Year: 1865

J~SAOSnCeo u 0O0'o 6x1oe00O0s


Prof. Mitchell delivered tie tirss of


series Of foIt lectlrss oh tie above subiec


before the Gillette Association of New York


After describing the boundless extent Q
space, shd the distance which separate
even the nearest stars, he said:


Whence are those objects1 There wer
three hypotheses on which an attempt ha,
been made to answer the question. Th
hrst was that the world was eternal, havinI
neither beginning or end. The second vas
matter was eternal and cannot be DESTROYED
The third was, that they were the work o
an omnipotent, divine Beink. The first
was the Universe eternall Had the star
existed, the planets rolled, the sun shone
and had our earth itself been circulatin,
round the sun from eternityi They seem
ed to be organized for eternity. But wber
we examine our earth, the only one we car
examine internally, we must, if the firs
hypothesis be correct, find animal and vegi
table life eternal. This was demonstrably
not the case. The second hypothesis, tha
the matter is eternal, out of which the world
was formed, and that from its creative con
dition it had been brought by certain i'm.
mutable laws. Let them but consider q
particle of matter: would it either rise OF
fall without power to move it? No.
Chaos existed, but out Of it no order could
arise until controlling power willed it,
then insensate matter WAS organized and q
world was formed. That brought them to
the third hypothesis-that the whole uni.
verse had been called into existence BY an
Onnipotent God.


In proof of the Cottsctness of the third
hypothesis, the speaker told of the revolu.
tons OF the various planets, and of the
wonderful delicacy and complexity of the
arrangement BY which they were made de-
pendent upon each other, and showing how
the slightest deviation from the great laws
that govern them would destroy the whole
We were living upon globe, he said; which
was allied to all othet globes destroy the
equilibrium and all was destroyed. There
was not planet that had not its size, weight
and velocity assigned to it. Change either,
and destruction must inevitably follow
Could they think of that, be asked-all
that, 30 beautiful, 80 delicate, so sublime,
and believe that it came to be so BY chance
There were. in all that was known of the
heavenly bodies, every evidence that each
and every one Of them was one matter,
governed by the same great laws, and by
the same great controlling power. In con.
clusion, Prof. NJ. said be could, If he had
the power, have built universe so that
there. would have been none of the changes
which ours is subject to. He would have
made the planets Of one matter, and placed
them so that they would not have affected
each other, nor should they have been affect
ed by the sun. He could have launched
them out, and they would have gone on
perfectly in their sphere. Now why was
not the world so built If there were no
differences of matterf It had not been be.
cause there was but one matter, and matter
could not be willed to attract and not
attract. Hence, the wondrous scheme by
which the earth was dragged by the moon,
then by the planets, and by the sun, here
and there, SO that dissolution seemed in.
evitable; but still the most perfect harmony
prevailed, and the earth rolled on to eter.
nifty. Let the mind contemplate these orbs
and their government, and the conclusion
was unavoidable-this is the empire of
Almighty God.