in those instances, be sufficiently great. Such was probably the
case with the two rings around the body of Saturn, which remain a
living picture of the arrangement, if not the condition, in which all
the planetary masses at one time stood. It may also be admitted
that, when a ring broke up, it was possible that the fragments might
spherify separately. Such seems to be the actual history of the ring
between Jupiter and Mars, in whose place we now find four planets
much beneath the smallest of the rest in size, and moving nearly at
the same distance from the sun, though in orbits so elliptical, and
of such different planes, that they keep apart.

It has been seen that there are mathematical proportions in the
relative distances and revolutions of the planets of our system. It
has also been suggested that the periods in the condensation of the
nebulous mass, at which rings were disengaged, must have depended on
some particular crises in the condition of that mass, in connexion
with the laws of centrifugal force and attraction. M. Compte, of
Paris, has made some approach to the verification of the hypothesis,
by calculating what ought to have been the rotation of the solar mass
at the successive times when its surface extended to the various
planetary orbits. He ascertained that THAT ROTATION CORRESPONDED IN
EVERY CASE WITH THE ACTUAL SIDEREAL REVOLUTION OF THE PLANETS, AND
THAT THE ROTATION OF THE PRIMARY PLANETS IN LIKE MANNER CORRESPONDED
WITH THE ORBITUAL PERIODS OF THE SECONDARIES. The process by which
he arrived at this conclusion is not to be readily comprehended by
the unlearned; but those who are otherwise, allow that it is a
powerful support to the present hypothesis of the formation of the
globes of space. {17}

The nebular hypothesis, as it has been called, obtains a remarkable