SCIENCE AND RELIGION 145 



our eccentric view. Moreover, space is sufficient for 

 many such systems. 



Kant resembled his predecessor in his recognition 

 of the bearing on moral and religious conceptions 

 of the study of the heavens and also in his treat- 

 ment of many astronomical details, sometimes merely 

 adopting, more frequently developing or modifying, 

 the teachings of Wright. He held that the stars 

 constitute a system just as much as do the planets of 

 our solar system, and that other solar systems and other 

 Milky Ways may have been produced in the bound- 

 less fields of space. Indeed, he is inclined to identify 

 with the latter systems the small luminous elliptical 

 areas in the heavens reported by Maupertuis in 1742. 

 Kant also accepted Wright's conjecture of a central 

 sun or globe and even made selection of one of the 

 stars to serve in that office, and taught that the stars 

 consist like our sun of a fiery mass. One cannot 

 contemplate the world-structure without recognizing 

 the excellent orderliness of its arrangement, and 

 perceiving the sure indications of the hand of God 

 in the completeness of its relations. Reason, he says 

 in iheAllgemeineJ^aturgescJiichte^ei.usQsto believe 

 it the work of chance. It must have been planned by 

 supreme wisdom and carried into effect by Omnipo- 

 tence. 



Kant was especially stimulated by the analogy be- 

 tween the Milky Way and the rings of Saturn. He did 

 not agree with Wright that they, or the cloudy areas, 

 would prove to be stars or small satellites, but rather 

 that both consisted of vapor particles. Giving full 

 scope to his imagination, he asks if the earth as well 

 as Saturn may not have been surrounded by a ring. 



