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THROUGH FINLAND. 79
Le)
revolutions; 3dly, that its two hemifpheres.on each fide of the
equator are not alike. Aftronomers, neverthclefs, having ob-
ferved in the orbits of the heavenly bodies a fort of predilection
for lines of the fecond order, and geometers having eftablifhed
on the moft inconteftible evidence, that any fluid body whofe
furface is of the fecond order, may remain in equilibrio, when
the particles of which it is compofed attra& in the reciprocal
ratio of the fquare of the diftances, the learned have thought
that they were noe warranted by reafons fufficiently ftrong to
abandon the ellipticity of the revolution ; having due regard to
the fimallnefs of the errors in the executed meafurements which
might very well give occafion to all the diverfity of the refults.
But to be convinced how cautious we ought to be before we
decide in matters of this fort, let us recollect the meafurements
executed by Jean Dominique Caffini over the furface of France,
which at firft fight feemed to prove that the earth, far from
being oblate towards the poles, was rather a little raifed or
elevated. This refult, fo much the more ftriking, that it by
no means agreed either with the theory of centrifugal force
advanced by Huygens, or with the principle of univerfal gravi-
tation eftablithed by Newton, having undergone a more rigor-
ous inveftigation by geometers, they foon perceived, that not
having perfectly feized the univerfality of the principle, they
had confidered as contrary what was in fact one of its moft
immediate confequences: and thus what they fuppofed was to
overthrow the firft foundation of the fyftem of attraction be-
3,C)2 ““ came
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