-.%> ^>. .>^. w. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) fe ^/ .»* i % ^^o^ /. fc [A, 1.0 I.I K< Ui |2.2 •^1^ us lyi 1114 ill 1.6 V I .4' V wC^i '/ Photographic Sciences Corporation ^ \ \ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WELSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^^ I/. r/- CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notas/Notes tachniquas at bibtiographiquaa Tha Instituta has attamptad to obtain the bast original copy available for filming. Faaturas of this copy which may ba bibliographically unique, which may altar any of tha images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ D D D D D D D Couverture endommagie Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaur^e et/ou pelliculAe □ Ctiv^r title missing/ La titre de couverture manque r~n Coloured maps/ Cartes g^ographiquas en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noirel Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planchaa et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ RaliA avec d'autras documents Tight binding may causa shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La re iiure serree peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distorsion la long da la marge intirieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouties lors d'une restauration apparaissant dans la taxte, mais, lorsque cela itait possible, ces pages n'ont pas ith filmtes. Additional comments:/ Commentairas supplimentaires; L'Institut a microfilm* la .fteilleur exemplaire qu'll lui a ita possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exempiaire qui sont peut-itre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger una modification dans la m^thoda normale de fllmaga sont indiquAs ci-dessous. Tha toti pn Coloured pages/ n n n Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommagias r~~l Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaurias et/ou pelliculie;. Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages dicolories, tachet^es ou piqu^es Pages detached/ Pages ditachias Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of print varies/ Qualiti inigala de ('impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du material suppl^mantaira Tha posi ofti film Oris b«g{ tha •ion othi first aion orii r~n Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc.. have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalament ou partiallement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata. une pelure, etc., ont iti filmies i nouveau de facon i obtenir la meilleure image possible. Tha shal TIN whi Mai diff( •nti bag righ ra«;i mat This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film* au taux de reduction indiquA ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X / 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X Th« copy filmed h«r« hM b««n raproduo«d thanks to tho gonoroaity of: D. B. Wsldon Library University of Western Ontario L'axamplaira filmi fut raproduit grica k la gintroait* da: D. B. Waldon Library University of Western Ontario Tha imagaa appaaring hara wm tha baat quality poaaibia conaidaring tha condition and lagibility of tha original copy and In kaaping with tha filming contr^aet spaciflcationa. Laa imagaa auh/antaa ont iti raproduitaa avac la piua grand soin. compta tanu da la condition at da la nattat* da l'axamplaira fiimi, at an conformiti avac las conditiona du contrat da fiimaga. Original copiaa In printad papar oovars ara fiimad beginning with tha front covar and anding on tha last paga with a printad or lliuatratad Impras- sion, or tha back covar whan appropriata. All othar original copiaa ara fiimad baginning oir> tha first paga with a printad or Kiuatratad impraa- sion, and anding on tha latt paga with a printad or lilustratad impression. Laa axempiairea originaux dont la couvarture en papier eat imprimta aont fiimia en commen^ant par la premier plat at en terminant soit par la darniAre paga qui eomporta une empreinte d'impreealon ou d'iiiuatration, soit par la second plat, salon la caa. Toua laa autrea axempleirea originaux sont filmis an commen^ant par la pramiAre paga qui eomporta una empreinte d'impreasion ou d'iiiuatration at en terminant par la darnlAre paga qui eomporta une telle empreinte. The leat recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON- TINUED "), or tha aymbol ▼ (meaning 'END"), whichever eppiiea. Un dee aymbolee suivents opparaftra sur la dami*ra image de cheque microfiche, selon le caa: la aymbola -^ signifle "A SUiVRE", le symbola ▼ signifle "FIN". Maps, piatae, charta, etc., mey be filmed at different reduction ratioa. Thoaa too large to be entirely included in one expoaura are filmed beginning in the upper left hand comer, left to right and top to bottom, aa many framea aa ra«:uired. The following diagrama iiiuatrata the method: Lea cartas, pianchee, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmte i dee taux da rMuction diff^renta. Loraqua la document eet trop grand pour itre reproduit en un seui clichi, 11 eet film* A partir da i'angia supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en baa, an prenant le nombre d'images nAceesaira. Lee diagrammea suivanta iiluatrant la mAthoda. 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^' 9''V«PK A SYSTEM OP THE CREATION OF OUR GLOBE, OF THE PLANETS, AND THE SUN OF OUR SYSTEM; POUxNDED ON THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS, ON THE GEOLOGT OF TIIS EARTH, AND ON THE MODERN DISCOVERIES IN THAT SCIENCE, AND THE KNOWN OPERATIONS OF THE LAWS OP NATURE, , As evinced by the discoveries of LAVOISIER, AND OTHERS IN PNEUM VTIC CHEMISTRY. THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. BY HENRY TAYLOR. MONTREAL : PRINTED BY J. C. BECKET, ST. PAUL STREET. 1842. ^^r^,'5^ -^^s^^iif^f^,mm> • PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. In my endenvoiirs to reconcile the present Geological ap- pearances of our Earth, with the Mosaic account of Crea- tion, the only certain means that appeared to me, were, the adoption of that construction of the first verse of Genesis, which I have stated in a part of this Worlc, and it will be seen by an extract from the Quarterly Review of April last, inserted below, that this construction has been confirmed and sanctioned by the writings of Professor Buckland, Doc- tors Pusey and Chalmers, Bishop Gleig, and other eminent Divines. These authorities have removed the diffidence 1 had long felt to publish a different construction from what has, hitherto, prevailed. The original manuscript of this work was composed be- tween the yeari:; 1819 and 1825. The writings of the above reverend gentlemen were published, I believe, several years afterwards and none of them had been perused by me, until a few days, since, when I met with the Review of the Bridgewater Treatise of Doctor Buckland. In the summer of 1829, I presented a prospectus of the work to Archdeacon Mountain, and to the Bishop of Que- bec. The former kindly complimented me on it, and the latter recommended my publishing it in London, for which I was soon to embark. I arrived there in October of same year, and presented the prospectus to the Lord Bishop of London, from whom I received a note by which he was pleased to commend the design of the work. I subsequently presented the prospectus to several of the principal Book- sellers, who, on learning that the size of the work would be that of a pamphlet, informed me, that the cost of adver- tising was so great, that no pamphlet would pay it, and my circumstances preventing me from incurring that expense, I gave up the intention of publishing. In the mean time, a reverend gentleman of the name of Fairholme was publishing a theological work connected with geology, and I enclosed to him a copy of the prospec- tus, and in a letter I received from him, dated Oct. 14, 1833, he says, " With regard to the Creation of our earth IV or of the sun, and other members of the Solar System, I have neitlier found in the work of any writer, nor can 1 conceive tlie smallest grounds on which to form a consistent theory, nor indeed do I conceive that it belongs to the science of geology at all.* Scripture has given us no in- sitrht into it. The existing laws of nature are equally silent, and yet, these laws must have existed from the beginning.^' He then assumes, " that the granite mass has been formed l)cfore the existence of organized beings, as their remains are never found in it," an opinion which, I think, the reader will find answered in note 2d of this work ; and the assertion, that neither scripture nor the laws of nature give any insight into the Creation, appeared to me so futile, that I have inserted the above extract, solely to prove, that the system I had formed, had not, at the date of that letter, been yet made by any other writer. By the following extract from the Bridgpwater Treatise of the Rev. Doctor Buckland, published long since the date of Mr. Fairholme's letter, it will be seen, that my construc- • ',on of the 1st ve.se of Genesis, has been sanctioned and onfirmed by the authorities mentioned above. And having presented my prospectus to the persons above jiamed, and also to the Royal Institution in Albemarle-street, London, in 1833, I consider it a duty to myself to claim the originating of that construction, by which the general ap- pearance of gradual deposition in the geology of the earth, (whose diameter must, according to the modern geologists, have existed millions of years) will, as well as this supposed age, be now reconciled, and satisfactorily explained by the Mosaic account. Extract from the Review of the Bridgewater Treatise. " If there are any lovers of science yet ignorant of the ^xtent and fertility of the field which Geology has laid open — of the in- tensity and variety of interest by which those who explore it are repaid — here is a work to astonish and delight them. If there are any persons yet deterred from the study of this fascinating sci- ence, by the once prevalent i otion, that the facts, or theories if you will, that it teaches, tend to weaken the belief in revealed religion, by their apparent inconsistency with the scriptural ac- count of the creation of the globe — here, in the work of a dignitary the church, writing cj: ca-thedra, from the headquarters of orthc. doxy, they will find the amplest assurances that their impression is not merely erroneous, but the very reverse of the truth : for that, while its discoveries are not in any degree, at variance witli * In this he was right, it belongs to the science of Cosmogony tho correct interpretation of the Mosaic narrative, Ihrre exifitf no Bcienco which can produce more powerful evidence ui Bupport of natural religion — nonewhich will be found a more potent aux- iliary to revelation, by exalting our conviction, of the power, wisdom and goodness of the Creator. Several hypotheses have been proposed, with a view of recon- ciling the phenomena of geology, with the brief account of crca- tion which we find in the fiook of Genesis and others. It hai been plausibly stated, that the Six Days of Creation must, each of them, be understood to imply, not as now, a single revolution of the Globe, but some other cychc period of unknown extent. — Dr. Auckland, however, prefers that explanation which is sup- ported by the hi^h authority of Dr. Puscy, the Regius Professor of Hebrew in Oxford, and has the sanction of Dr. Chalmers, Bishop Glcig, and other eminent contemporary divines, — namely, that the phrase employed in the first verse of Genesis, ' In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth,' may refer to an epoch antecedent to the * first day,' subscquentl}' spoken of in the fifth verse, and that, during this indefinite interval, comprising perhaps, millions and millions of years, all the phvsical operations disclosed by geology were going on. Many of the Fathers quot- ed by Professor Pusey, appear to have thus interpreted the com- mencement of the sacred history, understanding from it, that a considerable interval took place between the original creation of the universe, related in the first verse, and that series of events of which an account is given in the third and following verses. ' Accordingly,' says Professor Pusey, * in some old editions of the English Bible, where there are no divisions into verses, you actually find a break at the end of what is now the second verse ; and in Luther's Bible (Wittenburg, 1557) you have in ad. dition, the figure 1 placed against the third verse, as being the beginning of the account of the creation on the first day. This is just the sort of confirmation which one wished for, because, though one would shrink from the impiety of bending the Ian- guage of God's Book to any other than its obvious meaning, we cannot help fearing lest we might be unconsciously influenced by the floating opinions of our own day, and therefore turn the more anxiously to those who explained Holy Scripture before these theories existed.' — Note, p. 25. Thus all difficulty, arismg from the immense antiquity of the Globe attested by Geology, is at once removed. Tne circunu Btanccs related in the succeeding verses must be understood hi referring to those immediate changes by which the surface of the earth was prepared for the reception of man. — Just as the faetg disclosed by astronomy, without detracting ought from the credit of the inspired historian, prove, that the sun, and moon, and planetary bodies must have existed previous to the ♦ fourth day,' on which he first mentions them as * made,' or appointed to serve the ofl^ce of * signs and seasons, and days and years ;' so Geologjs Al in no degree contradicts tho renl meaning of the text, by pro. clainiing the fact, that tho air, the earth, and tho waters, were peopled by living creatures for innumerable ages before the epoch in tne world's history — which the sacred historian alone contcni. plates." Under the sanction of this confirmation of the construc- tion I had put on the first verse of Genesis, in my original manuscript, formed between 1819 and 1825, (and which is now greatly enlarged by the addition of the notes containing an account of the late geological discoveries, and observa- tions upon them,) I now present this work to the public of Canada, and conclude this preface with the sublime description of Eternal Wisdom given us in the 8th chapter of Proverbs ; which, I trust, will justly apply to the great additional light which the modern discoveries in pneumatic science are enabled to confer on the Cosmogony of the Creation. " The Lord possessed me in tlie beginning of his way, before his works of old. — v. 22. " I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. — v. 23. (Say before tho Combustion of the Gasses, as shown in this work. — p. 31 and 32.) " When there were no depths, I was brought forth ; when there tcere no fountains abounding with water. — v. 24. (At the Com- bustion of the Gases, as shown in this work. — p. 31 and 32.) *' When he prepared the heavens, I was there ; when he set a compass upon the face of the depth." — v. 27. (After the Com. bastion of the Gases,- as shown in this work. — p. 31 and 32.) Toronto, Nov. 22, 1836. HENRY TAYLOR. th st PHEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Since the printing of the first Edition of this Work, I have met with several publications of high scientific character, confirmative of the System of Creation I had ventured to offer to the World. Extracts from these will be found in- serted in the Body of, and in the Notes to, this second Edi- tion. Sharon Turner, in his Sacred History of the World, 1st vol. p. 375, says " Scientific men have traced the consti- tuent substances of our Globe to sixty or more simple Bo- dies, which at present rank as Elements, because tney are not further dccomposal)le, and these appear to have consti- tuted our 'Primordial Rocks ; but, there are abimdant rea- sons for surmising, that they are not the primitive Elements of Material Nature ; and therefore, until they can be re- solved into the particles or substances which are so, we shall not attain those perceptions of the original composition of our multifarious Earth, which will present the deciding and satisfactory truth. We must know what Silica, Alumina, Magnesia, Lime, Carbon, Iron, and other Metals and pri- mitive components of Minerals intrinsically are, before we can actually discern the Processes of the succession, the causations, the agencies, the laws and the principles on which the primary and secondary masses were originally formed. The acquisition of this further information would have been thought impossible in the last century ; but, hu- man sagacity and industry are now exploring what is un- known, so perseveringly, and so successfully, that every month may bring us the information, that some diligent analyst in some country or other, may be drawing from Na- ture, those great secrets of her Primordial Chemistry, which have hitherto been impervious and inaccessible." Now, in the first edition of this work, we have given extracts from the writings of eminent Botanists and Che- mists, in support of our Theory, and to prove the power of the functions of vegetation to produce many of the sub- stances above mentioned, and we have a right to conclude, that the remainder may equally well have been produced thereby, and by the animald of the Primeval Ocean, since vni tome marine animals are well known to secrete the lime of which their shells are composed, and the Islands formed by the Coral Insect, equal in length one eighth of the diameter ot the Earth. The basis of almost