84 KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



the space filled by the elements without their motion 

 being weakened by the resistance of these elements, nor 

 can they acquire the great degrees of velocity which are 

 required for revolving nearer to the centre. Hence, after 

 an equilibrium has been attained in their movements, the 

 specifically lighter particles will revolve at further distances 

 from the sun, while the heavier particles will be found 

 at nearer distances ; and those planets which are formed 

 out of them, and which are nearer the sun, will therefore 

 be denser than those which are formed further from it 

 by the concurrence of these atoms. 



It is therefore a sort of statical law that determines 

 the distances of the matter in space according to the 

 inverse ratio of its density. At the same time, it is just 

 as easy to understand that each particular distance is 

 not necessarily occupied only by particles of the same 

 specific density. Of the particles of a certain specific 

 kind some remain moving at greater distances from the 

 sun, and those that have fallen from greater distances 

 acquire at a greater distance the modification of their 

 fall required for constant circular movement; and, on 

 the other hand, those particles whose original position 

 in the universal distribution of matter in its chaotic state 

 was nearer the sun, notwithstanding their not being of 

 greater density, will come nearer to it in their circle of 

 revolution. And as the positions of the material elements, 

 in respect to the centre of their attraction, are determined 

 not only by their specific gravity but also by their original 

 place in the first state of repose in nature, it is easy to 

 understand that very different kinds of them will come 

 together at every distance from the sun so as to remain 

 suspended there. But it will be also understood that the 



