We have also sixteen satellites of the planets mentioned whose
revolutions round their primaries are in the same direction. The
rotation of the moon on its axis may also be reckoned, but as to the
rotations of the satellites of the other planets we cannot speak with
any confidence, as they are too far off to be observed with the
necessary accuracy. We have thus thirty circular movements in the
solar system connected with the sun and moon and those great planets
than which no others were known in the days of Laplace. The
significant fact is that all these thirty movements take place in the
same direction. That this should be the case without some physical
reason would be just as unlikely as that in tossing a coin thirty
times it should turn up all heads or all tails every time without
exception.
We can express the argument numerically. Calculation proves that
such an event would not generally happen oftener than once out of
five hundred millions of trials. To a philosopher of Laplace's
penetration, who had made a special study of the theory of
probabilities, it seemed well-nigh inconceivable that there should
have been such unanimity in the celestial movements, unless there had
been some adequate reason to account for it.
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