Laplace proposes, it is not yet proved, we believe, that the arrangement would be stable, under the influence of the disturbing forces. And we may add that such an arrangement, in which the motion of one body has a coordinate reference to two others, as the motion of the moon on this hypothesis would have to the sun and the earth, neither motion being subordinate to the other, is contrary to the whole known analogy of cosmical phenomena, and therefore has no claim to our notice as a subject of discussion.

2. In turning our consideration to the satellites of the other planets of our system, there is one fact which immediately arrests our attention;the number of such attendant bodies appears to increase as we proceed to planets farther and farther from the sun. Such at least is the general rule. Mercury and Venus, the planets nearest the sun, have no such attendants, the Earth has one. Mars, indeed, who is still farther removed, has none; nor have the minor planets, Juno, Vesta, Ceres, Pallas; so that the rule is only approximately verified. But Jupiter, who is at five times the earth's distance, has four satellites; and Saturn, who is again at a distance nearly twice as great, has seven, besides that most extraordinary phenomenon his ring, which, for purposes of illumination, is equivalent to many thousand satellites. Of Uranus it is difficult to speak, for his great distance renders it almost im

possible to observe the smaller circumstances of his condition. It does not appear at all probable that he has a ring, like Saturn; but he has at least five satellites which are visible to us, at the enormous distance of 900 millions of miles; and we believe that the astronomer will hardly deny that he may possibly have thousands of smaller ones circulating about him.

But leaving conjecture, and taking only the ascertained cases of Venus, the Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, we conceive that a person of common understanding will be strongly impressed with the persuasion that the satellites are placed in the system with a view to compensate for the diminished light of the sun at greater distances. The smaller planets, Juno, Vesta, Ceres, and Pallas, differ from the rest in so many ways, and suggest so many conjectures of reasons for such differences, that we should almost expect to find them exceptions to such a rule. Mars is a more obvious exception. Some persons might conjecture from this case, that the arrangement itself, like other useful arrangements, has been brought about by some wider law which we have not yet detected. But whether or not we entertain such a guess, (it can be nothing more,) we see in other parts of creation, so many examples of apparent exceptions to rules, which are afterwards found to be capable of explanation, or to be provided for by particular contrivances, that no one,

familiar with such contemplations, will, by one anomaly, be driven from the persuasion that the end which the arrangements of the satellites seem suited to answer is really one of the ends of their creation.

CHAPTER VI.

The Stability of the Ocean.

WHAT is meant by the stability of the ocean may perhaps be explained by means of the following illustration. If we suppose the whole globe of the Earth to be composed of water, a sphere of cork, immersed in any part of it, would come to the surface of the water, except it were placed exactly at the centre of the earth; and even if it were so placed, the slightest displacement of the cork sphere would end in its rising and floating. This would be the case whatever were the size of the cork sphere, and even if it were so large as to leave comparatively little room for the water; and the result would be nearly the same, if the cork sphere, when in its central position, had on its surface prominences which projected above the surface of the water. Now this brings us to the case in which we have a globe resembling our present earth, composed like it of water and of a solid centre, with islands and continents, but having these solid parts all made of cork. And it

appears by the preceding reasoning, that in this case, if there were to be any disturbance either of the solid or fluid parts, the solid parts would rise from the centre of the watery sphere as far as they could: that is, all the water would run to one side and leave the land on the other. Such an ocean would be in unstable equilibrium.

Now a question naturally occurs, is the equilibrium of our present ocean of this unstable kind, or is it stable? The sea, after its most violent agitations, appears to return to its former state of repose; but may not some extraordinary cause produce in it some derangement which may go on increasing till the waters all rush one way, and thus drown the highest mountains? And if we are safe from this danger, what are the conditions by which we are so secured?

The illustration which we have employed obviously suggests the answer to this question; namely, that the equilibrium is unstable, so long as the solid parts are of such a kind as to float in the fluid parts; and of course we should expect that the equilibrium will be stable whenever the contrary is the case, that is, when the solid parts of the earth are of greater specific gravity than the sea. A more systematic mathematical calculation has conducted Laplace to a demonstration of this result.

The mean specific gravity of the earth appears to be about five times that of water, so that the

condition of the stability of the ocean is abundantly fulfilled. And the provision by which this stability is secured was put in force through the action of those causes, whatever they were, which made the density of the solid materials and central parts of the earth greater than the density of the incumbent fluid.

When we consider, however, the manner in which the wisdom of the Creator, even in those cases in which his care is most apparent, as in the structure of animals, works by means of intermediate causes and general laws, we shall not be ready to reject all belief of an end in such a case as this, merely because the means are mechanical agencies. Laplace says, "in virtue of gravity, the most dense of the strata of the earth are those nearest to the centre; and thus the mean density exceeds that of the waters which cover it; which suffices to secure the stability of the equilibrium of the seas, and to put a bridle upon the fury of the waves." This statement, if exact, would not prove that He who subjected the materials of the earth to the action of gravity did not intend to restrain the rage of the waters: but the statement is not true in fact. The lower strata, so far as man has yet examined, are very far from being constantly, or even generally, heavier than the superincumbent ones. And certainly solidification by no means implies a greater density than fluidity: the density of