W. Hastie Kant's Cosmogony

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Kant's Cosmogony never stood so high in the estimation of the scientific world as it does to-day. The history of this original and profound speculation of the young Konigsberg thinker on the constitution and formation of the physical universe has something strangely interesting and romantic about it, and may even be regarded as one of 'the fairy tales' of modern science. His Natural History and Theory of the Heavens, as he ultimately designated its ex position, will probably be regarded hereafter as the most wonderful and enduring product of his genius. It left the press - for we can hardly say it was published - in 1755, when Kant was in his thirty-first year; and it bears upon it everywhere the impress of that youthful ardour and unrivalled daring of thought which, in its own sphere, at once outstripped Newton, while most faithful to him, and more than anticipated Laplace in outlining the true Nebular Theory of the origin of the universe.