liULAR HY!>< 



into a mathematical criticiHin of the opinion of Plato 

 the m. he planets IB such as if they had 



all been created by God in aoma region vary remote 

 from oar system, and let fall from thence towarda the 

 ran, their falling motion being turned aaide into a 

 transverse one whenever they arrived at their several 

 ml. its. Tins, of course, is wholly unlike Her* 

 y. ..r t! -iplace. those letter 



David ha I :''. pivs.-nt day they poaaeaa a 



y show that the Net 



Hypothesis, th- -lull >^orous heresy of the age, 



ompatiblo \\,?h iho eatablished laws of the 



material universe, an-i th.it an omnipottllfl arm waa 



required to give the planets tin -ir i-.-iti-.ri and 



space, and a presiding intelligence to 



assign to them the different functions they had to 



*e views of Sir David Brewster, eminent man of 

 science though he was and sincere tx n an 



hty arm ruling all the motions of material bodies, 

 do not seem justified by facts. Even his great name 

 is not weighty enough to counterbalance that of 

 Laplace, when the former affirms and the latter ! 



h' Xcbular Hypothesis " is incompatible with t !> 

 eatablished laws of the material uni\vrs-." N.-v. 

 speculations on Plato's dream of the origin of planets 

 had nothing to do with th- hypothesis in question I- 



ill an<l dangerous heresy," as Sir 1 

 I. l.ii -T an almighty arm nor a 



presiding niin-1." Recent discoveries have given more 

 probability to the theory if we are entitled to use that 

 name: and Her- - from observed and 



class i ive gone far to prove that Laplace's 



