I¢ is, however, not a little curious, that while the nebular theory was locked up from vulgar eyes in the iron-bound casket of the Phitosophical Transacactions, it was held as a talismanic gem of the first water, destined to be the key, that was at no remate day; to open to four gaze, many of the profounder secrets of nature. But no sooner had Nichol, with more of zeal fur popular information, than proper veneration for philosophical profundity, transterred it, brilliantly re-set, to his pert little duodecimo, than it was discovered that the gem cantained some flaws, and, although it had passed through the hands of such men as the elder Herschell, Laplace, and Campte, still it had diminished in value. But even