INFLUENCE ON RECENT SCIENCE 75 



size were known to have a mutual attraction varying 

 inversely as the square of the distance between their 

 centers. The active attribute of matter, ruling and 

 guiding its motion, thus became independent of fancy 

 and subject to experimental verification. The nebular 

 hypothesis has remained more or less a fragment, 

 limited to the determination of the sizes, masses, and 

 positions of celestial bodies and systems. Neither Kant 

 nor Laplace, except for a discussion of temperatures, 

 included in their scheme of the evolution of inorganic 

 matter the causes of the complex forms and forces 

 of matter now observed on the earth or stars. Nor 

 beyond assuming that matter was determined by mass 

 and an inherent power of attraction, did they make any 

 attempt to explain how this occult force acted through 

 a distance. And from this simplified idea of matter 

 without variety and without complexity, they were 

 able to deduce mathematically and logically the idea of 

 the evolution of cosmical matter, from a condition of 

 primitive distribution, at least to its segregation into 

 cosmical systems: suns, planets, and satellites. And 

 if we remember that Kant approached the problem 

 from the standpoint of the metaphysician and Laplace 

 from that of the pure mathematician, we can readily 

 understand why they both were satisfied to take such an 

 abstract view of the universe, and also the simplicity 

 and the insufficiency of such a method. Astronomy is 

 the one science, because of the comparatively enormous 



