208 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



hope my accusers will consent to reason with me. 'Is it 

 not lawful for a scientific man to speculate on the ante- 

 cedents of the solar system ? Did Kant, Laplace, and 

 William Herschel quit their legitimate spheres, when 

 they prolonged the intellectual vision beyond the 

 boundary of experience, and propounded the nebular 

 theory ? Accepting that theory as probable, is it not 

 permitted to a scientific man to follow up, in idea, the 

 series of changes associated with the condensation of the 

 nebulae ; to picture the successive detachment of planets 

 and moons, and the relation of all of them to the sun ? 

 If I look upon our earth, with its orbital revolution 

 and axial rotation, as one small issue of the process 

 which made the solar system what it is, will any theo- 

 logian deny my right to entertain and express this 

 theoretic view ? Time was when a multitude of theolo- 

 gians would have been found to do so when that arch- 

 enemy of science which now vaunts its tolerance would 

 have made a speedy end of the man who might venture 

 to publish any opinion of the kind. But, that time, 

 unless the world is caught strangely slumbering, is for 

 ever past. 



As regards inorganic nature, then, we may traverse, 

 without let or hindrance, the whole distance which 

 separates the nebulae from the worlds of to-day. But 

 only a few years ago this now conceded ground of 

 science was theological ground. I could by no means 

 regard this as the final and sufficient concession of 

 theology ; and, at Belfast, I thought it not only my 

 right but my duty to state that, as regards the organic 

 world, we must enjoy the freedom which we have 

 already won in regard to the inorganic. I could not 

 discern the shred of a title -deed which gave any man, or 

 any class of men, the right to open the door of one of 

 these worlds to the scientific searcher, and to close the 



