The  discovery  of  the  earth's  revolution  at  once  transported  all  the
external  stars  to  distances  infinitely  more  considerable  than  the
greatest  planetary  intervals,  and  has  left  no  place  for  the  idea  of
system  at  all,  beyond  the  limits  of  our  sun's  influence.  We  do  not
know,  more  or  less,  and  men  will  probably  never  know,  whether
the  innumerable  suns  that  we  see  compose  a  general  system,  or  any
number,  large  or  small,  of  partial  systems  entirely  independent  of
each  other.  The  idea  of  the  universe,  therefore,  is  excluded  from
positive  philosophy;  and  that  philosophy  is,  strictly  speaking,
bounded  by  the  limits  of  the  solar  system,  in  regard  to  definite
results ;  and  this  circumscription  is,  as  elsewhere,  to  be  regarded
as  real  progress.  This  restriction  is  further  justified  by  the  knowl-
edge we  have  obtained  of  all  really  universal  phenomena  being
essentially  independent  of  the  interior  phenomena  of  our  system,
since  the  astronomical  tables  of  the  state  of  our  system,  prepared
without  reference  to  any  other  sun  than  our  own,  invariably  coin-
cide with  the  minutest  direct  observations.  The  theory  of  the
earth's  revolution  has  not  as  yet  exerted  its, due  influence  on  our
views,  and  especially  in  regard  to  this  last  consideration.  This  is
doubtless  owing  to  the  imperfections  of  our  education,  which  keep
back  these  high  philosophical  truths  till  even  the  best  minds  have
been  possessed  with  an  opposite  doctrine:  so  that  the  positive
knowledge  which  they  afterward  attain,  commonly  does  little  more
than  modify  and  restrain  the  bad  tendencies  of  their  education,
instead  of  ruling  and  guiding  their  highest  faculties.
Kepler^s  Laws.
