NEBULAE. 191 



sophers, true or false, involves no new principle under the sun, and, on that account, 

 until disproved, it deserves no ridicule. If, in this minuter department of the creation, 

 there is a law of gradual formation in operation now, dealing with its existences in the 

 detail, the idea is vindicated from the charge of vain conceit, that an analogical law 

 operated in the construction of the globe itself, and the various worlds that compose the 

 system, with those of other sidereal schemes, supported as the theory is by the nebular 

 varieties that meet us in space, from matter in extreme diffusion to matter crowding to 

 a central point, gathered up into spherical hazy masses, and forming stellar nebulae. 

 Laplace, avoiding dogmatism, yet open to the force of evidence, inferred the nebula? to 

 indicate, with extreme probability, their future transformation into stars, and the anterior 

 nebulous condition of the stars which now exist. Let us advert to the case of our own 

 central orb, the sun. We are acquainted with the dimensions of that great globe, with 

 its real diameter of 880,000 miles. We know, too, from observation of the solar spots, 

 that the solar material is a solid opaque substance like the crust of the earth. It may be 

 startling, therefore, to our conceptions to identify such a body with a primitive gaseous 

 nebula. Yet, when we cast a glance into space, and meet with such an object as the 

 nebula of Orion, we have there a storehouse of material sufficient, probably, for the 

 construction of many millions of such globes as the sun ; and, as for the transference 

 from a gaseous to a solid condition, we see, in the laboratory of every chemist, matter 

 passing by sure processes through solid, liquid, and gaseous states, under the superin- 

 tendence of a human artificer, a puny inquisitor of nature, who, confessedly, knows 

 nothing of the substance upon which he operates. These are facts which may reconcile 

 us to an idea which at first shocks our conceptions. The phenomenon of the Zodiacal 

 Light speaks significantly upon the point before us. That lenticular-shaped atmosphere, 

 surrounding the sun, and extending to the orbit of Venus, is evidence that the central 

 still sustains a somewhat nebulous character. 



There is not the slightest foundation for the allegation, that the nebular theory is 

 based on atheistical principles, and no uneasy feeling need disturb the religious mind 

 concerning it. It is an entire misconception, to regard the theory as substituting 

 Growth for Creation, and putting Material Necessity in the place of Eternal Pro- 

 vidence. In assigning the organisation of the worlds of space to the gradual oper- 

 ation of physical laws, there is a Supreme First Cause, an Acting Operator, by 

 whose will those laws were appointed, and by whose power they are influential, as 

 necessarily implied, as in the contrary supposition that the mighty framework of uni- 

 versal nature transpired by Divine volition in the twinkling of an eye. Why should 

 gravitation be an attribute of matter? Why should change occur in the disposition 

 of material elements ? Why should a diffused, gaseous, and luminous nebulosity con- 

 dense, and become in the sweep of ages a solid globe, adapted for the sustenance of 

 animal life, and the gratification of intellectual natures ? Or why should there have been 

 a germal nebula at all ? The answer to these questions refers us to a wise and eternal 

 Potentate, whose free volition originated the primitive substance, placed it under the 

 action of laws adapted to accomplish His design ; and those laws are but the tools with 

 which the great Artificer is pleased to work. They are dependent and not self-acting 

 powers. They are links in the chain of causal influences, but not the first links. Upon 

 this subject Dr. Pye Smith says : " What was the condition or constitution of the first 

 created matter ? Certainly it falls within the province of general physics to examine this 

 question : and if the investigation be conducted in the true spirit of philosophy, which is 

 modest, reverential, and cautious in a word, the spirit of genuine religion though it 

 may not be demonstratively answered in the present life, yet valuable approximations 

 may be made to it. The nebular hypothesis, ridiculed as it has been by persons whose 



