CHAPTER I. 



ANTERIOR to the visible existence of suns and 

 planets, the elements of the present innumerable 

 systems, comprising the universe of matter, ex- 

 isted in space. Ere time was, even from eternity, 

 alone in the inconceivable immensity of the void 

 now occupied by the material universe, even 

 "in the beginning," God, the Eternal, the Great 

 First Cause, filled the then material void with His 

 presence. His fiat went forth, and the material 

 creation began. Progressively and harmoniously 

 each particle of matter assumed the space allotted 

 to it. Definitely and mathematically were the 

 elements of the universe proportioned to the space 

 to be occupied by them. Above, below, to the 



