And now, let us see:—Our usual notions of irradiation—in fact _all_ our distinct notions of it—are caught merely from the process as we see it exemplified in _Light_. Here there is a _continuous_ outpouring of _ray-streams_, and _with a force which we have at least no right to suppose varies at all_. Now, in any such irradiation _as this_—continuous and of unvarying force—the regions nearer the centre must _inevitably_ be always more crowded with the irradiated matter than the regions more remote. But I have assumed _no_ such irradiation _as this_. I assumed no _continuous_ irradiation; and for the simple reason that such an assumption would have involved, first, the necessity of entertaining a conception which I have shown no man _can_ entertain, and which (as I will more fully explain hereafter) all observation of the firmament refutes—the conception of the absolute infinity of the Universe of stars—and would have involved, secondly, the impossibility of understanding a rëaction—that is, gravitation—as existing now—since, while an act is continued, no rëaction, of course, can take place. My assumption, then, or rather my inevitable deduction from just premises—was that of a _determinate_ irradiation—one finally _dis_continued. Let me now describe the sole possible mode in which it is conceivable that matter could have been diffused through space, so as to fulfil the conditions at once of irradiation and of generally equable distribution. For convenience of illustration, let us imagine, in the first place, a hollow sphere of glass, or of anything else, occupying the space throughout which the universal matter is to be thus equally diffused, by means of irradiation, from the absolute, irrelative, unconditional particle, placed in the centre of the sphere. Now, a certain exertion of the diffusive power (presumed to be the Divine Volition)—in other words, a certain _force_—whose measure is the quantity of matter—that is to say, the number of atoms—emitted; emits, by irradiation, this certain number of atoms; forcing them in all directions outwardly from the centre—their proximity to each other diminishing as they proceed—until, finally, they are distributed, loosely, over the interior surface of the sphere. When these atoms have attained this position, or while proceeding to attain it, a second and inferior exercise of the same force—or a second and inferior force of the same character—emits, in the same manner—that is to say, by irradiation as before—a second stratum of atoms which proceeds to deposit itself upon the first; the number of atoms, in this case as in the former, being of course the measure of the force which emitted them; in other words the force being precisely adapted to the purpose it effects—the force and the number of atoms sent out by the force, being _directly proportional_.