8oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they shone with a light of their own? "And the spirit of God moved 

 upon the face of the waters." I have met with no form of the nebular 

 hypothesis which involves anything analogous to this process. 



I have said enough to explain some of the difficulties which arise 

 in my mind when I try to ascertain whether there is any foundation 

 for the contention that the statements contained in the first two verses 

 of Genesis are supported by the nebular hypothesis. The result does 

 not appear to me to be exactly favorable to that contention. The 

 nebular hypothesis assumes the existence of matter having definite 

 properties as its foundation. Whether such matter w^as created a 

 few thousand years ago, or whether it has existed through an eternal 

 series of metamorphoses of which our present universe is only the 

 last stage, are alternatives, neither of which is scientifically untenable, 

 and neither scientifically demonstrable. But science knows nothing 

 of any stage in which the universe could be said, in other than a 

 metaphorical and popular sense, to be formless or empty, or in any 

 respect less the seat of law and order than it is now. One might as 

 well talk of a fresh laid hen's eQg being " without form and void," 

 because the chick therein is potential and not actual, as apply such 

 terms to the nebulous mass which contains a potential solar system. 



Until some further enlightenment comes to me, then, I confess 

 myself wholly unable to understand the way in which the nebular 

 hypothesis is to be converted into an ally of the " Mosaic writer." * 



But Mr. Gladstone informs us that Professor Dana and Professor 

 Guyot are prepared to prove that the "first or cosmogonical portion of 

 the Proem not only accords with but teaches the nebular hypothesis." f 



* In looking through the delightful volume recently published by the Astronomer 

 Royal for Ireland, a day or two ago, I find the following remarks on the nebular 

 hypothesis, which I should have been glad to quote in my text if I had known them 

 sooner : 



" Nor can it be ever more than a speculation ; it can not be established by observa- 

 tion, nor can it be proved by calculation. It is merely a conjecture, more or less plaus- 

 ible, but perhaps, in some degree, necessarily true, if our present laws of heat, as we 

 understand them, admit of the extreme application here required, and if the present order 

 of things has reigned for sufficient time without the intervention of any influence at pres- 

 ent known to us." — " The Story of the Heavens," p. 506. 



Would any prudent advocate base a plea, either for or against revelation, upon the 

 coincidence, or want of coincidence, of the declarations of the latter with the requirements 

 of an hypothesis thus guardedly dealt with by an astronomical expert ? 



f Postscript to article on " Proem to Genesis'''' (published in " Popular Science 3foniJi- 

 It/" for 3f arch, 18S6). — I learn with satisfaction that in America, where the stores of geo- 

 logical knowledge have been so greatly enlarged, the business of the reconciler has been 

 taken into the hands of scientists : Dr. Dana, Professor of Geology in Yale College, 

 and Dr. Arnold Guyot, Professor of Geology and Physical Geography in New Jersey Col- 

 lege. Both of these authorities, it appears, have adhered through a long career, and now 

 adhere with increased confidence, to the idea of a substantial harmony between science 

 and the Mosaic text. Professor Dana's latest tract has recently appeared in the " Biblio- 

 theca Sacra "for April, 1885. He thinks the evidence doubtful as to the priority of 

 birds over the low or marsupian mammals (p. 21-1) ; but strong for an abundant early 



