MACKIE — PHYSICAL A:ND COSMICAL PHENOMENA. 
179 
first place, we only imagined. When first men observed the sun, 
they regarded the earth as a fl it phiin, over vvliich the sun passed in 
his heavenly course, and below which, at eve, he retired to rest. It 
was not until many ages had elapsed that the world came to be 
regarded as round, and even then it was long before the sun was con- 
sidered as a fixed centre of the planetary system revolving round 
him. 
By no nation of ancient times has astronomy been more advanced 
than the Greeks. Not that the Greeks ever worked out much to a 
proved result, but they were an imaginative people, and tliey invented 
notions. If one theory or specuUition was disproved, tliey invented 
another ; and, hit or miss, thev always seemed to have fresh ideas in 
reserve. In some things astronomical, as in many other things that 
the world believes in, we may be heretics, and we admit we do not 
adhere to all the cosmieal, physical, geological, and spiritual tenets of 
the popular faiths. We may not entirely believe in the perfect sta- 
bility of the universe ; we may doubt the eternal endurance of the sun'a 
bright rays ; and we may not quite acquiesce in the unchangeable per- 
manence of the planetary orbits : in short, we do not believe in the 
permanence of anything whatever in creation. All ever has been 
change, and changeful all things ever will be. Diversity and change 
are visible in the first created things of which any relics have been 
left us. Diversity and change are palpable in every living creature 
and every inanimate thing around. Tiie foreshadowings of future 
changes fall everywhere and on everything. Never, in all the Great 
Past, do we find a ledge of stability on which to rest the mind's 
weary flight; nor in all the future can we spy one solitary change- 
less rock on which to seek repose. The mind, like the fabled flight 
of the gorgeous birds of paradise, is doomed to endless eftbrt, — from 
birth to death to be ceaselessly on the wing. It is a fashion, 
however, — and has been more so than it is now, — to talk about 
the stability of the universe. Nothing is, ever was, or ever will be, 
Jixed in space. Not even the " fixed " stars, for we know they are all 
in motion ; and the spectral analysis of the light of some, at any rate, 
shows that those whose rays we can analyse are in a state of combus- 
tion — burning like our own sun. Notwithstanding the sublime 
edict for the creatit)n of light in that Bible most [)eople profess to 
believe, we suspect strongly that most people regard the light of 
our sun as eternal. If eternal in the future, why not eternal in the 
Past? If not eternal in the past, why eternal in the Future ? Not 
that we think such arguments always bear. 
The mind naturally clings to the idea that creation began; and 
the more educated, the more competent, the more reflective the mind 
becomes, the more it clings to the conviction that creation did begin. 
But havnig begun, having progressed, still progressing, who will dare 
to think it shall ever cease ? JSuch a thought involves the extinction, 
death of the Creator. Never! More glorious and more powerful 
day by day, and age by age, the Almiglity Strength may grow and in- 
crease, but diminish, cease, — never! But, back to our point, lias 
