Note 359 — APPENDIX. (continued 3)

Acad. Sc. 1709. If we abandon the clear principles of mechanics, the writer says, "toute la lumière que nous pouvons avoir est éteinte, et nous voilà replongés de nouveau dans les anciennes ténèbres du Peripatetisme, dont le Ciel nous veuille preserver!"

It was also objected to the Newtonian system, that it did not account for the remarkable facts, that all the motions of the primary planets, all the motions of the satellites, and all the motions of rotation, including that of the sun, are in the same direction, and nearly in the same plane; facts which have been urged by Laplace as so strongly recommending the Nebular Hypothesis; and that hypothesis is, in truth, a hypothesis of vortices respecting the origin of the system of the world.