going on, tending to produce a separation from what may now be termed
the SOLIDIFYING CRUST. During the contention between the attractions
of these two bodies, or parts of one body, there would probably be a
ring of attenuation between the mass and its crust. At length, when
the central mass had reached a certain stage in its advance towards
solidification, a separation would take place, and the crust would
become a detached ring. It is clear, of course, that some law
presiding over the refrigeration of heated gaseous bodies would
determine the stages at which rings were thus formed and detached.
We do not know any such law, but what we have seen assures us it is
one observing and reducible to mathematical formulae.

If these rings consisted of matter nearly uniform throughout, they
would probably continue each in its original form; but there are many
chances against their being uniform in constitution. The unavoidable
effects of irregularity in their constitution would be to cause them
to gather towards centres of superior solidity, by which the annular
form would, of course, be destroyed. The ring would, in short, break
into several masses, the largest of which would be likely to attract
the lesser into itself. The whole mass would then necessarily settle
into a spherical form by virtue of the law of gravitation; in short,
would then become a planet revolving round the sun. Its rotatory
motion would, of course, continue, and satellites might then be
thrown off in turn from its body in exactly the same way as the
primary planets had been thrown off from the sun. The rule, if I can
be allowed so to call it, receives a striking support from what
appear to be its exceptions. While there are many chances against
the matter of the rings being sufficiently equable to remain in the
annular form till they were consolidated, it might nevertheless be
otherwise in some instances; that is to say, the equableness might,