ON THE CREATION AND GOD. 7 



an instance of a former potential moon, whose course 

 of development was checked, the broken fragments not 

 having united a mishap which, however, had the good 

 result for Science of suggesting the whole hypothesis to 

 its originators. 



Such is, in substance, the celebrated speculation of 

 Laplace and Kant, concerning the origin of the earth 

 and the solar system ; the first of that startling series 

 of tales issued by Science during the past century, and 

 which has now been seemingly completed in the Dar- 

 winian story of the origin of plants and animals, and 

 above all in the crowning one the metamorphosis of 

 the ape into the man. 



The hypothesis is generally allowed to be of a legiti- 

 mate and scientific character. It postulates only a vera 

 causa, and such laws as we still see in operation. It 

 postulates only a nebulous mass subject to present 

 physical laws ; and such nebulae now exist, while such 

 laws, we may fairly be asked to believe, did govern 

 from eternity the behaviour of matter and energy. 

 Moreover, the hypothesis explains many of the facts 

 requiring explanation, as the fact that the motions of 

 the planets are all nearly in the same plane ; that the 

 central mass of our system remains a blazing sun, while 

 the surface of our earth has long since cooled ; the fact 

 of the rings of Saturn, the satellites and the various 

 temperatures of the planets, and many other things. 

 Nevertheless, as will presently appear, the hypothesis is 

 not without great and as yet unexplained difficulties. 



" The greatest of them," as Professor Newcomb urges, 

 " perhaps, is to show how a ring of vapour surrounding 

 the sun could condense into a single planet encircled by 

 satellites." * For the ring of vapour that by supposition 



* Newcomb's Astronomy, Part IV, ch. iii., which contains a full 

 consideration of the subject. 



