5gO PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNOI789. 



equal distances from the middle, but with an increasing accumulation towards 

 the centre. 



We may now venture to raise a superstructure on the arguments that have 

 been drawn from the appearance of clusters of stars and nebulae of the form we 

 have been examining, which is that of which I have made mention in my 

 Theoretical View — Formation of Nebulae — Form I, Phil. Trans, vol. 75, p. 214. 

 It is to be remarked that when I wrote the paragraph referred to, I delineated 

 nature as well as I do now ; but, as I there gave only a general sketch, without 

 referring to particular cases, what I then delivered may have been considered as 

 little better than hypothetical reasoning, whereas in the present instance this 

 objection is entirely removed, since actual and particular facts are brought to 

 vouch for the truth of every inference. 



Having then established that the clusters of stars of the 1 st form, and round 

 nebulae, are of a spherical figure, I think myself plainly authorized to conclude 

 that they are thus formed by the action of central powers. To manifest the 

 validity of this inference, the figure of the earth may be given as an instance ; 

 whose rotundity, setting aside small deviations, the causes of which are well 

 known, is without hesitation allowed to be a phenomenon decisively establishing 

 a centripetal force. Nor do we stand in need of the revolving satellites of 

 Jupiter, Saturn, and the Georgium Sidus, to assure us that the same powers are 

 likewise lodged in the masses of these planets. Their globular figure alone must 

 be admitted as a sufficient argument to render this point incontrovertible. We 

 also apply this inference with equal propriety to the body of the sun, as well as 

 to that of Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the moon ; as owing their spherical 

 shape to the same cause. And how can we avoid inferring, that the construc- 

 tion of the clusters of stars, and nebulae likewise, of which we have been 

 speaking, is as evidently owing to central powers ? Besides, the step that I here 

 make in my inference is in fact a very easy one, and such as ought freely to be 

 granted. Have I not already shown that these clusters cannot have come to 

 their present formation by any random scattering of stars ? The doctrine of 

 chance, by exposing the very great odds against such hypotheses, may be said to 

 demonstrate that the stars are thus assembled by some power or other. Then 

 what do I attempt more than merely to lead the mind to the conditions under 

 which this power is seen to act ? 



In a case of such consequence I may be permitted to be a little more diffuse, 

 and draw additional arguments from the internal construction of spherical clus- 

 ters and nebulae. If we find that there is not only a general form, which, as 

 has been proved, is a sufficient manifestation of a centripetal force, what shall 

 we say when the accumulated condensation, which every where follows a direc- 

 tion towards a centre, is even visible to the very eye ? Were we not already ac- 



