180 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



the mind. The same reasoning faculty, which 

 seeks for the origin of the present system of 

 things, and is capable of assenting to, or dissent- 

 ing from the hypothesis propounded by Laplace 

 as an answer to this inquiry, is necessarily led to 

 seek, in the same manner, for the origin of any 

 previous system of things, out of which the 

 present may appear to have grown : and must 

 pursue this train of enquiries unremittingly, so 

 long as the answer which it receives describes 

 a mere assemblage of matter and motion ; since 

 it would be to contradict the laws of matter and 

 the nature of motion, to suppose such an assem- 

 blage to be ihejirst condition. 



The reflection just stated, may be illustrated 

 by the further consideration of the Nebular 

 Hypothesis. This opinion refers us, for the 

 origin of the solar system, to a sun surrounded 

 with an atmosphere of enormously elevated tem- 

 perature, revolving and cooling. But as we 

 ascend to a still earlier period, what state of 

 things are we to suppose? a still higher tem- 

 perature, a still more diffused atmosphere. La- 

 place conceives that, in its primitive state, the 

 sun consisted in a diffused luminosity so as to 

 resemble those nebulae among the fixed stars, 

 which are seen by the aid of the telescope, and 

 which exhibit a nucleus, more or less brilliant, 

 surrounded by a cloudy brightness. " This an- 

 terior state was itself preceded by other states, 



