And so in regard to the stability of the solar system; the nebular hypothesis, if established, would exhibit only the instrument employed by the all-wise Creator to secure the stability of the system.
In the same way we must deal with the argument founded on the arrangement by which the source of heat and light is placed in the centre of the system. Paley regards this as a proof of design solely on the ground, that there was no antecedent necessity for the sun being placed in the centre. But the force of the argument by no means rests on the disproof of an antecedent necessity—if by this is meant, some prior physical arrangement from which it resulted. According to the nebular hypothesis, the sun, as source of light and heat, must necessarily be in the centre. The sun is the incandescent mass from which the planets were thrown off, and while the planets cooled, the sun retained its high temperature. But all this only removes intelligence a step further back. The hypothesis, admitting its truth, is only the method adopted by the Divine Intelligence to secure the essential point of having the source of light and heat in the centre. Paley ascribes the difficulty of turning the mechanism of the heavens to account as an argument for a Divine Intelligence, to the circumstance, that it wants the complexity of the machines and organisms with which we are familiar on the earth. This explanation does not meet the case. There is no want of complexity in the celestial machine, though there is no
