RUDIMENTS

OF THE

PRIMARY FORCES

OF

GRAVITY, MAGNETISM,

AND

ELECTRICITY,

IN

THEIR AGENCY ON THE HEAVENLY

BODIES.

BY P. MURPHY, Esq.

"He who shall duly attend to the appetences and general affeétions of
matter, will receive, from what he sees passing on the earth, clear inform-
ation concerning the nature of the celestial bodies; and, contrariwise,
from motions which he shall discover in the heavens, will learn many par-
ticulars relating to the things below, which now lie concealed from us."
LORD BACON.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR WHITTAKER, TREACHER, & CO.

AVE MARIA LANE.

--

1830.

G. DAVIDSON, PRINTER,

SERLE'S PLACE, CAREY STREET

PREFACE.

"EVERY SUBJECT," says a distinguished writer, "acquires an adventitious importance to him who considers it with application. He finds it more closely connected with human happiness than the rest of mankind are apt to allow; he sees consequences resulting from it which do not strike others with equal conviction; and still pursuing speculation beyond the bounds of reason, too frequently becomes ridiculously earnest in trifles or absurdity." No person acquainted with human nature will deny the justness of the preceding observation, which I thought right to select and place so prominently in the foreground of what I have to offer in the way of preface to the present work. This I do, lest the application I have so long bestowed on the subjects therein treated of, may have had the effect of raising and investing them with a false degree of importance in my estimation; to show that if I have participated in such

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