design. We expect to find this unity in the style of God's works, apart from mere adaptation. But is it possible to detect a unity of structure in the solar system, when we have the singular and startling exception of Saturn? Is it really in gear with the other parts of the solar system, as far as style is concerned? It is to this interesting point we would now address ourselves.
Laplace attempted to establish a unity and a type by means of the nebular hypothesis. He conceived a mode by which the planets were manufactured, as the potter fashions artistic vases from the shapeless mass of clay. But our design is not to imagine a unity of process or development, but to detect a unity of result. We can detect the predominating style of Wren, though we are quite ignorant as to the precise mode of operation adopted by him in rearing St Paul's and other edifices. So in the architecture of the solar system, we can discover a plan independently of any theory of evolution. In like manner, we are not obliged to adopt the theories of Lamarck and Darwin in order to accept the fact of archetypes in natural history. Owen's results are altogether independent of such theories.
Is there, then, apart from all theories of development, a general style of architecture in the solar system, to which the structure of Saturn conforms? We think there is, and that there is a traceable gradation of distinctive characters through all the planets. The
