AND THEORY OF THE HEAVENS. 145 



we find ourselves, attained to the perfection which is now 

 embodied in it; and perhaps as long a period will pass 

 before Nature will take another step as far in chaos. But 

 the sphere of developed nature is incessantly engaged in 

 extending itself. Creation is not the work of a moment. 

 When it has once made a beginning with the production 

 of an infinity of substances and matter, it continues in 

 operation through the whole succession of eternity with 

 ever increasing degrees of fruitfulness. Millions and whole 

 myriads of millions of centuries will flow on, during which 

 always new worlds and systems of worlds will be formed 

 after each other in the distant regions away from the 

 centre of nature, and will attain to perfection. Notwith. 

 standing the Systematic Constitution embodied in their 

 parts, they will obtain a universal relation to the centre 

 which has become the first formative point and the centre 

 of the creation, through the attractive power of its pre- 

 dominant mass. This infinity in the future succession of 

 time, by which eternity is unexhausted, will entirely animate 

 the whole range of space to which God is present, and 

 will gradually put it into that regular order which is con- 

 formable to the excellence of His plan. And if we could 

 embrace the whole of eternity with a bold grasp, so to 

 speak, in one conception, we would also be able to see 

 the whole of infinite space filled with systems of worlds 

 and the creation all complete. But as, in fact, the 

 remaining part of the succession of eternity is always 

 infinite and that which has flowed is finite, the sphere 

 of developed nature is always but an infinitely small part 

 of that totality which has the seed of future worlds in 

 itself, and which strives to evolve itself out of the crude 

 state of chaos through longer or shorter periods. The 



