SOLAR SYSTEM. 73 



117. Is the sun the parent of the planetary 

 system ? 



118. If the sun is the parent of the planetary 

 system, what is that matter by which the worlds 

 were made ? 



119. If the heat which radiates from the sun is 

 matter, and the sun is the parent of the planetary 

 system, is heat that matter by which the worlds 

 were made ? 



120. If the solid matter of the solar mass is 

 resolving into heat, shall the earth, if burnt up, be 

 resolved into heat ? If, therefore, all the ponderable 

 matter of this world is resolvable into heat, is 

 heat that matter by which this world was 

 made? 



121. If the planets cease not to increase in density, 

 which may be inferred from indications observable in 

 the crust of the earth, and from the oblate spheroidal 

 figure of the globe, the mass of each of the planets, 

 consequent upon the lateral, as also vertical pressure, 

 which the particles of a sphere in a state of conden- 

 sation of necessity undergoes, w r ill resolve itself into 

 numerous concentric spheres, or shells of matter, all 

 separated from each other just as the rings which 

 encircle the planet Saturn are separated. 



