"All this, it has been said, is not only possisible, but analogous to what actually happens. Does not Jupiter disturb the motion of Saturn? Does not the Moon cause the Earth to vacillate on her axis? And, does she not elevate and depress, alternately, the waves of the ocean?" (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"All those discoveries, which have been, and in process of time may be made, exalt the glory of the immortal Newton, who derived this admirable law from the depths of his own genius." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"But, as the universe is an extremely complex machine; the arrangement of the various parts of which it is composed, its preservation, and the play and energy of its springs, depend on an infinite number of general as well as particular laws. The most general admit of no exception. The exceptions attach on the detail; their number increases in proportion as the laws are specrfſed and particularized, and thus become more and more limited and restricted by other laws. Hence the exceptions themselves iorm new laws and means employed for a higher end. Apparent disorder in the parts is thus absorbed in the order of the whole, and the small defects gradually vanish in the eye of the philosopher as he proceeds to view nature on a more extended scale." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"If we admit the existence of a Supreme Disposer. who brought order out of Chaos, and gave form to the universe, it will follow that the universe is a perfect work, the impression, the character, the reflected image of the perfections of its author." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"If we are convinced that every thing is formed by design, that every thing is in its proper link of the chain, that the world is the expression of the perfections of God, we will be inclined also to believe that all the heavenly bodies are inhabited, and, that universal space is replenished with as many globes as it can contain. We cannot bring ourselves to leave blanks and chasms in so perfect a work. In every situation that affords a point of view we will place an observatory and an observer." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"If we could demonstrate that every body which revolves on its axis must likewise move in an orbit, we could no longer refuse this Jast motion to our Sun, since we know he has the first. Probably the mechanism of the world requires the combination of these two motions, though we do not distinctly see the eause of it." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"In astronomy the scenery is continually shifting, and the modes of language vary in proportion as this inexhaustible science makes progress in improvement, and supplies us with new theories. Ptolemy spake the language ot the people: to Copernicus we are indebted for the language of astronomy; which Tycho Brahe in some measure confounded: Kepler and Newton rectified his faults, and gave to astronomical language a superior degree of elegance and perfection. The discoveries of the present and future times will introduce in this respect farther changes. All these different modes of language will, nevertheless, continue to be always intelligible; and may always be preserved in a certain degree, and within certain limitations." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"In order to supply the defects of experience, we will have recourse to the probable conjectures of analogy, conclusions which we will bequeath to our posterity to be ascertained by new observations, which, if we augur rightly, will serve to establish our theory and to carry it gradually nearer to absolute certainty." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"Is it not truly wonderful, that, in the constitution of the universe, time and space should every where be so happily combined, that notwithstanding the infinity of wheels and springs which mutually depend on each other, and which are all necessary to the play of the machine, the visible order of nature should, nevertheless, every where preserve the same air of simplicity aud uniformity." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"Nothong is more simple than the plan of the Solar System: we have only to conceive the Sun in one of the focuses of the eliptic orbits, Which the planets and comets describe around him. We will bestow our chief attention on comets, as on them will depend all the merit of novelty to be found in the following theory." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"The curves which the law of attraction may oblige the heavenly bodies to describe, are not confined to the elipse and circle; the sections of the cone are equally within its province, because they all have a focus wherein attraction may reside." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"The law of attraction, which extends its dominion over every atom of matter, suffers nothing within the universe to be in a state of absolute rest: Motion obtains every where; all bodies of whatever description gravitate one towards another; all the wheels in this vast machine are going round; nature tolerates no dead and useless masses. The universe is a whole whose different members or systems can only be combined by reciprocal action and re- action, from which motion results as a- necessary consequence." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"The law of gravitation extends universally over all matter. The fixed stars obeying central forces move in orbits. The milky way comprehends several systems of fixed stars; those that appear out of the tract of the milky way form but one system which is our own. The sun being of the number of fixed stars, revolves round a centre like the rest. Each system has its centre, and several systems taken together have a common centre, Assemblages of their assemblages have likewise theirs. In fine, there is à universal centre for the whole world round which all things revolve." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"The system of Copernicus is, in fact, only a theory; but we have seen that astronomy can come at the truth only by carefully bringing under a review every possible hypothesis.This science, however, has made astonishing progress; by converting, at different periods apparent arrangements into such as are more conformable to what actually exista, we have left behind various theories founded in appearances, and penetrated, if not fully and demonstrably, at least in the way ot fair conjecture, even to the real and genuine order of things." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"Universal order and harmony consist in resemblances infinitely diversified, or in endless varieties referred back to a point of re-union." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"Upon the whole, we may draw this conclusion, that the heavens are made to endure, and the things of the earth to pass away. Nature changes in small, and is maintained and preserved in great. The vast clock of the firmament can only develape its springs in the course of numberless epoques which succeed each other, and each in the epoque to which it is assigned." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"We suppose the existence of a wise and beneficent Being who presided over the formation of the World, and who is pleased to display his infinite perfections on this illustrious theatre." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"We will found our hypothesis in the general laws of motion, whose effects are every where the same, and whose influence extends to the utmost limits of matter." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"We would then see each of those bodies in the place and at the distance most convenient for it, each pursuing a route from which it must not depart, and which, as it should seem, had been traced out for it by rule and compass. Order and symmetry would result from apparent confusion; and such would be the case with respect to every thing that appears disorderly to us, provided we had data enough to refer those appearances to the whole of which they make a part." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"We would wish to discover the Plan of the Universe, and the means employed by the Eternal Architect in the execution of his magnificent design. We will first contemplate the System of which we make a part, and of which our Sun is the center. Thence we will ascend towards those Suns and those innumerable Worlds which are scattered through the immensity of space." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
Note:
"The System of the World" (1800) is an abridged version of "Cosmologische Briefe über die Einrichtung des Weltbaues" [*Cosmological Letters on the Arrangement of the World-Structure]" (1761)
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