EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



theory received, as it appeared, a crushing blow 

 when Lord Rosse's great telescope resolved into 

 stars certain supposed nebulas. The natural in- 

 ference was drawn that remoteness alone prevented 

 a similar resolution of all nebulas, and this conclu- 

 sion was accepted by astronomers. The spectro- 

 scope, in the hands of Sir William Huggins, the 

 present president of the Royal Society, had not 

 yet demonstrated by its incontrovertible evidence 

 that true nebulae do veritably exist. Now, if 

 some form of the nebular theory be not true, the 

 evolution theory, as a cosmic generalization, is 

 forthwith disposed of. Spencer was therefore led 

 to consider the matter, which he did in an essay 

 written for the Westminster Review. First-hand 

 astronomical knowledge he had none, and he is 

 certainly entitled to consider this essay, as he does, 

 an instance of his constitutional "disregard for 

 authority." But while the actual observations of 

 the expert must always be provisionally accepted, 

 it is open to any one who can to criticise the con- 

 clusions deduced by the expert therefrom. This 

 Spencer did, advancing sundry reasons to show that 

 the evidence of Lord Rosse's telescope could not 

 be accepted as a refutation of the nebular theory. 

 Later came the spectroscope and Spencer's vindi- 

 cation, both as to the existence of true nebulae and 



theory appeared about forty years after that of Kant, which 

 was published in a local Konigsberg paper in 1755. (See 

 Merz's History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century, 

 II., 283.) 



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