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Show 202 EXPLANATIONS sions which thP work has drawn forth in various quartP.r~, and which, oi' course, can only be a discredit to thetr authors. I must start with a more explicit statement of the general aro-ument of the Vcsticres for this has been exten-o b ' • • •1 I si vely misunderstood. T'he bo?k 1s. not. pr~man Y (Je-sio- ned, as many have intimated In the1r cnt1c1sms, a?d as th~ title rni crht be thought partly to imply, to establish a new theory 0 respecting the origin of animate~ nature; nor are the chief ar(J'uments directed to that p01nt. The object is one to which the idea of an or~anic creatiot;l i? the manner of naturalla'v is only subordinate and mtnistrative as likewise are the nebular hypothesis and the do~trin~ of a fixed natural order in mind and morals. Thts purpose is to show that the whole revelation o~ the works of God presented to our st-nses and reason IS a system based in what we· are compelled, for want of a better term, to call LA \V • by which however, is not meant a system independent' or exclusi~e of Deity, but one which only proposes a certain nwde of his working. The nature and bearing of this doctrine will be afterwards advertec~ to; let me, meanwhile, observe, that it has long been pmnted to by science, though hardly anywhere broadly and fully contemplated. And this w3:s scarcely to be wondered a~, since, while the whole phystcal arran_gemen~s of the umverse ·were placed under law by the d1sco~enes of Kep_ler and Newton, there was still such a mystenous conceptiOn of the origin of organic nature, and of the character of our own fitful being, that men were almost forced to mal~e at least large ex~eptions from any proposed plan of U~lversal order. What makes the case now somewhat dtfferent is, that of bte years we have attained muc~ ad~htional knowledge of nature, pointing 1n the same d1rec~wn as the physical arrangem~nt.s of the world. .The ti~e seems to have come when 1t 1s proper to enter Into a ~~examination of the whole subject, in order ~o ascerlm.n whether in what \Ye actually know, there IS most evidence in' favor of an entire or a partial system of fixed order. When led to make this inquiry for mys~lf, I soon becarne convinced that the idea of any exceptwn to the plan of law _stood upon ~ nar_row, ~nd constant]~ narro~ing founda~wn, dependwg, 1~de~u, on a. few d~fficu~h?! or obscurities, rather than objectwns, wh1c? we1e ce1tan1 soon to be swept away by the advancing t'de of knowl NEBULAR. HYPOTHE818. 2U3 edge. It appeared, at thP. same time, that there was a want in the state of philosophy amongst us, of an impulse in the direction of the consideration of this theory, so as to bring its difficulties the sooner to a bearing in the one way or the other; and hence it ·was that I presumed to enter the field. My starting-point was a statement of the arrangements of the bodies of space, with a hypothesis respecting the mode in which those arrangements had been effected. It is a mistake to suppose this (nebular) hypothesis essential, as the basis of the entire system of nature developed in my book. That basis lies in the material laws found to prevail throughout the universe, which explain why the masses of space are globular; vrhy planets revolve round suns in elliptical orbits; how their rates of speed are high in proportion to their nearness to the centre fJf attraction, and so forth. In these laws arises the first powerful presumption that the formation and arrangements of the c~lestial bodies \\·ere brought about by the Divine will, acting in the manner of a fi.red order or law, instead of any mode which we conceive of as more arbitrary. It is a presumption which an enlightened mind is altogether unable to resist, when it sees that precisely similar effects are every day produced by law on a small scale, as when a drop of water spherifies, when the revolving hoop bulges out in the plane of its equator, and the sling, swung round in the hand, increases in speed as the string is shortened. The philosopher, on observing these phenomena, and finding incontestible proof that they are precisely of the same nature as those attending the formation and arrangement of \Vorlds, learns his first great lesson-that the natural laws work on the minutest and the grandest scale indifferently; that, in fact, there is no such thing as great and small in nature, but world spaces are as a hairbreadth, and a thousand years as one day. Having· thus all but demonstration that the spheres were formed and arranged by natural law, the nebular hypothesis becomes important, as shadowing forth the process by which matter was so transformed from a previous condition, but it is nothing more; and, though it v\'ere utterly disproved, the evidence which we previously possessed that physical creation, so to speak, was effected by means of, or in the manner of Law, would remain exactly as it was. We should onl be left in the dark with regard to the previous condition of |