all the primary earth* have lately been found by Sir Humphrey Davy to be me- tallic, and in note first of this second edition, it will be seen from Sharon Turner's work, that several metals are pro- duced by these functions of vegetation. If this power be allowed by scientific men to these functions of Terrestrial vegetables, we certainly may, by the clearest rules of in- duction, believe they were also possessed by the Marine vegetable kingdom of the Primeval Oceans of Genesis,* and most likely in a higher degree, for the great end of producing the solid parts of the earth ; and we have then a palpable way of accounting for these productions, namely the continual labour of some species of the Marine animals during life, and the deposition of the Marine vegetable and Animal kingdom after death ; and accordingly most of the Geological bodies we are enabled to analyze are found to contain the same materials as the remains of vegetable and animal life afford. If therefore, this Theorj^ of the power of the vital func- tions of vegetation and animalization be sustained, we trust we shall have come to a sufficient knowledge of what " Si- lica, Alumina, Magnesia, Lime, Carbon, Iron, and the other metals and primitive compounds of the minerals intrinsically are :" for, if the functions of vegetable and animal life be allowed to have produced these substances in the Oceanic waters of Genesis, they must have produced them from the elements which surrounded them, namely, Oxygen, Azote, Hydrogen, Caloric, Light and Electricity blended together by the vital principle of the vegetable and animal, in pro- portions of vast variety, and by which variety the separate characteristics of these different substances have been pro- duced ; for, to show the wonderful effect of variety in the proportion of the Elements of bodies, we find, that Oxygen and Azote combined in one proportion, form the atmosphere we breathe and live in ; but, the same elements combined in another proportion, produce the strong and deleterioug acid Aqua Fortis or Nitric Acid. I cannot, therefore, but believe, that by our theory of the formations from the Wa- ters of Genesis, we shall be able in Sharon Turner's own words "actually to discern the processes of the succession, * Sodium, one of the new metals discovered by Sir H. Davy is contained in all marine vegetables. IX fhe casnations, the agencies, the laws, and tho principlos oil which the primary and secondary masses were originally lormed," and that these processes will be brought to Light by our Theory of the Earth. To our construction of the true interpretation of the fust verse of Genesis in page 27, we have, in note 3d of this edition, given extracts from a recent publication of tbe ce- lebrated Doctor Chalmers, who has adopted our construc- tion of that verse. In note 4th, we also quote from Doctor Clarke's Com- mentaries in further confirmation of our construction of said verse. In note 7th to this edition, we have the great satisfaction of giving the sanction of the opinion of Mr. Arago, one of the leading Astronomers of the present day, to our sys- tem of the Creation, as far as regards the formation of the earth ; lirst, by the condensation of its waters, from aqueous vapor, and the subsequent formation of its solid parts, and organic formations. We have, indeed, since the publica- tion of the first edition of our work, received the verbal and written approbation of it from men of science, and com- petent judges in these Provinces ; but, the confirmation of the system by so eminent a Philosopher of Europe, is pecu- liarly grateful. In page 44, I have in this edition, ventured an Idea of the design intended by the Creator, to be effected by the internal fires of the earth, namely, the end of hardening the geological bodies, which must originally have been depo- sited from the waters in a soft and humid state, and althou'^h we are accustomed to consider these Fires solely in a terrific point of view, they may, perhaps, be found to add one more indication of Divine Wisdom, in the final preparation of our globe, for sustaining the immense velocity, and unceasing continuity of its double motions through the regions of space. At the close of our Theory of the Sun, and of the means of supplying the waste of his light and heat, we have added, in this second edition, some observations on the ideas stated by Doctor Herschell, on the opaqueness of the Sun, and on the spots that appear on, or adjacent to his surface ; and it will be for '^n of science, should our Theory meet their perusal, to f ci a their own judgment thereon, and also, on the questions we have proposed to them on this subject. In note 6th to this edition, we have commented on Doctor Buckland's opinion that vegetable and animal life did not exist previously to the transition or secondary formations of \tm>Am the Earth. And we trust to have shewn, that as all trace* of shells and organic remains may be destroyed by a heat less than is required for the fusion of the rocks that had contained them, so, the non existence of life in the earlier periods of creation cannot be sustained ; but thit, as it is highly probable the internal fires were then much more fre- quent and extensive, so all appearances of the more ancient remains of vegetable and animal life must have been com- pletely obliterated and destroyed. The recent discoveries of Sir Humphrey Davy, in his Galvanic Experiments on the primary earths, appear too, to confirm the probability of our Theory. The Granite mass is mostly composed of these primary earths, which he has found to consist of metallic bases, united to oxygen in a solid state. Now Oxygen is one of the most abundant constituents of vegetable and animal life. The basis of several metals also, we trust to have shewn in our work, are the produce of the vegetable process. Mr. Good, in his Book of Nature, page 239, says, " I have already had occasion to observe that Albumen and Fibrine are substances formed by the action of the living principle, out of the common materials of the food, and that it is probable tiie lime found in the bones and other parts, is produced in the same manner." Now, while it is allowed by all Geologists of modern date, that these functions of life have had so great a share in the formation of those parts of the Geological bodies, which are accessible to our examination, we may, it appears to me, conclude by reasonable induction, that the same mighty engine of formation has been employed from the " begin- ning" to construct the entire diameter and circumference of the earth, more especiallj', as we know of no agencies equal to the vital functions and their deposits, for producing formations, and I trust to have shewn also, in Note 5, to this Edition, that the idea of the incandescence of the Earth, will not render this Theory untenable. In note 6th of this edition, will be found an extract from Good's Book of Nature, in which the opinion of the im- mortal Newton is stated, on the subject of an etherial and elastic medium, pervading all space in the heavens ; which opinion, we consider as a strong confirmation of that part of oui system relating to the mode by which the Sun^s waste of li^ht and heat may be replenished. I have now solely to present this second edition to the public, relying with confidence on tneir candid perusal of it ; £nd hoping, that I £ihall have at least gained one end, that een com- Xi of exalting the utility of the sciences on which I nave formed this system of creation, towards enabling us to dis- cover more fully, the wisdom of the First Cause in hii Creation. In that part of the work which treats of the dissolution of the earth, we have stated an idea, that «* the indestruc- tibility of the laws of nature, and their eternal tendency to form new combinations of matter, offer a proof also, of the distinct destined existence, and of the immortality of the soul of man." (See pages 80 and 81.) If this induction be just, we may infer from our reason, that the soul is im- mortal, and it .nay perhaps offer a consolatory confirmation of the revealed religion, that its promises are found consistent with our reasoning powers ; and with the inductions of science. And I ardently hope, that this power of the sci- ences, may tend to lead many of the rising generation to acquire a knowledge thereof, and a zeal for their future adr. vancement, in furtherance of greater and glorious discoveriei of the benevolent wisdom of our Creator. HENRY TAYLOR. Quebec, March, 1840. :»it' ff ■ Jtmrn ■■MB i f INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION. Since the publication of the second edition of this work, 1 have found that the celebrated Hutton, as is stated by Keith, was of opinion, that all the geological bodies of the earth, had been formed by " marine exuviae or remains." It is satisfactory to have this part of the theory of the earth, which, previous to my seeing this opinion, I had formed and presented to the world, sanctioned by so great an authority. But Hutton's Theory of the Earth, being adverse to the Mosaic account of the creation, he drew upon himself much obloquy from the supporters of it ; and it is to be lamented that a due consideration of the first verse of Genesis had not occurred to him ; as, most probably, his sagacious mind would have discovered, how completely the explanation we have in our theory given of that verse, will give the length of time which, in the opinion of many geologists, the various formations of the globe require. Many of the modern geologists, however, who had pub- lished their works previous to the Rev. Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, in which the above construction of the first verse of Genesis is assumed, or who, having not yet sufficiently contemplated that construction, so as to adopt it themselves, and, probably, not willing to come into collision with the sacred writings ; these geologists, I say, have now abandoned the practice of forming any theory of the earth at all, and limit themselves to the col- lection of geological facts. Now, it appears to me, that if, on a due consideration of the facts which botany, chemistry, pneumatics and geology present us with, it be conceived, that by a just combination of these facts, we can by fair induction and analogy, gain an insight into the most mys- terious operations of Nature, and of the laws which its omnipotent Creator may have established for these opera- tions ; there is then no just cause why such a combination of these scientific facts should not be attempted ; there is no just reason why the human mind should be fettered in the profoundly interesting science of Cosmogony more than in any other. There is not, perhaps, in the vast range of Nature's works, one which excites in the mind a greater tl xm m, so as to inj; to come degree of mysterious wonder, than the inspection of the rocky formations of the earth. The perfect order in the movements of the heavenly bodies, their surprising distances and magnitudes, it is true, are of a more grand and sublime description ; but the rocky formations belong to our own domal I, and however some may call in question the vast distances and mamitudes of the heavenly bodies, yet, of the enormous depths, breadths and lengths of the formations of our earth, we have the direct evidences of sight and touch. What are the agencies by which the Creator has formed these mysterious productions , is therefore the silent ques- tion which every close observer of nature asks himself. And, accordingly, numerous theories, not only of the crust of the earth, but of the earth itself, have long since been offered to mankind. Many of these, however, being founded only on the imaginative conceptions of ingenious men, have not maintained their ground. None of them, I believe, but Hutton, as before mentioned, and a few of the German geologists have offered any tangible mode of formation which the Deity may have chosen, for the production of the entire body of the geological formations of the earth. In the first paragraph of the preface to the first edition of this work, I have stated that my object in forming my con- struction of the first verse of Genesis, was, to be enabled to reconcile the Mosaic account of creation with the time said by the modern geologists to be required for these formations — having done this, my next wish was to enquire what physical laws the Creator had chosen to produce them. By physical laws they are undoubtedly formed, as far as we have access to examine them ; and we have the power- ful sanction of every part of nature, to conclude by analogy that the entire diameter of the globe is equally so. By the 6th, 7th and 9th verses of the 1st of Genesis, we find the earth was covered by the waters until the time of the separation. We have therefore just right to conclude it was formed in those waters of Genesis, and, accordingly, as stated by one of the best modern geologists — " Every part of the earth, every continent and every island exhibits the phenomenon of marine productions." Our theory is founded on these scriptural and geological facts ; and we have a confirmation of the competent powers of the vegetable and animal deposits and labors of the marine animals of the ocean to produce these formations of the earth, in the known and established fact, of an extent of ITI! M m XIV land more than equal to one eighth of the diameter of the earth, being formed by a few species of marine insects, for the Coral Islands and reefs of the Indian Sea and Pacific Ocean are 1,500 miles long by 60 or 70 broad. In the course of my journies through this plt)vince, to offer my works for sale, I am happy to state, that a great majority of the people appear to be duly impressed with a belief in the sacred scriptures ; indeed I have met with some who seemed to think the Mosaic account of creation required no support. These were, however, generally persons unacquainted with the authenticated geological facts. It is unquestionable that many of the formations have been produced by gradual deposition from the waters ; and must have required a period for that deposition immensely greater than that since the creation, being near 6,000 years. Some modern geologists claim indeed millions of years for these formations of the crust of the earth ; and we trust, we can thoroughly satisfy these claims by the cons+ruction of the 1st verse of Genesis, now sanctioned by the eminent writers mentioned in the preface to the first edition. We trust also to have presented a palpable clue to the discovery of the mode in which it may have pleased the Deity to have constructed the solid machinery of our globe. The vastnessofthis machinery is indeed calculated to strike the mind with awful wonder, but it is his work, afl, as such, a fair subject for the study and discussion of his creatures, as the more it is examined the more profoundly will be ex- hibited his bounty and his wisdom. We trust to have shewn, in note 5th, that the theory of the existence of ani- mal life, previous to the secondary formations, is tenable, and, that the incandescence of the earth, as supposed by Dr. Buckland, does not overthrow it ; and, therefore, that we have a right to say with a great modern geologist — " That the causes at present in operation must have been producing the same effects in all preceding ages." We conclude, therefore, that attempts to form a system of the creation, when based upon authenticated scientific facts, are allowable, and the more so, that in the present enlightened state of the world, these systems can be duly examined and their merits determined. We have, in this edition, at the close of the theory of the sun's formation, given some account of Sir Richard Phillips' Theory of the Cause of the Motions of the Heaven- ly Bodies. This theory offers an additional sanction to those stated, in the 17th note, in favor of our theory of the exis- XV tence of gaseous media in the regions of space. But we are by nc means prepared to join Sir Richard in his opinions against the Newtonian theory of gravitation and attraction. We conceive that these great laws of Nature may still exist, and that they maybe reconcileable to, and be assisted by, the gaseous media ; and as we have shewn in note 6th of second edition, Sir Isaac Newton himself suggests " the existence of an etherial and gaseous medium pervading all space ;" and, perhaps, the existence of this gasscous me- dium, would serve to shew the physical cause of these prin- ciples of attraction and gravitation, and, thereby account for their effects. We have also inserted an extract from Sir John Herschcll's Astronomy of last year, also sanctioning our idea of the supply of the sun's waste by gaseous matter ; and it is with the greater satisfaction we give this extract from Sir John's work, that the late Doctor Herschell was of opinion that the sun might be habitable. Sir John has now declared his opinion, that " the sun's zodiacal light is part of that medium which resists the motion of comets, and is loaded with the materials of the tails of millions of them which may be slowly subsiding into the sun." These materials must of course be gaseous ; now the combustion of gaseous matter is nothing but the union of the base of the gas with that of oxygen gas, without which no combustion takes place, and the consequent extrication pf the light and heat of this oxygen gas, by which we conclude, as per our theory, the waste of the sun's light and heat is replenished. Accordingly Sir John, in another part of his work states his opinion, that there is " an enormous heat in the