1 62 The Three Beginnings. 



Force which first moved them, which moved 

 them in parallel lines, which deflected them 

 from the perpendicular, as assumed by the 

 hypothesis ? 



"It is certain," according to "the doctrine 

 of Evolution," " that the existing world lay, 

 potentially, in the cosmic vapour." But where 

 it lay before the cosmic vapour existed, de- 

 ponent saith not. "The fundamental pro- 

 position of Evolution " is, as we have seen, 

 " that the whole world, living and not living, is 

 the result of the mutual interaction, according 

 to definite laws, of the fo'rces possessed by the 

 molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of 

 the universe was composed." l Fundamental, 

 however, as Professor Huxley declares it to be, 

 it is very far indeed from " The First Begin- 

 ning." 



This " nebulosity was composed " of certain 

 " molecules." But nebulosity is a state or con- 

 dition ; not a substance. Like the rigidity of 

 an iron bar, or the malleability of gold-leaf, 

 or the ductility of copper wire, " nebulosity " 

 is a word not of matter, but of mode. It 

 denotes a property, or it specifies a condition ; 

 but it does not distinguish, still less does it 



1 Professor Huxley : " Critiques and Addresses," p. 305. 



