e space still rarefied.
Now we perceive, that in order for the radial stream to continue in
action, requires the whole medium of the vortex to be also moving
outward; it is therefore continually condensed as it proceeds. This
condensation necessarily converts much of the specific heat of the ether
into sensible heat; so that the _temperature_ of the medium is
continually increasing, as the distance from the sun increases.

When we contemplate the solar system as the emanation of one Great Mind,
we naturally seek for evidence of the wisdom of a supreme intelligence
in _all_ the arrangements of that system. But, however humbly and
reverently we may speak of these arrangements, we can scarcely avoid the
wish, that the planetary distances had been differently arranged, if
Newton's doctrine be true, that space is a vacuum, and that the heat of
a planet, is inversely as the squares of the distances from the sun.
For, to speak of the temperature of space, except as dependent on this
law, is one of those many incomprehensible inconsistencies with which
philosophers are chargeable. If the Newtonian philosophy is literally
true, space has _no temperature_, and the surface heat of the planet
Neptune is nearly 1,000 times less than on our own globe. Again, on
Mercury it is seven times greater, which heat would scorch and consume
every organic substance on the earth, and speedily envelope the boiling
ocean in a shroud of impermeable vapor. Granting even that space may not
be a vacuum, and yet the law of gravitation be true, we may still be
allowed to consider both Saturn and Uranus and Neptune, as inhospitable
abodes for intelligent creatures; and, seeing the immensity of room in
the system, there is no reason why these planets might not have been
permitted to revolve nearer the great source of light and life and
cheering emanations. To suggest the resources of Omnipotence is no
argument. He has surrounded us with analogies which are seen, by which
we may attain a knowledge of those which are not seen; and we have every
reason to suppose that the great Author of nature is not indifferent to
the aspects under which his works reveal him unto his creatures. Yet
there is (on the above hypothesis) an apparent want of harmony in the
planetary distances; and if frail mortality may be permitted to speak
out, an explanation is needed to obviate this seeming anomaly in the
economy of the world. The more we learn of the physical arrangements of