AND THEORY OF THE HEAVENS. 153 



that Nature, which was capable of developing herself out 

 of chaos into a regular order and into an arranged 

 system, is likewise capable of re-arranging herself again 

 as easily out of the new chaos into which the diminution 

 of her motions has plunged her, and to renew the former 

 combination ? Cannot the springs which put the stuff of 

 the dispersed matter into motion and order, after the 

 stopping of the machine has brought them to rest, be 

 again put into action by extended forces; and may they 

 not by the same general laws limit each other until they 

 attain that harmony by which the original formation was 

 brought about ? It will not need long reflection to admit 

 this, when it is considered that after the final exhaustion 

 of the revolving movements in the universe has precipi- 

 tated all the planets and comets together into the sun, its 

 glowing heat must obtain an immense increase by the 

 commingling of so many and so great masses ; especially 

 as the distant globes of the Solar System, in consequence 

 of the theory already expounded, contain in themselves 

 the lightest matter in all nature, and that which is most 

 active on fire. This fire, thus put by new nourishment 

 and the most volatile matter into the most violent con- 

 flagration, will undoubtedly not only resolve everything 

 again into the smallest elements, but will also disperse 

 and scatter these elements again in this way with a power 

 of expansion proportional to the heat, and with a rapidity 

 which is not weakened by any resistance in the interven- 

 ing space ; and they will thus be dissipated into the same 

 wide regions of space which they had occupied before 

 the first formation of nature. The result of this will be 

 that, after the violence of the central fire has been sub- 

 dued by an almost total dispersion of its mass, the forces 



