JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 55 
nebula, or mass of molten matter of Laplace, whirled and 
revolved through space with great velocity; and as it revolved, 
some parts of it became detached and were thrown from it. 
These detached fragments continued to revolve in the same 
direction as the parent body and now are known as planets. One 
of these fragments became our earth; and the earth also, at some 
period of its wandering journey to a distance of about 95,000,- 
ooo miles from the parent body, threw off a part of itself ; and 
this part became the earth’s satellite, the moon. The earth 
gradually cooled till its surface presented conditions suitable 
for life. It is conceivable that there was a time when matter 
did not exist in any form. ‘The universal Spirit, or God, 
reigned in awful silence through infinity, whose bounds and 
form are unknowable and incomprehensible to man. Let us 
then endeavor to explain the origin of the matter that com- 
posed the fiery cloud which gave birth to our earth and the 
other planets, stars, satellites and asteroids. The only reason- 
able hypothesis we can offer in connection with the subject is 
that matter was a conception of, and an emanation from the 
universal Spirit, or Creator. In other words, spirit conceived 
and brought forth matter. But conception according to our 
finite minds implies motion ; and without matter, there can be 
no motion. Prior to the creation of matter there were no 
ethereal undulations nor ethereal vortices, because the existence 
of these would imply motion. ‘The act of the conception of 
matter then by a non-material spirit would seem to us mirac- 
ulous and incomprehensible if we did not know vhat it was 
and is the spirit that thinks and conceives, and that matter is 
only the medium or means through, and by which, thought 
and conception are expressed. The brain matter does not 
think, but the spirit that animates it. I will just say in pass- 
ing that scientists cannot accept the theory of some theologians 
that a non-material spirit may also be a substance. Spirit and 
matter alone exist in the universe. The latter a creation of, 
and subject to the former. Matter, when first created was 
probably in an amorphous, or ethereal state ; and the first 
definite elements evolved were probably oxygen, hydrogen, 
