relating to the Construction of the Heavens. 319 
distance, no degree of rarity of the nebulous matter, to which 
we may have recourse, can be any objection to the solidity 
required for the construction of a body of equal magnitude 
with our sun,* 
A circumstance which allies these very compressed nebulae 
to the character of many of our well known celestial bodies, 
such as some of the planets and their satellites, the sun and 
all periodical stars, is that very probably most, if not all of 
them, turn on their axes. Seven of the ten I have mentioned 
are not perfectly round, but a very little elliptical. Ought we 
not to ascribe this figure to the same cause which has flattened 
the polar diameter of the planets, namely, a rotatory motion? 
At the end of the 26th article I have already pointed out 
one configuration of the nebulous matter, of which the final 
condensation seems to be properly disposed for bringing on a 
rotatcry motion of the nucleus ; but, if we consider this matter 
in a general light, it appears that every figure which is not 
already globular must have eccentric nebulous matter, which 
in its endeavour to come to the center, will either dislodge 
some of the nebulosity which is already deposited, or slide upon 
it sideways, and in both cases produce a circular motion ; so 
that in fact we can hardly suppose a possibility of the produc- 
tion of a globular form without a consequent revolution of the 
nebulous matter, which in the end may settle in a regular ro- 
tation about some fixed axis. Many of the extended, and 
irregular nebulae are considerably elliptical, and the irregular 
* A cubical space, the side of which at the distance of a star of the 8th magni- 
tude is seen under an angle of io', exceeds the bulk of the sun (22086000000000000^0),.. 
two trillion and 208 thousand billion times. 
