INORGANIC EVOLUTION 29 



the existence of a Creator and the immortality of the 

 soul could not be proved by the unaided "faculties" of 

 men. He, also, asserted that these unprovable things, 

 must be believed upon authority. This means that the 

 proven theories of science shall be disbelieved, for the 

 sake of assertions, by those in power, which cannot be 

 proved. 



One fact in nature strikes one very forcibly, as at 

 least a strong inference, in favor of the nebular theory. 

 Heat, in sufficiently high temperature, resolves all solids 

 into gases. In the sun's photosphere the spectroscope 

 shows that many metals, and similar elements, that are 

 in a solid form on the earth, are components of the gases 

 of the sun. It is not only known that the gases of the 

 sun are gradually condensing as heat is radiated, but 

 that when, under the blow pipe, in the laboratory, a solid 

 is converted into gas, that the reverse process occurs 

 when the heat is withdrawn, viz., the gas naturally con- 

 denses into the former solid condition. Even the atmos- 

 phere can be condensed irito a solid. All heat has its 

 origin in the sun, and is produced by the condensation 

 of its units, radiating heat by friction. The inference is, 

 that all matter has been condensed from a nebulous con- 

 dition, in this way. 



CONCORDANCE OF PLANETARY MOTION. The other evi- 

 dences of inorganic evolution are the remarkable con- 

 cordance of the planes of the orbits, and the motions of 

 the planets therein, around the sun, and the still further 

 concordance of the orbits and motions of the satellites 

 of the planets, with the orbits of the planets. The 

 greatest inclination that any of the planes of the orbits 

 of the planets have, to the plane of the ecliptic, is 7 

 degrees, that of Mercury. All the bodies move in the 

 same direction, and this direction is that in which the 



