IV. THE PERIOD FROM LAPLACE TO THE PRESENT
TIMES.
Idea of IN the age of Newton it may be truly said the gre
Cosmos
from the principle of cosinical order and unity of worlds coul
Newtonian
discoverim by no means be held to have been completely estab1i8hed or
demonstrated, however perceptible to he eye of philosophical analogy. The broad
idea might" have been seized upon by some few of great compre ~ hensive and
contemplative genius; but the full de e , lopment and detailed proof of the
truth could not be~ said to have been attained or accomplished, even in. regard
to our system, till the researches of Clairault: had removed the obvious
outstanding difficulties of the, lunax theory; and the grand truths deduced
theoreti~" cally from one and the same great principle of gravi ~ Stability
of tation, announced by Laplace and Lagrange, ha4; the plane reduced the
planetary inequalities to fixed order; an
tary systern.
by demonstrating that they must be all periodic
FSSAY 1. tV.] S19CCFSSORS OF NEWTON. 143
assured the perpetual stability of the system, so that its very
irregularities are all regular, its aberrations recur in successive cycles, its
deviations are but oscillations, 11 Immense pendulums of eternity," says
Pontecoulant, 11 which beat ages as ours beat seconds! "
The great importance of the discovery of the stability of the solar system
" cannot be too highly estimated, whether in regard to its scientific
magnitude and difficulty, or to its essential bearing on the principle of 11
Cosmos," from the disastrous consequences which would result from the
accumulative effects of secular (or non periodic) irregulaxities. I cannot
better sum up the subject than in the concluding words of a passage in which the
first historian of astronomy in our age gives the most condensed, yet luminous,
detailed and masterly, yet clear and popular, abstract of the entire
investigation: 11 The laws which thus regulate the eccentricities and
inclinations of the planetary orbits, combined with the invariability of the
mean distances, secure the permanence of the solar system throughout an
indeflnite lapse of ages, and offer to us an impressive indication of the
supreme intelligence which presides
6~ ments." I
French
philosophy and scepticism.
HISTORICAL *SKFTCH.
over nature, and perpetuates her beneficent arrange;;"'
The great and rapid advances made in the mathe ', matical and physical
sciences, in France, during the latter part of the eighteenth and beginning of
the,, present century, have been universally acknowledge1 But it was also
notoriously the fact 'that almost simultaneously an extensive profession of
scepticism" in religion, and even of atheism, took place in that,"'
country. It is, however, abundantly evident that the great majority of those
writers who advocate& irreligious principles were not mathematicians 'or
physical philosophers, but men of literature, metaphysiciani; and politicians.
Nevertheless it has been the practice with some poxties indiscriminately to set
down all the astronomers and men ~of science in France as Atheists, and to.
allege as the ground that in their mathematical and scientific writings they'
Omitted all reference to theological considerations, ',, a charge to which its
absurdity affords a sufficient', reply.
I Grant's 11 History of Physical Astronomy," London, 1852, P. 56~, I am
glad to take this opportunity of acknowledging how much I am' indebted to this
masterly work in many parts of the present sketch.
ESSAY 1. § IV.] LAPLACE.
145
A scientific treatise on any branch, even if it be' one which affords the
most striking evidences of order and design, is perfectly complete without
alluding to that inference; and when the reader cannot but make that inference
it is infinitely stronger in proportion as it does not appear to have been
specially contemplated in the method of argument, or urged upon him by the
author.
The French writers on science have been remarkable for preserving clearly and
justly this division and distinction of departments. , And when we add the
consideration that most of these works were produced under the profession of the
Roman Catholic faith, which has always reposed on a basis independent of
reasoning or evidence, which it even repudiates as inevitably leading to
unbelief, we have a sufficient explanation (were it needed) of the omission of
reflections or arguments of a theological kind in works devoted to mathematical
and aafronomical calculation or physical research., It has been a peculiarly
protestant prejudice to be everywhere looking for arguments and proofs in
support of faith; and might easily be construed into a confession of its
weakness.
L
0MINdon (if firw 9GUM no 4dw In 1"".
