VASSAK BROTHERS ENSTITUTE. 27 



sentatives of infinite calm and rest. But the whole idea 

 involves a misunderstanding of the facts. Xot only are 

 their orbital motions swift and far-reaching, but they 

 are themselves the theatres of mighty convulsions, in- 

 volving terrific tornadoes, conflagrations, and upheavals, 

 compared with which the terrestrial convulsions are but 

 pigmies. Worlds are consumed and worlds collide ; 

 comets from infinite space are caught by the attraction 

 of planets and all their direction changed ; masses 

 change from stars into nebuhe, and from nebula? back 

 again to stars, and probably infinite star-dust is hurled 

 into mid-space by stellar eruptions. The solid hills of 

 our earth are changing, wasting, and going into the sea. 

 Everywhere, too, molecular motion is going on — chem- 

 ical changes and cosmical changes advancing together. 

 All our thought, then, of the heavens as abiding, re- 

 maining forever, must be changed. They cannot abide ; 

 but the permanent is to be found, if at all, in the great 

 creative and regulating force that is the initiative of all 

 this change. To that, and not to the material universe, 

 must man, in his weakness and powerlessness, look for 

 abiding peace, for permanent, enduring being. 



The subject of the paper was discussed by Messrs. 

 Cooley, B wight, Bartlett, VanVliet, Warring and Ste- 

 venson. 



FEBRUARY 5, 1884— SEVENTEENTH REGULAR MEETING. 



J. Elmendorf, B.B., president, in the chair; fifteen 

 members and sixty guests present. 



Professor Bwight gave notice of a proposed amend- 

 ment of article iii., of the by-laws, changing the initia- 

 tion fee from $5 to $3, and the annual dues from $4 to S3. 



Three members were elected. 



C. B. Warring, Ph.B., addressed the society on "Evo- 

 lution, and its Relation to the Mosaic Account of Crea- 



