142 On the Formation of the Universe. 



counter to one of the laws of investigation laid down by 

 Newton ; by assigning causes more than sufficient to pro- 

 duce the effects in question ; for it would obviously be as 

 easy for the Deity to create a body of whirling viscid mat- 

 ter in the greater as in the smaller spheroid ; and then the 

 process of driving it out from the centre would be unneces- 

 sary. This is only taking a wide step toward the theory of 

 condensation from an aerial state ; for it would be just as 

 easy for the Deity to create whirling spheroids of aerial, as' 

 of plastic or fluid matter, and then a mechanism for the 

 motion of the satellites is contrived, as well as for that of the 

 ring. 



To account for the relative densities of the various bodies 

 in the system, seems at first beyond the grasp of the theo- 

 ry, because we cannot inspect the interior even of our own 

 planent, much less can we that of the rest But it is a well 

 known fact that all large bodies of condensing homogeneous 

 substances, stiffen first on the out side ; and the supposition 

 is perfectly reasonable ; that the bodies of the solar system 

 might so stiffen near their surface, while the interior remain- 

 ed very much heated and expanded. Beneath this crust, 

 the interior parts would collect and condense upon it as 

 water on the lower surface of ice, until it became strong 

 enough to support itself by its own density. It would then 

 cease to sink any further toward the centre, and the remain- 

 ing fluid or viscid parts of the body, as the heat gradually 

 abandoned them, would shrink so as to form immense cav- 

 erns, or would collect together on a central globe, which 

 might eventually become entirely disunited with the exter- 

 nal shell. In such a case it is easy to see, that it would first 

 be disunited from the polls of the external shell, because 

 they would cool most rapidly on account of their distance 

 from the great solar fire, and the obliquity of the rays from 

 that fire, which aided in continuing their heat. It would 

 then gradually be detached from the equator of the shell, 

 till it adhered only at a single point ; and eventually, if it 

 separated from the whole, and its centrifugal force from 

 the common centre of gravity of the two parts, were, 

 by disturbance, in the least diminished, it is rigidly de- 

 monstrable, that the internal globe would immediately move 

 toward one of the poles of the external shell, and there is 

 an infinity of chances against one, that it would change both 

 the direction and degree of its diurnal velocity. The inter- 



