TRANSLATOR S INTRODUCTION CV 



Kelvin. And although it was then practically impossible to 

 work out that principle in detail with the accuracy of Mayer 

 and Joule, yet Kant's general theory is the one most com- 

 patible with their results. (8) Finally, it is needless to 

 dwell upon such points as the possible explanation ot 

 the Flood by the breaking and falling upon the earth of 

 a ring, which once surrounded it like that of Saturn, the 

 point at which Kant, for an obvious reason, arrested 

 Gensichen's Excerpt, or upon his speculation about the 

 inhabitants of the other planets. The former is to be 

 regarded as a mere imaginative idea, a fancy rather than 

 a serious conjecture, which he would not revive. Nor is 

 the latter, interesting though it be, an essential part of his 

 system ; it is expounded with a touch of irony, somewhat 

 after the manner of Fontenelle, and it is presented by Kant 

 himself as not coming within the range of exact scientific 

 criticism. 



Summaries and Translations. There are now 

 numerous excellent Summaries of Kant's theory in 

 German, French, and English. Most of these have 

 been already referred to, and out of them all I 

 have selected for reproduction that of Dieterich, as 

 the work of a careful student of Kant in his rela- 

 tion to Newton, and as giving a glimpse of his 

 whole scientific thought in a systematic form. It is 

 translated in Appendix A. The general reader, 

 who may be approaching the subject for the first 

 time, might do well to begin with this summary. 

 He will also find excellent guidance to a rapid 

 appropriation of Kant's view generally by turning 

 to his own conspectus of the work at page 38. 



But no summary, however accurate, can ever 



