12 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



" given laws lo the universe, which, like the 

 " institutions of men, carry in themselves the 

 " elements of their own destruction. He has not 

 " permitted in Mis works any symptoms of infancy 5 

 "or of old age, or any sign by which we may 

 " estimate cither their future or their past duration. 

 " lie may put an end, as lie, no doubt, gave a 

 " beginning to the present system, at some 

 " determinate time ; but we may safely conclude 

 " that this great catastrophe will not be brought 

 " about by any of the laws now existing, and 

 il that it is not indicated by anything which 

 "we perceive." (Illustrations of the Iluttonian 

 Theory, 118.) Nothing could possibly be 

 further from the truth than that statement. It is 

 pervaded by a confusion between "present order," 

 or "present system," and "laws now existing "- 

 between destruction of the earth as a place 

 habitable In beings such as now live on it, and a 

 decline or failure of law and order in the unive 

 The theorem <>f the French mathematicians 

 rding the motions of the heavenly bodies is a 

 theorem of approximate application, and one 



