." Such is the synopsis of the objections and difficulties to the acceptance of the nebular theory brought forward by the French savant , who concludes his interesting chapter by declaring that: -- "The first part of the Cosmogonical problem, -- what is the primitive matter of chaos; and how did that matter give birth to the sun and stars?
-- thus remains to this day in THE DOMAIN OF ROMANCE AND OF MERE IMAGINATION."** If this is the last word of Science upon that subject, whither then should one turn in order to learn what the nebular theory is supposed to teach?
What, in fact, is this theory?
What it is , no one seems to know for a certainty.
What it is not -- we learn from the erudite author of the "World-Life." He tells us that: -- (I.) It " is not a theory of the evolution of the Universe .
.
.
but only and primarily a genetic explanation of the phenomena of the solar system, and accessorily a co-ordination of the principal phenomena in the stellar and nebular firmament, as far as human vision has been able to penetrate.
" (II.) "That it does not regard the Comets as involved in that particular evolution which has produced the solar system." ( Esoteric doctrine does.
) (It does, because it, too, recognises the comets as forms of cosmic existence co - ordinated with earlier stages of nebular evolution; and it actually assigns to them chiefly the formation of all worlds.) (III.) " That it does not deny an antecedent history of the luminous fire mist " -- (the secondary stage of evolution in the Secret Doctrine) .
.
.
.
"and makes no claim to having reached an absolute beginning." And even [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See Stanza III.
about "Light, or the cold Flame," and Commentary Number 8, where it is explained that the "mother" (Chaos) is a cold Fire, a cool Radiance, colourless, formless, devoid of every quality.
"Motion is the One Eternal is , and contains the potentialities of every quality in the Manvantaric Worlds," it is said.
** Hypotheses Cosmogoniques , C.
Wolf, 1886.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 600 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
it allows that this "fire mist may have previously existed in a cold, nonluminous and invisible condition" .
.
.
.
(IV.) "And that finally: it does not profess to discover the ORIGIN of things, but only a stadium in material history " .
.
.
.
leaving "the philosopher and theologian as free as they ever were to seek for the origin of the modes of being."* But this is not all.
Even the greatest philosopher of England -- Mr.
Herbert Spencer -- arrayed himself against the fantastic theory by saying that ( a ) "The problem of existence is not resolved" by it; ( b ) the nebular hypothesis "throws no light upon the origin of diffused matter," and ( c ) that "the nebular hypothesis (as it now stands) implies a First Cause."** The latter, we are afraid, is more than our modern physicists have bargained for.
Thus, it seems that the poor "hypothesis" can hardly expect to find help or corroboration even in the world of the metaphysicians.
Considering all this, the Occultists believe they have a right to present their philosophy, however misunderstood and ostracised it may be at present.
And they maintain that this failure of the scientists to discover the truth is entirely due to their materialism and contempt for transcendental sciences.
Yet although the scientific minds in our century are as far from the true and correct doctrine of Evolution as ever, there may be still some hope left for the future, as we find another great scientist giving us a faint glimmer of it.
In an article in Popular Science Review (Vol.
XIV ., p.
252) on "Recent Researches in Minute Life," we find Mr.
H.
J.
Slack, F.C.S., Sec.
R.M.S., saying: "There is an evident convergence of all sciences, from physics to chemistry and physiology, toward some doctrine of evolution and development, of which the facts of Darwinism will form part , but what ultimate aspect this doctrine will take, there is little, if any, evidence to show, and perhaps it will not be shaped by the human mind until metaphysical as well as physical inquiries are much more advanced.
" This is a happy forecast indeed.
The day may come, then, when the "Natural Selection," as taught by Mr.
Darwin and Mr.
Herbert Spencer, will form only a part , in its ultimate modification, of our Eastern doctrine of Evolution, which will be Manu and Kapila esoterically explained.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * "World-Life," p.
196.
** Westminster Review , XX.
, July 27, 1868.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The description of Chaos as 'colourless, formless, devoid of every quality' describes the primordial principle purely by negation, a characteristically apophatic mode of description.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The entire passage is a cosmogonic argument, contrasting the nebular theory's failure to explain the origin of primitive matter with the Secret Doctrine's staged account of cosmic origin from Chaos through cold fire to the luminous fire mist and solar system.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
The passage references 'Light, or the cold Flame' and 'a cool Radiance' as the primordial luminous quality of the divine ground before materialization.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage describes a staged descent from unconditioned Chaos (cold Fire, formless, devoid of quality) through the 'secondary stage of evolution' (luminous fire mist) to the solar system, which is the Theosophical doctrine of involution as a directional process from spirit to matter.