Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of DiscussionsSpencer, Herbert
Philosophy
Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of Discussions
Spencer, Herbert
Philosophy; Political science; Science
is very improbable that it should produce so immense a contrast in specific
gravity as that of 4 to 1. The more legitimate conclusion is that the Sun's
body is not made up of molten matter all through; but that it consists of a
molten shell with a gaseous nucleus. And this we have seen to be a
corollary from the Nebular Hypothesis.
* * * * *
Considered in their _ensemble_, the several groups of evidences assigned
amount almost to proof. We have seen that, when critically examined, the
speculations of late years current respecting the nature of the nebulae,
commit their promulgators to sundry absurdities; while, on the other hand,
we see that the various appearances these nebulae present, are explicable as
different stages in the precipitation and aggregation of diffused matter.
We find that comets, alike by their physical constitution, their
immensely-elongated and variously-directed orbits, the distribution of
those orbits, and their manifest structural relation to the Solar System,
bear testimony to the past existence of that system in a nebulous form. Not
only do those obvious peculiarities in the motions of the planets which
first suggested the Nebular Hypothesis, supply proofs of it, but on closer
examination we discover, in the slightly-diverging inclinations of their
orbits, in their various rates of rotation, and their differently-directed
axes of rotation, that the planets yield us yet further testimony; while
the satellites, by sundry traits, and especially by their occurrence in
greater or less abundance where the hypothesis implies greater or less
abundance, confirm this testimony. By tracing out the process of planetary
condensation, we are led to conclusions respecting the internal structure
of planets which at once explain their anomalous specific gravities, and at
the same time reconcile various seemingly contradictory facts. Once more,
it turns out that what is _a priori_ inferable from the Nebular Hypothesis
respecting the temperatures of the resulting bodies, is just what
observation establishes; and that both the absolute and the relative
temperatures of the Sun and planets are thus accounted for. When we
contemplate these various evidences in their totality--when we observe
that, by the Nebular Hypothesis, the leading phenomena of the Solar System,
and the heavens in general, are explicable; and when, on the other hand, we
consider that the current cosmogony is not only without a single fact to
stand on, but is at variance with all our positive knowledge of Nature; we
see that the proof becomes overwhelming.
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