34 KANTS UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



each other would otherwise have presented irregular 

 forms and not exact figures. I also perceived that they 

 must be limited mainly to one plane in the system in 

 which they are found united, because they do not 

 exhibit circular but elliptical figures. And I further saw 

 that, on account of their feeble light, they are removed 

 to an inconceivable distance from us. What I have 

 inferred from these analogies, is presented in the fol- 

 lowing treatise for the examination of the unprejudiced 

 reader. 



In the Second Part, which contains the most distinctive 

 discussion in this treatise, I try to evolve the constitution 

 of the universe out of the simplest state of nature. If I 

 may venture to suggest a certain order to those who may 

 be roused at the boldness of this undertaking, when they 

 do me the honour to examine my thoughts, I would 

 ask them first to read through the Eighth Chapter, which, 

 I hope, will prepare them for a correct understanding 

 and judgment of my work. Meanwhile, if I invite the 

 kindly reader to examine my opinions, I am naturally 

 anxious, seeing that hypotheses of this kind commonly 

 do not stand in much better repute than philosophic 

 dreams, lest it should prove a troublesome courtesy for a 

 reader to resolve to give himself to a careful examination 

 of histories of nature that have been thought out by 

 another and patiently to follow the author through all 

 the windings by which he compasses all the difficulties 

 which encounter him perhaps at the end, like the 

 spectators of the London Market Crier, to laugh at his 

 own credulity, as in Gellert's Fable of Hans Nord. Yet, 

 I venture to promise, that if the reader will be persuaded, 

 as I hope, by the prefixed preparatory chapter, to 