sun." Dr. Herschell, his late father, says, that the sun's luminous atmosphere is only 2,500 miles from the sun's surface. — That these admitted facts can be reconciled with his opinion of the sun being opaque and habitable, when under the influence of such enormous quantities of light and heat, appears to me totally contrary to all possibility. In addition to these sanctions of the existence of an ffiriform medium in the reg^ions of infinite space, we have the great satisfaction to refer the reader to our extract from Dr. Graham's Elements of Chemistry of last year, where he will find, that, from recent experiments of one of the most celebrated opticians, and philosophers of the present day. Sir David Brewster, he concludes that the "sun's atm'^'sphere must contain gaseous matter." Several explanatory additions are made in the body of this I' t XVI i! edition, to which we ask leave to refer the reader, particu- larly to the Elucidation of the theory of the Formation of the Earth. We now present the third edition of this work to the public of United Canada, trusting that the system of Creation we had attempted to form, will receive a considerable degree of sanction from the scientific authorities, discoveries, and observations we have now enlarged it with ; and that it may be found to meet the approbation of scientific men of the present, and also serve as an instructive book for the rising generation. Montreal, 1842. THE / UTHOR. li ■ \ ■ :'i^( \7< AN ATTEMPT TO FORM A SYSTEM OF THE ^ , ■■ , .: . '^' '■' ■ .: CREATION OF OUR GLOBE, &c. The reader will have received some idea of the pur- pose of the Science of Geology, from the prefaces to the former editions of this work ; and in order to ex- hibit to the Canadian public the practical utility of this science, we extract from a late Geological work of some merit, namely Elements of Geology for Popular use, by Charles A. Lee, M. D. of New York his state- ment of this utility. In the first paragraph of his pre- face he says — '* No department of the natural sciences possesses greater interest or leads to more important practical results, than that of Geology. Of late years, it has attracted almost universal attention, not only from the fascinating wonders it discloses, but also from its obvious and extensive application to the economical purposes of life. Of such importance has it been re- garded, that many of our State Legislatures, as well as the General Government, have authorized geological surveys to be made, in order that the natural resources of the country may be brought to light and fully de • velooed. ^ 'i^ ^ ^ ##■### ### Already have these surveys contributed millions in value to the productive industry of the land, and every year their importance is more and more demonstrated and acknowledged." j' * '-^ *?:.'> r. -v; li 18 ] ■M . f, t '' '1 I*- Many of the influential men in the Hon. Legislature of this Province, have honored me with their subscrip- tions to my work, and I am happy to observe that a liberal sura has since been appropriated by it, for a geological survey of the Province, which, T have no doubt, if performed with diligence and zeal, may dis- cover great sources of industry and wealth for it. I now proceed to give an account of the theory which the late discoveries of this and other sciences have suggested to me of the geological formation of our globe, and of the system of creation I had gradually formed. In the year of our Lord 1819, 1 returned to the land of my birth, the Canadas, after an absence of nigh forty years in England and Nova Scotia, during which, I had undergone great misfortunes in an extensive line of mercantile business. The pleasing sensations I felt on this return to my native country, may have been experienced by many ; the intensity with which I felt them, may have been occasioned by so long an absence ; and having now, as it were, fallen into the calm and pure resort of nature, the woods of Lower Canada, I was never more happy than in the study of her works. From early youth I had been fond of the science of chemistry ; and now, some books of geology fell into ray hands : with them I frequently compared the appearances I met with in my walks, which, being in unison with these books, gradu- ally confirmed me in the opinion, that our earth was originally formed in a fluid, and was deposited from it. In the treatise on chemistry by Professor Chaptal, I found an account of the chaotic system of creation ot the ancients ; by which it is supposed^ that the chaotic 19 mixture, being formed, the various substances were attracted to each other, by the laws of mutual affinity, and precipitated. ' On frequent reflection, however, on this theory, and contrasting it with the general state of the depositions of the eartli in strata and laminae, it appeared to me to be totally insufficient to account for these aj jearances : had a chaotic mixture been formed by the Creator, con- taining in solution all the various geological bodies, and had nothing more been required for their formation, than the operation of their affinities and attractions, these must have taken place immediately, and they would be found deposited in homogenous, and exclusive masses, according to their various affinities and gravities : but the formations are generally found in alternate layers and laminae of frequently mixed substance, and this too without coincidence with the laws of gravity, and bear the certain marks, not only of being deposited from a fluid, but also, of a gradual and mixed deposition, at periods probably of immense distance from each other. This reflection led me to conceive that these depositions were gradually produced by some permanent and con- tinually operating cause. In the above mentioned work of Chaptal, I had found, and been much struck with, the beautiful and interesting theory he has given of the formation of the various primitive earths, and many salts, metals and mineral substances, by the processes of vegetation,which are found on the decomposition of those vegetables by analysis and combustion : I was also aware, that vast tracts of the earth are formed by vegetable, animal and marine depositions, and being one day occupied in reading attentively, the account of the creation in the Ml |l ( 20 first chapter of Genesis, the waters therein mentioned forced themselves strongly on my attention and repeat- ed consideration, until at last, the idea grew upon me, that the geological bodies of the earth were, somehow or other, produced in these waters. That the earth was formed in a fluid, I now felt thoroughly convinced of; that a great part of its crust, consisted of vegetable and animal depositions, even almost to the tops of the highest mountains, as stated by geologists, seemed to me a proof, that these marine vegetables and animals must have previously existed in waters which produced these depositary remains ; and, as no inundation or deluge is sufficient to account for these universal appearances of the formations in the earth ; therefore, the waters or oceans mentioned in the first of Genesis appeared to me the only, and the truest sources by which we can account for them. During my reading and reflections on this subject, and previously to my determining to form a Theory of the Creation, Archdeacon Paley's Evidences of Natu- ral Religion fell into my hands, in which the atheisti- cal doctrines of chance, and also, the notions of Buflbn, of the earth's formation by a fragment knocked off" by a Comet from the sun, is related, and commented on, by the Archdeacon. I shall therefore, previously to advancing any thing more on the system of Creation I had gradually formed in my own mind, beg leave to make some observations on those doctrines of chance formation, and thus endea- vour to clear the way for a system, I trust, more con- sistent with reason, and with our religion. " Amongst inanimate substances, says Paley in p. 63, of his Theology of Nature, or Evidences of Natural Religion, a clod, a pebble, a liquid drop, might be ; but never was a watch, a teles- copc, ol pose bi rtusigna Homo if 21 cope, or orjfanizod body of any kind, angworing a valuable pur- |)o8e by a compliealcd mechaniam, the effect of clmnce ; in mi KSHignable instance hath uuch a thing existed without intention Homo where." ^ ! Now, it appears to me very singular, that Paley, after having so clearly exposed the absurdity of this theory of chance, should have thus conceded tiie pos- sibility of a clod, a pebble, or a liquid drop, being the product of it ; a clod is a piece or part of the earth ; a j)ebble is a fragment of some rock rounded by the waters ; a liquid drop is a part of those waters. The same cause then, that produced the earth and seas, produced also the clod, pebble, and drop. ' ' But can there be any doubt that the earth itself contains marks of design and intelligence ? That all its vegetables and animals contain marks of design, he has proved ; now we cannot refuse the same evidence of design in the formation of the earth and seas, if it were soleli/ as a matrix or habitation for those plants and animals ; and, among the evidences of design which these last exhibit, I beg leave to mention one which, 1 believe, has escaped the observation of the Archdeacon —it is the amazing varieties exhibited in every species of these plants and animals. Had they been solely the offspring of a " blind conatus," there would, probably, have been but one species of each of them : but their vast varieties shew a master and designing hand to have directed their formation. The evidence of design which the earth exhibits, is not confined to its own formation ; this evidence is much more strong, when we find and consider it as a part of a system of planets revolving in known periods round a central sun, whose light and heat are evidently the intended sus- 22 I ;'t' tainers of the life and enjoyment» of the plants and in- habitants existing on this family of planets. It is also stated in page 92 of the above work, that Buffon considers the Planets to have been "shivered off the sun by some stroke of a comet." Paley adds, " that he never could see the difference between the antiquated * System of Atoms,' and Buffon's * Organic .Molecules ;' " and that " this philosopher having made a planet, by knocking off from the sun a piece of melted glass, in consequence of the stroke of a comet, and having set it in motion by the same stroke, both round its own axis and the sun, finds his next difficulty to be how to bring plants and animals upon it," &c» Now, as to the solid parts of the earth ; allowing glass to be composed of a variety of materials, yet I believe no part of the interior of the earth is discovered to be vitreous, except in the vicinity of volcanic moun- tains, or where these have previously existed. How then has this glass, of which Buffon supposes the earth to have been formed ; how has it been metamorphosed into the vast variety of mineral products which geology discovers to us ? The internal substance of the earth down to its centre, is supposed to be granite, or bodies of greater density ; and neither granite, nor the more external formations bear any resemblance to vitreous or volcanic matter. But, if even the solid parts of our earth, will not support such a theory, how are we to account by it for its waters ? Is it in the midst of the molten glass of a burning sun, we are to look for them ? Water, how- ever, is said to constitute three-fourths of the Earth's surface, and the total inability of this theory or suppo- sition, to account for its production) appears to me de- a 23 cUivc against its foundation in reality. ( Vide IstSf 2d paragraph of Note A/th.) Buffon's theory has also been completely refuted by the undoubted astronomical fact, tliat if the planets were struck off from the Sun, they must, in every revolution have returned to the Sun again. - ' I shall now notice the opinions on Chance or Atheism, us causes to account for the productions of nature, in our Globe. The Organic Molecules of Buffon are thus stated by Paley, in page 427 of the above Work, Evidences of Natural Religion, namely : " we are to suppose the Universe replenished with particles endowed with life, but without organization of their own, and endowed, also, with a tendency to marshal themselves into orga- nized forms." It appears to me almost impossible that the author of this doctrine, if it b(; BufFon, could rest satisfied with this cause of Creation ; because, although it should be . allowed that these particles of life could infuse them- selves into organized bodies, we naturally enquire, how came these particles themselves into the universe ?— This is the secret, undiscoverable without allowing an " unknown cause." If BufFon would account for the existence of these particles by chance, I say, that from the time of their finding their way into these Molecules, or organized forms, there is so much, and so constantly exhibit d in every one of these forms, what we call, in plain languge, intelligence, and design to produce good and wise ends ; that the term Chance, in the sense in which it would be employed by these Atheistical writ- ers, completely comprehends intelligence and design, for these are found inseparable from these organized 24 forms ; therefore, the Doctrine of Chance, instead of confuting, proves the existence of an Unknown Creat- ing Cause. . Were the term Chance to be understood merely in the common acceptation of the term, as existing, for instance, in many of the events of life, it will still always be considered as too absurd and impotent to account for the productions of Nature, because it is not in the nature of the human mind to rest satisfied with this Buffoonerr idea of Creation. Now, therefore, to finish with this, and with the no- tion of the planets being knocked off" from the Sun ; to account for their creation thereby, without an Intel- ligent Creator, I must say, I feel it to be a daring thing of this or any writer, to have attempted the overthrow of the established opinions of all Christian nations, as set forth in the Scriptures, handed down to us from the people whom it appears to me, were chosen by the de- sign of Heaven, to preserve mankind in the faith and worship of one Creator ; and which are, I believe, sup- ported in their principal facts by the immortal Newton, in his system of the Universe, and were certainly be- lieved by him. Previous to thus presuming to overthrow this sacred religion, it appears to me, this author should have form- ed a system less replete with absurdity, but fortunately too much so, to produce extensively any evil effects. — Christians, in general, are fixed in their notions of the true cause of all they see, taste, and feel around them, and of their own existence. The Jewish Nation was taught by a religion which, from the days of Adam, had beep followed by mankind, — a belief in one Al- mighty Creator of all things. This belief had nearly, 25 however, disappeared from the earth in succeeding ages. Men, enervated by the effects of those hot climates, and sunk in consequent sensuality, were tempted to throw off the wholesome restraints of a pure religion, and gradually fell into an idolatry, whose ministers, probably, permitted these sensual habits, to confirm their own power over these people. The Jews, alone, had preserved the worship of one Almighty Creator, until their posterity, after the deliverance from Egyp- tian bondage, had sunk them into the same idolatrous practices as their forefathers. And here I beg leave to observe, that this repeated defection of the Jews, and of the rest of mankind, from the worship of one God, appears to me a strong proof that Deism alone, in its purest state, is not sufficient to prevent mankind from falling into idolatrous worship. But, the Saviour promised in the Scriptures by the in- spired writers, arose at length to astonish mankind, and to bring them back for ever from that idolatry to a religion which alone is worthy of the highest degree of intelligence to which the mind of man can arrive ; a religion which, while it allows him the most extended use of that intelligence in the contemplation of the works of Creation, teaches him, also, to be contented with the limits which appear to be fixed to it ; and being convinced of the existence of an Almighty Protector, to feel the glowing pleasure of the adoration of Him, to be among his purest and most comforting sensations. These cheering feelings of the heart and mind, cold and joyless Atheism is void of, and thereby its errors are proved ; because the almost universal feeling of these emotions, and their cultivation by nations who 26 ■ mi have at all risen above idolatrous worship, is a proof that these emotions came from the hands of Nature and Keason, and they appear to form the links of a chain which connects this with a future state of existence. The supporters of the doctrine of Chance, however, disdaining to be contented with the Scriptural account of Creation, have formed various wild and futile notions to account for it, in order, no doubt, to seek for dis- tinction by opposing the generally received doctrines ; but finding, as I trust to have shewn, the total impotence of Chance, of appetencies, principles of order, POSSIBLE COMBINATIONS OF MATERIAL FORMS, and of LAWS OF NATURE, &c. &c., to Satisfy the inquisi- tive mind of man, they have been obliged to conclude with telling us, " that neither they nor we know any thing about the matter." f Vide page 7, of Pahys Tlieology) 4* . But, at that very point, where they have thus found themselves stopt in the extension