JoLY — A Prc-Material Condition of the Universe. 567 



chronometer, but if the dial he one divided into eternal durations 

 tlie consummation of any finite physical change represents such a 

 movement of the hand as is accomplished in a single vibration of 

 the balance wheel. 



Hence we must regard the hosts of glittering stars as a confla- 

 gration that has been simultaneously lighted up in tlie heavens. 

 The enormous (to our ideas) thermal energy of the stars resembles 

 the scintillation of iron dust in a jar of oxygen when a pinch 

 of the dust is thrown in. Although some particles be burnt up 

 before others become alight, and some linger yet a little longer 

 than the others, in our day's work the scintillation of the iron dust 

 is the work of a single instant, and so in the long night of eternity 

 the scintillation of the mightiest suns of space is over in a moment. 

 A little longer, indeed, in duration than the life which stirs a 

 moment in response to the diffusion of the energy, but only very 

 little. So must an Eternal Being regard the scintillation of the 

 stars and the periodic vibration of life in our geological time and 

 the most enduring efforts of thought. The latter indeed no more 



lasting than 



' * the labour of ants 



In the light of a million million of suns." 



But the myriad suns themselves, with their generations, as the 

 momentary gleam of a light for ever after extinguished. 



Again, science suggests that the present process of aggregation 

 is not finished, and possibly will only be when it is become 

 universal. Hence the very distribution of the stars, as we observe 

 them, as isolated aggregations, indicates a development which in 

 the infinite duration must be regarded as equally advanced in all 

 parts of stellar space and essentially a simultaneous phenomenon. 

 For were we spectators of a system in which any very great 

 difference of age prevailed, this very great difference would be 

 attended by some such appearance as the following : — 



The appearance of but one star, other generations being long 

 extinct or no others yet come into being ; or, perhaps, a faint 

 nebulous wreath of aggregating matter somewhere solitary in the 

 heavens ; or no sign of matter beyond our system, either because 

 ungathered or long passed away into darkness. 



Some such appearances were to be expected had the aggrega- 

 tion of matter depended solely on chance encounters of particle* 



