^6 VESTIGES OE THE 



bears the name of the Zodiacal Light, has been thought 

 a residuum or last remnant of the concentrating matter 

 of our system, and thus may be supposed to indicate the 

 comparative recentness of the principal events of our 

 cosmogony. Supposing the surmise and inference to be 

 correct, and they may be held as so far supported by 

 more familiar evidence, we might with the more confi- 

 dence speak of our system as not amongst the elder born 

 of Heaven, but one whose various phenomena, physical 

 and moral, as yet lay undeveloped, while myiiads of 

 others were fully fashioned and in comj^lete ari-angeinent. 

 Thus, in the sublime chronology to which we are direct- 

 ing our inquiries, we first hnd ourselves called upon 

 to consider the globe which we inhabit as a cliild of the 

 sun, elder than Venus and her younger brother Mercury, 

 but posterior in date of birth to Mars, Jupiter, Saturix, 

 and Uranus; next to regard our whole system as 

 probably of recent formation in comparison with many 

 of the stars of our firmament. We must, however, be 

 on our guard against supposing the earth as a recent 

 globe in oui- ordinary conceptions of time. From evi- 

 dence afterwards to be adduced, it will be seen that it 

 cannot be presumed to be less than many hundreds of 

 centuries old. How much older Uranus may be no one 

 can tell, far less how much more aged may be many of 

 the stars of our iirmament, or the stars of othei- firma- 

 ments than ours. 



Another and moi-e important consideration arises from 

 the hypothesis ; namely, as to the means by which the 

 grand process is conducted. The nebulous matter collects 

 around nuclei by virtue of the law of attraction. The 

 agglomeration brings into operation another physical 

 law, by force of which the separate masses of matter are 

 either made to rotate singly, or, in addition to that single 



