322 A Short History of Astronomy iCn. XL, $250 



and each of these might in turn condense into a planet with 

 or without satellites ; and gave on this hypothesis plausible 

 reasons for many of the peculiarities of the solar system. 



So little is, however, known of the behaviour of a body 

 like Laplace's nebula when condensing and rotating that it 

 is hardly worth while to consider the details of the scheme. 



That Laplace himself, who has never been accused of 

 underrating the importance of his own discoveries, did not 

 take the details of his hypothesis nearly as seriously as 

 many of its expounders, may be inferred both from the fact 

 that he only published it in a popular book, and from his 

 remarkable description of it as "these conjectures on the 

 formation of the stars and of the solar system, conjectures 

 which I present with all the distrust (defiance) which every- 

 thing which is not a result of observation or of calculation 

 ought to inspire." * 



* Systeme du Monde, Book V., chapter vi. 



