Its aspect, if we venture to look at it in its entirety, is vast and formidable. Not now, as in former times, with a mere fragment of creation--a single star and its puny client-globes, one of which happens to be the temporary abode of the human race--but with the undivided, abysmal cosmos, the science of origin and destiny concerns itself. The obscure and immeasurable uncertainties of galactic history invite or compel attention. We know just enough to whet our desire to know a great deal more. The distribution of stars and nebulæ is easily seen to be the outcome of design. By what means, we cannot but ask ourselves, was the design executed? How were things ordered when those means began to be employed? How will they be ordered when all is done? For an ultimate condition has, presumably, not yet been reached. And if not, agencies must be at work for the perfecting of the supreme purpose, which are not, perhaps, too subtle for our apprehension. Meanwhile, facts bearing on sidereal construction are being diligently collected and sifted, and we shall do well to suspend speculation until their larger import is made known. The inquisitions of science do not cease here. They strive to penetrate a deeper mystery than that of the scattering in space of stars and nebulæ. What are they made of? is the further question that presents itself. What is the nature of the primal world-stuff? Whence did it obtain heat? By what means was motion imparted to it? If it be urged that such-like topics elude the grasp of finite intelligence and belong to the secrets of creative power, we may reply that we are not entitled, nor are we able, to draw an arbitrary line, not to be transgressed by our vagrant thoughts. The world has been, by express decree, thrown wide to their excursions, and it is not for us to restrict their freedom. We need not fear getting too near the heart of the mystery; there is no terminus in the unknown to which we can travel by express; in a sense, we are always starting, and never get nearer to our destination. But that is because it retreats before us. We do, in truth, advance; and as we advance the mists clear, and we see glimpses beyond of imperishable order, of impenetrable splendour. Our inquiries need not then be abandoned in despair at the far-reaching character they have spontaneously assumed. From the earliest times there has been a tendency to regard varieties of matter as derivative. They have been supposed to be procured by supramundane agency, or by the operation of inherent law, from some universal undifferentiated substance. We moderns call that substance 'protyle,'[51] and believe ourselves to be in experimental touch with it. The implications of this view we shall consider in the next chapter. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 50: _Cf._ Jeans, _Astrophysical Journal_, vol. xxii., p. 93.] [Footnote 51: A term signifying 'first matter,' constructed from corresponding Greek words by Roger Bacon, and revived by Sir William Crookes.]