We may illustrate this remarkable coincidence in the following manner: Suppose we take ten coins in the hand, and toss them all up together and let them fall on the table; in the vast majority of cases in which the experiment may be tried, there would be some heads and some tails; they would not all be heads. But it is, of course, not impossible that the coins should all turn up heads. We should, however, deem it a very remarkable circumstance if it happened: yet it would certainly not be more remarkable than that the ten celestial movements should all take place in the same direction, unless, indeed, it should turn out that there is some sound physical cause which imposes on the planets of the solar system an obligation, restricting their movements round the sun to the same direction as that in which the sun itself rotates. It will be useful to study the matter numerically; and the rules of probabilities will enable us to do so, as we may see by the following illustration: We deem the captain of a cricket team fortunate when he wins the toss for innings. We should deem him lucky indeed if he won it three times in successive matches. If he won it five times running, his luck would be phenomenal; while, if it was stated that he won it ten times consecutively, we should consider the statement well-nigh incredible. For it is easy to calculate that the chances against such an occurrence are one thousand and twenty-four to one. In like manner we may say, that for nine planets and the sun all to go round in the same direction would be indeed surprising if the arrangement of the planets had been determined by chance; there are more than a thousand chances to one against such an occurrence.