COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



On a superficial view it may now seem as if 

 we were ready to proceed, in the next chapter, 

 to describe in detail the process of Evolution, 

 as exemplified in that most gigantic instance 

 of concentration of matter and dissipation of 

 motion, — the development of our planetary 

 system, by condensation and radiation, from 

 ancestral nebulous matter. In. this origin, by 

 aggregation, of our system of worlds, and in 

 that ultimate dissipation of it into nebulous 

 matter which sundry astronomic facts have long 

 taught us to anticipate, we shall presently find 

 a complete and striking illustration of the dy- 

 namic principles herein set forth. But we are 

 not yet quite prepared to enter upon the con- 

 sideration of these phenomena. We need but 

 remember that in the development of the solar 

 system, with its mutually dependent members 

 sustaining complex and definite relations to 

 each other, much more is implied besides con- 

 centration of planetary matter and diffusion of 

 molecular motion in the shape of heat ; we need 

 but remember this, and we shall see that some 

 further preliminary study is requisite. While, 

 indeed, the primary characteristics of Evolution 

 and Dissolution are those which are expressed 

 in the pair of definitions above given, and 

 which it has been the object of the foregoing 

 inquiry to illustrate ; there are also, as just 

 hinted, certain secondary characteristics which 

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