of their enquiries, is seen "the God whom we worship." Tliere, when this prord, but false philosophy finds its ignorance begin to darken it, we have the clear and powerful light of this true religion to illuminate us, and to teach us to rest satisfied with the impenetrable veil which its author has been pleased to fix between Himself and His crea- tures in this stage of existence. On a par with these doctrines of chance-Creation is the idea of the Materiality of the Human Soul ; and previous to dismissing this part of the subject, I beg leave of the reader to offer some observations on this Doctrine of Materiality. The Materialist supposes, that all the powers of the mind of man result from his Organization alone. It 27 fullowS) then, as a natural consequence, that when this organization is destroyed, the mind is destroyed along with it. Materialism, then, necessarily leads us to a disbelief in a future state. '' t , Now, in no part of Nature do we find faculties be- stowed, which are not generally, productive of certain purposes to these parts ; therefore, if man were destined solely for existence on this earth ; if his thoughts were solely the effects of the organization of his frame ; is it not probable his thoughts would have been confined to the actual sphere of his destined existence ? Would he not have been unable to form those high imaginations and hopes of eternal happiness in more perfect regions ? For, if we may reason from the vast body of evidence of her works. Nature does nothing, and bestows nothing, in vain ; she never appears to act with deception ; there- fore she would not have given to men of all ages and na- tions those hopes of future happiness, merely to disap- point them. " I am positive I have a soul," said Laurence Sterne, " nor shall all the books with which Materialists have pestered the world, ever convince me to the contrary." The vast powers of intellect and of science, by which man has been enabled to observe and to trace so ex- actly, the astonishing systems of the heavenly bodies ; those high passions and thoughts of future bliss which he is thereby led to hope for, in some such regions, partake too much of the nature of Spirit to suffer us to think they are solely produced by a more perfect orga- nization than is bestowed on the horse, the mule or the ass. It moreover has been proved by the anatomy of the brain of the Ouraug Outang, an animal approaching 28 -4! nearer to the human species than any other, that its brain exactly resembles that of the human species ; and it is said, "it is surprising this resemblance is produc- tive of so few advantages ; the tongue and all the or- gans of the voice are similar, and yet the animal is dumb ; the brain is formed in the same manner, and yet the creature wants reason ; an evident proof, [as Buffon finely observes,] that no arrangement of matter will give mind^ and that the body, how nicely soever formed, is formed to very limited ends, when there is not infused a soul to direct its operations ;" — and I am the more happy in giving this quotation, as it shews that BufFon has indeed the redeeming quality of not acceding to, but of disproving, the degrading Doctrine of Materiality. We feel less surprised at the invention of such a doctrine, when we are informed who are its abettors or authors. Persons, who, in the practice of their art, having been long habituated to dissections of the human body, have thereby become more apt to form their notions from their eyes than from the reflec- tions of their minds, have sought to make the world believe, that the superiority of the mind of man over other animals, arose merely from a more perfect orga- nization of the brain ; and such an assertion reminds us of the Alchemists, who sought for the Philosophers' Stone in some of the most loathsome objects of nature. Had the Materialists watched and studied the operations of their own hearts and minds, in the hours of calm contemplation ; had they allowed these parts of their frames to exert a due influence over their opinions, they would, probably, have felt the force of the great poet's assertion, " 'Tis the Divinity which stirs within us." They may, indeed, have carried their anatomical science and skill to that exact point where body meets 29 spirit ; they may have discovered the precious matrix in which this " immortal spirit" is destined at present to reside ; but, they would not thus have presumed to degrade its nature and its future destiny. In fine, this material doctrine of the mind may well be said to savor too much of the shop ; and no well cul- tivated mind can, I think, for a moment assent to so degrading a doctrine ; — and I shall conclude this sub- ject with an observation I have made on the separate existence of mind from body. When two persons con- verse together, the ideas of their minds pass from the organs of speech, through the air intervening between the two persons ; in this passage, therefore, an emana- tion of mind exists separate from the body from whence it came. It is conveyed, indeed, by the vibrations of the particles of air it passes through, but it certainly has, during that period, an existence separate from the body and organs it proceeded from. An emanation of mind, therefore, can exist separate from its matrix, and in a form of matter entirelv different from what it emanated from. Is it then not possible to conceive, that mind itself could be endowed with existence in the aeriform state, as well as in the solid ? I now resume the narration of the course of thought which has led me to form the present attempt at a the- ory of the Creation of our system, and, by analogy, of the other systems of the heavenly bodies. Being, as before stated, convinced that the earth had been originally formed in water, the enquiry, then, natu- rally suggested itself, what waters we had any historical account of which could produce this effect ? The chao- tic liquor of the ancients, I trust to have proved, is incompetent to account for the general geological ap- c 1 ty n 30 'ill' pearances, and therefore fails. The waters of the De- luge can only account for certain changes in the earth's surface, which they may have occasioned, and which, no doubt, give proofs of the reality of that Deluge. — But, the proofs of formation in a fluid, reach far below the possible effects of an inundation which lasted only one year. The vast masses of marine depositions must have required numerous ages to accumulate, and even the granite mass gives proofs of formation or of altera- tion in a fluid, by the chrystals and heterogeneous sub- stances it consists of; and this stupendous mass, which is supposed to form the whole interior of the globe, must have required a correspondent time for that for- mation. To shew that it is not without good cause, we, in this work, attempt to vindicate the Mosaic account of Crea- tion ; and, by our explanation of the first verse of Genesis to account for the immense period of time re- quired by the modern Geologists ; we extract the fol- lowing Note from a late work on Geology : " Although the world is not eternal, it is nevertheless very ancient, and, in calculating all the time that was required for the formation of the numerous beds which the globe presents to us, for the life and reproduction of all the animals and vegetables whose remains it contains, ac- cording to the time employed for the actual formations whose duration we know, we are forced to admit that the world is at least 300,000 years old." — Boubees Geol. Populaire, page 7, Paris 1833. The only waters, therefore, with which History fur- nishes us to account for these phenomena, are certainly the waters of Genesis, Genesis, chapter ist, verse 9th. " And God said, let the waters under the firmament be 31 gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so." I then proceeded to inquire if the scriptural account of these waters would warrant the coQclusion, that the earth was formed in them by the deposition of the strata and other rocks which the latest discoveries in the science of geology have pronounced it to consist of. After a long and mature consideration I conceived, that the first verse of Genesis, *' In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth," will not only warrant the above conclusion ; but, perhaps, also a like formation of all the planets and suns of other systems ; by the highly natural causes and effects of those laws, which the latest discoveries of Geology and Pneumatic Chemistry have found tr, exist. I further considered, that if the scriptural account of Creation could thus be reconciled to those discoveries ; — if the Geology of the whole earth could thus be brought in proof of the reality and necessary existence of those waters ; the doubts of the Unbeliever might yield to it, and the authority of Scripture acquire new force. " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Now, the term "beginning" points to no specific point of lime ; and I have therefore conceived it may have been ages previous to the time of the separation of the earth from the waters as mentioned in the ensu- ing verses ; and that during these ages, the earth was gradually formed in these waters. By this explanation we shall be able to account for any length of time which the formation of the Globe may have required. {See Note Sd to 2d Edition at the end of the Book.) By the famous discoveries of Black, Priestly, La- 1" ' I m ;tf 32 voisler, and other chemists and philosophers, a ne\r world has been disclosed to us. The constituent part of three-fourths of the surface of the globe, water, which was formerly considered as an element of Crea- tion, has by these discoveries been proved to consist of two separate bodies, Oxygen and Hydrogen. Our at- mospiiere itself, the common air, is no longer to be con- sidered as one of these elements : it is composed of the oxygen and the azotic gases ; but neither oxygen nor hydrogen, nor azote, have ever been obtained separate, in a liquid state, Tliey have yet been found only in the form of gases, that is, combined with light and caloric. By the combustion of hydrogen or inflamma* ble gas in oxygen gas, the caloric and light of the latter escapes, and water is formed, in a quantity exactly cor- responding with the weight of the gases employed in the combustion ; and the same water may again be de- composed, and returned into the state of the gases it was composed of. This, therefore, being incontroverti- bly proved, for all philosophical chemists are now agreed upon the fact — it follows, that the Waters of the Uni- verse recorded in Genesis, must have been formed by the combustion of these gases ; it follows, that if any part of these waters are composed of them, every part must ; and, therefore, that the Deitj', having first called these gases into existence, did, either by the power of electricity, the blaze of comets, or some other means, ignite the hydrogen gas, which, by its combustion in the oxygen gas, of which the empyreal atmosphere may have been partly composed, ^jroduced the Universal waters of Genesis, That the Oceanic waters must have been formed by combustion is proved by the fact that these elementary gases, Oxygen and Hydrogen, may be kept together for any length of time, and form no 33 water without combustion. (See Note 4^A to 2d Edi- tion at the end of this Work.) These waters must have been thus first produced in a state of vapour, which, condensing into a liquid form would, by laws of attraction, form the Universal Ocoan, the (matrix of our earth,) and planets of our system.* The vast body of hoat and light disengaged from this immense combustion, may have formed the Sun of our system, which, by the laws of its gravity and attraction, assumed its place in the centre of it, as we shall attempt to show in the Theory of the Sun's formation. We have now to inquire in what way., and by what laws, the Creator produced, from these waters, all the solid parts of our earth ? To form the ground-work of our reasoning on this subject, we shall advert to, and consider attentively, the accounts of the Geologists of the marine strata and productions found in the bowels of the earth, and the experiments and opinions of some eminent Chemists upon the nature and products of the processes of vegetation. " The Levels," says Cuvier, one of the most eminent Geologists of the present day, " on which marine pro- ductions are now found, are far above the level of the ocean, and at heights to which the sea could not reach by the action of any known cause. Every part of the earth, every continent, and every island, exhibits the same phenomenon. The traces of revolution become more apparent, when we ascend a little higher, and ap- proach nearer to the great chains of mountains. Beds of shells are still found here, but not of the same spe- cies as those in less elevated regions. When we ascend to greater elevations, and auvance to the summits of * See Note 7th to 2d Edition, at end of this Work. m ^ 34 fi ill r .1' t. I li the highest mountains, remains of marine animals grow more rare, and at length, disappear entirely ; but the chrystallization, and many other characters of these rocks, shew them to have been formed in a Jtuidy &c. It is impossible, therefore, to deny, that the waters of the sea have formerly, and for a great length of time, coverta those masses of matter which now constitute our highest mountains ; and further, that for a long time, these waters did not support any living thing." This last sentence is the only one from which our Theory differs, and we refer the reader to Note 2d of 1st Edition, in support of that Theory, also, to Note 5th of 2d Edition. Thus we have the evidence of Geology, that every part of the earth contains marine remains ; and that even the summits of the highest mountains, where these marine depositions cease to be found, give y^jt evidence of formation by fluidity. That these marine remains are not found in these summits may, I think, be satisfactorily accounted for. Many remains are found in the same forms as when they contained the living animals ; but, on taking them up, they crumble into impalpable powder. The summits, therefore, of these mountains, have probably contained these marine remains in previous ages ; but being contiguous to the earth's surface, have, by the joint action of the air and rains, lost their or- ganization, been converted into their component sub- stances, and been incorporated with other mineral, me- tallic, or earthly bodies. Thus, all marble, lime stone, and chalk are found to consist of precisely the same materials as every marine shell ; all are formed of lime and carbonic acid ; and, it is therefore evident, that 35 when the masses of shells shall be so tar acted upon by the moisture of the earth, rains, internal fires and mi- neral solvents, as to lose their forms, and be converted into powder; that these agents, acting on and perco- lating through them in various degrees will rcimce them into beds of chalk, or lime stone, or marble, and, I think it not improbable, the chalk and lime stone for- mations of the earth have been, in the course of ages, formed in this manner. This idea I have seen con- firmed by Mr. John Wesley, in his " Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation." He says, in vol. 2d, page 256, " Chalk is no more than the ruins of sea shells, and lime stones consist of the same bodies ce- mented together by stony matter." Again, " where the tree falls there it lays," says the Proverb. Any person who has seen and noticed the aboriginal forests of the earth, will have observed these trees in various stages of decay — many of them reduced to a state of dust or earth ; and these causes, in the course of time form hills and hillocks. In accounting for the origin of peat earth and morasses of black soil in Britain, a late writer has, therefore, very properly, I think, assigned their origin to arise from the gradual falling and decay of trees in ancient times, which, falling in marshy or swampy places, have decayed and acquired their black colour. In a great many parts of America, it is well known large tracts of land are found in this state, be- ing covered by masses of black earth of various de- grees of consistence, from two to eight feet deep. The subsoil frequently clay. In an article lately published in one of the English papers, there is an account, con- firming the opinion, that part of the coast of Australia, in the South Seas, has been entirely formed by the ma- nure of birds called the Pettrel, found there in such ,n 36 ?{!.• astonishing quantities, that flocks of them are seen to cover a vast extent of the atmosphere for days together. These facts, tiierefore, offer corroborating testimony, that large tracts of tiie earth can, and have been form- ed by tiic depositions of vegetables and animals. — (See Note 1.) In a Geological work lately published in England, we have the following account of the order of succes- sion of the different layers of rocks which compose the crust of the earth : — Instances where found. A. Vegetable soil. "l 1 Mouth of the Thames, B. Sand, Clay, Gravel, with ^ bones of same species | a as now exist. J and other Rivers. C. Deep beds of Gravel,"^ large loose blocks of | Surface of many parts Sand, all containing I of England, and especi- bones of animals bo- f ally the east and south- longing to species now | western parts, extinct. J TERTIARY STRATA. D. Sand, Clay, Pebbles, beds'] Hampstead Heath, of sand, wliite Sand- j Bagsliot Heath, coast of stone, many sea Shells, !