142 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



There are certain fundamental philosophical prin- 

 ciples which irrespective of proof compel conviction, 

 and preclude us as a race from ever being content with 

 their disaffirmance. Unfortunately for modern science, 

 it has illogically allowed itself to be betrayed into 

 constructive denial of several of these principles, as 

 follows : 



1. That the solar system is an organic part of the 

 universe, and not an independent entity. 



2. That the universe is integrally complete from 

 instant to instant, potentially as well as physically. 



3. That it is self-sustaining. 



4. That it is also eternal. 



A cosmogony in order to be called rational, I main- 

 tain, must not controvert any one of these postulates; 

 and, conversely, one that logically affirms them cannot 

 be summarily dismissed as irrational. 



Our ideas of the infinitude of time and space differ 

 from our ideas of the infinitude of matter and force 

 (or Force) in this, that whereas we cannot conceive 

 of the first two as ever non-existent, we can scarcely 

 refrain from imagining a definite beginning for each 

 of the 'two latter. Lot us begin our work of re-creating 

 the universe, then, by postulating matter as originally 

 in a slate of chaos, that is, as cosmic dust indiscrimi- 

 nately scattered either throughout all space, or only 

 through that finite portion of it within the range of 

 our telescopic vision. 



Into this dust, next, let enter the spirit of gravi- 

 tation as its final endowment. But first let us inquire, 

 What are the attributes and potentialities of gravita- 

 tion 9 Newton long ago revealed to us its law, namely, 

 that it varies as the product of the masses and in- 

 versely as the square of the intervening distance. But 



