146 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



Might not this ring explain the supercelestial waters 

 that gave such cause for ingenuity to the medieval 

 writers? Not only so, but, had such a vaporous ring 

 broken and been precipitated to the earth, it would 

 have caused a prolonged Deluge, and the subsequent 

 rainbow in the heavens might very well have been 

 interpreted as an allusion to the vanished ring, and 

 as a promise. This, however, is not Kant's charac- 

 teristic manner in supporting moral and religious 

 truth. 



To account for the origin of the solar system, the 

 German philosopher assumes that at the beginning 

 of all things the material of which the sun, planets, 

 satellites, and comets consist, was uncompounded, in 

 its primary elements, and filled the whole space in 

 which the bodies formed out of it now revolve. This 

 state of nature seemed to be the very simplest that 

 could follow upon nothing. In a space filled in this 

 way a state of rest could not last for more than a 

 moment. The elements of a denser kind would, ac- 

 cording to the law of gravitation, attract matter of 

 less specific gravity. Repulsion, as well as attraction, 

 plays a part among the particles of matter dissemi- 

 nated in space. Through it the direct fall of particles 

 may be diverted into a circular movement about the 

 center toward which they are gravitating. 



Of course, in our system the center of attraction 

 is the nucleus of the sun. The mass of this body in- 

 creases rapidly, as also its power of attraction. Of 

 the particles gravitating to it the heavier become 

 heaped up in the center. In falling from different 

 heights toward this common focus the particles can- 

 not have such perfect equality of resistance that no 