I
146
111STORICA.L SKETCH. [ESSAY T § TV
Views of To take a single instance: Laplace has been
gret
Laplace.
commented on with a marked expression of re (in the review of his great work
by Playfairl) be ill,
ounding the grand principle of the!'
cause in exp stability of the planetary system, and the remarkable
combinations of conditions in the orbits and masses~,,~, on which it depends5 he
did not make the slighte6.. ) reference to final causes; c the only
blemish," thd~, critic observes 46 we have to remark in his admirable'
work." The omission, he admits, might have arise from supposed irrelevancy
to the immediate subjectil, or the like motives; but he adds his own convicti
that it would have been but a legitimate subject inquiry, as to these
conditions, 11 whether any planation of them can be given, and whether not
referable to a mechanical cause, they may n be ascribed to intelligence."
This sentence exhibits at once a proof of the depth," the impression
alluded to even in such a mind as of Playfair; and an indication of the
influence of w in the present state of the inquiry, must be see be merely the
old and narrow prejudice of opp,
Playfair's Works, iv. 319 ; or Edinb. Rev. vol. xi. 1808.
Final catLses.
Essay 1. § IV.] LAPLACE.
I
mechanical causes to intelligence. If the arrange. ments alluded to could be
shown to be the results of sti 11 higher mechanical causes, it would but furnish
a still higher proof of intelligence instead of being antagonistic to it;
mechanism is the very exponent of mind. It has been so often repeated as to be
generally believed that this omission of reference to Divine design in the work
of Laplace was objected by Napoleon to the author; who simply replied, 11 1 had.
no need to adopt that hypothesis; " in fact the most truly philosophical
answer, since to adopt it would have been preposterously to found science on
faith.
Laplace in his 11 Essai Philosophique sur les Probabilit6s" (1795) has
entered at large into the disaw cussion of testimony as applied to extraordinary
and supposed supernatural events. The calculation of the value of te stimany as
an abstract point, is of course easily reducible to mathematical expressions. It
is, however, only in reference to the consideration of alleged events so
intrinsically improbable that Do testimony can counterbalance their abstraot
incredibility, that he refers incidentally to the constancy of the laws of
nature as a paramount law of belief.' ffi
'TeSUMOMY i
and the Ow pernatuat
EssA,Y 1. § IV.] LAPLACE.
148
HISTORICAL SKETCH. [Es. . I. ~ ~
afterwards instances the miracles of the holy thorn at port Royal, a ad
laments the credulity of such men as Racine and Pascal in asserting them; and o
Locke in maintaining generally, supernatural interposition, when he believed the
necessity for it would
render it credible.
He goes into some other considerations
as to the
necessary weakening of all testimony and destruction of records with the
progress of time, and mentions the singular conclusion of the able but eccentric
English mathematician Craig 1, who, in applying calculation to the evidences of
Christianity, inferred that the world would end when the probability f the truth
of Christianity should in this way become exhausted as it were by old age, a
period which his calculation fixes in A.D. 3150.
In Laplace's views it is remarkable how entirely the calculating mind of the
great mathematician fixes, itself almost exclusively on the value of
testimony.,'~ He does not put forth in due prominence the broa& principle of
universal order and physical constancy,` which afford so far higher a ground
from whence to,!,,~,
I Essai, . &e. p. 85. His singular work is entitled "Theologim
Christianx Principia, Mathernatica," 1699.
view the whole question; a principle which he had himself borne so
conspicuous a share in establishing, and of which the same essay I contains some
remark Nebwar able illustrations in sketches of his cosmical specula theory.
tions. The motions of all the planets, rings, and satellites (those of Uranus
being then undetermined), both orbital and rotatory, in one direction, and
nearly in one plane, and with orbits of very small eccentricity, compared
especially with the case of comets, where opposite conditions prevail, form a
continuous system of effects, which could only be due to one distinct primitive
cause.
Hence he reasoned, especially from the combined considerations of the
nebulous zodiacal light mass, and the internal heat of the earth, to the
conception of the nebular theory, and the idea that in the process of
consolidation the common impulse may have been communicated. Such an hypothesis,
however conjectural, was of course set down by many as nothing less than a
deliberate system of atheism.
In like manner it has been generally stated that many of the other eminent
French astronomers,
I Essai, &e. p. 118, ed. 1814; more fully in his "Expos. du Syst6rnr
du Monde."
L 3
HISTORICAL SKETCH.[ESSAY 1. 1 1W.
mathematicians, and physicists, about the period in
question, adopted irreligious views; in many 'inA~
stances, on little evidence beyond such as has b
just described. Al k
Yet, in some cases, the charge was certainly better,"" justified. .
The astronomer Lalande is ssaid ttoo hhav declared that W the heavens he could
find no trace'.~, of a Deity; though this is after all no more than'o has been
asserted by many theologians.'
