100 MR. GLADSTONE AND GENESIS v 



The nebular hypothesis assumes the existence of 

 matter, having definite properties, as its founda- 

 tion. Whether such matter was created a few 

 thousand years ago, or whether it has existed 

 through an eternal series of metamorphoses of 

 which our present universe is only the last stage, 

 are alternatives, neither of which is scientifically 

 untenable, and neither scientifically demonstrable. 

 But science knows nothing of any stage in which 

 the universe could be said, in other than a meta- 

 phorical and popular sense, to be formless or 

 empty ; or in any respect less the seat of law and 

 order than it is now. One might as well talk of a 

 fresh-laid hen's egg being " without form and void," 

 because the chick therein is potential and not 

 actual, as apply such terms to the nebulous mass 

 which contains a potential solar system. 



Until some further enlightenment comes to me, 

 then, I confess myself wholly unable to under- 

 stand the way in which the nebular hypothesis is 

 to be converted into an ally of the "Mosaic 

 writer." 1 



1 In looking through the delightful volume recently published 

 by the Astronomer- Royal for Ireland, a day or two ago, I find 

 the following remarks on the nebular hypothesis, which I 

 should have been glad to quote in my text if I had known them 

 sooner : 



" Nor can it be ever more than a speculation ; it cannot be 

 established by observation, nor can it be proved by calculation. 

 It is merely a conjecture, more or less plausible, but perhaps, 

 in some degree, necessarily true, if our present laws of heat, as 

 we understand them, admit of the extreme application here 

 required, and if the present order of things has reigned for 



