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Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation by Robert Chambers
page 6 of 265 (02%)
whole were only variations of one being. Are we to suppose that we
have got a glimpse of the process through which a sun goes between
its original condition, as a mass of diffused nebulous matter, and
its full-formed state as a compact body? We shall see how far such
an idea is supported by other things known with regard to the
occupants of space, and the laws of matter.

A superficial view of the astronomy of the solar system gives us only
the idea of a vast luminous body (the sun) in the centre, and a few
smaller, though various sized bodies, revolving at different
distances around it; some of these, again, having smaller planets
(satellites) revolving around them. There are, however, some general
features of the solar system, which, when a profounder attention
makes us acquainted with them, strike the mind very forcibly.

It is, in the first place, remarkable, that the planets all move
nearly IN ONE PLANE, corresponding with the centre of the sun's body.
Next, it is not less remarkable that the motion of the sun on its
axis, those of the planets around the sun, and the satellites around
their primaries, {9} and the motions of all on their axes, are IN ONE
DIRECTION--namely, from west to east. Had all these matters been
left to accident, the chances against the uniformity which we find
would have been, though calculable, inconceivably great. Laplace
states them at four millions of millions to one. It is thus
powerfully impressed on us, that the uniformity of the motions, as
well as their general adjustment to one plane, must have been a
consequence of some cause acting throughout the whole system.

Some of the other relations of the bodies are not less remarkable.
The primary planets shew a progressive increase of bulk and
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