The Evolution of the Sciences 



alive, and whose parts are in motion and in 

 course of transformation. It is a great step 

 forward to have determined its present con- 

 dition, but these observations justify still more 

 important conclusions. Every point of the 

 heavens shows us a phase of the history of the 

 universe. This was in the mind of Herschel 

 more than a century ago when he said, " The 

 heavens resemble a luxuriant garden, containing 

 the greatest variety of products in different 

 stages of existence, and its present examination 

 enables us to extend our experience over an 

 immense duration. The spectacle which it offers 

 is as though we could see, taking place under 

 our eyes, all the various acts of vegetable life 

 from germination, flowering and fecundation 

 to desiccation and final decay." 



Our universe appears to us at its origin in 

 the form of a great flattened nebula, consisting 

 of gaseous matter practically uniformly dis- 

 tributed in space and animated by a movement 

 of rotation. Little by little its substance con- 

 denses into flakes which are gradually separated 

 from the whole by attraction, each forming the 



embryo of a new world, which will develop 



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