>• Suffolk and Norfolk, the bones of extinct spe- ( stone of which Windsor cies of animals. J Castle is built. E. Alternations of Lime Stone, containing fresh water Shells, Clays, of different qualities, and Lime Stone containing Marine Shells. Isle of White in England. 87 F. Thick beds of Clay, ma-] ' ' ' ' ny Sea Shells, beds of ( Many places round Lime Stone, remains of I London, and a great part extinct species of plants jof Essex and north-east and fruits, land and | of Kent, Isle of Sheppy. amphibious animals. SECONDARY STRATA. G. Chalk with Flints. Do. without do. H. a. Chalk Marie. 6. Green Sand. J ] Dover Cliffs, Brighton, 1 Hertfordshire, Fiambo- r rough Head, in York- j shire, England. , , > Many parts of S. coast. Many parts of Kent and Sussex. c. Thick beds of Clay. The Wolds of Kent, I Surrey and Sussex. d. Yellow Sand with"] Neighbourhood of > Hastings, in the Isle of beds of Iron. J Purbeck. In an account of the Geological appearances from the Lands' End, in England, towards the vicinity of London, the following facts are stated : — The principal groups of secondary rocks, from the primary strata to the Chalk group, form the upper or more recent members of the division. The Chalk group, the Oolite group, the Red Marie group, the Coal group, the Mountain Lime Stone group, the old Red Sand Stone group, the Graiwacke group, are of the following thickness : — Mountain Lime Stone group, 900 feet thick. Old Red Sand Stone group, 1,500 feet thick. Coal group, 1,700 feet thick. Red Marie group contains mines of salt and mar- bles, alabaster and magnesia, with marine skeletons : its thickness is 2,100 feet. ^: % i hi ■ *f A 38 1 jtii The Oolite group contains about twelve alternations of subordinate beds or systems of beds, consisting of Lime Stones of different qualities, and of Clays : their united thickness being about 2,600 feet, of which 1,100 are formed of two beds of Clay of five and 600 feet each. The whole group contains a vast abundance of animal remains^ almost exclusively marine. The Chalk group is separated from the Oolite group by several beds of sands, Clays, and Sand Stones, and, including them, is 1,900 feet thick. It extends from Flamborough Head, in Yorkshire, to Weymouth. The whole group abounds in organic remains of the same classes as Winford in the Oolite group. The above groups make 10,700 feet. Thus it appears, that both the Tertiary and Secondary formations of the earth, contain vast masses of the re- mains of marine productions, many of them belonging to species now extinct. Many of these latter are said to have beeii of enormous sizes. The Coal formations must probably have been pro- duced by the decomposition of marine vegetables, as they reach far too much below the surface of the earth to suppose them to be formed by those of a terrestrial species. The seams of Coal which lay below the Secondary formations at least, must, in my humble opinion, have l^een formed by depositions from the Marine Plants and Animals, before the separation of Genesis, as I can- not conceive that the vast masses which constitute the Secondary rocks can have been produced solely by any Deluge or Inundation. Phillips, in his Geology, p. 15S, says," The Coal mea- sures contain .^either Reptiles, Birds, nor Mammalia. 39 ilternations insisting of lays : their ^hich 1,100 id 600 feet mndance of )olite group Stones, and, xtends from louth. The of the same The above id Secondary es of the re- m belonging itter are said ve been pro- getables, as of the earth a terrestrial le Secondary Lpinion, have larine Plants pis, as I can- lonstitute the jolely by any le Coal mea- Mamraalia. Now, had the Coal been produced by Land floods or rivers, and deposited where the Measures are found, they must have contained Reptiles, Birds, and Mammalia. The ferns also found in these measures, are from 40 to 50 feet long, and as Phillips says, are quite unlike ter- restrial ferns, which do not grow now more than four or five feet. No eft'ect of climate could occasion so great a difference. Therefore, they probably were Marine Ferns grown in the depths of the Ocean of Genesis. Now then, to refer to the v/ords of Cuvier, " the Levels on which marine productions are now found, are far above the level of the ocean, and at heights to which the sea could not reach by the action of any known cause." '■• To what cause can we then ascribe this phenomenon, but to the substantial, plain, and simple one the original formation of the earth : all its geological appear- ances give evidence of formation in a fluid. Of no waters have we any record sufficient to account for these facts, save the waters recorded in Genesis. These, therefore, forcibly press themselves on our attention, and appear perfectly competent to clear up all these phenomena of Creation. But water alone, that is, holding no extraneous sub- stances in solution, either partial or complete, deposits nothinij. All its depositions are found to proceed from extraneous bodies. The petrifying power of certain waters, of which such fabulous opinions have formerly existed, is solely owing to the deposition of earths or salts it had previously dissolved, completely or partially. We shall, therefore, proceed to state our humble conceptions of those laws of nature, which the Creator ■t'l 40 ^kf't; UN may have chosen for the gradual formation of our earth in the waters of Genesis, on the ground work mentioned above, regarding the 1st verse of the 1st chapter of that book. Genesis, 1st chap. 1st verse. — " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." I wish first to premise, that as I consider this scrip- tural account of Creation, to be the only one by which we can, naturally and reasonably, account for the geo- logical phenomena of our earth ; so, the only thing in which I differ from the, hitherto, received opinions of that Creation is, in the construction which, (from a desire to account for these phenomena, and to reconcile them with the scriptural accounts,) I have put upon the meaning of this 1st verse of Genesis. As before observed, I had in the course of these studies of natuie, been led by them, and by reading and reflection, gradually to come to such a construction of that verse as the following : that the term " The beginning," pointing to no specific time, may refer to numerous ages previous to the separation of the waters from the waters mentioned in the 6th, 7th, and 9th verses ; and I moreover consider, that every man hath a perfect right to form such a construction of the Word of God as his understanding, after mature re- flection on His works, and a diligent study of them, may lead him to, and more especially when his design is good, when he conceives he is thereby not only ad- ding weight and authority to these scriptures, by bringing the evidence of the geology of every part of the globe to their confirmation, but, perhaps, silencing thereby the infidelity of the sceptic, and, as he may hope. m exhibiting, in a stronger light, the Power, Wisdom, and Glory of liis Creator. In the 2d verse of Genesis, it is said, " And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters." ., By this verse, it would appear, the Earth was com- pletely covered by the waters; otherwise, the Spirit would have been recorded, as having also, moved upon the land ; and the 9th verse is confirmatory of this cir- cumstance, for it says, — " And God said let the Waters under the Heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the Dry Land appear ; and it was so." This event, then, I consider to have happened many ages after the time of the first verse ; which verse, I further consider, to point exactly to that period, to which the psalmist, David, in the 102 psalm, 25th verse, refers, — " Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the Earth}" and I consider this foundation to have been the formation of the aqueous globe of our theory, — the Universal Waters of Genesis. We now proceed to our statement : . The sea, or globe of water, mentioned above to have been formed by those gases which the modern dis- coveries in pneumatic chemistry prove all water to be formed of, and being destined by the Creator to produce habitable Earth or Land, we shall conceive this aqueous globe to have been endowed by Him for that purpose, with amazing prolific powers of life, both of the vege- table and animal nature. - The remains of many of those marine animals, whose skeletons have been lately discovered in the earth, of a species never known to have inhabited our seas, are of si i M m m I 42 gigantic stature and dimensions, as compared to those of any existing species. The manne Shells, the Chalks, and Lime Stone for- mations, which I consider to have been produced, as above observed, by the gradual disintegration of these shells in the course of sufficient ages ; the vast Coal formations, also, prove the amazing masses of animal and vegetable life, which we shall now suppose, accord- ing to our theory, to have existed in those waters of Genesis ; and for proofs of which, we accordingly refer our readers to the geological statements in the preced- ing pages. To account further for the primary earths, Lime, Silex or Sand, Sand-stones, Flints, Gravels, Clays or Aluminous earths. Terra Ponderosa, Magnesian earths. Salt formations, Metals, Mineral substances of all kinds, and the Rocks and other substances composed of them and of the Primary Earths ; we shall now proceed to a statement of those experiments, opinions and theories, which have been performed and maintained by several eminent chemical philosophers on this impor- tant head. In the treatise on Chemistry by professor Chaptal, mentioned in pages 18th and 19th, the following facts are stated to have resulted from the analysis made by him of certain vegetables : * '' ** The herb Patience affords sulphur ; vegetables in their analysis, likewise present us with certain metals, as Iron, Gold, and Manganese. The Iron forms nearly one-twelfth of the ashes of hard -wood. It may be ex- tracted by the magnet ; but it is seldom in a naked state, but is combined with the acids of vegetation. The Iron is not imbibed from the Earth, but is 43 to those Stone for- duced, as n of these vast Coal of animal e, accord- waters of ngly refer le preced- hs, Lime, Clays or [an earths, ^all kinds, id of them 7 proceed pions and aintained his impor- Chaptal, 4ng facts made by tables in n metals, ns nearly y be ex- a naked etation. but is FORMED BY THE VEGETATIVE PROCESS. Lime, Con- stantly enough, forms seven tenths of the fixed residue of vegetable incineration, usually combined with the carbonic acid. Next to Lime, Alumine is the most abundant earth in vegetables ; and next Magnesia. Siliceous earth likewise exists, but less abundantly ; least common of all is Bary tes or Terra Ponderosa." ,, , , , , As an evident and sufficient proof that all tlie products of vegetables are produced by the water, and, perhaps, the air, necessary for their growth ; I extract also the following observation of Professor Chaplcl : "It ap- pears proved by Van Helmont, that vegetables can live and grow with only air and water. He planted a wil- low weighing 59 lbs., and watered it with distilled wa- ter five years. It increased to 169 lbs., the earth it was grown in lost only two ounces'* If one egetable be thus proved to acquire its growth from water and air, the strong probability is, that, as Chaptal says, " all others do," and by the uniformity of the laws of Na- ture, we may conclude this law applies generally to the vegetative process. {See Note 15.) jm; i,\i:,r. r. ; Thus, although Sir Humphrey Davy supposes, but does not assert, the fact, that these earths are taken up by the vegetation from the soils around them ; yet, as he does, in another part of his writings admit, that all substances, before entering the tubes of vegetables in nutrition, must be reduced to a state of complete solu- tion in a liquid before that absorption can take place ; and as it is well known that argillaceous earth, or alu- mine, silex or sand, and magnesia, are almost insoluble in water, and that lime is only soluble in very small quantities ; I have therefore concluded, that such a Sil ■■■H '4# m perfect and sufficient solution, as Davy admits to be necessary, is impracticable ; and, therefore, that the as- sertion (grounded on the forementioned experiments, by Chaptal and Van Helmont, namely, that these Earths, Metals and Minerals, are realti/ and entirely the products of the vegetative process,) is much more probable; and I am the more confirmed in this proba- bility, by the following facts, and reasoning upon them : 1st. As oxygen, we know, exists in a solid state, in all its oxids, so it is not impossible that the basis of these oxyds, the metals, and several of the primary earths, may be formed by the vegetative process, as the French Geologist, Chaptal, asserts, " to replace the constant waste that takes place of the crust of the earth, by the rains, streams and rivers." One hundred pounds of lead, is, 1 believe, found, by calcination or oxydation, to augment in weight to one hundred and ten pounds, thus absorbing ten pounds of solid oxygen from the oxygenous gas of the atmosphere, which can be recovered by deoxydation. Pit Coal contains a great quantity of Hydrogen, most probably in a solid state ; Pot-ash has yielded to Sir Humphrey Davy a metallic button ; and is therefore an oxyd, and also contains oxygen in a solid state. 2d. The Schisti, or Slate Mountains, are said also to foe formed by the decomposition of vegetables, and the Coal formations, also, to consist of the residue of vege- tables, probably charred by a close heat, and must, therefore, be formed of the carbon and constituent gases of those vegetables. If such dense substances can be thus, in part, compounded of a gaseous sub- stance, there is an equal probability, that the gases peoarated by the vegetative processes from the air and 45 water necessary to their nutrition, may compose the Primary Earths, Salts, Minerals and Metallic substan- ces obtained from them by decomposition or incinera- tion ; and I think it not improbable that future experi- ments may prove, that all the primitive earths, metals and mineral substances, are composed of the primary elements, as we are now philosophically bound to con- sider them, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Azote, combined in proportions innumerable as those products themselves, and from which variety of proportion they receive their distinctive characteristics. (See Note 9 J This idea is sanctioned by Dr. Thomson in his Atomic Chemistry, entitled " An attempt to establish the first principles of Chemistry." In page 35, vol. 1st, he says, " I am of opinion we are not at present ac- quainted with any truly simple bodies. All our simple bodies are most probably compounds, and many of them may be afterwards decomposed, and reduced to more simple principles, by the future labours of chem- ists." 3d. As an important and additional proof that the process of vegetation certainly generates and produces one of the most abundant and most dense primary earths in nature, namely, Silex, Siliceous Earth, or, as I shall call it, the sandy principle, I extract the follow- ing from the Elements of the Science of Botany, by the celebrated and indefatigable Linnaeus : — " In many parts of the East Indies, there has long been a medicine in high repute, called ' Tahaskeer^* obtained from a substance found in the hollow stem of the Bamboo. It has undergone a chemical examina- tion, and proved to be an earthy substance, principally of a flinty nature ; this substance is also found in the ¥^ m a'; 46 .»: Bamboo in England. In the hot-house of Dr. Pitcairn, in Islington, subsequently to this time^ there was found in one of the joints of a Bamboo which grew there, a solid pebble, about the size of a pea. The pebble was of an irregular form, of a dark brown or black inter- nally : it was reddish brown, of a close dull texture, much like some martial siliceous stones. In one corner were shining particles, which appeared to be chrystals, but too minute to be distinguished by the microscope. This substance was so hard as to cut glass. The cuti- cle or exterior covering of straw, has also a portion of matter in its composition, from which, when burnt, it makes an exquisitely fine powder forgiving the last polish to marble, a use to which it has been employed from time immemorial, without the principle being philoso- phically known. In the great heai in the East Indies, it is not uncommon for large tracts of reeds to be set on fire on their motion by the wind, which I conjecture must arise from the flinty substance of their leaves rub- bing against each other. These facts cannot avoid presenting to the mind at one' view ihe boundless laws of nature. While a simple vegetable is secreting the most volatile and evanescent perfumes, it also secretes a substance which is an ingredient in ihe primeval moun- tains of the globe." These facts, which have produced the assent of this Prince of Botanists, to the formation of a first rate primary earth, by the process of vegetation, are, I think, sufficient proofs, in conjunction with those above sta- ted, that all the primary earths, the metals, and mine- ral substances, and, of course, all the rocks compoun- ded of them have been originally formed by the pro- cesses of vegetation and animalization. (See Note 1, . Pitcairn, was found V there, a ebble was ack inter- 1 texture, me corner chrystaU, icroscope. The cuti- }ortion of I burnt, it last polisii )yed from g philoso- ast Indies, to be set conjecture aves rub- lot avoid less laws eting the secretes