On the Formation of the Universe. 145 



concrete on the outside only, and on all sides at once. In- 

 fluenced by the attraction of the interior, the parts near the 

 outer surface would proceed towards it ; and when suffi- 

 ciently accumulated, if particular gravitation were finite, 

 that is, the gravitating power of a definite body of matter, 

 it is rigidly demonstrable, that under given circumstances it 

 would produce a far distant disruption in the aerial ocean, 

 somewhere about the limit of the particular gravitation of 

 the exterior. The demonstration will not at present be giv- 

 en; but it will perhaps be sufficient to remark, that if the 

 particles of aerial matter were held together by a force 

 merely sufficient to prevent their disunion ; by the arrival 

 of forces which had not acted upon them before, that is, 

 the particular gravitating forces of the approaching surface 

 of the aerial ocean, such a disunion would then be inevita- 

 ble. At the place of disruption, the two surfaces would 

 separate with the greater force as their distance increased: 

 the separating stratum would break up into systems, and 

 the new formed surface of the ocean would advance toward 

 the interior as before. If the ocean were sufficiently large, 

 the strata would have a constant tendency to regularity; for 



if they were crooked as ^ — — — ^ the parts about a and c 



* * # 



would continually retard those at b, till the strata approach- 

 ed very near to a regular figure. If the ocean were infinite, 

 and of such a nature as to concrete without a disturbing 

 force, its formation into worlds would of course be simulta- 

 neous throughout, and the collective forms would be wholly 

 and inevitably accidental, without any immediate or subse- 

 quent law whatever to effect regularity. If the ocean were 

 infinite, and if particular gravitation were not infinite, there 

 appear to be two possible modes, in which the formation 

 might be effected. The strata, as accident made them so, 

 might be flat, prismatic, and cylindrical, formed by accumu- 

 lations at their ends, and continued in a direction parallel to 

 each other, and to the course of progress. These nebulae, 

 having the greatest power of attraction at their ends, would 

 continue generally in a rectilinear direction ; for if it were 

 otherwise, they would indicate a tendency to accumulate at 

 the sides rather than the edges. It is obvious from celestial 

 appearances, that such has not been the actual mode of for- 



Vol. VI.— No. I. 19 



