i44 On the Formation of the Universe. 
jection cannot be deemed insuperable. The comets may 
be supposed to have been formed from the lingering por- 
tions, that did not come in soon enough to be combined with 
the system; and with this supposition their characteristics 
perfectly agree. They would be liable to come equally 
from all directions, and their elliptic orbits must have been 
produced principally by percussion on the solar wheel. 
Agreeably to this, the planes of the planetary orbits about 
the perihelia of the comets, are the most irregular. 
plane of Mercury’s orbit and that of the solar equator make 
nearly the same angle with the ecliptic, and it is reasonable 
to conclude, from the motion of Mercury’s nodes, that at 
the time the system may have come into existence accord- 
ing to the theory, the plane of Mercury’s orbit about coin- 
cided with that of the solar equator. 
If the matter in the solar system has once been diffused 
regulating force. But if the finite ocean required a disturb- 
ing force to effect its concretion, it would evidently begin t0 
