299
_necessarily_ finds, as the result of his contemplation, the
aggregation of matter, and the consequences arising therefrom.
The negation of so primary a material property as gravitation to
these primitive motions of (or in) the ether, probably involves
the negation of many properties we find associated with matter.
Possibly the quality of inertia, equally primary, is involved
with that of gravitation, and we may suppose that these two
properties so intimately associated in determining the motions of
bodies in space were conferred upon the primitive motions as
crystallographic attraction and rigidity are first conferred upon
the solid growing from the supersaturated liquid. But in some
degree less speculative is the supposition that the new order of
motions involved the transformation of much energy into the form
of heat vibrations; so that the newly generated matter, like the
newly formed crystal, began its existence in a medium richly fed
with thermal radiant energy. We may consider that the thermal
conditions were such as would account for a primitive
dissociation of the elements. And, again, we recall how the
physicist finds his estimate of the energy involved in mere
gravitational aggregation inadequate to afford explanation of
past solar heat. It is supposable, on such a hypothesis as we
have been dwelling on, that the entire subsequent gravitational
condensation and conversion of material potential energy, dating
from the first formation of matter to the stage of star
formation
300
may be insignificant in amount compared with the conversion of
etherial energy attending the crystallizing out of matter from
the primitive motions. And thus possibly the conditions then
obtaining involved a progressively increasing complexity of
material structure the genesis of the elements, from an
infra-hydrogen possessing the simplest material configuration,
resulting ultimately in such self-luminous nebula as we yet see
in the heavens.
The late James Croll, in his _Stellar Evolution_, finds objections
to an eternal evolution, one of which is similar to the
"metaphysical" objection urged in this paper. His way out of the
difficulty is in the speculation that our stellar system
originated by the collision of two masses endowed with relative
motion, eternal in past duration, their meeting ushering in the
dawn of evolution. However, the state of aggregation here
assumed, from the known laws of matter and from analogy, calls
for explanation as probably the result of prior diffusion, when,
of course, the difficulty is only put back, not set at rest. Nor
do I think the primitive collision in harmony with the number of
relatively stationary nebula visible in space.
The metaphysical objection is, I find, also urged by George
Salmon, late Provost of Trinity College, in favour of the
creation of the universe.—(_Sermons on Agnosticism_.)
A. Winchell, in _World Life_, says: "We have not
301
the slightest scientific grounds for assuming that matter existed
in a certain condition from all eternity. The essential activity
of the powers ascribed to it forbids the thought; for all that we
know, and, indeed, as the _conclusion_ from all that we know,
primal matter began its progressive changes on the morning of its
existence."