a al moun- it of this irst rate I think, [ove sta- id mine- impoun- |he pro- mote 1, .47 2, 3 and 14 ; and Vide Note 1, 2d Edition, at the end of this Work. J i Vast tracts of the interior of the earth, have as above, been shewn to consist of the shells and remains of ma- rine animals. The Chalk and Lime Stone formations, I trust to have shewn, have also resulted from the same remains ; and also, that the Coal formations have been produced by the residue of marine vegetables and a charring heat, as well as the Schisti or Slate Mountains. As, therefore, the proofs narrated in the foregoing pages, and the notes referring to them are, I trust, sufficient to prove that every part of the earth has been formed in a fluid ; that many parts are visibly the remains of vegetable and animal decomposition, and that most of the geolo- gical bodies are resolvable into the elements of vegeta- ble and animal life ; we now arrive at the conclusion, that the processes of Vegetation, and of Animalization, were the machinery chosen by the first cAUSEjfer gra^ dually producing, in the course of sufficient ages, in the waters of Genesis, the various generations of vegetable and animal life; which by their growth, decay, their death, decomposition, depositions, and the labours of some species of these animals, have produced all the geological bodies of which our earth is composed. These bodies, as they were depositing, have been at- tracted towards the centre of the aqueous globe by the great and universal law of attraction ; and before and since the separation, have, by the effects of internal fires, convulsions, or the electric power, acquired their present appearances. (^See Note 5th, to 2d Edition, and Note ! \th \st Edition.) Thus, the law of Gravity or attraction would neces- 48 sarily occasion a vast pressure towards the centre of the aqueous globe, of all the particles of the geological bodies, as they formed. The vegetable and animal re- mains of which they were formed, as stated above, would pass through various stages of fermentation. Heat, inflammable and other gases, would be thereby generated ; and these internal fires must have been in operation, pending many of the ages required for the formation of the er.tire diameter of the Earth in the Waters of Genesis. Hence must have arisen, long be- fore the separation of these waters, not only internal changes in the forms and original composition of the congregated masses of the geological bodies, but also numerous commotions in the interior parts, which have produced probably many of the mountains, and must certainly have produced those depressions on the sur- face of the earth, which served to form the beds of the original oceans or seas, at the time of the separation of the waters. These internal fires of the earth, though at first sight they appear to us the effects of accidental causes, will probably be found to be an instance of the designing Wisdom of the Author of Nature. The depositions from the ocean, which, by our theory, have formed the earth, must have been originally deposited in a soft state. By the continued pressure of the subse- quent geological particles towards the centre, they would no doubt acquire a degree of solidity, but per- haps the operation of these fires was required, to give them sufficient hardness to resist the powerful action of the rapid motions of the earth. These fires are at the present day, considered by the first geologists to be occasioned by water coming into contact with the me- tallic basis of the primary earths, by which the water bl ol "nd their bulk be 2, C '' r' """' ""<« ?'««« "«- designed by Tc « "T ' "?' ""' ""'''''- »f the earth. "" ^"»«»'' for enlargiug the bulk I refer the reader to he' t T '" """ "" "•" ^""h, --oree,peeia,,;i:tr,rzra'„?;r"^^^^ -^;":.t^StitffF'"=^^^ -rkaMe circu„,taS:l tatT" " """ ''■ -nd-cative of the possible truth 'of hi .r^"" '° "^ presu,„ed to offer, that the C ver, oVg!'"'"- ' '"'^* to a preparatory process of, I. r^ ■ ^^""^^'^ f efers "' "» time andlTuXm tf '*""'""*"y *^«'"" »'dtl,e primeval appl° „1 „ T""" "^ '''« ''"^'^ -rded in the ensu TCe! Jl u" "? ''"" "" '«- -•- day,, at the sepafadoTof t/ "^ P'*"* '» "•« «ene.is, 1st chapter. ""* '''"^" '^"O'ded i„ "'ariue animals of those wate^ IuoTT ^^ "*« d^cuy, and depositions formed "LI; I "'*''" "*""'' »f the Creator for produoh^ .i.'^ °^ ^""^ machinery ' "■o- plants having*^ ate„ 1 Tu""' ""^ o^^"""' of "- «m verse, befng J^;!' '"« "^g'-^ing, aa i„ ereation.bywhichtheDrvLanr ^ '"■"'*** "^ ">« 'o "e produced, there w^t^Tlur''"'?"*'''''*-' no need that mention should s 60 be made of tfteir creation at the period of tlie separa- tion, when the land animals and vegetables were brought into being ; for, and because, these marine plants were included in the record of the Ist verse, '* In the begin- ning," &c, (See Notes 7, 10 and 13.) I have, since the printing of the 2d edition of this work, had opportunities of reading the most modern Geological publications, and finding therein no cause whatever, to vary from the theory of the earth I had formed, I now proceed in this third Edition to the ELUCIDATION OF THAT THEORY. The Mosaic account by the 1st, 2d, 6th, and 7th ver- ses of the 1st chapter of Genesis, shews us that our earth was first creatt 1 in the waters or universal ocean ; and by the 9th and 10th verses, we learn that "the waters under the Heavens were gathered together, and the land made to appear." We have shewn that this part of the scriptural ac- count of creation is confirmed by the concurrent ob- servations of the best and most modern Geologists. Indubitable proofs in every part of the crust of the earth, shew it to have been " formed in a fluid ;" and I trust the following elucidation of our theory will tend to show that such has been the case through its entire diameter. By this theory, we account for the formation of the entire diameter and circumference of the earth, by the continued depositions which have taken place in the Oceanic Waters of Genesis from the " beginning," as per 1st verse ; which depositions have been formed by the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and by the constant labours of various species of the animals of that uni< le separa- c brought ants were he begin- )n of this 9t modern no cause rth I had the )RY. d 7th ver- that our sal ocean ; that "the jether, and iptural ac- urrent ob- Greologists. •ust of the lid ;" and I y will tend ti its entire tion of the irth, by the lace in the [inning," as formed by be constant )f that uni- 51 versal ocean, as shewn at full length in the foregoing pages of this work. In Lee's Elements of Geology, (New York, 1840) page 171, it is said — " The Pacific Ocean abounds in coral to the 30th degree of latitude on each side of the equator; so also do the Arabian and Persian Gulfs. On the east coast of New Holland is a reef, 350 mile» ill length, and between that country and New Guinea, there is a chain of coral 700 miles long. The Maldi- vas in the Indian Ocean are coral reefs extending 480 geographical miles north and south. These are circu- lar islets, the largest being 50 miles in diameter, the centre of each being a lagune from fifteen to twenty fathoms deep ; and on the outside of each island at the distance of two or three miles, there is a coral reef, im- mediately outside of which the water is generally more than 150 fathoms deep." The following cut will serve to illustrate the general shape and formations of these islands : — These vegetable and animal depositions of the Ocean of Genesis, then, were first attracted to a centre by the universal law of gravitation, and there formed the nucleus or centre of the earth.* This nucleus being * It may be proper to explain how the primitive races of th« vegetable tribes may have been eupported before the nucleus was formed. There are many aquatic plants which take no root in the earth at all, but grow and float in the water. There is a species of the Fig-tree in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, which has grown for twelve years, suspended in the air and moistened with water ; we have therefore a right to conclude, that if some 1. |t;!r ,1 52 im continually augmented in bulk by the unceasing depo- sitions of the ocean, until a great depth of the vegeta- ble and animal remains were accumulated, internal heats and firjs would be thereby generated, which would last until thy combustible matter deposited was consumed. The fires would then cease, until another sufficient depth of fr^sh depositions took place. The fermentation of these would again produce heat, fire and incandescence, until again the combustible matter last deposited 'vas consumed. The remains after these combustions, would of course be incombustible, and would consist of all the primary earths, sands, clay, lime, magnesia, &c., and of the calces or oxyds of the various metallic and mineral substances contained in the original depositions of matter above stated. These alternate depositions from the ocean, must have contmued to generate these periodic fires, pending the whole time required for the formation of the di- ameter of the earth, that is until the separation of the " dry land" from the " waters" took place as mentioned Genesis 1st chf.p. and 9th verse. The depth or thick- ness of the depositions required to produce each of these periodic fires, it is impossible to form any certain idea of. It may have requirtd many miles of depth of deposits, as they would contain carbonic, sulphureous, oily, gaseous, earthy, saline and metallic matter mixed ; species of land plants have this power, man}' of the first creatf d marine plants of the Ocean of Genesis would have it also. In fact, many marine plants of the present seas grow on the rocks, and must consequently derive their nourishment from the water. But it is possible that mitil the nucleus was formed, the primitive marine animals may huve found their nourishment in the waters, for the microscope shews us that every drop of water contains myriads of the insect tribes. We know also that the gills of fish decompose water, by which they woidd obtain two of the clu. ments of all vegetables — Oxygen and Hydrogen. 53 g (lepo- vegeta- internal 1, which ted was another J. The leat, fire 5 matter ,er these ble, and Is, clay, s of the ained in m, must pending ' the di- >n of the ntioned ►r thick- each of Y certain depth of hureous, r mixed ; st creatf'd also. In the rocks, the water, primitive ic waters, ■ con tun IS ills of fish f the cle. but it is well known that it requires but a small depth of vegetable matter alone, being moist, and heated by fermentation, to produce ignition. A common hay- stack is often fired by the spontaneous ignition of its hydrogen. Thus, according to this theory, we see that the in- ternal firas of our earth at the present day, at least as far as they have been occasioned by the above original causes, cannot extend to near the centre of the earth ; because the periodic fires above stated, would consume all the inflammable matter, at certain periods after it was deposited : each periodic fire would consume the combustible matter deposited from the ocean since the previous fire ; and after each conflagration, the parts of the earth then formed must have remained in the state of incombustible calces. This theory will perhaps also account for that singu- lar phenomenon in Geology, of entire genera of marine animals disappearing at different depths in the earth. The incandescence had destroyed these genera, and it was not until the (then) surface of the earth was cool- ed sufficiently by the waters of the ocean of Genesis, between the times of the periodic fires, that fresh genera of animals could approach it. They then approached it, and, as they terminated the time of their existence, their remains went, with the other depositions, to aug- ment the growth of the earth's bulk, and so on con- tinually, until the separation of the land from the waters. The reader will here observe, that although by the above causes of the primitive fires having ceased to exist, and the residue of them being matter in a calcified or oxydized form, except indeed, the matter of the last depositions of the ocean of Genesis, (which may be one El ' -...1 ^1S. !H 1 4M-1 ■M 54 of the causes of the present volcanic fires) that there- fore, no central fire arising from these primary causes can exist ; yet, we do not mean to deny, that subsequent causes of fire may have, and are perhaps even novr taking place. The electric fluid, as is proved by late discoveries of Sir H. Davy, on the primary earths, of which the oxy- dated matter of the above conflagrations would mainly consist, is capable of decomposing these primary earths, and water also. It is possible, therefore, combustion might be generated, even in the oxyds to which the original deposits were reduced. Thus, in the opinion of many Geologists, there is a central fire in the earth. Mr. Lee, ii. his Elements of Geology, page 53, says, " From the result of all the observations hitherto made, we may safely conclude that the temperature of the earth increases as we descend, at the rate of one de- gree for every eight fathoms, consequently at a depth short of a hundred miles, the materially of the globe are in a state of incandescence." Now, though I agree that from the cause above as- signed, the (electric fluid) internal fires might possibly be regenerated from the oxydated remains of the primor- dial fires, yet I should conceive these subsequent fires are more likely to be partial than general. I conceive that the intention of the Deity was, by the means of the primordial fires, to prepare and harden the geological bodies, to produce chemical decompositions and re- combinations, of numerous useful substances, to in- crease the cohesion of these geological bodies, to ena- ble them to sustain their rapid and powerful motions in the heavens, to elevate the mountains, to diversify the earth's surface, and give mankind the use of their mi- 55 ; Lhere- causes sequent ;n now series of he oxy- mainly jr earths, ibustion hich the opinion le earth. 53, says, to made, e of the one de- , a depth ;lobe are DOve as- •ssibly be primor- ent fires conceive ns of the ological and re- s, to in- to ena- otions in rsify the heir mi- neral products ; and I do not conceive these ends would be obtained, were the whole interior of the earth in a state of fusion from a hundred miles below the surface. The increasing heat of the earth as we proceed down- wards, can be equally well accounted for by supposing the present fires to be occasioned by the more recent depositions of combustible matter from the oceanic waters of Genesis, which are still in a state of combus- tion. And there is one corroborative circumstance of this stated by Archdeacon Paley, in page 388 of his Theo- logy of Nature, namely, that " by a comparative calcu- lation with the force of attraction of a rock of Granite, the earth was said to have twice the density of that rock, or about five times that of water," which could not be the case if the earth were nearly all liquid fire ; for, deducting the 100 miles of crust from the diameter of Ihe earth, near 8000, would leave an ocean of fire 7900 miles deep ; an idea so contrary to the ordinary course and wisdom of nature, appears to me preposterous. I shall now make a few observations on the time that may have been required, according to our theory of deposition from the oceanic waters, to form the whole diameter of the earth. . We have shewn in note 1st, the power of Geometri- cal progression in two generations of Herrings, and that in twenty years of generation, a mass of matter could be produced, equal to ten of our globes ^ that is, allowing these generations to be undisturbed. Now that must have been the case in the oceanic waters of Genesis. In our seas, immense numbers are annually abstracted from the ocean by the fisheries. Not so in the primeval ocean : there was no abstraction of matter ,t; ifi 1 1 i 11 56 there whatever. The labours of the Zoophj-^tes and other marine animals we infer, according to the opinion of the modern geologists, have been also "going on in all former ages as at present," and would be another immense source of geological formation. It has been stated by some geologists, that the sedi- mentary rocks have taken a million of years in their forma; 'on. That is no doubt grounded on the suppo- sitior hat past volcanic action and convulsion have been the same as at present. I trust however, to have shewn in. our theory, that volcanic and convulsive for- ces must have been immensely greater and more fre- quent in the primeval ages; and I believe that a million of years ago, if the globe were then in being, there was detritus enough, arising from that volcanic action, to produce a million times the masses of rock, that any " causes now in operation" could do, and am more con- firmed in this opinion from the vast difference that must have then existed in the tenacity of the forma- tions, compared with their preocnt state. Whatever length of period however might have been actually employed, we trust we can give it by our ex- planation of the 1st verse of Genesis ; but we are not of opinion that the laws for the formations of the globe, have required any such immense periods of time as is supposed by some geologists. Their comparative scale of formation, drawn from the present actual for^ mations, is totally inadequate. How, for instance, could the f jwer of deposition of lakes or rivers of the present state of the world, be compared with the mighty force of the oceans of the globe at the time of the separation of the waters of Genesis, rushing over the newly formed earth, with inconceivable impetuosity ? 