Virginia advocate. [volume] (Charlottesville, Va.) 1827-1860, 1829-03-21

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u rig .sNGrE 4 Su;. u or .ULL.'v AND C3vTEyr,.s
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Soa'e INGENIOUS >ccu'.;io,.H, iqi"iy pa Isle,
10y the cc!c"lated Professor i.c,i,c lave cr.g,gcc
a cunsid cradle share al the uc alicIl o D. a,I.
Lave been commented =" III hy some ri on: ,u'-
naiiStS, whose knowledge is nat confined to IT.,
hacknled routine Of p,llti and ncwspal er chm
chat.
The editor Of the Scotsman says that '.he dis
cOverIeS of his cOnntiyInan are sinGulariy 1 aleu-.
lated ~ arrest attention by their bodness ingcnu-
~, aud originality" The claim of originality has,
however, been questioned with villa, justice We
know not) hy several theorists tut 1t will be quite
time enough to weigh their respective Ciinis when
1t is asceItained whether their sIecuIGtiuns are
any thing more than p.Cs optical rvcrIes, similar
to those winch have been SucC cssivoy ndnlned i'm
by Des Cares. Buiinn, Winston, Burnct Hutch
inson, Woodward, LinnGus, Darwin, and many
other system makers, who have been guessing in
the dark for centuries past. Professor Leslie ap.
pears to have SET about his task scentitical-
u than any oil lis predecessors having founded
his conclusions upon actual experiment, and ha
wing, also the advantages dcriydble from the ex-
pericnce Of those who had previously INDUCED in
geological specualions.
ii we understand the outline of the Professor
system, II is this,tat If the earth were solid or
nearly so, it would be much heavier than it has
bllity is, therefore, that it is hollow, and filed
with some subtle aud highly elastic m after, which
is, with great plauSIbilIty, assumed I'd be light
that the shcl! or crust of the earth upon which we
tread, bears very small proportion to the whole
globe. AS we shall enter more fully into this sub.
Ject in tie Kaleidoscope, Than we can or ought to
do here, we shall pass to the Professors con.
GLIDING note, which cannot fail to interest ouI
readers
6 We thus led by close train OF induction
60 the most important and striking conclusion
The great central concayity is not that dark and
drearyabyss which The fancy Of poets had pictured
On the contrary, this spacious internal vaul, must
contain the purcst ETHEREAL essence, Light in iis
utmost concentrated state. shining with intense
refnIgence and oyerpowering splendour."
a correspondent Of the London Courier claim:
IN favour OF Mr.. Thomas Williams the priori,,
OF the discovery, that the earth is composed OF Z
crust, or shell, and hollow within From expert
meDts made by this gentleman, he concluded tba
the crust could not exceed fifty miles. Mr. VIII
larns, we are told, died thiny-fiye years ago.
Another claimant of the honour Of the disco
very, is Mr.. B6rDs Of Armagh, as will be seer
by letter to the editors of the Bfifast Eorthsr,
Wig, which we shall give at full length 10 The
KaLedOscOpr.
By these, and other facts which we are about 4,
state, 1t appears that the conjectrre that the earth
IS hollow OF cavcrnous, is not new; but we do no
on that account, mean to depreciate he lat our,
Of Professor Leslie, who is entitled 10 respect
rnm experiments m,uo, az cons G5rCd a. entitled tt
implicit dependence. scientific have arrived nj Tn,
conclusion that hc whole catl docs not weigh more
than twice It's bulk in water.