Page:The evolution of worlds - Lowell.djvu/159

 CHAPTER V FORMATION OF PLANETS N our first two chapters we saw what sign-posts in the sky there are pointing to the course evolution of a solar system probably follows, and secondly, what evidence there is that our system took this road. We now come to a question not so easy to precise,—the actual details of the journey. It is always difficult to descend from a glittering panoramic survey to particular path-finding. The obstacles loom so much larger on a near approach.

Most men shy at decisions and shun self-committal to any positive course, but when it comes to constructing a cosmogony, few at all qualified hesitate to frame one if the old does not suit. The safety in so doing lies in the fact that nothing in particular happens if it refuses to work. Its absurdity is promptly shown up, it is true, by some one else. For there is almost as good a trade in exposing cosmogonies as in constructing them. But no special opprobrium attaches to failure, because everybody has failed, from Laplace down, or up, as you are pleased to consider it. Besides it is really not so easy to do, as one is tempted to believe 127