57 ^'tes and opinion ng on in another the sedi- in their ! suppo- on have to have sive f'or- lore fre- a million ng, there c action, that any lore con- nee that forma- ive been our ex- are not le globe, irne as is parative tual for- instance, '3 of the 3 mighty I of the Dver the losity ? I trust that by the above elucidation, the reader will completely comprehend our theory of the formation of the solid parts of our earth, by the pov<'erful and vital agencies, which we humbly conceive the Deify may have employed to eift;ct this wonderful purpose. We wish now to mak« some observations on a most singular production, whleii, we have fallen in with since the publication of the second edition of thi^' worl^ : this is Mr. Mi'iitell's " Wonders of Geology." In page 400, vol. 1st, under tiu' head of Geoloijical Mutations, he says, "I will embody these inductions in a njore impressive form, by pinploying the metaphor of an Arabic writer, and im;i<^ining some higher intelli<^e!ice from another sphere, to describe the physical mutations of which he may be supposed to have taken cognizance from the period when the forests of Portlatid were flourishing, to the present time. * Countless ages 'ere man was created' he might say, * I visited these regions of the earth, and beheld a beautiful country of vast ex- tent, diversified by hill and dale with its rivulets, streams and mighty rivers, flowing through fertile plains ; and palms, ferns and forests of coniferous trees clothed its surface ; and I saw monsters of the reptile tribes, so huge, that nothing among existing mces can compare with them, basking on the banks of the rivers and roaming through its forests, while in its fens were sporting thousands of crocodiles and turtles, winged reptiles of strange forms shared with birds the dominion of the air, and the waters teemed with fishes, shells and Crustacea ; and after a lapse of many ages, I again riR- visited the earth, and the country, with its innumerable dragon forms, and its tropical fruits, all hud disappeared, and the ocean had usurped their place, and the waters teemed with nautili, ammonites, and the cephalopeda 4\ m lii 58 of races now extinct, and innumerable fishes and marine reptiles; and thousands of centuries roiled by, and I returned, and lo ! the ocean was gone, and the dry land had again appeared, and it was covered with groves ar:d forests, but they were wholly different in character from those of the vanished country of the Iguanodon.' " This very poetical effusion appears indeed every way worthy to be associated with the Arabian Tales. Countless ages, thousands of centuries, and other epochs etated in these " wonders,*' are tolerably latitudinary periods, even for fairy tales. It is remarkable too, that although the author writes so highly of Dr. Buckland, as a great geologist he has never mentioned the expla- nation of the 1st verse of Genesis, which the Doctor has adopted in his Bridgewater Treatise, purposely to account for these great periods of geological mutatio-. At the same time, Mr. Mantell affects to say, that geology rightly understood, does not confute the scrip- tures, or at least the purest piety. He at the same time would entirely set aside, as by the above extract, the account given by Moses, that the earth, since the se- paration of the waters in Genesis, has existed only 5,800 years. Now, if this important part of the Bible is not founded * on fact, what arguments would mankind have for believing the remainder ? But, fortunately, even these "wonders of geology," cannot effect this. For first, I verilv believe that the carboniferous formations offer sufficient evidence that they were produced be- fore the separation in the universal ocean of Genesis ; I believe that these immense club mosses, these arbo- rescent ferns* so immensely larger than any of the * Lee, in his Elementary Geology, page 67, says, ** in treating on the coal formations, vegetables also which are now mere herbs, then attained the size of large trees, as for example, ferns, which though they now attain the height of a few feet at the most, tlien grew as large as our tallest trees." 59 present day, were marine ; for I can never believe that any difference of climate could make such immense difference in the size of the plants. In examining coal» that is, not including Lignites or brown coal, in any part of the earth, we find no traces of woody fibre, which, had it been formed of terrestrial trees, would probably have been apparent. Coal appears more likely to have been formed of some soft pulpy matter, such as sea-weed, and to have acquired its present ap- pearance by great heat and pressure, and decomposi- tion. This opinion of the marine formation of coal ia supported by Mr. Maletrenck. In Sullivan's View of Nature, letter 38, page 109, Mr. Maletrenck, in treating on the origin of coal, says— ** But this is a subject which we must examine more closely. Vegetables, as I have said, have been considered as the cause of the formation of pit coal. A few forests, however, buried in the earth, are not sufficient to form the menses of coals which exist in its bowels. A greater cause, more proportioned to the magnitude of the effect is required, and we find it only in that prodigious quantity of vegetable matter which grows in the seas, and is increased by the immense masses which are car- ried down by the rivers ; these masses are agitated and broken down by the waves, and afterwards coveied by argillaceous or calcareous earth, and are decomposed. Nor is it more difficult to conceive how these masses of marine and other vegetables may form the greater part of the coal, than that shells should form the greater part of the globe. The direct proofs in support of this theory are the presence of aquatic and marine substan- ces. The soils which contain coal are generally of schistus and grit ; and as the formation of pyrites, a^ ■*" t.^i 't. Qs I ;;1 60 well as that of coal, comes Irom the decomposition of vegetable and animal substances, (for sulphur has been proved to exist naturally in vegetables and animals) all pit coal is more or less pyritous, so that we may con- sider pit coal as a mixture of pyrites, schistus, and bitumen." Mr. Maletrenck thus supports our idea of the origin of coal in the secondary formations. I have to add as a further support of tiiis theory, that all coal contains ammonia or its elements. Now terrestrial trees or vege- tables will not account for this ingredient of coal. We know, moreover, that the remains of immense masses of animals must have been deposited in the oceans. The remains of whales, sharks, salmon, and all other fish, many species of which I believe are seldom found in the earth fossilized, must have been deposited some- where in the ocean, and it appears probable that coal has derived its ammonia from these sources. At all events terrestrial vegetables alone will not account for it, for they do not afford one of i;s elements, azote. But whether time and further observation will prove these opinions correct or not, still the story of the "beau- tiful country of the Iguanodon" can be accounted for, without overthrowing the narration of Moses. Vol- canic action as I have shewn above, must have been immensely more active before the separation, and pending the subaqueous formation of the earth in the ocean of Genesis, than at present. It is possible there- fore, that some mountainous countries may have been elevated above the surface of the waters long previous to the separation of the entire " dry land of Genesis," and that these mountainous countries may have been tenanted by these reptile tribes, and covered by these 61 immense palms, coniferous ferns, club mosjes, fine riv^ers, lakes, &c. for many ages previous to the separa- tion, when the great bulk of the land was made to " appear," and thus the Mosaic account will be yet main- tained in its integrity, notwithstanding the existence of the beautiful country of the " Iguanodon.'* In the preceding system of the Creation which I have ventured to form, and to which I was determined, as observed above, on reading the ideas stated by Archdeacon Paley to have been promulgated to the world by Buffon and other philosophers, I have made some remarks on the assertion, or supposition of Buffon, that the globe we inhabit was formed by the stroke of a comet knocking off from the Sun, (as stated by Pa- ley) a piece of molten glass, and I trust to have shewn the great improbability and absurdity of this. Such a supposition would lead us to believe, that the creation of our planetary system was not the gift of an all boun- tiful Creator, but merely the effect of chance ; and if I have proceeded to any severe reflections on its irreli- gious tendency, I trust I am warranted therein, by the opinions given by Paley, of this doctrine being founded on Atheistical principles ; that is, if I understand it, denying the agency of a Supreme Ruler of the Uni- verse in the Works of nature. An opinion so contrary to all our natural feelings of religion, it appeared to me, the duty of every man to refute, whose understanding should dictate to him the errors of such a system — and I hope to have shewn, that, as it is completely unsatisfactory to the mind of man, in the highest state of its acquirements — so it never can be productive of general assent ; and in the following compendium of ray Theory of the Sun's For- ''I ^ri I If matioD, I shall re-advert to the above suppoiition of Buifon. THEORY OF THE SUN'S FORMATION. As the great discoveries in Pneumatic Chemistry, made during the last 50 or 60 years, may not be known to inany of my readers, I here subjoin a short account of them. About the beginning of that period, Mr. Black, of Edinburgh, first discovered that the change of lime-stone into lime, by burning, was nothing more than the extrication of its carbonic acid gas from the lime-stone by the heat employed. This discovery ex- cited the attention of chemical philosophers to ssriform bodies; and Mr. Black's name -nW be venerable as long as the science is cultivated. A few years afterwards, Mr. Cavendish discovered the highly important fact, that water was composed of the bases of the two gases oxygen and hydrogen, which was further proved by the experiments of Dr. Priestly, and the exact compo- sition of water was finally confirmed by the accurate analysis of Lavoisier and other French Chemists, who having decomposed the water into its elementary gases, reproduced it by the ignition of the same gases ; and finding by repealed experiments, the weight of the water always equal to the gases produced, and vice versa that the gases employed to form the water, al- ways produced an equal weight of it. Subsequent chemists have verified these results, and it is now uni- versally allowed, that all water consists of one part of hydrogen, and eight parts of oxygen by weight. Our atmosphere has been found to be composed of eighty parts of mephitic or azotic gas, and of twenty parts of oxygen gas. These three gases, oxygen, hy- drogen and azote, which may be called primary, have 63 poiitioa of lTION. Chemistry, t be known >rt account )eriod, Mr. he change thing more s from the icovery ex- to csriform ble as long ifterwards, rtant fact, two gases proved by ct compo- accurate aists, who lary gases, ases ; and It of the and vice water, aU bsequent low uni- e part of t. posed of f twenty gen, hy- ry, have since been ditcovered by chemists in almost every part of the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdoms, in which also a great variety of compound gases are dis- covered every year. ' I now proceed, with due humility, to present to tlie reader, a compendium of the ideas stated in page S.'i on the Sun's Formation at the time the primordial wa- ters of Genesis were created, according to the construc- tion I have put on the 1st verse of Ist chapter of Gene- sis, by the combustion of hydrogen or oxygen, or other combustible gases, created by the first cause, as stated in page 33 of this work. I have presumed that those gases were ignited by the electric fluid, by the blaze of comets, or other igneous bodies, and that the extrica- tion of the light and heat, formed by the combustioa of these gases, in order to produce the formation of the aqueous globe, destined thereafter to originate the eartii and the other planets of our system, that the light and heat so extricated, has formed the body of our sun which forms the centre of the system^ by the laws of Hia graviti/ and attraction, ^ ^., . , . If I recollect right, heat and light have not as yet been discovered to have weight ; * but our means of ascertaining this by experiment in the usual way, is very dubious. The bulk of a grain of heat or light may, perhaps, be sufficient to fill a house; therefore, we could, perhaps, not ascertain the fact; but heat and light are certainly sensible bodies, and therefore must have weight. Heat expands and increases the dlmen« 8ion3 of the hardest bodies in an astonishing manner. Light is said to travel from the sun at the rate of twelve millions of miles a minute, and also penetrates the most * See Note Hd to 2d Edition at the end of this worii. mi JUL '•r. 64 dense substances. Although, therefore, the weight of these subtle agents be infinitely less than any other bo- dies we know of, they are, probably, subject to the same laws of attraction and gravity. We may, therefore, conceive that the heat and light extricated from the combustion of these aeriform sub- iitances,in the formation of the primordial waters, would unite and ascend, by the laws of their gravity and at- traction, or by an origii'il impulse of the Creator,* to their position in the regions of infinite space, and form there the body of our sun, and that the planets, as they were formed, and were projected by the projectile force, became subject to its attractive influences. Whether this attraction be effected by an inherent power of the sun, or, that it may be owing in part to the influence of the vast stream of aeriform substance, passing toward? him, to supply him with fuel, I shall presently consider. I shall however, previously, make some remarks in addition to those offered above, on the idea of Buffon, of molten glass having formed our earth and the planets of our system. It is, I consider, impossible to conceive that glass could exist in the stupendous heat of the sun's fire. *A8 Light is known to exist in two separate states, namely, latent and active ; and as we are told in the 3d verse of Genesis, *' Darkness was on the face of the deep," it is probable the light evolved in the combustion of the gases was diffused through the regions of space in its latent form, and was not elicited into its active and visible state until the time of the 3d verse ; and it is remarkable that the first o[)eration of Deity at the time of the separation was the evolution of light in its active and visible state, and the collection of it into one vast focus, the sun of our sygtem, as by the 4th verse. And 1 am hajipy to think that our theory of the formation of ?ight by the combustion of the gases, will serve to remove a frequent objection to the Mosaic account, namely, the existence of light before the sun is said to be formed in 1st chap. Genesis. 