The young gentleman and lady's astronomy. Familiary explained in ten dialogues between Neander and Eudosia. To which is added, the description and use of the globes and armillary sphere / By James Ferguson.

  • Ferguson, James, 1710-1776.
Date:
1768
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The young gentleman and lady's astronomy. Familiary explained in ten dialogues between Neander and Eudosia. To which is added, the description and use of the globes and armillary sphere / By James Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/268 (page 3)
    t - T ' E. Now, let me fpeak freely.-—I have been told, aftronomers pretend that the Am ftands ftill, and that the earth turns rotmd.—What do you fay to this ?-—I know you honour the Bible, and it afterts the contrary,, Now, I fee fo many things in that Book which appear to me to be above all the powers of human compofition, and carry fuch evident marks of Divinity with them, as are fufficient to convince me that they could proceed . from none but God : and therefore, I had much rather baulk all my inclinations to learning, than learn any thing that would prejudice my mind againft the Bible. N. Dear After, I admire the goodnefs of your heart. —You may depend upon it* that the ftudy of aftronomy will never have the leajft tendency towards prejudicing your mind againft: the Scriptures.-—You know that we cannot take every thing there in the ftridl literal fenfe. If we did, we fhould believe that Our Saviour was actu¬ ally a vine at one time, a door at another, and at a third time a lamb. The Scriptures were given us, to teach us what we fhould believe, and how we fhould behave, in order to attain and fecure to ourfelves the favour of jour Maker here, and our perpetual felicity hereafter ; which are things inftnitely more interefting to us than all other knowledge and wealth in the world.-—They fpeak according to the common apprehenfions of mankind, in thofe points which are merely fpeculative, and have no diredt tendency to influence our morals ; and, as they never were intended to inftrudl us in experimental phi— lofophy, or aftronomy, or in any thing elfe that we could acquire by our own induftry without them, nothing that regards thefe fciences can rather be deduced or inferred from them.—-One might rvith as good reafon take up a law-book and expecB to And a fyftem of geo¬ graphy in it, as take up the Bible with a view to find a fyftem of aftronomy therein. A 2 E. What