ii2 KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



reasonably enough imagine as coming some centuries later 

 the completion of the period of formation of a heavenly 

 body which exceeds the magnitude of our earth more than 

 twenty thousand times, while its density is four times less 

 than that of the earth. If its surface has reached a state 

 of rest, undoubtedly far greater inequalities than those which 

 cover the surface of the earth, combined with the rapidity 

 of its swing, will communicate to its rotation in a not very 

 long period that constant position which the equilibrium 

 of the forces upon it will demand. 



Saturn, which is three times smaller than Jupiter, may 

 perhaps, from its greater distance, have received the 

 advantage of a more rapid completion of its formation. 

 At least its much more rapid rotation and the great pro- 

 portion of its centrifugal force to the gravity on its surface 

 (which will be shown in the following chapter) brings it 

 about that the inequalities supposed thereby to be pro- 

 duced upon it, have very soon counterbalanced that 

 preponderance by a displacement of the axis. I freely 

 confess that this part of my system regarding the position 

 of the axes of the planets is still incomplete, and pretty 

 far from having reached the point at which it could be 

 made the subject of mathematical calculation. I have 

 preferred honestly to avow this rather than to endanger 

 the substantiality of the rest of my theory by supporting 

 it by all sorts of specious reasons, and thus giving it a 

 weak side. The following chapter may furnish con- 

 firmation of the credibility of the whole hypothesis by 

 which I have attempted to explain the movements of 

 the universe. 