Lalande was, however, undeniably the friend find associate of Voltaire; and
with other men of science joined in the work of the celebrated "Encyclo.',
pedia," among whom one of the most eminent was, D'Alembert.
The indications which this transcendent mathe,; matician gave of his
sceptical views in religion,~ appear almost entirely in his correspondence; an
they would seem to have been rather of that clast dependent on general
estimation of moral evidene" than on any positive physical generalisation.
R intimate friend, the Abb6 La Harpe, has describ his ideas summarily by saying,
11 He only thoug
I See 11 Oxford Essays," No. v. 1857
. ESSAY L § TV.] DALEMBERT.
151
41 the probabilities were in favour of theism, and 11 against revelation. . .
. He tolerated all opinions; cc and this disposition made him think the
intolerable
arrogance of the atheists odious and unbearable. I do not think he ever
printed a sentence which marks either hatred or contempt of religion."
But we must fairly view the opinions of such men on theoloo, cal subjects as
having been framed with
0i
,reference to the narrow dogmatic creed professed
among their contemporaries, and under a dominant ecclesiastical system,
against which they felt a not unreasonable hostility, and as having probably
little (relation to any higher conceptions.
At this particulax conjuncture too there were
other and far more stirring causes in operation to produce a violent
revulsion of opinions than those merely due to calm philosophical speculation,
and
into the vortex of which men of science were sometimes drawn rather in spite
of their philosophy than in consequence of it.
The indirect influence of advancing conceptions of Indirect influence
the,grand principle of the uniformity of nature, and of physical views.
the indissoluble chain of physical causes, has mani
fested itself occasionally inmore enlarged minds not
152
HISTORICAL SKETCH. [ESSLY 1. 04
habitually directed to physical pursuits; and whe*
e*
we find indications of such ideas in the writings a classical and
philosophical historian, we In nevertheless regret a tendency not sufficiently'
discriminate between the legitimate view of physicA, order and the independence
of spiritual truth, whieLl
04 indeed, the accepted theology of past ages tended 41' confound together.
The following expressions of Gibbon will exempli this remark: 11 The laws of
nature were frequentl suspended for the benefit of the Church." I He
also,~, observes in another place, 11 In modern times a latent, 6' and even
involuntary, scepticism adheres to the~ 11 most pious dispositions. Their
admission of super : 11 natural truths is much less an active consent than a 11
cold and passive obedience. Accustomed long sinc 11 to observe and to respect
the invariable order of,, 11 nature, our reason, or at least our imagination,
is" 11 not sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible actim, 11 of the
Deity."' i
These expressions, while they convey philosophi convictions of physical
causation, imply a want o
I Decline and Fall, ch. xv. vol. li. p. 194, ed. 1825. 2 Ibid. p. 147.
ESSAy xv.] PROGR
ESS OF COMICAL VIEWS. 153
clear discrimination between 11 supernatural truths?' of the spiritual world,
and alleged supernatural events in the material, which are wholly distinct.
The beginning of the present century (as before Proveas of
cosmical noticed) witnessed the completion of the triumph of views.
the system of gravitation in solving and reconciling all the seeming
anomalies and outstanding difficulties
of the lunar and planetary motions, consummated at the present day, in regard
to those of Uranus, by the discovery of an exterior disturbing planet, predicted
by the calculations of Leverrier and Adams, and verified by the telescopes of
GaIM and Challis. More minute supplementary enlargements in the details of
mutual attractions axe still from time to time demanded, as new and minute
inequalities axe
detected, and both observation and theory go on hand in hand continually
increasing in precision of
detail and amplification of developement, in that perfect accordance which
can alone spring from real sources profoundly seated in the nature of things.
To these riaust be added the extension of the order Extension of grsvitaof
our system by the. discovery of new membersi all tion.
obedient to its one law, satellites of Neptune, Sattirn, and Uranus, observed
by Lassell and Bond; the
154
HISTORICAL SKETCH. [ESSAY 1. *i
whole ring of planetoids circulating in what nkaltl
truly be called a nebulous mass between h b t*~
t e 1T of Jupiter and Mars, all controlled by gravitatio: 7~j now also proved
to extend even to the incalculably'~, remote systems of double and multiple
stars; and, probably also influencing the motion of the com_",~, ponent
parts of nebula , surriaised from their spiraL forms exhibited by the gigantic
reflector of Lord, Rosse, and exemplified in our own region by motion of our sun
with his attendant system, doubti', less orbital, among the fixed stars, the
members of ', our cluster,. a revolution in which those other members all very
probably partake.
