TEE NEBULAR EYPOTEESIS. 655 



pothesis, framed to account for a certain set of facts, its remarkable 

 success in explaining them invests it with a high degree of probability. 



It was admitted that the theory had encountered some apparent 

 difficulties some want of coincidences the most serious one beinsr 

 the retrograde direction of revolution of the satellites of Uranus. It 

 was shown that this anomaly might be reconciled with the Nebular 

 Hypothesis during the first stages of planet-formation. 



But, it has been asked, may not these coincident phenomena be 

 explained by other means than the Nebular Hypothesis ? May they 

 not be arrangements instituted by the Creator, for the purpose of giv- 

 ing perpetuity to our solar system, and making the planets suitable 

 habitations for organized beings? And do we not transgress the 

 legitimate domain of scientific research in attempting their explana- 

 tion? 



In reply to this, it was urged that such a view implies a total mis- 

 conception of the doctrine of final causes. In such inquiries, " we are 

 not to assume that we know the object of the Creator's design, and put 

 this assumed purpose in the place of a physical cause." In these prov- 

 inces of speculation, the principle of final causes is no longer the basis 

 and guide, but the sequel and result of our physical reasonings. . . . 

 As physical science advances, final causes do not disappear. The prin- 

 ciple of design changes its mode of application, but loses none of its 

 force ; it is merely transferred from the region of facts to that of laws." 

 We do not consider the sun as less intended to warm and vivify the 

 tribes of plants and animals, because we find evidences that the earth and 

 other planets were developed in the vast periods of past ages, from a 

 common nebulous mass ! We are rather, by the discovery of so gen- 

 eral a law, led into a scene of wider design of deeper contrivance 

 of more comprehensive adjustments. " The object of such views is 

 not to lead to physical truth, but to connect such truth obtained by 

 its proper processes and methods with our views of God the Master 

 of the universe." 



But even admitting this application of the principle of final causes, 

 it was shown that the conditions of stability of the solar system, and 

 its adaptability to living beings, are totally insufficient to account for 

 all the observed coincidences. There are many other phenomena in 

 the arrangements of our system, which have no relations to these ends 

 or purposes. It was shown that there are no less than seven sets of 

 phenomena, of which the principle of final causes affords, as far as we 

 can see, no explanation. 



The Nebular Hypothesis not only accounts for and coordinates all 

 the arrangements of the solar system, but the conditions of stability 

 and adaptability to living beings are simple consequences of its mode 

 of genesis ! Does not the cheering doctrine of final causes of design 

 and purpose become strengthened and invigorated by leading us to a 

 view so comprehensive ? " How simple the means how multiform the 



