The History of Things 83 



simply to record that the sequence occurs. How 

 it exactly occurs is not known. Strictly speaking, 

 science must always start with a good deal " given/' 

 which it takes for granted. In the particular case 

 we have been discussing the something " given " 

 is the nebula. The scientific conception of this is 

 that it was like the nebulae we see in the heavens 

 to-day, a whirling system of meteorites or planet- 

 esimals. At the same time, if it be true that not 

 only the inanimate but the animate as well has 

 grown out of the nebula, then we must read back 

 into it all the grandeur of all its consequents. 

 Finally, it must be clearly understood that science 

 never even asks the irrepressible question, why 

 has all this become as it has become ? 



Thus science recognizes the fundamental mys- 

 teriousness of things, (1) as regards its Common 

 Denominator; (2) as regards the chains of se- 

 quence it chronicles, but does not explain; (3) as 

 regards the beginning. 



As one of our philosophers, 1 has said: "Some 

 people write and talk as if the discovery of the 

 natural cause of an event meant the withdrawal of 

 the event from the sphere of divine agency. Ac- 

 cording to this way of thinking, the gradual suc- 

 cess of science in reducing all phenomena to nat- 

 ural law is tantamount to the banishment of God 

 from the universe. He becomes a hypothesis that 

 iProf. A. S. Pringle-Pattison. 