On our own globe, again, that amid the imme so, complication of conditions
which affect the tide. many local points in their theory are as yet inco plete,
can neither excite surprise, nor sanction an doubt of the principle.
Besides these grand mechanical laws and theori there are wide fields of
inquiry of a more pur physical kind, to which increasing attention is co
tinually being devoted, giving rise to an imme multiplication of new
investigations, and even,, entire new departments of experimental inquiry.
ESSAY 1. § IV.]
UNM OF NATURE.
155
The first positive physical evidence of the orbital motion of the earth (from
which its rotation is a consequence), obtained from the discovery of the
aberration of light of the stars (due to that motion combined with the
progressive propagation of light) by Bradley (17271), has been followed out in
our own day by the mechanical proofs of its rotation furnished by the ingenious
experiments of Foucault (1850 54.)
But in a more extended degree it has been re Connection and conserved to our
own times to connect the properly tinuity of sciences.
mechanical views, which reach to the remotest regions of the visible
universe, with the study of the physical agencies at work within the range of
our experimental knowledge; to prove the propagation of light from the depths of
space to our organs by an unvaried succession of inconceivably minute vibrations
with direct physical evidence of its velocity; the electricity of comets; the
magnetic influence of the sun; to caxry out the vast range of investigations
belonging to terrestrial and atmospheric physics, by which even storms are
beginning to be reduced to law; above all, to evince the continuity of physical
causes through the expanse of past time by geological
156
'i` '7
6 '
ESSAY, 1. § XV I CHEMISTRY. PRIESTLEY. 157
HISTORICAL SKETCH. [ESSAY 1.
research ; as through the immensity of space by the
extension of stellar and nebular astronomy; throu94
the minutest forms of life by microscopic animalo*s
cular physiology; and through subdivisions infinitel
smaller in the system of atoms, invisible to any~'
microscope by following out the laws of chemidal,
combination. %A
I "
Chemistry Chemistry undeniably took its rise out of thi
and alchemy. labours of the alchemists. Some very rational phil sophers have
maintained, on sound principles, th possibility of a change of properties, when
so close allied as those which distinguish the metals. B, alchemy was
essentially mystical: and the objection it was not that (like the attempts at
perpetual inotiow, it aimed at an object, in itself physically absurd
impossible, but that it sought that object by mea alien from those of any sound
principles of science, it looked to secrets hidden from all but favoure adepts;
it appealed to means of success connect with the invisible and supernatural; it
hoped accomplish the discovery of truths in nature talismanic agency beyond
nature, and to acquAre dominion over matter by the interposition of spi
Hence the incompatibility of such pursuits with real physical progress.
But even after chemistry had emerged from the Phlogliton. dreams of the
alchemists, and the ineffectual accumu1~66ns of the empirics, in one of its
earlier phases, the theory of Phlogiston furnishes a further exemplification of
the predominance of mysticism. . And when eminent men on either side disputed
the question, the point peculiarly to be noticed was the fundamental deficiency
of any idea of what Phlogiston was suppo8ed to be. We properly talk of
electricity, of gravitation, or even of wther, as physical agents, whose nature
is indeed unknown, but which are precisely definable in their effects; but
Phlogiston, no one of its advocates could define even by its properties. It was
simply an instance of the lingering dominion of mysticism over science, which
the progress of induction was not yet sufficiently developed to cast off.
I In connection with chemistry, we cannot omit the Priestley. name of
Priestley, who was at once one of the most distinguished extenders of the
boundaries of the science, and also remarkable for the boldness of his
theological opinions. His intellectual character was, however, marked by
extraordinary singularity and
158
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
[EssAy 1. I'li.
0 i
inconsistency: " nemo unquam sic impax sibi"' ln4 with truth be
applied to him. His science ap
p
to have been as little consistent with itself as bb
theology. He made the grandest advances in pn
matic chemistry, and may be said even to
created the science, yet he firmly believed ii
Phlogiston and upheld it against advancing eviden*
In theology, he attacked Gibbon, and denoun
Hume, with the most orthodox animosity as
champion of Christianity, while he disowned most
its received doctrines; he believed in propheci
but rejected mysteries; he saw in the events
modern Europe the fulfilment of the predictions
the Old Testament, yet explained away the doctf.
of the New; he rejected the divinity of Christ,
devoutly expected his real bodily return to reign
eaxth 1 ; such incoherencies of genius are, howe
always instructive.
