Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation | Page 6

it gives of the constitution of what we term the universe, of the
development of its various parts, and of its original condition.
Reverting to a former illustration--if we could suppose a number of
persons of various ages presented to the inspection of an intelligent

being newly introduced into the world, we cannot doubt that he would
soon become convinced that men had once been boys, that boys had
once been infants, and, finally, that all had been brought into the world
in exactly the same circumstances. Precisely thus, seeing in our astral
system many thousands of worlds in all stages of formation, from the
most rudimental to that immediately preceding the present condition of
those we deem perfect, it is unavoidable to conclude that all the perfect
have gone through the various stages which we see in the rudimental.
This leads us at once to the conclusion that the whole of our firmament
was at one time a diffused mass of nebulous matter, extending through
the space which it still occupies. So also, of course, must have been the
other astral systems. Indeed, we must presume the whole to have been
originally in one connected mass, the astral systems being only the first
division into parts, and solar systems the second.
The first idea which all this impresses upon us is, that the formation of
bodies in space is STILL AND AT PRESENT IN PROGRESS. We
live at a time when many have been formed, and many are still forming.
Our own solar system is to be regarded as completed, supposing its
perfection to consist in the formation of a series of planets, for there are
mathematical reasons for concluding that Mercury is the nearest planet
to the sun, which can, according to the laws of the system, exist. But
there are other solar systems within our astral system, which are as yet
in a less advanced state, and even some quantities of nebulous matter
which have scarcely begun to advance towards the stellar form. On the
other hand, there are vast numbers of stars which have all the
appearance of being fully formed systems, if we are to judge from the
complete and definite appearance which they present to our vision
through the telescope. We have no means of judging of the seniority of
systems; but it is reasonable to suppose that, among the many, some are
older than ours. There is, indeed, one piece of evidence for the
probability of the comparative youth of our system, altogether apart
from human traditions and the geognostic appearances of the surface of
our planet. This consists in a thin nebulous matter, which is diffused
around the sun to nearly the orbit of Mercury, of a very oblately
spheroidal shape. This matter, which sometimes appears to our naked
eyes, at sunset, in the form of a cone projecting upwards in the line of

the sun's path, and which bears the name of the Zodiacal Light, has
been thought a residuum or last remnant of the concentrating matter of
our system, and thus may be supposed to indicate the comparative
recentness of the principal events of our cosmogony. Supposing the
surmise and inference to be correct, and they may be held as so far
supported by more familiar evidence, we might with the more
confidence speak of our system as not amongst the elder born of
Heaven, but one whose various phenomena, physical and moral, as yet
lay undeveloped, while myriads of others were fully fashioned and in
complete arrangement. Thus, in the sublime chronology to which we
are directing our inquiries, we first find ourselves called upon to
consider the globe which we inhabit as a child of the sun, elder than
Venus and her younger brother Mercury, but posterior in date of birth
to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus; next to regard our whole system
as probably of recent formation in comparison with many of the stars of
our firmament. We must, however, be on our guard against supposing
the earth as a recent globe in our ordinary conceptions of time. From
evidence afterwards to be adduced, it will be seen that it cannot be
presumed to be less than many hundreds of centuries old. How much
older Uranus may be no one can tell, much less how more aged may be
many of the stars of our firmament, or the stars of other firmaments
than ours.
Another and more important consideration arises from the hypothesis;
namely, as to the means by which the grand process is conducted. The
nebulous matter collects around nuclei by virtue of the law of attraction.
The agglomeration brings into operation another physical law, by force
of which the separate masses of matter are either made to rotate singly,
or, in addition to that single motion, are