12 STABILITY OF SOLAR SYSTEM. SECT. II. 



' mutual disturbances only increase or diminish the excentricities 

 of their orbits by very minute quantities ; consequently the 

 magnitude of the sun's mass is the principal cause of the stability 

 of the system. There is not in the physical world a 'more 

 splendid example of the adaptation of means to the accomplish- 

 ment of an end than is exhibited in the nice adjustment of these 

 forces, at once the cause of the variety and of the order of 

 Nature. 



