each nucleus or sun round its axis produces centrifugal force; that
force, by refrigeration, increases beyond the centripetal force of
gravity; in consequence rings are formed and detached from the surface,
whose unequal coherence of parts mostly causes them to break into
separate masses or planets, partaking of the motion of the bodies from
which they have been separated, and these primaries in their turn
becoming centres of gravitation and centrifugal force, throw off their
secondaries, or _moons_.

In this way the solar system and other systems upon a similar plan of
arrangement, it is conjectured, may have been formed. According to the
author the generative process is still in progress, and new worlds are
in course of being thrown off from new suns in the confines of creation.
These nebulous stars on the outer bounds of space, of varying forms and
brightness, are supposed to be the centres of new systems in different
stages of development, like children of various ages and growth in a
numerous family. This is the author's own illustration (p. 20), and
after giving it he proceeds:--

"Precisely thus, seeing in our astral system many thousands of
worlds in all stages of formation, from the most rudimental to that
immediately preceding the present condition of those we deem
perfect, it is unavoidable to conclude that all the perfect have
gone through the various stages which we see in the rudimental.
This leads us at once to the conclusion that the whole of our
firmament was at one time a diffused mass of nebulous matter,
extending through the space which it still occupies. So also, of
_course_, must have been the other astral systems. Indeed, we must
presume the whole to have been originally in one connected mass,
the astral systems being only the first division into parts, and