APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS 219 



These minor and more purely personal matters at an 

 end, the weightier allegation remains that at Belfast I 

 misused my position by quitting the domain of science, 

 and making an unjustifiable raid into the domain of the- 

 ology. This I fail to see. Laying aside abuse, I hope 

 my accusers will consent to reason with me. Is it not 

 lawful for a scientific man to speculate on the antecedents 

 of the solar system ? Did Kant, Laplace, and William 

 Herschel quit their legitimate spheres, when they pro- 

 longed the intellectual vision beyond the boundary of 

 experience, and propounded the nebular theory ? Ac- 

 cepting that theory as probable, is it not permitted to a 

 scientific man to follow up, in idea, the series of changes 

 associated with the condensation of the nebulae; to pict- 

 ure the successive detachment of planets and moons, and 

 the relation of all of them to the sun ? If I look upon 

 our earth, with its orbital revolution and axial rotation, as 

 one small issue of the process which made the solar sys- 

 tem what it is, will any theologian deny my right to en- 

 tertain and express this theoretic view ? Time was when 

 a multitude of theologians would have been found to do 

 so when that arch-enemy of science which now vaunts its 

 tolerance would have made a speedy end of the man who 

 might venture to publish any opinion of the kind. But 

 that time, unless the world is caught strangely slumber- 

 ing, is forever past. 



As regards inorganic nature, then, we may traverse, 

 without let or hinderance, the whole distance which sepa- 

 rates the nebulae from the worlds of to-day. But only a 

 few years ago this now conceded ground of science was 

 theological ground. I could by no means regard this as 

 the final and sufficient concession of theology; and, at 



