66 
The Birth and Evolution 
[February, 
had its process of generation and growth, like man and 
worm ; but the aft of engendering — of something out of 
nothing — touches on what we cannot comprehend. 
We see the nebulae of the heavens ; they are resolved 
into stars by the telescope. “ Telescopes and microscopes 
sometimes confuse pure reason ; one is contented to find 
grubs,” says Goethe. On earth there also are nebulae ; they 
condense to drops ; a similar process exists in space, — we 
see it pass. An atom, we are told, is the beginning of man, 
two excentric atoms perchance ; why not of sun and planets ? 
sucking nutrition from a fog growing round them, becoming 
something from nothing. 
Two central oppositions at least this nebula must contain; 
they are unequal, for they sprung from an inequality ; they 
revolve more or less regularly, — revolving they advance ; 
they received movement as they received existence ; they 
are through that which was ; without movement they 
cease. 
We will rest in this mystic, yet true, circle, out of which 
we cannot step ; we have only to inform ourselves about 
those ordinances of gravity which must connect and rule, in 
those relations of masses, distances, densities, velocities, 
inclinations, and excentricities. Manifold contradictions 
seem to mark themselves under comparative examination of 
our planetary system. 
I do not pretend that what I find is always correct and 
complete in all its details, but I am convinced that it is true 
in principle and method. 
To meet criticism beforehand I mention the series of pla- 
netary distances by Titius (Bode’s law), derived from Kepler ; 
it is an accord falsely taken in what there is, without theo- 
retical foundation and explanation, but it attracts our at- 
tention. It has been said that the series does not entirely 
agree with reality. That should be the last objection. 
Where is there a law without cause of disturbance in itself? 
How many irregularities have been discovered in the motion 
of heavenly bodies, and, because nevertheless the law was 
believed in, one sought after reasons for these irregularities 
and often found them; sometimes not yet found them, some- 
times pretended to have found them. If we have reason to 
believe in a principle, apparent contradictions shall not induce 
us to rejeCt it forthwith, but to trace those contradictions to 
their sources, and our principle may come forth stronger 
than before from doubt and contest. 
I shall at first make some concessions to probability, but 
we are taught to consider it as a law. Observation gives the. 
