on toward the center_, which seemed to
Herschel so strongly in favor of his theory of the nebulous fluid, were
diametrically opposed to La Place's requirements of _condensation at the
circumference_; and these two contradictory notions were supposed to
support each other, and to furnish a solid basis for the development
hypothesis.

This theory, as stated by Herschel, and expounded by Nichol, Dick, and
other Christian writers, _is not necessarily Atheistical_. On the
contrary, they allege that it furnishes us with greater evidences of the
power of God, and gives us higher ideas of his wisdom, to suppose a
system of creation by development, under natural law, than by a direct
exercise of his will. Undoubtedly, had God so pleased he could have made
suns from fire-mists, according to some plan which his infinite wisdom
could devise, and his omnipotent power could execute; but it is beyond
the possibilities even of omniscience and omnipotence to make worlds, or
to make anything but nonsense, according to La Place's plan. Had God so
pleased, to make firmaments grow as forests do, and if he should please
to enable us to discover such celestial growth in some distant part of
heaven, we should have the same kind of evidence of his being, power,
wisdom, and goodness in this creation by natural law which we now have
from his providence by natural law, in the growth of the fruits of the
earth, and as much greater an amount of it as the heavens are greater
than the earth. The first beginning of primeval elements demands a
Creator. The contrivance of the law of development proclaims a
Contriver. The force by which it operates--whether that of gravity or
chemical reaction--must be the force of an Agent.

_The development theory, then, fails to account for the origin of the
universe, or even of our own world._ Herbert Spencer, its most eloquent
expounder, admits this. He says: "It remains only to point out that
while the genesis of the solar system, and of countless other systems
like it, is thus rendered comprehensible, the ultimate mystery continues
as great as ever. The problem of existence is not solved; it is simply
removed farther back. The Nebular Hypothesis throws no light on the
origin of diffused matter; and diffused matter as much needs accounting
for as concrete matter. The genesis of an atom is not easier to conceive
than the genesis of a planet. Nay, indeed, so far from making the
universe a less mystery than before, it