THE ORIGIN OF NEW STARS. 19 
from the nebula, just as I believe the adult came from the 
child; but if you ask me where that nebula came from ?— 
well, we may say it came from the collision of two stars. 
But then comes the question, “ Where did the two stars 
come from?” To that science really gives no answer; and 
as far as I can understand these things, the very cireum- 
stance of the heavens seem to me to bear written on them 
the impress of the fact that they cannot have gone on from 
all time as they are now. There must have been, so far as 
we can understand it, some beginning—some time at which 
there was an intervention of force and action such as science 
is not able to take cognizance of. Hence it is I cannot but 
express hearty sympathy with the efforts, and successful 
efforts, which have been made by this Institute to show 
that in our endeavours to understand the wonders of 
nature, we have ever brought before us the fact that there 
are innumerable mysteries in nature which can never be 
accounted for by the operations with which science makes 
us familiar, but which demands the intervention of some 
Higher Power than anything that man’s intellect can com- 
prehend. [Loud applause. ] 
The Prestpent.—Ladies and gentlemen, Iam sure you will 
agree with me that we ought to pass a hearty vote of thanks 
to Sir Robert Ball for this most interesting and most suggestive 
lecture that we have just heard. Perhaps it is not quite usual 
to propose a vote of thanks from the chair, but in the absence of 
Sir Joseph Fayrer, who has been obliged to leave, and who had 
undertaken to move the vote of thanks, I have great pleasure in 
doing so. (Applause.) 
I need not occupy your time—n fact, it has been so delightfully 
occupied during the whole of this lecture, that anything I could 
say now would only be coming down from a ladder. Perhaps 
some one here will have the goodness to second this resolution. 
Dr. Watrer Kipp, F.Z.3.—I beg to second the vote of thanks 
to Sir Robert Ball for his valuable lecture. 
[The resolution was then put and carried with acclamation. | 
The Secretrary.—I wish to be permitted to add one word to the 
thanks that have keen accorded to my distinguished friend—a 
CZ 
