8o KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



obstruct each other as little as possible, they would 

 continue always in this relation, if the attraction of the 

 elementary matters for each other did not then begin 

 to produce its effect, and thereby give occasion to new 

 formations which are the seed of the planets that are 

 about to arise. For the elements which move round 

 the sun in parallel circles and not at too great a 

 difference of distance from the sun, are by the* equality of 

 their parallel motion almost at rest respectively towards 

 each other ; and thus the attraction of those elements 

 there which are of higher specific attraction immediately 

 produces an important effect, namely, the collecting of 

 the nearest particles for the formation of a body which 

 according to the proportion of the growth of its mass, 

 extends its attraction farther and draws elements from a 

 wide region to unite with it in its further formation. 1 



The view of the formation of the planets in this 

 system has the advantage over every other possible 

 theory in holding that the origin of the masses gives the 

 origin of the movements, and the position of the orbits 

 as arising at that same point of time ; nay more, in 

 showing that even the deviations from the greatest 

 possible exactness in these determinations, as well as 

 the accordances themselves, become clear at a glance. 



1 The beginning of the formation of the planets is not to be 

 sought in the Newtonian Attraction alone. This force would in the 

 case of a particle of such exceptional fineness, be far too slow and 

 feeble. One would rather say that in this space the first formation 

 takes place by the concourse of certain elements which are united 

 by the usual laws of combination, till the mass which has arisen 

 thereby has gradually grown so large that the Newtonian force of 

 attraction in it has become powerful enough to increase it more and 

 more by its action at a distance. 



