CHAPTER VII. 

 The Nebular Hypothesis. 



WE have referred to Laplace, as a profound 

 mathematician, who has strongly expressed the 

 opinion, that the arrangement by which the sta- 

 bility of the solar system is secured is not the 

 result of chance ; that " a pr&nitive cause has 

 directed the planetary motions." This author, 

 however, having arrived, as we have done, at this 

 conviction, does not draw from it the conclusion 

 which has appeared to us so irresistible, that 

 " the admirable arrangement of the solar system 

 cannot but be the work of an intelligent and 

 most powerful being." He quotes these expres- 

 sions, which are those of Newton, and points at 

 them as instances where that great philosopher 

 had deviated from the method of true philosophy. 

 He himself proposes an hypothesis concerning 

 the nature of the primitive cause of which he 

 conceives the existence to be thus probable : and 

 this hypothesis, on account of the facts which it 

 attempts to combine, the view of the universe 

 which it presents, and the eminence of the person 

 by whom it is propounded, deserves our notice. 



1 . Laplace conjectures that in the original con- 

 dition of the solar system, the sun revolved upon 



