G. F. Becker — Kant as a Natural Philosopher. 101 



account of this theory. The solar system, according to Swe- 

 denborg, was formed from a chaotic mass which rolled together 

 to a great sphere and afterwards, by its rotation, threw off a 

 ring. This by expansion burst, and the fragments shrank to 

 planets. I see no important advantage in this as compared 

 with the Cartesian cosmogon} 7 . Even if deductions from any 

 such vortical theory were correct, they could still have no sci- 

 entific standing, since they would be conclusions from false 

 premises and their correctness therefore accidental. 



In 1750 Thomas Wright (of Durham) published a book, 

 " The Universe and the Stars," to an abstract of which Kant 

 expresses obligations. It is so tiresome as to seem much longer 

 than it is, and the only original conclusion which I can find is 

 that the visible stellar system is spheroidal or cylindrical, the 

 Milky Way marking the position of the periphery. At the 

 center is "an intelligent principle " round which the system 

 revolves. Wright, like Cassini, thought that Saturn's rings 

 were composed of small satellites,* a conclusion which he 

 draws from the eccentricity of the rings. 



Turning now to Kant's cosmogony, it may be interesting to 

 note in the briefest terms the more striking of his views in a 

 connected way, and then to draw attention to such of them as 

 seem anticipations of the opinions held by subsequent investi- 

 gators. 



In developing his nebular hypothesis Kant regards the solar 

 system. from two points of view. The first contemplates the 

 unity of plan. Six planets and nine satellites revolve in orbits 

 about the sun, all moving in the same sense, that namely in 

 which the controlling central body, the sun, rotates. Their 

 orbits vary but little from a single plane, that of the sun's 

 equator; the more distant bodies belonging to the solar system 

 (viz : comets), however, show divergencies standing in suffi- 

 ciently close relation to the deficiency of the impressed move- 

 ment. This unity of plan indicates a. single pervading cause 

 of motion. On the other hand, from the second point of view, 

 the interplanetary space is substantially empty; it contains no 

 matter through and by which accordant motions could have 

 been communicated to the system. f 



Hence this space must once have contained matter, and the 

 material abstracted from interplanetary space must be that 

 which is now gathered in the members of the solar system ; 

 for the quantity of matter in the universe is inalterable. Kant 

 therefore assumes that the materials of the solar system were 



*I have only seen the American reprint (without plates). Phila., Wetherill, 

 1837. This edition has amusing notes of the mystic order by C. Wetherill and 

 C. S. Rafinesque. 



f Kant's Werke, vol. i, p 245. 



