He then set forth the nebular hypothesis that at some long past time our sun and all his planets existed but as a volume of gas, which in contracting and cooling formed a hot volume of rotating liquid, and that as this further contracted and cooled, the planets, and moons, and planetary rings fell off from it and gradually solidified, the sun being left as the solitary comparatively uncooled portion of the original nebula.

These were important later on for the marriages they contracted with Mahomet's supporters, and indeed his whole position was considerably solidified by the alliances between his daughters and his chief adherents.

In this store-room Cousin Benedict collected a certain quantity of particles of gum and the juices of plants, scarcely solidified, which proved that the termites had lately brought them from without.