IX 

 A RATIONAL COSMOGONY 



He is indeed a callous soul who has never gazed at 

 midnight into the deep vault of heaven and felt the 

 spell of its weird mystery. What are the stars? 

 Whence came they? What holds and propels them in 

 their courses? Are they arranged according to some 

 definite plan or only haphazard? What is the motif in 

 this splendid and stupendous drama of Nature? Are 

 we witnessing a comedy, a melodrama, a farce, or is the 

 denouement to be a tragedy in which actors and be- 

 holders alike are destined to be engulfed in one gen- 

 eral, irretrievable ruin? Is the universe automatic, 

 or must it now and then be adjusted by its Creator? 

 Can we, perhaps, by patient and unremitting watching 

 detect the Divine Hand at work? When we shall have 

 solved the final problem of the physical heavens, shall 

 we be any nearer to unveiling the great Soul of All? 

 What are the ultimate limits to man's possible knowl- 

 edge, as a terrestrial being? What his purpose and 

 destiny? 



These questions have been asked over and over 

 again, but it seems to little purpose. I reiterate them 

 now in the hope of throwing some further light upon 

 them. 



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