Excerpt from World-Life or Comparative Geology

William Herschel were certainly not less guiding and determinative than the services of the Marquis de Laplace. In the next place, the development of the doctrine has continued ever since the Systéme da Monde was published. Since the invention of the spectroscope, the nebular cosmogony has undergone important modifications. A number of the ablest investigators of the present generation have given their best efforts toward putting the general doctrine in a consistent shape. Nor can it be correctly said that the general the ory remains still in the status of a hypothesis. In certain points of detail, opinion may still remain divided; but when a hypothesis has stood the scrutiny of three generations, and has become all but unanimously accepted by those prepared to form original opinions, as the real expression of a method in nature, surely, then, the time has passed when any person can advantageously illustrate his learn ing and sagacity by continuing to reproach the conception as a mere hypothesis. If any mere hypothesis ever strengthened into the condition of a scientific doctrine, assuredly we find in the scien tific world to-day the general features of a sound nebular doctrine.

In style and treatment the present work possesses a double char acter. The general reader may confine himself to the body of the discussion, unterrified by the nature of the foot notes. And find a simple, continuous treatment of the theme which. I hope, will sat isfv his expectations. But if any one desires to know by what means some of the statements of the text have been established, he will find frequently in the foot notes the indications of simple mathematical operations, which may yield him some additional gratification. And if he feel prompted to pursue still further any branch of the inquiry, the accompanying references to the literature of the subject will enable him to follow the masters of science into their most recondite investigations. Thus, for one class, the book is suited to be read rapidly and laid aside; for another class it is a text book which may be studied.

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