Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation by Robert Chambers
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page 6 of 265 (02%)
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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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