24 EXPLANATIONS. 



It appears, then, that, overlooking a few minor 

 unexplained difficulties, the objections to the 

 nebular hypothesis are not formidable to it. It 

 approaches the region of ascertained truths, and 

 may reasonably be held as a strong corroboration 

 of what first appears from the material laws of 

 the universe, that the whole Uranographical ar- 

 rangements were effected in the manner of natural 

 r law. It is, however, altogether a mistake to regard 

 I this conclusion, as far as it is one, as equivalent 

 to a superseding of Deity in the history of crea- 

 , tion. It proposes nothing beyond a view of the 

 mode in which the Divine Will has been pleased 

 to act, in this first and most important of its 

 works. The formation of worlds and their ar- 

 rangement now appear but as steps in an His- 

 torical Progress, for matter is necessarily pre- 

 sumed to have existed before in a different form. 

 S^ By what means and under what circumstances 

 ' creation, in the true sense of the word, took place, 

 I — that is, how existence was given to the matter 

 ■ which we suppose to have been capable of such 

 evolutions — no one can as yet tell; we only are 

 sure, if any trust can be placed in the laws of our 

 j___^ minds, that it had a Cause, or an Author. Leaving. 



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