150 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



does not allow them to wander at random to distuib 

 and destroy each other. Lambert imagines that all 

 these bodies have exactly the volume, weight, posi- 

 tion, direction, and speed necessary for the avoidance 

 of collisions. If we confess a Supreme Ruler who 

 brought order from chaos, and gave form to the uni- 

 verse ; it follows that this universe is a perfect work, 

 the impress, picture, reflex of its Creator's perfec- 

 tion. Nothing is left to blind chance. Means are 

 fitted to ends. There is order throughout, and in 

 this order the dust beneath our feet, the stars above 

 our heads, atoms and worlds, are alike compre- 

 hended. 



Laplace in his statement of the nebular hypothe- 

 sis made no mention of Kant. He sets forth, in the 

 Exposition of the Solar System, the astronomical 

 data that the theory is designed to explain : the 

 movements of the planets in the same direction and 

 almost in the same plane ; the movements of the sat- 

 ellites in the same direction as those of the planets ; 

 the rotation of these different bodies and of the sun 

 in the same direction as their projection, and in 

 planes little different ; the small eccentricity of the 

 orbits of planets and satellites ; the great eccentricity 

 of the orbits of comets. How on the ground of these 

 data are we to arrive at the cause of the earliest 

 movements of the planetary system ? 



A fluid of immense extent must be assumed, em- 

 bracing all these bodies. It must have circulated 

 about the sun like an atmosphere and, in virtue of 

 the excessive heat which was engendered, it may be 

 assumed that this atmosphere originally extended 

 beyond the orbits of all the planets, and was con- 



