188 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



into stars. The nebulae, classed according to this 

 philosophical view, indicate with extreme pro- 

 bability their future transformation into stars, 

 and the anterior nebulous condition of the stars 

 which now exist." 



It appears then that the highest point to which 

 this series of conjectures can conduct us, is " an 

 extremely diffused nebulosity," attended, we 

 may suppose, by a far higher degree of heat, 

 than that which, at a later period of the hypo- 

 thetical process, keeps all the materials of our 

 earth and planets in a state of vapour. Now is 

 it not impossible to avoid asking, whence was 

 this light, this heat, this diffusion ? How came 

 the laws which such a state implies, to be already 

 in existence? Whether light and heat produce 

 their effects by means of fluid vehicles or other- 

 wise, they have complex and varied laws which 

 indicate the existence of some subtle machinery 

 for their action. When and how was this machi- 

 nery constructed ? Whence too that enormous 

 expansive power which the nebulous matter is 

 supposed to possess ? Arid if, as would seem to 

 be supposed in this doctrine, all the material 

 ingredients of the earth existed in this diffuse 

 nebulosity, either in the state of vapour, or in 

 some state of still greater expansion, whence 

 were they and their properties I how came there 

 to be of each simple substance which now enters 

 into the composition of the universe, just so much 



