of what we term the universe, of the development of its various
parts, and of its original condition.

Reverting to a former illustration--if we could suppose a number of
persons of various ages presented to the inspection of an intelligent
being newly introduced into the world, we cannot doubt that he would
soon become convinced that men had once been boys, that boys had once
been infants, and, finally, that all had been brought into the world
in exactly the same circumstances. Precisely thus, seeing in our
astral system many thousands of worlds in all stages of formation,
from the most rudimental to that immediately preceding the present
condition of those we deem perfect, it is unavoidable to conclude
that all the perfect have gone through the various stages which we
see in the rudimental. This leads us at once to the conclusion that
the whole of our firmament was at one time a diffused mass of
nebulous matter, extending through the space which it still occupies.
So also, of course, must have been the other astral systems. Indeed,
we must presume the whole to have been originally in one connected
mass, the astral systems being only the first division into parts,
and solar systems the second.

The first idea which all this impresses upon us is, that the
formation of bodies in space is STILL AND AT PRESENT IN PROGRESS. We
live at a time when many have been formed, and many are still
forming. Our own solar system is to be regarded as completed,
supposing its perfection to consist in the formation of a series of
planets, for there are mathematical reasons for concluding that
Mercury is the nearest planet to the sun, which can, according to the
laws of the system, exist. But there are other solar systems within
our astral system, which are as yet in a less advanced state, and