156 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



small planets which lie between Mars and Jupiter, 

 namely Juno and Pallas, exhibit an inequality 

 somewhat greater still ; but the smallness of these 

 bodies, and other circumstances, make it probable 

 that there may be particular causes for the ex- 

 ception in their case. The orbits of the satellites 

 of the Earth, of Jupiter and of Saturn, are also 

 nearly circular. 



Taking the solar system altogether, the regu- 

 larity of its structure is very remarkable. The 

 diagram which represents the orbits of the planets 

 might have consisted of a number of ovals, nar- 

 row and wide in all degrees, intersecting and in- 

 terfering with each other in all directions. The 

 diagram does consist, as all who have opened a 

 book of astronomy know, of a set of figures which 

 appear at first sight concentric circles, and which 

 are very nearly so ; no where approaching to any 

 crossing or interfering, except in the case of the 

 small planets, already noticed as irregular. No 

 one, looking at thiscommori diagram, can believe 

 that the orbits were made to be so nearly circles 

 by chance ; any more than he can believe that a 

 target, such as archers are accustomed to shoot at, 

 was painted in concentric circles by the accidental 

 dashes of a brush in the hands of a blind man. 



The regularity, then, of the solar system ex- 

 cludes the notion of accident in the arrangement 

 of the orbits of the planets.' There must have 

 been an express adjustment to produce' this cir- 



