aking-up constituted Neptune--did
not, in fact, break up until the throwing-off of the ring out of which
Uranus arose; that this latter ring, again, remained perfect until the
discharge of that out of which sprang Saturn; that this latter, again,
remained entire until the discharge of that from which originated
Jupiter--and so on. Let us imagine, in a word, that no dissolution
occurred among the rings until the final rejection of that which gave
birth to Mercury. We thus paint to the eye of the mind a series of
coeexistent concentric circles; and looking as well at _them_ as at the
processes by which, according to Laplace's hypothesis, they were
constructed, we perceive at once a very singular analogy with the atomic
strata and the process of the original irradiation as I have described
it. Is it impossible that, on measuring the _forces_, respectively, by
which each successive planetary circle was thrown off--that is to say, on
measuring the successive excesses of rotation over gravitation which
occasioned the successive discharges--we should find the analogy in
question more decidedly confirmed? _Is it improbable that we should
discover these forces to have varied--as in the original
radiation--proportionally to the squares of the distances?_

Our solar system, consisting, in chief, of one sun, with sixteen planets
certainly, and possibly a few more, revolving about it at various
distances, and attended by seventeen moons assuredly, but _very_
probably by several others--is now to be considered as _an example_ of
the innumerable agglomerations which proceeded to take place throughout
the Universal Sphere of atoms on withdrawal of the Divine Volition. I
mean to say that our solar system is to be understood as affording a
_generic instance_ of these agglomerations, or, more correctly, of the
ulterior conditions at which they arrived. If we keep our attention
fixed on the idea of _the utmost possible Relation_ as the Omnipotent
design, and on the precautions taken to accomplish it through difference
of form, among the original atoms, and particular inequidistance, we
shall find it impossible to suppose for a moment that even any two of
the incipient agglomerations reached precisely the same result in the
end. We shall rather be inclined to think that _no two_ stellar bodies
in the Universe--whether suns, planets or moons--are particularly, while
_all_ are generally, similar. Still less, then, can we imagine any two
_asse