29 2 THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE

in its various parts. It could never have had the form of

one universally diffused and everywhere similar substance,

unless it had been acted on from without by something

external to itself. The attribute of instability applied to

the conception of a homogeneous universe could not, as

has been most absurdly supposed, account for the develop-

ment of the universe from a primitively simple condition.

The term " instability " is a mere abstract term denoting

the quality, as such, of what is unstable. But whatever is

unstable is not thereby endowed with any active power ;

it is merely easily upset and disturbed by anything external

to it. Anything quite homogeneous might be unstable to

the most extreme degree possible, and yet remain absolutely

unchanged for ever if nothing external ever came to act

upon it. It must be an action from without, since in a

universe absolutely homogeneous no possible change could

ever take place from within. For whatever is thus homo-

geneous must be everywhere identical in the mode of its

being and activity, and therefore could never change of

itself unless it were pervaded by some existence really-

distinct from it, change produced by which, though

materially an action from within, would be essentially an

action from without namely, the action of something

distinct from and external to it in nature and being.

One most important consequence follows from the fact

that the universe is necessarily one. Since the universe

embraces all we know now or can conceive of as hereafter to

be discovered, it is all-embracing. Were it not this, it could

not be the universe.

Now, since the universe is thus one, it could never itself

have been evolved by any process of " Natural Selection." An

eternal universe could never have been naturally selected

that is, have proved itself, through competition, to have been

a universe able to survive others, since it never could have

in its various parts. It could never have had the form of

one universally diffused and everywhere similar substance,

unless it had been acted on from without by something

external to itself. The attribute of instability applied to

the conception of a homogeneous universe could not, as

has been most absurdly supposed, account for the develop-

ment of the universe from a primitively simple condition.

The term " instability " is a mere abstract term denoting

the quality, as such, of what is unstable. But whatever is

unstable is not thereby endowed with any active power ;

it is merely easily upset and disturbed by anything external

to it. Anything quite homogeneous might be unstable to

the most extreme degree possible, and yet remain absolutely

unchanged for ever if nothing external ever came to act

upon it. It must be an action from without, since in a

universe absolutely homogeneous no possible change could

ever take place from within. For whatever is thus homo-

geneous must be everywhere identical in the mode of its

being and activity, and therefore could never change of

itself unless it were pervaded by some existence really-

distinct from it, change produced by which, though

materially an action from within, would be essentially an

action from without namely, the action of something

distinct from and external to it in nature and being.

One most important consequence follows from the fact

that the universe is necessarily one. Since the universe

embraces all we know now or can conceive of as hereafter to

be discovered, it is all-embracing. Were it not this, it could

not be the universe.

Now, since the universe is thus one, it could never itself

have been evolved by any process of " Natural Selection." An

eternal universe could never have been naturally selected

that is, have proved itself, through competition, to have been

a universe able to survive others, since it never could have