The earth and planets at the time of their quitting the sun, were in a state of total liquid fire; in this state they remained only as long as the violence of the heat which had produced it; and which heat necessarily underwent a gradual decay: it was in this state of fluidity that they took their circular forms, and that their regular motions raised the parts of their equators, and lowered their poles. This figure, which agrees so perfectly with the laws of hydrostatics, I am of opinion with Leibnitz, necessarily supposes that the earth and planets have been in a state of fluidity, caused by fire, and that the internal part of the earth must be a vitrifiable matter, of which sand, granite, &c. are the fragments and scoria. It may, therefore, with some probability, be thought that the planets appertained to the sun, that they were separated by a single stroke, which gave to them a motion of impulsion, and that their position at different distances from the sun proceeds only from their different densities. It now only remains, to complete this theory, to explain the diurnal motion of the planets, and the formation or the satellites; but this, far from adding difficulties to my hypothesis, seems, on the contrary, to confirm it. For the diurnal motion, or rotation, depends solely on the obliquity of the stroke, an oblique impulse therefore on the surface of a body will necessarily give it a rotative motion; this motion will be equal and always the same, if the body which receives it is homogeneous, and it will be unequal if the body is composed of heterogeneous parts, or of different densities; hence we may conclude that in all the planets the matter is homogeneous, since their diurnal motions are equal, and regularly performed in the same period of time. Another proof that the separation of the dense or less dense parts were originally from the sun. But the obliquity of the stroke might be such, as to separate from the body of the principal planet a small part of matter, which would of course continue to move in the same direction; these parts would be united, according to their densities, at different distances from the planet, by the force of their mutual attraction, and at the same time follow its course round the sun, by revolving about the body of the planet, nearly in the plane of its orbit. It is plain, that those small parts so separated are the satellites: thus the formation, position, and direction of the motions of the satellites perfectly agree with our theory; for they have all the same motion in concentrical circles round their principal planet; their motion is in the same direction, and that nearly in the plane of their orbits. All these effects, which are common to them, and which depend on an impulsive force, can proceed only from one common cause, which is, impulsive motion, communicated to them by one and the same oblique stroke.