New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-03-14
Nfm 0rleans 1ailp GresftId.
Development of the Solar System.

lecture was recently delivered in Providence, r.
l., by Professor Mitchell, the distinguished astrono
mer OF Cincinnati or rather Of the United States-for
such man belongs to his country as feature Of re-
nown, or to the whole civilized world as valuable
contributor to human knowledge. The course Of the
lecture was designed to illustrate and confirm the
theory o. La Place (not Herscbell, as the Journal
says, which furnishes sketch OF the lecture on the
Development of the Solar System. According to this
hypothesis, our solar system was mass Of gaseous
matter with diameter of at least six thousand mil
lion OF mles-being the diameter Of the orbit Of the
planet Neptune. By the dissipation of heat and the
force of gavitation in the lapse Of ages it has gra
dually diminished to the dimensions Of sun, the
central body, with diameter of less than million
OF miles. The planets were thrown off from the cen
trail mass in its rotation from time to time and the
satellites were in like manner thrown off from the
planets in their rotation and condensation.
Astronomy is science Of profound interest to
many, and beyond question, almost every class of
mind would revel in its wondrous developments and
associations, as intelligence is dfused and acquired
upon the subject. But even the best informed and
most persevering astronomer cannot depart from
well established facts and their legitimate deductions
without compromising his position and taxing the
has never been acceptable, either to legitimate astro
nomical deduction or to logical conclusion. Indeed
1t is altogether beyond the range of mere fact and
inference and is now where it is likely to be forever
a mere matter of conjecture. But something more
than this Accepting the theory of La Place we
have nothing definite at ALL We only learn from it
that our solar system was, at first of gaseous
matter, ETC. Thus we have fallacy apparent to the
humblest capacity, in that La Place gives gaseous
matter as primal existence. The question occurs
instantly to the mind of the hearer where did the
gaseous matter come from which contained within its
expanded bulk the sum- the planets and all their sat
elites?
These were in it and have been evolved from it, and
we ask La Place in vain, whence all these into
the vast womb of gaseous nature TAT rst? How came
they to assume definite position and render ODE
tn MT l11- uhnfb hand
conducted into the field of ORDER and whose will en-
joined upon them symmetrical proportion and exact
obedience! tits question of creation after all, and
not of mere existence The theory of La Place leaves
at point in which the mind is perplexed about a
subtle question of the spontaneous existence of matter
And thus are left to infer the spontaneous appl
cation of law and the passive obedience of matter to
the accidental influence of it. In short, inanimat tie
matter makes its own laws, and is governed by its own
intelligence. For we told of the dissipation OF
heat and the force of gravtation and of the planets
being rown off from time to time, and always, we
are to presume, at the proper time, and by happy
| cOnjuncture of accidents.
Ii the science Of astronomy proposes to enlighter
the world upon the origin of the solar SYSTEM and the
universe at large, it is certainly at the present day
too little furnished with general information specific
facts to command implicit belief, or, indeed, respecta
BILE credulity. The popular mind be satisfied onl,
| with the idea of positive creation of matter sal
first" by an existing power and intelligence, which
supplied it with code of laws to which it must yie
obedience throughout all time In what precise man
those laws wrought out the order of the solar sys
TEN, and are continuing to carry it along Throughout
all the process of its development to its close, we
| in the progress of science and art attain to nue.
higher degree of knowledge than we now possess
But abstract theory, ascriDng to gaseous, solid
fluid matter primal existence, will satisfy any inte
| ligent enquirer, though given to the world by l.
| Place and endorsed by the intelligence of Mitchell
| We ask where the matter came from and by whom
was made just as unsatsfied as ask for the orig
of the handful of dirt or the nugget of gold we fin,
upon the surface of the EARTH We are no nearer til
solution of the great problem with the theory of Ii
Place than we are without it. Baltimore Sun.