ter has been finally settled by the greatest of modern
mathematicians, Le Verrier, who has subjected the eccentricities,
distances, and inclinations of the orbits of the asteroids to a
mathematical investigation, the result of which is as follows:

"In the present state of things, these eccentricities and these
inclinations are totally incompatible with Olbers' hypothesis, which
supposed that the small planets--some of which were discovered even in
his day--were produced from the wreck of a larger star, which had
exploded. The forces necessary to launch the fragments of a given body
in such different routes (whose existence we should be obliged to
suppose) would be of such an improbable intensity, that the most limited
mathematical knowledge could not but see its absurdity." He concludes
the memoir by advancing four propositions, "which forever annihilate
Olbers' hypothesis."[198]

3. _The progress of astronomical discovery has utterly refuted the
notion of creation by natural law, known as the Development Theory, or
the Nebular Hypothesis._

Scientific Infidels knew that there was too much order and regularity in
the motions of the planets to allow any rational mind to ascribe these
motions to accident, according to Buffon's notion. They saw that these
movements must be regulated by law. La Place, an eminent mathematician,
saw that there are at least five great regularities pervading the
system, for which Buffon's theory gave no reason:

1. The planets all move in elliptical orbits, nearly circular. They
might, on the contrary, have been as elongated as those of comets.

2. They revolve in orbits nearly in the plane of the sun's equator. They
might have revolved in orbits inclined to it at any angle, or even in
the plane of his poles.

3. They revolve around the sun all in the same direction, which is the
direction of his rotation on his axis.

4. They rotate on their axes, also, so far as known, in the same
direction.

5. The satellites (with the exception of those of Uranus) revolve around
their primary planets, and also rotate on their axes, in the same normal
direction.

It was evident, even to the believers in chance, that so many
regularities were not produced by accident. La Place found, by computing
the chances by the formula of probabilities, that the chances were two
millions to one against these regularities happening by chance, _and
four millions to one in favor of these motions having a common o