is the part of heaven in which the planets move. It carries them round
with it; it governs the tides; it stood with men for the type of
irresistible regularity. Each of the planets naturally has a motion of
its own, contrary in direction to that of the firmament, which was
from east to west. All the fixed stars move in circles whose centre is
the centre of the universe, but the courses of the planets (among
which the moon is reckoned) depend on other circles, called eccentric,
since their centre is elsewhere. Either the centre or the
circumference of the circle in which the planet really moves is
applied to the circumference of the eccentric circle, and in this way
all the movements of the planets are fully explained. Our author is
sorely puzzled to account for the existence of the watery heavens
above the fiery, they being cold and moist, but is sure from
scriptural reasons that they are there, and ventures the hypothesis
that their presence may account for the sluggish and evil properties
of Saturn, the planet whose circle is nearest them.

Having considered the simpler substances, those composed of pure
elemental forms, and those resembling them--the meteors--we turn to
the perfect compounds, those which have assumed substantial forms, as
metals, stones, etc. Our author retains the Aristotelian
classification--earthy, and those of other origin, as beasts, roots,
and trees. Earths may be metals or fossils; metals being defined as
hard bodies, generated in the earth or in its veins, which can be
beaten out by a hammer, and softened or liquefied by heat; while
fossils include all other inanimate objects.

A large number of extracts have been made from this part of the
subject, because the book gives the position of positive, as