286 THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 



dictoiy facts. Once more, it turns out that what is a jyriori 

 inferable from the Nebular Hypothesis respecting the tem- 

 peratures of the resulting bodies, is just what observation 

 establishes ; and that both the absolute and the relative 

 temperatures of the Sun and planets are thus accounted 

 for. When we contemplate these various evidences in 

 their totality — when we observe that, by the Nebular Hy- 

 pothesis, the leading phenomena of the Solar System, and 

 the heavens in general, are explicable ; and when, on the 

 other hand, we consider that the current cosmogony is not 

 only without a single fact to stand on, but is at variance 

 with all our positive knowledge of Nature ; we see that the 

 proof becomes overwhelming. 



It remains only to point out that while the genesis of 

 the Solar System, and of countless other systems like it, is 

 thus rendered compi'ehensible, the ultimate mystery con- 

 tinues as great as ever. The problem of existence is not 

 solved : it is simply removed further back. The Nebular 

 Hypothesis throws no light on the origin of diffused mat- 

 ter ; and diffused matter as much needs accounting for as 

 concrete matter. The genesis of an atom is not easier to 

 conceive than the genesis of a planet. Nay, indeed, so far 

 from making the Universe a less mystery than before, it 

 makes it a greater mystery. Creation by manufacture is a 

 much lower thing than creation by evolution. A man can 

 put together a machine ; but he cannot make a machine 

 develop itself. The ingenious artizan, able as some have 

 been, so far to imitate vitality as to produce a mechanical 

 pianoforte-player, may in some sort conceive how, by 

 greater skill, a complete man might be artificially pro- 

 duced ; but he is unable to conceive how such a complex 

 organism gradually arises out of a minute structureless 

 germ. That our harmonious universe once existed poten- 

 tially as formless diffused matter, and has slowly grown 

 into its present organized state, is a far more astonishing 



