ON THE GENETIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



283 



Tlie speculations of Wright liad been purely geometrical. 

 Tfe had drawn attention to the apparent unity of organ- 

 isation ill the stellar system, as established by the ac- 

 cumulation of stars in a certain belt, popularly called 

 " the milky way." He also suggested that the whole 

 system was moving in a certain direction. Kant pointed 

 out the analogy with the solar system, in which, viewed 

 from the centre, the planetary masses would likewise 

 appear situated in a narrow belt, moving all iu tlie same 

 direction. From these data he proceeds to show how, 

 taking for granted an initial movement and the action of 

 sravitation, the formation of rint^s like those of Saturn^ 

 can be explained ; further, how these might be broken 

 up and concentrated in satellites. In fact, he recognised 

 how, under the influence of gravitation, the solar system 

 miglit liave been gradually formed out of matter which 

 was previously scattered through the whole of that space 

 which the system still occupies. Kant also descended 

 somewhat further into detail, and proceeded to discuss the 

 possible retardation of the earth's rotation through tidal 

 friction.^ 



' The tract in vvliicli Kant de- 

 velops his views on this subject was 

 occasioned by a prize ottered by the 

 Berlin Academy in 1754 for an answer 

 to the question whether the time of 

 revolution of the earth liad suffered 

 any retardation, and if so, through 

 what causes? Kant did not com- 

 pete for the prize, deeming his re- 

 flections not capable of being suffi- 

 ciently perfected to deserve to be 

 submitted. So he simply published 

 them in a local Konigsberg [laper, 

 from which they were later re- 

 jirinted in the collected works, 

 forming one of the first "f Kent's 



publications. At the end of this 

 tract he announces his " Cosmo- 

 gonie,' which appeared the follow- 

 ing year with the title ' Natural 

 History of the Heavens,' &c. Kant 

 had the satisfaction of seeing many 

 of his speculations verified by the 

 subsequent discoveries of induc- 

 tive research, notabh- through Sir 

 William Herschel's observations of 

 nebulie ; and the German edition of 

 Herschel's great memoir ' On the 

 Construction of the Heavens' (' Phil. 

 Trans.,' 1784), which appeared in 

 Konigsberg in 1791, by Sommer, 

 contains an extract from Kant's 



