazy, to all appearance: and the
difference required must be sought in the doctrines themselves.
Fox was not a _rational_ man: but the success of his sect and doctrines
entitles him to a letter of alteration of the phrase which I am surprised
has not become current. When Conduitt,[815] the husband of Newton's
half-niece, wrote a circular to Newton's friends, just after his death,
inviting them to bear their parts in a proper biography, he said, "As Sir
I. Newton was a _national_ man, I think every one ought to contribute to a
work intended to do him justice." Here is the very phrase which is often
wanted to signify that {398} celebrity which puts its mark, good or bad, on
the national history, in a manner which cannot be asserted of many
notorious or famous historical characters. Thus George Fox and Newton are
both _national_ men. Dr. Roget's[816] _Thesaurus_ gives more than fifty
synonyms--_colleagues_ would be the better word--of "_celebrated_," any one
of which might be applied, either in prose or poetry, to Newton or to his
works, no one of which comes near to the meaning which Conduitt's adjective
immediately suggests.
The truth is, that we are too _monarchical_ to be _national_. We have the
Queen's army, the Queen's navy, the Queen's highway, the Queen's English,
etc.; nothing is national except the _debt_. That this remark is not new is
an addition to its force; it has hardly been repeated since it was first
made. It is some excuse that _nation_ is not vernacular English: the
_country_ is our word, and _country man_ is appropriated.]
Astronomical Aphorisms, or Theory of Nature; founded on the immutable
basis of Meteoric Action. By P. Murphy,[817] Esq. London, 1847, 12mo.
This is by the framer of the Weather Almanac, who appeals to that work as
corroborative of his theory of planetary temperature, years after all the
world knew by experience that this meteorological theory was just as good
as the others.
{399}
The conspiracy of the Bullionists as it affects the present system of
the money laws. By Caleb Quotem. Birmingham, 1847, 8vo. (pp. 16).
This pamphlet is one of a class of which I know very little, in which the
effects of the laws relating to this or that political bone of contention
are imputed to deliberate conspiracy of one class to rob another of what
the one knew ought to belong to the other. The success of such writers in
believing what they have a bias to believe, would, if they knew themselves,
make them think it equally likely that the inculpated classes might really
believe what it is _their_ interest to believe. The idea of a _guilty_
understanding existing among fundholders, or landholders, or any holders,
all the country over, and never detected except by bouncing pamphleteers,
is a theory which should have been left for Cobbett[818] to propose, and
for Apella to believe.[819]
[_August_, 1866. A pamphlet shows how to pay the National Debt. Advance
paper to railways, etc., receivable in payment of taxes. The railways pay
interest and principal in money, with which you pay your national debt, and
redeem your notes. Twenty-five years of interest redeems the notes, and
then the principal pays the debt. Notes to be kept up to value by
penalties.]