Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation | Page 3

the regions of space. They have found within the limits of our astral system, and generally in its outer fields, a great number of objects which, from their foggy appearance, are called nebulae; some of vast extent and irregular figure, as that in the sword of Orion, which is visible to the naked eye; others of shape more defined; others, again, in which small bright nuclei appear here and there over the surface. Between this last form and another class of objects, which appear as clusters of nuclei with nebulous matter around each nucleus, there is but a step in what appears a chain of related things. Then, again, our astral space shews what are called nebulous stars,--namely, luminous spherical objects, bright in the centre and dull towards the extremities. These appear to be only an advanced condition of the class of objects above described. Finally, nebulous stars exist in every stage of concentration, down to that state in which we see only a common star with a slight BUR around it. It may be presumed that all these are but stages in a progress, just as if, seeing a child, a boy, a youth, a middle-aged, and an old man together, we might presume that the 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 diminution of density, from the one nearest to the sun to that which is most distant. With respect to density alone, we find, taking water as a measure and counting it as one, that Saturn is 13/32, or less than half; Jupiter, 1 1/24; Mars, 3 2/7; Earth, 4 1/2; Venus, 5 11/15; Mercury 9 9/10, or about the weight of lead. Then the distances are curiously relative. It has been found that if we place the following line of numbers, -
0 3 6 12 24 48 96 192,
and add 4 to each, we shall have a series denoting the respective distances of the planets from the sun. It will stand thus -
4 7 10 16 28 52 100 196 Merc. Venus. Earth. Mars. Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus.
It will be observed that the first row of figures goes on from the second on the left hand in a succession of duplications, or multiplications by 2. Surely there is here a most surprising proof of the unity which I am claiming for the solar system. It was remarked when this curious relation was first detected, that there was a want of a planet corresponding to 28; the difficulty was afterwards considered as in a great measure overcome, by the discovery of four small planets revolving at nearly one mean distance from the sun, between Mars and Jupiter. The distances bear an equally interesting mathematical relation to the times of the revolutions round the sun. It has been found that, with respect to any two planets, the squares of the times of revolution are to each other in the same proportion as the cubes of their mean distances,--a most surprising result, for the discovery of which the world was indebted to the illustrious Kepler. Sir