COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



fragment behind it, until at last two or three 

 fragments would catch up with each other and 

 coalesce. Thus, in the earliest case known to 

 us, — that of the planet Neptune, 1 — this pro- 

 cess went on until all the fragments were finally 

 agglomerated into a spheroidal body, having a 

 velocity compounded of the several velocities 

 of the fragments, and a rotation made up of 

 their several rotations. 



Meanwhile the central mass of the vaporous 

 sun continued to radiate heat and to contract, 

 until, whenits periphery came to coincide with 

 what is now called the orbit of Uranus, its cen- 

 trifugal force at the equator again showed an 

 excess over gravity, and a second equatorial belt 

 was left behind ; and this belt, breaking up and 

 consolidating, after the manner above described, 

 became the planet Uranus. In like manner 

 were formed all the planets, one after another ; 

 and from the detached equatorial belts of the 

 cooling and contracting planets were similarly 

 formed the satellites. 



A very curious physical experiment, devised 



i It is not strictly impossible that there may be one or two 

 planets exterior to Neptune, and therefore earlier in formation. 

 Supposing the distances of such planets to conform, even as 

 imperfectly as in Neptune's case, to the law of Titius, these 

 distances must be so enormous as to prevent our readily dis- 

 covering the planets, either directly by observation, or indi- 

 rectly, by inference from possible perturbations of Neptune's 

 movements. 



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