I885..I 
21 7 
/I iWw Cosmogony, 
Finally the present state of things became established, 
and. its characteristic stability, as the mass of the Sun, 
having become enormous, was able to attract nothing more 
of the original nebular mass, and had rendered the space 
around it a void. 
1 he universe has arisen out of chaos, — that means from 
an exceedingly rarefied, formless mass of matter, which 
filled a wide space and moved in various directions, in con- 
sequence of which the chaotic material became separated 
into distinct masses. By the progressive condensation of 
these masses of chaotic material towards certain centres of 
attraction have been formed the innumerable stars. Their 
incandescence comes from the heat developed during the 
process of their formation. Their stock of heat is limited, 
and ultimately they will go out. 
Among all the infinitely distinct systems which have 
arisen by the consideration of this primeval chaos our Solar 
System may be regarded as a quite special case. The 
original nebula whence it was formed was spherical and 
homogeneous. As it became separated from other parts it 
took on traces of a slow vertical movement. These move- 
ments soon regulated themselves in virtue of that peculiar 
law of internal gravitation due to its form and homogeneity. 
Nebular rings were formed in the same plane long before 
the appearance of a central condensation. They produced 
the nebular masses, which also moved around their common 
centre in the same direction and in circular orbits. 
The secondary systems formed in the same manner within 
this nebula may be sharply divided into two classes, — those 
which preceded the formation of the Sun, and which revolve 
on their axes in a “ direCt ” manner, and the most remote 
secondary systems which were formed after the Sun, and 
which revolve in the retrograde direction. These striking 
phenomena presented by our Solar System are doubtless a 
rare exception in the universe, though they are merely the 
natural consequences of the original conditions and of the 
laws of mechanics. 
With full right does M. Faye point to the importance of 
the proposition that the Earth is much older than the Sun. 
We cannot help, in passing, referring to the agreement of 
this view with the Mosaic cosmogony and with other ancient 
traditions. 
But to the biologist, and we think we may say to the 
geologist also, the new hypothesis and its consequences 
must be much more satisfactory than that of Laplace. 
VOL. VII. (THIRD SERIES). 
R 
