24 VESTIGES OE THE 



noinenon of n small whirlpool or dimple in the surface 

 of a stream. iSuch dimples are not always single. Upon 

 the face of a liver where there are various contending 

 currents, it may often be observed that two or more 

 dimples are formed near each other with more or less 

 legularity. These fantastic eddies, which the musing 

 poet will sometimes w^atch abstractedly for an hour, little 

 thinking of the law which produces and connects them, 

 are an illustration of the wonders of binary and ternary 

 solar systems. 



The nebular hypothesis is, indeed, supported by so 

 many ascertained features of the celestial scenery, and so 

 many calculations of exact science, that it may be con- 

 sidered as verging upon the region of our ascertained 

 truths. Home further support I trust to bring to it ; 

 but in the meantime, assuming its truth, let us see what 

 idea it gives of the constitution of what we term the 

 universe, of the development of its various parts, and of 

 its original condition. 



ileverting to a former illustration — if we could sup- 

 pose a number of persons of Aarious ages presented to 

 the inspection of an intelligent being newly introduced 

 into the world, we cannot doubt that he would soon 

 become convinced that men had once been boys, that 

 l)oys had once been infants, and, linally, that all had been 

 brought into the world in exactly the same circumstances. 

 Precisely thus, seeing in our astral system many thou- 

 sands of worlds in all stages of formation, from the most 

 rudimental to that immediately preceding the present 

 condition of those we deem perfect, it is unavoidal)le to 

 conclude that all the perfect have gone through the 

 various stages which we see in the rudimental. This 

 leads us at once to the conclusion that the whole of our 

 iirmamerit was at one time a diti'usod mass of upbidous 



