Georges Buffon - Buffon's Natural History, Volume I (of 10)

These are the principal phenomena of the earth, the result of discoveries made by means of geometry, astronomy, and navigation. We shall not here enter into the detail of the proofs and observations by which those facts have been ascertained, but only make a few remarks to clear up what is still doubtful, and at the same time give our ideas respecting the formation of the planets, and the different changes thro' which it is possible they have passed before they arrived at the state we at present see them.

There have been so many systems and hypotheses framed upon the formation of the terrestrial globe, and the changes which it has undergone, that we may presume to add our conjectures to those who have written upon the subject, especially as we mean to support them with a greater degree of probability than has hitherto been done: and we are the more inclined to deliver our opinion upon this subject, from the hope that we shall enable the reader to pronounce on the difference between an hypothesis drawn from possibilities, and a theory founded in facts; between a system, such as we are here about to present, on the formation and original state of the earth, and a physical history of its real condition, which has been given in the preceding discourse.

Galileo having found the laws of falling bodies, and Kepler having observed that the area described by the principal planets in moving round the sun, and those of the satellites round the planets to which they belong, are proportionable to the time of their revolutions, and that such periods were also in proportion to the square roots of the cubes of their distances from the sun, or principal planets. Newton found that the force which caused heavy bodies to fall on the surface of the earth, extended to the moon, and retained it in its orbit; that this force diminished in the same proportion as the square of the distance increased, and consequently that the moon is attracted by the earth; that the earth and planets are attracted by the sun; and that in general all bodies which revolve round a centre, and describe areas proportioned to the times of their revolution, are attracted towards that point. This power, known by the name of GRAVITY, is therefore diffused throughout all matter; planets, comets, the sun, the earth, and all nature, is subject to its laws, and it serves as a basis to the general harmony which reigns in the universe. Nothing is better proved in physics than the actual existence of this power in every material substance. Observation has confirmed the effects of this power, and geometrical calculations have determined the quantity and relations of it.

This general cause being known, the effects would easily be deduced from it, if the action of the powers which produce it were not too complicated. A single moment's reflection upon the solar system will fully demonstrate the difficulties that have attended this subject; the principal planets are attracted by the sun, and the sun by the planets; the satellites are also attracted by their principal planets, and each planet attracts all the rest, and is attracted by them. All these actions and reactions vary according to the quantities of matter and the distances, and produce great inequalities and irregularities. How is so great a number of connections to be combined and estimated? It appears almost impossible in such a crowd of objects to follow any particular one; nevertheless those difficulties have been surmounted, and calculation has confirmed the suppositions of them, each observation is become a new demonstration, and the systematic order of the universe is laid open to the eyes of all those who can distinguish truth from error.

We feel some little stop, by the force of impulsion remaining unknown; but this, however, does not by any means affect the general theory. We evidently see the force of attraction always draws the planets towards the sun, they would fall in a perpendicular line, on that planet, if they were not repelled by some other power that obliges them to move in a straight line, and which impulsive force would compel them to fly off the tangents of their respective orbits, if the force of attraction ceased one moment. The force of impulsion was certainly communicated to the planets by the hand of the Almighty, when he gave motion to the universe; but we ought as much as possible to abstain in physics from having recourse to supernatural causes; and it appears that a probable reason may be given for this impulsive force, perfectly accordant with the law of mechanics, and not by any means more astonishing than the changes and revolutions which may and must happen in the universe.

The sphere of the sun's attraction does not confine itself to the orbs of the planets, but extends to a remote distance, always decreasing in the same ratio as the square of the distance increases; it is demonstrated that the comets which are lost to our sight, in the regions of the sky, obey this power, and by it their motions, like that of the planets, are regulated. All these stars, whose tracts are so different, move round the sun, and describe areas proportioned to the time; the planets in ellipses more or less approaching a circle, and the comets in narrow ellipses of a great extent. Comets and planets move, therefore, by virtue of the force of attraction and impulsion, which continually acting at one time obliges them to describe these courses; but it must be remarked that comets pass over the solar system in all directions, and that the inclinations of their orbits are very different, insomuch that, although subject like the planets to the force of attraction, they have nothing in common with respect to their progressive or impulsive motions, but appear in this respect independent of each other: the planets, on the contrary, move round the sun in the same direction, and almost in the same plane, never exceeding 7-1/2 degrees of inclination in their planes, the most distant from their orbits. This conformity of position and direction in the motion of the planets, necessarily implies that their impulsive force has been communicated to them by one and the same cause.

May it not be imagined, with some degree of probability, that a comet falling into the body of the sun, will displace and separate some parts from the surface, and communicate to them a motion of impulsion, insomuch that the planets may formerly have belonged to the body of the sun, and been detached therefrom by an impulsive force, and which they still preserve.

This supposition appears to be at least as well founded as the opinion of Leibnitz, who supposes that the earth and planets had formerly been suns; and his system, of which an account will be given in the fifth article, would have been more comprehensive and more agreeable to probability, if he had raised himself to this idea. We agree with him in thinking that this effect was produced at the time when Moses said that God divided light from darkness; for, according to Leibnitz, light was divided from darkness when the planets were extinguished; but in our supposition there was a real physical separation, since the opaque bodies of the planets were divided from the luminous matter which composes the sun.

This idea of the cause of the impulsive force of the planets will be found much less objectionable, when an estimation is made of the analogies and degrees of probability, by which it may be supported. In the first place, the motion of the planets are in the same direction, from West to East, and therefore, according to calculation, it is sixty-four to one that such would not have been the case, if they had not been indebted to the same cause for their impulsive forces.

This, probably, will be considerably augmented by the second analogy, viz. that the inclination of the planes of the orbits do not exceed 7-1/2 degrees; for, by comparing the spaces, we shall find there is twenty-four to one, that two planets are found in their most distant places at the same time, and consequently ⁵, or 7,692,624 to one, that all six would by chance be thus placed; or, what amounts to the same, there is a great degree of probability that the planets have been impressed with one common moving force, and which has given them this position. But what can have bestowed this common impulsive motion, but the force and direction of the bodies by which it was originally communicated? It may therefore be concluded, with great probability, that the planets received their impulsive motion by one single stroke. This likelihood, which is almost equivalent to a certainty, being established, I seek to know what moving bodies could produce this effect, and I find nothing but comets capable of communicating a motion to such vast bodies.