Origin of We before noticed the degree to which the spe
geology. lations of antiquity, relative to geological or cos
gonical ques ons, were mixed up with mytholo
I See Lord Brougham's Is Lives of Men of Literature and Scie
pp. 413, 419, 42:3.
4
EssAy 1, § iv.] PROGRESS OF GEOLOGY.
159
visions. And it has been seen to how great an extent, even in more modern
times, the whole progress of investigation on this subject has been beset by
hindrances, arising out of theological views; rather, we might almost say, the
science of geology has emanated out of certain points of theological belief, for
which men thought they had found proofs in physical facts which, however, they
had entirely misinterpreted. By slow degrees, and in full and constant
antagonism to such prepossessions, has the free and real interpretation of those
facts struggled and fought its way to acceptance.
In earlier times, the few bolder inquirers who mystical views.
ventured to use their own understanding, and to appeal independently to
inductive evidence, yet always thought it necessary to pay homage to the
prejudices of the day, by assuming a tone.of apologetic respect; while the many
who pursued such speculations did so solely in a spirit of entire subserviency
to the received creed, and on the avowed principle of valuing every discovery as
it seemed to support that creed, and suppressing or distorting it if it seemed
of contrary tendency. We have before adverted to some instances of this kind;
but among
160 HISTORICAL SKETCH. [ESSAY L
these we have also acknowledged the more independent researches of a few.
Thus, following in the steps', of Lister, Hooke, and Leibnitz, we find at a
la*,1 period Michell, and some few others, but more pre o I
eminently Hutton, standing forth on the same high',,., philosophical ground.
Such men, labouring on such,"' principles, could not fail to encounter the
full force of hostile prejudice which was engendere y t
continual existence of the same bigoted s i t unde, Protestantism which had
displayed itself uDd
Romanism; with only this difference, that in the' former case it is more
inexcusable, as being more,!' preposterously inconsistent with a system
wholly" founded on free inquiry. The Romanists oppose&, the motion of
the earth as contrary to the dogma
an infallible Church; the Protestants denounced i antiquity as contrary to
the infallibility of t,, Hebrew Scriptures. In neither case, however, coul these
erroneous ideas be dispelled but by the ad vance of better perceptions of the
distinct n
A + Of science and of Christia
provinces an Obi
of physical and of spiritual truth.
It is, however, undeniable that by fax the gre
English
geological body of English writers on these subjects, even do., writers.
ESSAi L § IV.] PROGRESS OF GEOLOGY. 16t
to our own times, when they did enter on any real physical investigation,
evinced a complete subserviency to theological ideas, though framing hypotheses,
or even professedly investigating. facts on principles supposed to be
philosophical. They assumed the Scripture narrative as literal revealed truth,
and then sought confirmation of it in natural facts; while yet they would only
allow those facts to be interpreted in conformity to Scripture! Yet such has
been the infatuation from the days of Whiston and Catcott down to. those who in
more recent times have cultivated geology on principles which they founded on
faith and yet called them science.
The evidence of the true influence and progress Pure in
ductivp of philosophical principles in this grand department principles
Of foreign of science grand in itself but more transcendently geologists so
in relation to the 11 Cosmos," as carrying back the dominion of physical
law through the abysses of past time, in its earlier stages, was found where
perhaps we illight least have looked for it among the Italian writers. The
mantle of Galileo descended in some measure on Vallisneri and Moro, and more
amply on Ge nerelli, though a Carmelite monk. The two former adopted perfectly
rational theories, as far as
M
I See Lyell's 11 Principles of GeologY," ch. ii
162
TITSTORICIL SKETCH. [EssAy L 1 *4
they went, of the causes of geological phenome:, then known (1721 1746). Yet
Moro tried tc his views to the six days, but GenereWs " Illustr tions of
Moro' (1749) display the true philosophil", spirit. He protests, in the
first instance, against tIX4 introduction of supernatural agency, and undertak
to explain the phenomena c, without violence, without fiction, without
hypothesis, and witho miracles." How these Italian philosophers escaped the
In sition it is difficult to imagine, especially as the far" less bold
speculations of Buffon brought ddoown o him the visitation of the Sorbonne, and
necessitated
a recantation.
Recent influence on the English school.
EssAx 1. 0.3 PROGRESS'OF GEOLOOY.
