The "Nebular Hypothesis" of Laplace concerns itself only with the aggregate matter of which our solar system is composed, and the force of gravity, including cohesion, ignoring the action of the equally powerful force of repulsion. But there is another nebular hypothesis much older than that of Laplace and far more scientific, for it utilizes both the force of gravity and cohesion and the radiant force of repulsion in the generation of our solar system. We refer to what is known as the Mosaic cosmogony. Whatever the origin of this magnificent narrative may have been, whether written down by Moses originally, or by him derived from the sacred learning of Egypt, with which he was fully acquainted, or by the Egyptian scribes drawn from Ethiopia, and still further back from the sacred traditions of India, it bears internal evidence, when properly rendered from the Hebrew record, of a knowledge of these stupendous phenomena (which no human eye could ever have beheld) which is most remarkable. The commonly accepted versions do not clearly bring out the full meaning of the original,--indeed, it would have been impossible for the earlier translators to have done so,--but when critically and etymologically rendered, very surprising coincidences with the succession of events as they must actually have occurred, and the principles involved in the successive stages of creation, will be found in nearly every part of the record. This record is embodied in the first chapter and first three verses of the second chapter of Genesis. The Hebrew was long believed to be an original, if not an inspired, language, but it is now well known to have been a derivative or root language, made up much like the English, and, like it, having the meanings of its words primarily determined by those of the root-stems from which they have been formed. The roots of these Hebrew words are to be found among the languages of many older peoples, and nearly all of them have now been traced to their immediate origin. Another source of error is in the so-called Masoretic pointing, which was not introduced for a thousand years after the time of Moses, and which has often changed the signification of the older words, and even the form of the words themselves; but by critical researches the roots and their combinations have been isolated, so that we are now able to possess a much mere accurate knowledge of the Mosaic record than was possible in former times, for, of course, no original copies have come down to us. It is not a reconstruction of the record which has been made, but a careful editing by means of the derivation and true signification of the words used, and by careful comparison among the most ancient versions accessible to modern research. The English version, while imperfect in its rendering of this ancient narrative, is not to be considered by any means a false translation, but it largely errs in failing to give the full radical meaning of the words employed in the original.