16 The Origin of the 



mass of very attenuated matter ; which receiving a 

 motion of rotation, and acted upon by the mutual 

 attraction of its particles, was drawn gradually in- 

 wards. That, in this process of rotation and con- 

 traction, rings of this attenuated substance parted 

 from it, and were left behind ; and that these rings, 

 continuing their rotary movement, again contracted 

 upon themselves, and in process of time parting 

 asunder, conglomerated into globular forms, while 

 still in a very diffused and attenuated state ; that 

 these now rotating more rapidly from their con- 

 tracted bulk, in some cases threw off rings of their 

 substance left behind in their revolution, which 

 parting again, gathered into secondary globes, re- 

 volving round the primary from which they had 

 been parted. That thus, by progressive contraction, 

 were formed planetary globes revolving round the 

 centre of the whole original attenuated and diffused 

 mass ; and again secondary globes revolving round 

 the primaries, from whose yet unconsolidated sub- 

 stance they in their turn had been cut off and left 

 behind. Thus by ring after ring, proceeding from 

 the outer nebulous boundary towards the interior 

 centre of the whole revolving matter, planet after 

 planet was separated, and its satellites, gradually, 

 in their turn. The interior planets would be later 

 than the exterior, and the body of the sun latest of 

 all in consolidation. The theory leans upon the 

 fact that the rate of periodic revolution of each 

 planet in its orbit is that which would correspond 

 with the rate of rotation of the whole diffused mass 

 when of a magnitude filling that planet's orbit ; and 

 that the rate of revolution of each satellite in its 

 orbit is that which would correspond with the rate 

 of rotation of its primary planet, if its diffused sub- 