However, we here perceive perhaps the first gr4"" advance in true
philosophical ideas of geology, an, the anticipation and prototype of the real
inductiv independent views of Hutton, and Lyell, und the vivifying influence of
whose principles the Engli school of geologists is but now beginning to cast the
lingering remnants of its hereditary bondage, mystical paroxysms, occasional
recurrences of ch
163
and creation, subversions and renewals of the order of nature, and miraculous
originations of new species out of nothing: In a word, the spirit of invoking
the supernatural to cover our ignorance of natural causes, and then ungratefully
discarding its aid whenever natural causes are found sufficient.
Such tendencies in English cultivators of science their continental fellow
labourers have been too polite to ridicule otherwise than by justly boasting
their own freedom from 11 semitic influences."
But so wide has the diffusion of a knowledge of geology now become, that the
juster view of the case is beginning to be extensively appreciated, and perhaps
even more eagerly taken up among thinking and inquiring men, though not
practical geologists, who have brought unprepossessed minds to the examination
of the subject.
The advance of information on such points is forcibly illustrated in the
deeply instructive narrative of Prof. F. W. Newman', who relates his surprise,
at, an early stage of his progress, on hearing Dr. Arnold declare the narrative
of the Deluge to be mythical,
I rbases of Faitb, p. 110, Ist ed.
~10,
164
HISTORICAL SKETCH. (ESSAY 1. 1 m
and the Mosaic cosmogony to be of no real impor~
tance to the Christian faith. Indeed in the existing;~,
state of opinions, from the extensive consequeneek,
entailed, affecting the entire popular conception
the design and application of Scripture, the diffusiorr
of such views must eventually create an epoch in
theology hardly less marked than that of the Refor
mation.'
Cosmical The progress of cometary astronomy has been al ,
view of
comets. ready noticed as destructive of the superstitious no.`~,
tions associated with those bodies in earlier times, and
even down to a later period; but at the present day.
more important are the contemplations opened to us
by the view of such vast aerial substances of a diffuse,
consistence, still retaining coherence and obeying the
law of planetary motion, when even far beyond the,
utmost limits of our system, where, nevertheless, sol
gravitation is thus proved to extend; many of the
being also drawn into our system from incalculabl",
depths of space: while, as to their vast number
(more than 200 having orbits calculated,) we m6#
well agoree with Kepler, that there are 11 as many
I See ~, Christianity without Judaism."
'ESSAY 1. § rV.] NE13ULAR THEORY.
165
the universe, as fishes in the sea." Such reflection$ cannot fail to
exalt our conception of the enormous powers existing in nature, but in all their
vastness still controlled by the supremacy of law, order, and mind.
The study of these remarkable bodies is not un connection with nebuconnected
with more theoretical views of cosmical lar theory. arrangements. They have been
regarded as the remaining representatives of the older nebulous state of things,
which has passed away by the gradual condensation of matter originally in this
form, into solid planets, from which these highly rarefied portions of the
original mass have escaped. Yet these bodies, whose fittest terrestrial
representation may be found in the assemblage of 11 gay motes which people the
sunbeams," occupy vast spaces, the tails of some of them stretching over
the whole extent of planetary distances: again, we observe the zodiacal light
mass filling the entire area of the eartYs orbit:
the singular system of nebulous planetary comets of short periods, of which
five members with aphelion distances ranging only a little beyond the orbit of
Jupiter, have now been verified; and whose mean distance so remarkably coincides
with that of the planetoids; of these latter probably vast numbers
166
HISTORICAL SKETCH. CEESAY 1.
exist; every successive application of higher We ', scopic power rendering
more of them visible though,%
:T doubtless the mass are below all possible visibilityl,', we have also
those innumerable multitudes of me~,',' teoric bodies, which axe so probably
conceived to", revolve in rings aggregated in more truly nebulous masses,
and yet regulax members of the cosmical:", group, occasionally attracted to
the earth: phe v nomena which all tend to carry our thoughts back~'~ to the
period when the solid planets the larger of them of so small density may have
been consolidated out of the nebulous mass into which the primitive heat had
vaporised all cosmical matter, in,", which all kinds of thermal and
electric agencies
poducing opposing motions would by consequence, r generate rotations; a state
of heat of which ourl~ , earth at least still exhibits the effects in its
cooled',~ crust and its internal fusion, at such depths as freely admit of its
occasional manifestation at, the surface.
Speculations founded on these principl ~s are of course hypothetical; but
guided by just aualogies,~ theytend to connect ourview of the present with' the
past, and afford a uniting link between urano " graphy and the past history
of the earth disclosed by geology.
