ANNIYERSAEY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xlv 



to account for the constitution and the mechanical origin of the uni- 

 verse upon Newtonian principles'*. 



In this very remarkable, but seemingly little-known treatise f, 

 Kant expounds a complete cosmogony, in the shape of a theory of 

 the causes which have led to the development of the universe from 

 diffused atoms of matter endowed with simple attractive and repul- 

 sive forces. 



" Give me matter," says Kant, " and I will build the world ; " and 

 he proceeds to deduce from the simple data from which he starts, a 

 doctrine in all essential respects similar to the well-known "Nebular 

 Hypothesis " of Laplace J. He accounts for the relation of the masses 

 and the densities of the planets to their distances from the sun, for 

 the eccentricities of their orbits, for their rotations, for their sa- 

 tellites, for the general agreement in the direction of rotation among 

 the celestial bodies, for Saturn's ring, and for the zodiacal light. He 

 finds in each system of worlds indications that the attractive force of 

 the central mass will eventually destroy its organization by concen- 

 trating upon itself the matter of the whole system ; but, as the result 

 of this concentration, he argues for the development of an amount of 

 heat which vrill dissipate the mass once more into a molecular chaos 

 such as that in which it began. 



Kant pictures to himself the universe as once an infinite expan- 

 sion of formless and diffused matter. At one point of this he sup- 

 poses a single centre of attraction set up, and by strict deductions 

 from admitted dynamical principles shows how this must result in 

 the development of a prodigious central body surrounded by systems 

 of solar and planetary worlds in all stages of development. In 

 vivid language he depicts the great world-maelstrom widening the 

 margins of its prodigious eddy in the slow progress of millions of 

 ages, gradually reclaiming more and more of the molecular waste, 

 and converting chaos into cosmos. But what is gained at the margin 

 is lost in the centre ; the attractions of the central systems bring 

 their constituents together, which then by the heat evolved ar€ con- 

 verted once more into molecular chaos. Thus the worlds that are, lie 

 between the ruins of the worlds that have been and the chaotic ma- 

 terials of the worlds that shall be ; and in spite of all waste and de- 

 struction Cosmos is extending his borders at the expense of Chaos. 



Kant's further application of his views to the earth itself is to be 

 found in his ' Treatise on Physical Geography '§ (a term under which 

 the then unknown science of geology was included), a subject wJiich 

 he had studied with very great care and on which he lectured for 

 many years. The fourth section of the first part of this Treatise is 

 called " History of the great changes which the earth has formerly 



* Grant (' History of Physical Astronomy,' p. 574) makes but the briefest 

 reference to Kant. 



t " AUgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels ; oder Yersuch von 

 der Verfassung und dem mechanischen Ursprunge des ganzen Weltgebaudes nach 

 Newton'schen Grundsatzen abgehandelt." — Kant's ' Sammtliche Werke,' Bd. i. 

 p. 207. 



I Systeme du Monde, torn. ii. chap. 6. 



§ Kant's ' Sammtliche Werke,' Bd. viii. p. 145. 



