The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-08-24
For the Central Presbyterian.
Prof Barbour's Article in South.
ern Presbyterian Review.

The July No. of the Southern .Pres6y-
terrain Revaee0 is a very fine one. In the
force, originality, learning scholarship
and timeliness of its articles it may chal-
lenge comparison with the foremost peri
odical issues of the month; while in me-
chanical execution-its paper, type, print
ing and perfection of proot-read ing-it is
the best that has met our eyes.
1 wish, without depreciating other able
articles, to call attention to one contrib
uted by the Rev. Professor l.. G. Bar
bour, Central University, Richmond, KY.
This l do, partly because its title, Cosnaac
Vapor, is negative in relation to the pur-
port of the article, and therefore may not
invite attention, but mainly for its in
trinsic value and admirable execution.
1t makes complete argument for the To-
gical necessity of the existence of per-
sonal omnipotent first cause of all things
as against any form of evolution opposed
to the theistic doctrine.
The writer considers as possible only
three alternative hypothesis to account
for the totality of things: God, Chance,
and Cosmic Vapor. The hypothesis Of
an omnipotent God all must admit to be
believable and sufficient, even if denied
to be necessary. Of Chance he says,
" Chance would appear to have few ad-
herents among the ancients, but the mod
erns are ashamed of their deity. Even
Prof. Huxley turns his back on this now
abject divinity and tells us that nobody
worships at its shrine" In order, there
fore, to establish the theistic hypothesis,
Prof. Barbour deems it sufficient to show
that we are shut up to choice between
God and chance, unless we hold cosmic
vapor competent to originate the totality
of things. To demonstrate that the latter
is impossible the argument of the whole
article is directed
Cosmic vapor is the brief designation
for the modern form of the nebu1ar hy-
pothesis. This hypothesis was first pro-
pounded by Kant, who seemed to hold
" that in the beginning there was chaos
OF particles, perhaps of atoms of matter,
from which by mutual attraction, and
wlthal repulsion, the worlds were evolv-
ed" Laplace adopted the hypothesis,
but modified it by placing in the midst of
his chaos central sun surrounded by an
atmosphere of intensely hot vapor rotat-
ing about its axis, and endeavored to show
how, by the recognized laws of rotary
motion, out of this vapor worlds might
have been consolidated and established
in their present position. To the ques-
ton by Napoleon, Where is the place
for God in all this ?" Laplace frankly re-
piled, Sire, there is no place for God in
my system The modern materialistic
theory adopts the chaos of Laplace, god
less, self-existent, eternal, imperishable
and self-evolved. 1t endeavors, however,
to invigorate chaos by endowing it with
potencies." But whence these poten-
cies Either from God or from chance :;
there is no middle alternative. That the
human mind cannot accept chance as the
author of the potencies manifested by
matter constituted into worlds, the author
proceeds to show with abundant learning
and great force of exhibition. The topics