182 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



his axis, surrounded by an atmosphere which, in 

 virtue of an excessive heat, extended far beyond 

 the orbits of all the planets, the planets as yet 

 having no existence. The heat gradually di- 

 minished, and as the solar atmosphere contracted 

 by cooling, the rapidity of its rotation increased 

 by the laws of rotatory motion, and an exterior 

 zone of vapour was detached from the rest, the 

 central attraction being no longer able to over- 

 come the increased centrifugal force. This zone 

 of vapour might in some cases retain its form, as 

 we see it in Saturn's ring ; but more usually the 

 ring of vapour would break into several masses, 

 and these would generally coalesce into one 

 mass, which would revolve about the sun. Such 

 portions of the solar atmosphere, abandoned 

 successively at different distances, would form 

 " planets in the state of vapour." These masses 

 of vapour, it appears from mechanical considera- 

 tions, would have each its rotatory motion, and 

 as the cooling of the vapour still went on, would 

 each produce a planet, which might have satel- 

 lites and rings, formed from the planet in the 

 same manner as the planets were formed from 

 the atmosphere of the sun. 



It may easily be conceived that all the primary 

 motions of a system so produced would be nearly 

 circular, nearly in the plane of the original 

 equator of the solar rotation, and in the direc- 

 tion of that rotation. Reasons are offered also to 



