(4) From this state of affairs, two very different results might arise. One, that the molecules might resolve themselves into a multitude of small masses without the centre acquiring a preponderating increase. The other, that the central condensation might greatly exceed the others, and there would be formed a central star accompanied by a crowd of small dark bodies. M. Faye accepts the second result, in which case the ellipses described by the small bodies, now become satellites, would, as the central mass increased in preponderance, have one of their centres at the centre of the preponderating mass, and their times of revolution would vary from one to another in conformity to the third law of Kepler.
(5) For the formation of the solar system M. Faye finds that it is of little importance whether the movements of bodies around the sun be very eccentric or almost circular; the first cause is always the same. They arise from the eddies, _tourbillonnements_, they have brought with them from their rectilinear movements in the primitive chaos. But the circle is such a particular case of the ellipse, that we ought not to expect to see it realized in any system. It is therefore necessary that, among the initial conditions of the chaotic mass, one should be found which would prevent the gyrations, eddies, from degenerating into elliptical movements, and which has at first made right, and afterwards firmly preserved, the form, more or less circular, in all its changes.
(6) For the formation of circular rings he gives us the following conceptions: In order that a star should have companions, great or small, circulating round the centre of gravity of the system, it is necessary that the partial chaos from whence it proceeded should have possessed, from the beginning, a gentle eddying movement affecting a part of its materials. Besides, if the partial chaos has been really round and homogeneous, we shall see that these gyrations must have taken up, and to some extent preserved, the circular form. He then requests the reader not to lose sight of the feeble density of the medium, in which a succession of mechanical changes are to be brought about; and not to conclude that that density was such that a cubic miriamètre of the space occupied by it might not contain 3250 grammes of matter, as he stated in the preceding chapter (we think he said 5217 grammes), but that it might contain only 3 grammes or even less. And adds that in such a medium, the small agglomerations of matter which would be formed all through it, would move as if they were in an absolute vacuum, and any changes in them would be produced extremely slowly.