If these theories be true, among the foremost and withal the most mischievous of the old theories which will fall, will be that figment of the imagination—the Nebular Hypothesis.[14] How strangely, and how strongly, has that hypothesis maintained its ground, even after nebulous masses have been resolved into clusters of stars. If gravity be the result of retro-acting forces, there could be no element of attraction in the flimsy gaseous particles whereby they might be drawn together. If gravity be the result of retro-acting forces, then must those forces have their existence somewhere. But where could there be found in flimsy gases any such special centres of force—any nuclei—from which attraction might proceed in its work of forming the spheres? A starting-point is lacking.
If these theories be true, the sun is formed like unto the earth, and is cool, non-luminous, and habitable. Incandescence not being the condition of the sun or its surroundings; exhausted worlds, worn out asteroids, and stray comets and meteors are not required to keep up external fires.
If, therefore, incandescence be not a condition of the sun's surroundings, then surely there may be no glowing metallic vapors, no hydrogen, no iron, no sodium, no magnesium, no oxygen; those constituents of the sun envelope, so graphically described by the spectroscopists of the present day.
The origin of celestial spectroscopy was as vague and unphilosophical as was that of the nebular hypothesis. Frauenhofer and Kirchhoff imagined certain things, and straightway a great theory sprang into existence.[15]
Verily the "Scientific use of the Imagination" too often leads men into the grossest errors.
If these theories be true, we may hereafter ignore all undulatory processes. Time may no longer be estimated in noting the transmission of light and heat, since, like gravity, each acts instantaneously. If the most distant fixed star which is visible could be annihilated to-night, its light would be seen no more forever.
If these theories be true, the recent marvels of the age, the telephone, phonograph, and their fast-multiplying brood find a satisfactory and philosophical explanation.
If these theories be true, the boast of the Atheist, that God is wasteful and a bungler, in that he wastefully scatters his sunlight, and sun-heat, in all directions into space, is set at naught. Nature has been misinterpreted. No sunlight nor sun-heat is disclosed, except in the direction of other spheres.
These theories throw new light upon the character and extent of the atmosphere of the moon and planets, and the consequent availability of those and other spheres for sustaining life. The extent of the atmosphere of each celestial body may be presumed to be proportionate to our own. Analogy would therefore teach us that those bodies, also our sun, and other suns, are the abodes of intelligent beings.