indebted to the illustrious Kepler. Sir John Herschel truly
observes--"When we contemplate the constituents of the planetary
system from the point of view which this relation affords us, it is
no longer mere analogy which strikes us, no longer a general
resemblance among them, as individuals independent of each other, and
circulating about the sun, each according to its own peculiar nature,
and connected with it by its own peculiar tie. The resemblance is
now perceived to be a true FAMILY LIKENESS; they are bound up in one
chain--interwoven in one web of mutual relation and harmonious
agreement, subjected to one pervading influence which extends from
the centre to the farthest limits of that great system, of which all
of them, the Earth included, must henceforth be regarded as members."
{12}

Connecting what has been observed of the series of nebulous stars
with this wonderful relationship seen to exist among the constituents
of our system, and further taking advantage of the light afforded by
the ascertained laws of matter, modern astronomers have suggested the
following hypothesis of the formation of that system.

Of nebulous matter in its original state we know too little to enable
us to suggest how nuclei should be established in it. But, supposing
that, from a peculiarity in its constitution, nuclei are formed, we
know very well how, by virtue of the law of gravitation, the process
of an aggregation of the neighbouring matter to those nuclei should
proceed, until masses more or less solid should become detached from
the rest. It is a well-known law in physics that, when fluid matter
collects towards or meets in a centre, it establishes a rotatory
motion. See minor results of this law in the whirlwind and the
whirlpool--nay, on so humble a scale as the water sinking through the