(5) Reprinted in Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews,
1870.

(6) "Ancient," doubtless, but his antiquity must not be
exaggerated. For example, there is no proof that the "Mosaic"
cosmogony was known to the Israelites of Solomon's time.

(7) When Jeremiah (iv. 23) says, "I beheld the earth, and, lo,
it was waste and void," he certainly does not mean to imply that
the form of the earth was less definite, or its substance less
solid, than before.

(8) In looking through the delightful volume recently published
by the Astronomer-Royal for Ireland, a day or two ago, I find
the following remarks on the nebular hypothesis, which I should
have been glad to quote in my text if I had known them sooner:--

"Nor can it be ever more than a speculation; it cannot be
established by observation, nor can it be proved by calculation.
It is merely a conjecture, more or less plausible, but perhaps
in some degree, necessarily true, if our present laws of heat,
as we understand them, admit of the extreme application here
required, and if the present order of things has reigned for
sufficient time without the intervention of any influence at
present known to us" (The Story of the Heavens, p. 506).

Would any prudent advocate base a plea, either for or against
revelation, upon the coincidence, or want of coincidence, of the
declarations of the latter with the requirements of an
hypothesis thus guardedly dealt with by an astronomical expert?