replied, that should the foetal development of the various classes of being be so identical within a certain stage as that the nicest observation could perceive no difference, what then? Does this favour the transmutation theory? We think the specific differences which immediately succeed the earliest stages of fœtal development in each class, order, genera, and species, would prove just the reverse. For if there were absolute identity in the rudiments of all organic life, and if all species were essentially alike and capable of transmutation, what hinders each, when starting from the same point, from running the same course? or what prevents one germ from being developed into an animal of a different order from its parent? Why does the one always terminate in a worm, another always proceed to a fish, another to a reptile, another to a bird, another to a quadruped, and another to a man? The only philosophical reason is, that each is endowed from the first with a distinct specific nature, as essentially distinct as the highest organization, and that the transmutation is as impossible in the germ as it is in the full-grown animal. We need not pursue this subject further. Scientific facts and experiments, at every turn, confront and disprove the notions of spontaneous generation and gradual development. The microscope itself has proved a deadly foe to these hypotheses.

Now, had our inquiries on the production of animalcula led · to a different result-had facts even favoured their spontaneous generation that result would not have sustained the development theory. It would have left intact every preceding argument by which that theory is overthrown. It would still have been demonstrated that, so far as human observation can reach, an impassable barrier is placed between one species and another; the hypothesis of transmutation would still have been contradicted by facts in every department of the economy of Nature, and the necessity for some originating and creating power, superior to Nature, would have been established. But when we have evidence which is directly against the spontaneous theory; when facts and analogy lead to the conclusion that a creating power is as essential to the production of a

monad as to the production of an animal of the most elaborate and complicated structure, we have an additional fact to place on the roll of evidence for a creating power.

In the last chapter it was proved that all things had a beginning; it has now been proved that neither animal nor vegetable life began of itself, nor has been produced by any inherent energy in Nature; hence the corollary necessarily follows, that all organic existence has been produced by something distinct from Nature, and superior to it.

SECTION IV. THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS EXAMINED AND

REFUTED.

WE now proceed another step in the inquiry, in which we propose to show that the inanimate and unorganized masses composing the vast universe could not have received their present arrangement and disposition from the operation of any natural law. But here let it be observed, this argument is not essential to the force and conclusiveness of the preceding one. The former proofs of a creating cause are each independent of one another, and equally independent of this; and are equally conclusive and satisfactory, though we should not be able to carry our evidence a step higher. The existence of a man, a quadruped, a reptile, a mollusc, an animalculum, or a plant, each proves a creating cause, even if we could not demonstrate the creation of the inanimate globular masses which compose the solar and stellary systems.

It has already been argued in Chapter III. that the solar system, and, indeed, the entire universe, must have had a beginning (see pages 65—77): it has now to be shown that that origin could not spring from matter and its known properties, but must, like all organized existence, be derived from something distinct from Nature, and superior to it. In the absence of any opposite evidence, analogy itself presents a probable

argument of this. If it be impossible for matter spontaneously to originate organized existence, it is exceedingly improbable that it can originate its own modifications, dispositions, and motions, so as to produce the most perfect mechanism, the most consummate order and harmony, in the arrangement of its several parts. But here we are met by the nebular hypothesis, which proposes to account for the origin of our planet, and, indeed, of the solar system, by supposing that the atoms of which the whole material universe is composed existed primarily, in an extremely diffused and attenuated state through immensity.

There are numerous patches of apparently dull, cloudy matter, irregularly interspersed through the heavens. A few of these are faintly visible to the naked eye, but by far the greater portion are revealed only by the telescope. Some of these were always resolvable into clusters of stars, while others long resisted all attempts, even with telescopes of the highest magnifying powers, to reduce them into determinate bodies. Even when Herschel's great reflector was turned to the heavens, many of these nebulæ still remained unresolvable ; changed they were in figure, but still they presented the aspect of masses of cloudy vapour. It was, indeed, thought that some of these unresolvable masses were nearer to the earth than others which had yielded to telescopic power; and hence arose, during the close of the last century, various conjectures respecting their nature, and the purposes they served in the universe. Some philosophers thought they served to supply the systems of stars in their vicinity with materials to replenish the waste brought on by emission of light; but the most imposing theory was the hypothesis, that these nebulous masses consisted of luminous matter in its primitive condition, ere it had condensed itself into a compact body of spherical form. Assuming this as the first principle in the hypothesis, and assuming as the second, that the law of gravitation was inherent, and constantly operating, the different degrees of luminosity presented by the various nebula were supposed to be characteristic of the different degrees of condensation to which the respective

