ately resulting from the atoms--purely
from an _a priori_ consideration of their general
design--_Relation_.

In throwing off a ring from its equator, the Sun re-established that
equilibrium between its centripetal and centrifugal forces which had
been disturbed in the process of condensation; but, as this condensation
still proceeded, the equilibrium was again immediately disturbed,
through the increase of rotation. By the time the mass had so far shrunk
that it occupied a spherical space just that circumscribed by the orbit
of Uranus, we are to understand that the centrifugal force had so far
obtained the ascendency that new relief was needed: a second equatorial
band was, consequently, thrown off, which, proving ununiform, was
broken up, as before in the case of Neptune; the fragments settling into
the planet Uranus; the velocity of whose actual revolution about the Sun
indicates, of course, the rotary speed of that Sun's equatorial surface
at the moment of the separation. Uranus, adopting a rotation from the
collective rotations of the fragments composing it, as previously
explained, now threw off ring after ring; each of which, becoming broken
up, settled into a moon:--three moons, at different epochs, having been
formed, in this manner, by the rupture and general spherification of as
many distinct ununiform rings.

By the time the Sun had shrunk until it occupied a space just that
circumscribed by the orbit of Saturn, the balance, we are to suppose,
between its centripetal and centrifugal forces had again become so far
disturbed, through increase of rotary velocity, the result of
condensation, that a third effort at equilibrium became necessary; and
an annular band was therefore whirled off as twice before; which, on
rupture through ununiformity, became consolidated into the planet
Saturn. This latter threw off, in the first place, seven uniform bands,
which, on rupture, were spherified respectively into as many moons; but,
subsequently, it appears to have discharged, at three distinct but not
very distant epochs, three rings whose equability of constitution was,
by apparent accident, so considerable as to present no occasion for
their rupture; thus they continue to revolve as rings. I use the phrase
"_apparent_ accident;" for of accident in the ordinary sense there was,
of course, nothing:--the term is properly applied only to the result of
indistinguishable or not immediately traceable _law_.

Shrinki