

SCIENCE AND RELIGION 151 



tracted by stages to its present form. In its primi- 

 tive state the sun resembled the nebulae, which are 

 to be observed through the telescope, with fiery cen- 

 ters and cloudy periphery. One can imagine a more 

 and more diffuse state of the nebulous matter. 



Planets were formed, in the plane of the equator 

 and at the successive limits of the nebulous atmos- 

 phere, by the condensation of the different zones 

 which it abandoned as it cooled and contracted. The 

 force of gravity and the centrifugal force sufficed to 

 maintain in its orbit each successive planet. From the 

 cooling and contracting masses that were to consti- 

 tute the planets smaller zones and rings were formed. 

 In the case of Saturn there was such regularity in 

 the rings that the annular form was maintained ; as 

 a rule from the zones abandoned by the planet-mass 

 satellites resulted. Differences of temperature and 

 density of the parts of the original mass account for 

 the eccentricity of orbits, and deviations from the 

 plane of the equator. 



In his Celestial Mechanics (1825) Laplace states 

 that, according to Herschel's observations, Saturn's 

 rotation is slightly quicker than that of its rings. 

 This seemed a confirmation of the hypothesis of the 

 Exposition du SysCeme du Monde. 



When Laplace presented the first edition of this 

 earlier work to Napoleon, the First Consul said : 

 " Newton has spoken of God in his book. I have 

 already gone through yours, and I have not found 

 that name in it a single time." To this Laplace is 

 said to have replied : " First Citizen Consul, I have 

 not had need of that hypothesis." The astronomer 

 did not, however, profess atheism ; like Kant he felt 



