CHAPTEE IX. 



DEFECTS OF PREVAILING COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES. 



IF the foregoing theory of the origin, structure, dynamic 

 agents, and laws, of the universe, has any foundation in truth, 

 it can scarcely fail to throw important light upon some still 

 ulterior questions relating to the prescribed distances, motions, 

 reciprocal attractions, etc., of planetary and sidereal creations. 

 It may even show that some time-honored theories upon these 

 subjects, however sanctioned by the authority of great names, 

 are, in certain particulars, radically defective ; and this it will 

 do, if at all, by transcending them in the ease, naturalness, 

 and completeness with which it accounts for certain existing 

 phenomena. 



It was supposed by Sir Isaac Newton, that all rotatory and 

 orbitual motion of the heavenly bodies, originated from a pri- 

 mary and external impulse received from the hand of the Crea- 

 tor, as they were launched into space. To this was added the 

 philosophical axiom, that any body put in motion in a vacuum, 

 will continue forever to move in a straight line, unless de- 

 flected from its course by some other force. This deflecting 

 force, as applied to the motions of the planets, Newton found 

 in the law of gravitation, which was by him proved to apply 

 to all planetary bodies. By the precisely counterbalancing 

 action of these two forces, called the centrifugal and centripetal 

 forces, the motions of the planets were supposed to be regu- 

 lated in circular or elliptical orbits round the sun, the specific 



