William Bower Taylor

“ Supposing a hole made in the earth through its center; it is clear that a body at the very center must entirely lose its gravity, as it could no longer move in any direction whatever, all those of gravity tending continually toward the center of the earth. Since then a body has no longer gravity at the center of the earth, it will follow that in descending to this center, its gravity will be gradually diminished; and we accordingly conclude that a body penetrating into the bowels of the earth loses its gravity in proportion as it approaches the center. ”

“ It does not appear how so vague and inexplicable a supposition is calculated to commend itself "to those who are fond of clear principles in philosophy." In his anxiety to avoid an "occult quality " in matter, this learned writer seems quite unconscious of the fact that by investing his aether with an "unknown manner of acting," he is just as fatally "having recourse to an unintelligible property." ”

“ It is evident then that neither the intensity nor the direction of gravity is a consequence from the nature of any body, as not only its intensity is variable, but likewise its direction, which, on passing to the antipodes, becomes quite contrary. ”