THEIR ARRANGEMENTS AND FORMATION. § 



doy, a youth, a middle-aged,*and an old man together, we 

 might presume that the whole were only variations of one 

 being. Are we to suppose that we have got a glimpse of 

 the process through which a sun goes between its original 

 condition, as a mass of diffused nebulous matter, and its 

 full-formed state as a compact body f We shall see how 

 far such an idea is supported by other things known 

 with regard to the occupants of space, and the laws of 

 matter. 



A superficial view of the astronomy of the solar sys- 

 tem gives us only the idea of a vast luminous body (the 

 sun) in the centre, and a few smaller, though various 

 sized bodies, revolving at different distances around it ; 

 some of these, again, having smaller planets (satellites) 

 revolving around them. There are, however, some gene* 

 ral features of the solar system which, when a profounder 

 attention makes us acquainted with them, strike the mind 

 very forcibly. 



It is, in the first place, remarkable, that the planets all 

 move nearly in one plane, corresponding with the centre 

 of the sun's body. Next, it is not less remarkable, that 

 the motion of the sun on its axis, those of the planets 

 around the sun, and the satellites around their primaries,* 

 and the motions of all on their axis, are in one direction 

 — namely, from west to east. Had all these matters been 

 left to accident, the chances against the uniformity which 

 we find would have been, though calculable, inconceiva- 

 bly great Laplace states them at four millions of millions 

 to one It is thus powerfully impressed on us, that the 

 uniformity of the motions, as well as their general adjust- 

 ment to one plane, must have been a consequence of some 

 cause acting throughout the whole system. 



Some of the other relations of the bodies are not less re- 

 markable. The primary planets show a progressive in- 

 crease of bulk and diinun^tion of density, from the one t # 

 nearest to the sun to that which is most distant. With 

 respect to the density alone, we find, taking water as a 

 measure and counting it as one, that Saturn is or less 



* The orbitual revolutions of the satellites of Uranus have not as 

 yotbeen clearly scanned. It has been thought that their path is 

 retrograde compared with the rest. Perhaps this may be owing to 

 a bouleversemenl of the primary , for the inclination of its equator to 

 the ecliptic is admitted to be unusually high ; but the subject is al 

 together so obscure that nothing can be founded <n it. 

 2 