masses had advanced, in their progress from a state of primitive diffusion towards that of solid globes. Hence, system-makers arose, in quantum sufficit. Mechanical laws were conjectured, diagrams were drawn, and books were written, to show us how our planet had arisen; how systems grew; how constellations of burning suns, attended by revolving worlds,and humble satellites, were formed; and how other young systems were growing. At this period worlds were made and hurled into immensity with as much facility as the schoolboy casts his tennis-ball. Infidels expounded the theory to show us what Nature could do without a God; and good men took it up to show us how it harmonized with the nature of God and his word. These systems are still fresh, and their drawings and diagrams look beautiful on paper; but they have no other foundation than the paper on which they are displayed.

This specious generalization has been adopted as the ultimatum of the development theory. It may be viewed in a twofold aspect, according to the mode in which it is advocated by its admirers. By some, as we have intimated, it is advocated simply as the mode in which the Creator is supposed to have produced the universe; and, by others, as the mode in which the universe has been spontaneously produced by the operation of natural law, without the agency of a Creator. Viewed simply as an hypothesis, it is unsupported by the phenomena on which it was founded; but viewed as an atheistic scheme, it is fraught with palpable contradictions and adsurdities.

I. The nebular hypothesis is proved by astronomical discovery to be without foundation.

It stands precisely in the same position with respect to the telescope, as the spontaneous production of animalcula once did to the microscope. Both systems could boast a species of plausibility, while the unassisted eye, or limited and imperfect instruments, were the only means of investigation; but both alike vanish, as idle dreams before the light of day, when science employs more perfect instruments and more patient attention. As a conjecture, it rested mainly on the supposition that the vast masses composing nebular phenomena were unresolvable

from their nature, and not from their distance. This was the foundation on which its pretensions were supported, and which gained for it a temporary credit among men. It availed not how greatly augmented was the magnifying power which Sir William Herschel was able to apply. When he turned to the heavens his telescope of forty feet, with its four-feet mirror, penetrating into space nearly two hundred times beyond the distance of unaided vision, still these nebular masses were unresolvable. Every other celestial object seemed to yield to its power. Stars, which had appeared single, and scarcely visible from their minuteness, were found to be double, triple, and quadruple. Myriads, which the human eye had never seen to twinkle from the birth of time, were now beheld scattering their brilliant dust on the blue canopy of the sky. The faint light of the Milky Way was found to proceed, as Democritus anciently suggested, from millions of brilliant orbs, congregating in the form of an immense belt suspended in space. Cloudy appearances, whose grey and dusky aspect was invisible except in the clearest atmosphere, were ascertained to be clusters of stars of diversified forms and splendour. Multitudes of other nebulous masses were brought into view-some light and welldefined, but many diffused, sparse, and dull of aspect. These latter, and some faintly visible to the naked eye, would yield to no power which the great astronomer could bring to bear upon them. They sternly resisted all his attempts to resolve them into starry clusters. Under the amazing power of his four-feet reflector they still appeared cloudy, vaporous substances; and hence they were supposed to be masses of matter diverse from other celestial objects, and, from their naturenot their distance-incapable of being resolved by telescopic power. They were supposed, in fact, to be the crude materials, the primordial elements, of nascent worlds. Furnished with these materials, imagination supplied gravitation and mechanical laws, and, by their aid, attempted to account for the spontaneous origin of the universe.

Thus, the nebular theory was based upon a conjecture, and subsequent discoveries have proved the conjecture was founded