10 



residue. This at once brings before us the cause that 

 has compelled the moon in revolving around the earth to 

 turn to it always the same side. It is not a preponderance 

 of the parts turned to it over those that are turned away, 

 but an actually uniform rotation of the moon round its 

 axis, exactly in the time in which it revolves around the 

 earth, that brings about this continual presentation of the 

 same half of it to the earth. Hence it may be confidently 

 inferred that the attraction which the earth exercised on 

 the moon at the time of its original formation, when its 

 mass was still fluid, must have brought the axial rotation 

 which this neighbouring planet may be supposed to have 

 performed at that time with greater velocity down in the 

 manner indicated to this regulated residue. From this 

 we also see that the moon is a later heavenly body, which 

 has been added on to the earth after the earth had already 

 passed through its fluid state and taken on a solid form ; 

 otherwise the attraction of the moon would infallibly have 

 subjected it in a short time to the same fate as the moon 

 has undergone from the influence of our earth. This last 

 remark may be regarded as a specimen of a Natural History 

 of the Heavens, in which the first state of nature, the 

 production of the heavenly bodies and the causes of their 

 systematic connection, would have to be determined from 

 the indications or marks which the relations in the structure 

 of the world exhibit. . This speculation, which is the same 

 on the great scale or rather on the infinite scale as the 

 History of the Earth involves on the small scale, may be 

 grasped in that wide extension with as much confidence 

 as has been shown by the attempts made in our day to 

 sketch such a view of our terrestrial globe. I have devoted 

 a long series of meditations to this subject, and have com- 



