el' and his 'dread imputations' are,
therefore, even more unsubstantial than my 'streaks of morning
cloud,' and they may be permitted to vanish together.

*****

These minor and more purely personal matters at an end, the weightier
allegation remains, that at Belfast I misused my position by quitting
the domain of science, and making an unjustifiable raid into the
domain of theology. This I fail to see. Laying aside abuse, I hope
my accusers will consent to reason with me. Is it not lawful for a
scientific man to speculate on the antecedents of the solar system?
Did Kant, Laplace, and William Herschel quit their legitimate spheres,
when they prolonged the intellectual vision beyond the boundary of
experience, and propounded the nebular theory? Accepting that theory
as probable, is it not permitted to a scientific man to follow up, in
idea, the series of changes associated with the condensation of the
nebulae; to picture the successive detachment of planets and moons,
and the relation of all of them to the sun? If I look upon our earth,
with its orbital revolution and axial rotation, as one small issue of
the process which made the solar system what it is, will any
theologian deny my right to entertain and express this theoretic view?
Time was when a multitude of theologians would have been found to do
so--when that archenemy of science which now vaunts its tolerance
would have made a speedy end of the man who might venture to publish
any opinion of the kind. But, that time, unless the world is caught
strangely slumbering, is for ever past.

As regards inorganic nature, then, we may traverse, without let or
hindrance, the whole distance which separates the nebulae from the
worlds of to-day. But only a few years ago this now conceded ground
of science was theological ground. I could by no means regard this as
the final and sufficient concession of theology; and, at Belfast, I
thought it not only my right but my duty to state that, as regards the
organic world, we must enjoy the freedom which we have already won in
regard to the inorganic. I could not discern the shred of a
title-deed which gave any man, or any class of men, the right to open
the door of one of these worlds to the scientific searcher, and to
close the other against him. And I considered it frankest, wisest,
and in the long run most conducive to permanent peace, to indicate,
without evasion or reserve, the ground that belongs to Science, and to