G. Hinrichs on Planetology. 51 
5. The eccentricity, e, of the orbit is and remains nearly the same, 
because 
Ef G08 Srl gy tee Vassar 
is and remains a small quantity. 
. The density, d, is such that the diameter of the bodies is 
small in comparison to their distances. 
e may add— 
7. The form of the planets is such that the influence of the 
deviation from a sphere is the smallest possible. 
§ 4. Gravitation is insu ficient. 
The laws of Kepler are grand—as well as Newton's theory 
in accounting for them; but the above laws of Lagrange and 
Laplace are certainly of a superior order, and the theory of 
gravitation in failing to give even a shadow of a reason for these 
laws proves itself to be not the whole truth: we must go be- 
yond this force! 
her, etc., etc.). Why not also assume the latter as having been 
real, if we find by the same mechanical deductions that the 
existing harmony, as expressed in the stability of the system and 
ensured in the mutual relations of the fundamental constants 
follows directly from the above-named chaos? If in the one 
case we reason from fact or law to cause—why not also in the 
other, provided our conclusion is as legitimate? _ re 
€ astronomers will not fail to object that this last condition 
