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they are the lineaments of truth and nature." In the spirit of meek- 

 ness, and imbued with these principles, do I submit the present 

 enquiry. 



On all things created there remains the half-effaced image of 

 Deity — infinite in grand outline, infinite in minute perfection. Nature 

 is the chart of God, mapping out His attributes. Art is the shadow of 

 His wisdom ; His own right hand holdeth the first of the golden links 

 in the chain of causation. That He is in all things is an axiom ; or 

 else, why this subtle frame-work of thought ? this power to penetrate 

 the illimitable past ? this thirsting after the boundless future? His law 

 directeth the path of the comet or the particle of dust. His omni- 

 science is as creative in the grain of mustard-seed as in that of a 

 world. The embarrassment and perplexity I now feel ought to serve 

 as a hint to authors to know what to do next. Now, most people have 

 no next. It would have been a consolation if Herschel had not 

 penetrated so deeply into the philosophy of nebulous matter. With 

 him, I assert, that the nebula in the sword of Orion is but the nucleus 

 of a solar system, the crude gatherings of etherial substance ; but, in a 

 moment, Lord Ross smashes me to atoms ; he tells me they are 

 clusters of stars of spheroidal form, at such immeasurable distances, 

 that their light would have to travel for countless ages to reach this 

 earth. We are told that solitude made a Cincinnatus, that the wise and 

 the learned brood over chaos, where thought and emotion first have 

 birth, that in seclusion's vale are brought forth the most precious fruits. 



I withdraw myself from the busy hum of man. I cannot add that 

 I will not borrow — the command has been so often broken by my 

 predecessors ; conscience becomes auricular, and whilst pomposity 

 and dulness may stammer out a speech that sendeth the wise to sleep, 

 surely I may be permitted to penetrate the lore of that far-off country 

 where Herodotus was told that the Choen, or men of learning, in- 

 formed him that the poles of the earth and the poles of the ecliptic 

 had formerly coincided, the traditions of whose philosophers reckon 

 by ages their respective annals ; but, without being tedious, and in 

 order that the twenty minutes may not be too crowded, I will 

 endeavour to condense the crude notions of men, unguided by the 

 light of science. How the universe was first produced has ever been 

 a curious speculation and an object of idle solicitude with mankind. 



The following theory was the product of Chi-mc-ri, an eastern 