65 Glass is formed in our planet of siliceous earth and pot-asli. Tlie former we have before proved, on the authority of Linnaeus, to be composed by the vegetable process ; its parts are, therefore, formed of the gases which the vegetable extracts from the water and air it imbibes for its nutrition. The latter (pot-ash) has aUo yielded to Sir H. Davy a metallic button. It is therefore an oxyd, and must contain much oxygen. Siliceous earth and pot-ash, the component parts of glass, are then mostly composed of seriform substance. We know that the diamond, which is probably much more dense than siliceous earth, has been volatilized in part by burning lenses, or by streams of oxygen gas in a state of ignition. What can these heats be in com- parison to the sun's fire ? perhaps as an atom to a world. * ,. • , . I trust, therefore, it is more consistent with the sa- cred documents we have had handed down to us by our religion ; with the operations of nature, we are ena- bled to examine ; with the admirable simplicity and order of the laws by which the First Cause has directed the operations of that nature, to believe, that Jiaving first formed the principles whichf in the present state of our knowledge^ we must call elementaryy He proceeded by the combination of these principles, by combustion, to form the waters which were destined thereafter to produce our earth and planets. It is indeed possible, that these elements — Oxygen, Hydrogen and Azote, may be compounded of other final elements of much greater energy than themselves, but the rules of science forbid us to consider that as the fact, until we have found it by experiment. We have, therefore, only to carry our knowledge of these n i* \i i 66 principles into our refleuiions on the construction of our system, and with humility, praise and adoration, to conceive, that as most, or all, tlie geological bodies we have analyzed, are found to consist of these principles, they may have been those with wt'">.h the First Cause, with amazing skill and effect, has operated the wonder- ful system of Creation He hath bestowed on us. 4 In the contemplation of this Creation, and of the re- cent discoveries in pneumatic chemistry, I trust to have shown the possibility that our sun may have been formed, at the time of the formation of the primordial waters of Genesis ; and as before stated, I have consi- dered the other planets of our system, and their moons, to have been formed in the same manner, at the time when, by the creative mandate, the combustion of the gases took place, and which I consider to be meant and recorded by the 1st verse of 1st chap, of Genesis. So I likewise conceive that our sun was formed at the same time, by the vast body of heat and light disenga- ged by the stupendous combustion, and that having found his position in the regions oK infinite space, ac- cording to the laws of his nature, he exerted his attrac- tive influences on the planets of our system, of which he became the centre. ' , We have now to consider by what laws *^he vast waste of the heat and light of the Sun is replenished ; and, as our conceptions thereon will be found in some degree at variance with the hitherto received ideas of the nature of the spaces between the sun and planets, and the regions of infinite space, and bear also consi- derabW on the nature of the sun's influence on those planets, we shall first make some observations on the 67 tion of ,tion, to dies we nciples, i Cause, vonder- ' the re- to have re been imordial e consi- ' moons, :he time n of the 3 meant Genesis, d at the jisenga- having ace, ac- ) attrac- which Ihe vast Inished ; n some Ideas of )lanets, consi- those on the ATTRACTION OF MATTER. It is said by philosophers, that all bodies are attrac' ted to the earth's centre : all bodies thrown into the air from the earth, descend to the earth's surface when the propelling force is spent, and when the body is ar- rested by the atmosphere through which it passes. It is said by Paley, page 449 of his Natural Theology, that " One principle of gravitation causes a stone to drop towards the earth, and the moon to whirl round it ; one law of attraction carries all the different planets round the sun." This, he says, philosophers demon- strate ; and at page 388, he adds — " Calculations were made some years ago, of the mean density of the earth, by comparing the force of its attraction with the force of the attraction of a rock of granite, the bulk of which could be ascertained, and the upshot of the calculation was, that the earth, upon an average through its whole sphere, was twice the density of granite, or about five times that of water." * n ..h^ Now, respecting the principle of attraction, I have to remark, that in chemistry we know with certainty, that particles of matter have a mutual and elective at- traction called affinity. When an acid is united with a metal into a neutral salt by this attraction, it may be separated from it by any substance with which the acid or its particles have a greater affinity. Thus, if iron, or its oxyds, be dissolved in sulphuric acid, it forms green vitriol, commonly called copperas ; but by adding an alkali to the solution, the iron precipitates, and a neutral salt is formed of the sulphuric acid and the alkali. ••^ In a lake or pond in the isle of Anglesea, in Wales, the water holds blue vitriol or copperas in solution, w*( '^. which is a salt composed of copper and the sulphuric acid. When iron hoops are thrown into the pond or lake, they become covered with copper scales, which is scraped off, and found to be the purest copper in na- ture. This decomposition of the blue vitriol takes place because the particles of iron have a greater affi- nity or elective attraction for the sulphuric acid than the copper has. The load stone is well known to attract iron, even in a cold state. Pieces of iron rubbed with the load stone, become also magnetic ; two pieces of wood, or cordage and wood, and probably many other substan- ces, by friction to a great degree, take fire ; that is to say, they become raised to that degree of temperature by that friction, that their particles attract the oxygen from the azotic gas, and from the light and heat with which they are combined in our atmosphere. Certain stones also, as flints, being struck against iron or steel, heat the particles of the steel so as to calcine them ; that is, they bring these particles to the temperature at which they also decompose the oxygen gas of the at- mosphere, and disengage its latent light and heat. Thus the attraction of matter is certainly |)roved by Chemistry. But how is the attraction of large and solid bodies proved in the usual temperature of the atmosphere, as in the case of the block of granite mentioned by Paley ? One rock of granite placed alongside another, will evince no attraction. It is said, indeed that some islands, having much iron ore, have attracted a vessel from her course, which, if it be the fact^ may perhaps also prove the attraction of matter of a certain descrip- m sulphuric d or lake, which is )er in na- ;riol takes eater affi- acid than n, even in the load wood, or substan- that is to nperature le oxygen heat with Certain or steel, ne them ; rature at f the at- eat. oved by Id bodies ►here, as Paley? ^er, will It some la vessel perhaps Idescrip- 69 tion ; but I know no other way by which the attraction or density of the rock of granite could be proved, but by breaking it by some other body, and ascertaining the weight of the stroke, thus : if a hundred weight of granite required a stroke of a certain number of pounds to break it, and a rock of some other species required only a force of half that number, its attraction or den- sity might be said to be half that of the granite. Thus far, then, attraction would be proved by Chemistiy and Geology also. But, that the Creator originally fixed some such law as attraction, for the cohesion of the particles of mat- ter, appears highly reasonable ; else, how should the earth and planets, travelling at such an immense rate in their orbits, be retained in their present forms, not- withstanding the pavver of such velocity of motion ? A ball of snow, when impelled by the force of the arm, if it be not rendered sufficiently dense by coni- pressure, separates into innumerable parts, and it must have been the same with the earth and the planets but for some law of attraction or cohesion, to resist the at- trition of their rapid motion through the heavens. This attraction then of the particles of matter, seems to be indispensible to their existence as spheres ; but the attraction of these for each other, though generally agreed to by the philosophers, appears more dubious and uncertain. * This doubt is supported by their immense distances, which may, indeed, be founded on a crude idea, and the doubt may perhaps be dissipated on further consi- deration. The moon is observed in its approach, to occasion 70 high risings or tides of the waters of the earth, which recede on its retiring. This, it seems to me, is an al- most incontrovertible proof, that the atmosphere (for storms are often generated at the same approach of the moon) and waters c:f the earth and seas, are attracted by the moon. If the moon has this power, we may reasonably conclude that other planets have this power also, governed by certain laws of distance and dimen- eion. ' Now, as to the manner in which the sun exerts his attractive influence on the earth and the other planets. His attraction is said, by philosophers, to be the cause why the earth and planets, having been originally pro- jected in a right line, do not move in that right line, but in their respective orbits round the sun. As to the opinions of these philosophers, of the na- ture of the sun's substance, I am not aware, ercept as above stated by Paley, that Buffon supposes it to con- sist of molten glass. I trust to have shewn in the fore- going pages the improbability of this, and that it is more probable to be a body of light and heat. His density, in that case, cannot be equal, bulk for bulk, to the density of the planets, which are with reason considered to be inhabited, and must probably be formed of solid matter. But as to the nature of the sun's subst&nce, I confess 1 cannot conceive it possible that a body of such inconceivable heat, should consist of any thing else than gaseous substance. We know of nothing here below that can produce light and heat with more intensity, than the decomposition of oxygen gas. Why should we not reason by analogy, that the light and heat of the sun are produced by the same means? All the other means we have of producing he£ frol turj mei in the! 71 heat by burning glasses, or by friction, are derived from the sun ; and nothing is more reiuiirkable in na- ture, in her general principles, than uniformity of means. The principle of gravity is said to be the same in an apple falling to the ground, as in the motions of the heavenly bodies. Is it not then impossible to conceive that in the sun's heat, solid or liquid substances could exist ! The dia- mond is volatilized into vapours, and if I recollect right, the perfect metals also, by the galvanic power. It has indeed been supposed by some, that the sun may be habitable — that the heat of the particles of light U owing to their friction or attrition, in their passage to the planets. Th. idea of no heat in the sun, arose in part from the existence of ice and snow on high moun- tains in the torrid zone, which is now thoroughly ex- plained from terrestrial causes, by Lambin, De Lui, Bougan and De Saussure. By such a supposition, we should be forced to con- clude that the planets farthest oif from the sun, were the most warm, which I imagine is totally contrary to probability, to the opinions of the greatest philosophers, and to the evidence of our own senses in tha planet which we inhabit. ^ ■i7 m " A fact well known," says De Saussure, " and which proves strongly to my mind that the action of the so- la"* rays, (considered in themsdves, and independent of all exterior causes of cold,) is as great on the tops of mountains as in the level country, is, that the force of a lens is the same at all heights. I am therefore con- vinced with Bougan," continues he, " that the principal reason of the cold which reigns on the tops of moun- tains is, that they are always surrounded and covered 72 by an air that is invariably cold, and that that air h cold because it cannot be greatly heated, neither by the rays of the sun, in consequence of the transparency of this air, nor by the surface of the earth, on account of its distance from that surface." Now, but for the idea which has hitherto been adop- ted, that the regions of infinite space, or at least the spaces in which our sun and planets move, are in a state of vacuum ; but for this idea, I should say that the sun is a mass of burning aeriform substance, such as hydrogen gas, or some mixture thereof, which has the power of decomposing oxgen gas, and of throwing off its light and heat. The union of the bases of these gases, oxygen and hydrogen, would form water in the state of vapour, which would either be driven off into the heavens, and be in future decomposed, as happens in our atmosphere, by the electric fluid, or be otherwise condensed into aqueous globes, for the future forma- tion of other heavenly bodies. (^See Note\2,) I shall now offer ^ome observations on the above idea of the philosophers, on the existence of a vacuum in the spaces through which the planets move, t If we consider the projectile force to have been ah origine given to the planets by the Creator, we may suppose that this force was greater than what would have been required to produce their motions round the sun, if a vacuum had existed, as thus: allowing the spaces between the planets and the sun to be filled with an aeriform substance of vast tenuity, (and indeed that such immense spaces should consist of vacuum is nearly incredible) yet it would still be possible that this aeri- form substance should not impede the motions of the planets ; because, on the above supposition, the projec- •r "*■ 73 lat air 'n er by the irency of jcount of een adop- least the are in a say that mce, such which has throwing !S of these iter in the en off into 13 happens otherwise re forma- t) > Lhe above a vacuum |e. • been ab I*, we may hat would I round the )wing the [filled with lideed that is nearly this aeri- Ins of the lhe projec- tile force would have been made so much greater than would have been required for moving these planets through a vacuum onli/y as the resistance of this aeri- form substance should render necessary to overcome that resistance by the projectile force. Again, the force of the attraction of the sun, allow- ing its substance to be aeriform, and that such immense streams of gases were continually pouring into it, as would be required to support its combustion, we shall find the force of this attraction (hitherto so called) must be greatly increased ; for, in addition to its own proper attraction, as a body of heat, light and aeriform vapour, we shall perhaps find reason to conclude that this attraction must bo greatly augmented by the vast streams of aeriform substance, continually passing tow- ards the centre of the sun, for supplying its combustion and repairing the vast waste of its light and heat. A small fire in a stove is sufficient to draw to it a strong current of air to support its combustion. The power of currents of air on the earth and seas is well known to upset ships, trees and houses. The power of steam, also, will come under the same comparison ; and according to its quantity, will raise almost any weight. What then must be the effect ?iid power of such inconceivable streams of gaseous substance, rushing through the heaven^, as must be required to supply fuel for the sun ? And it appears to me the power of > .n, to attract the planets at such immense distan- ces, is hereby the more satisfactorily accounted for, as thet/ are to be supposed solid spheres ; while, as I have presumed by my theory of the sun, his substance must be aeriform, and of course, of much less density, bulk m »i iv^ .-k-1 74 for bulk, than tlie planete. If, then, we should adopt the idea that the heavenly bodies do not float in a vacuum, but should accede to the probability that the intervening spaces are fllled up with an aeriform fluid, for thw pupose of supplying fuel to the sun's fire, I I*!'si>Hly .'onceive we shall have found a satisfactory wj» 7f JiC ounting for the influence of the moon on our seas an«j atmosphere. If the fact be certain, that the waters rise as the moon approaches the earth, and recede as she retires from it, may not this phenome- non arise from the pressure exerted on the aeriform matter above mentioned by the moon, on its approach to the earth, which pressure, at length reaching our atmosphere, presses on it also, and thereby on the wa- ters of the ocean, causing them to rise and fall propor- tionably, and to occasion the Spring, Neap and daily Tides? Should we not also have, by the same theory, a plain and simple way of accounting for the great principle of attraction in the heavenly bodies? That, by a power similar to that which propels bodies forward on the earth, seas and atmosphere, namely, the wind ; so the heavenly bodies are propelled from their right line, and driven round their central sun by this mighty cur- rent of aeriform gases in their courses towards the sun. (See Note 6th to the 2d Edition at the end of the Book,^ Allowing the projectile force, (by which I under- stand Sir Isaac Newton to have meant the primary projectile force directly given to the heavenly bodies by their Creator) and the attractive force of the sun, to be the causes of the, nearly, circular motions of the planets, still it appears to me clear^ that this projectile 75 Id adopt oat in a that the rm fluid, I's fire, I isfactory moon on Lain, that irth, and thenome- seriform approach hing our I the wa- l propor- nd daily ^, a plain principle at, by a rward on wind ; so ight line, hty cur- } the sun. d of the under- primary y bodies the sun, ns of the )rojectiie force must be something very different from the Rpe- cies of impelling force which Paley, in bis " Natural Theology," speaks of in page 390 of that work. "If it were possible," he says, " to fire off a cannon-ball with the velocity of five miles a second, and the resis* tance of the air could be taken away, the cannon-ball would for ever wheel round the earth, instead of falling down to it." Now, if the ball were fired off ' a direc- tion due north, it is evident that in the coarse f the circle it would form, it must return by the south pole to the place it was fired from, to north ; and therefore, in every revolution, it would return in an exactly oppo- site direction to where it was fired off fr* a ; the force therefore by which it returns, could not be the force of firing off, because it returns in a line directly opposite to that force. (See Note 8.) I therefore conceive the projectile force, impressed by the first cause on the heavenly bodies, is of an en* tirely different nature from the projectile force of a cannon-ball. May it not rather be something in the nature of the force of the current of gases I have mentioned, as forcing the planets into their rotatory motion round the sun? May not the projectile force partake of the nature cf electricity ? Referringr to what we have said above, as to the means by which the waste of the sun's light and heat is replenished, we shall now make some observations on a very important sentence as to this subject, con* tained in " Paley 's Evidences of Natural Religion," page 392. On the subject of the cause of the attraction of the 76 If planets by the sun, he there says — " Nor shall we find less difficulty in conceiving a conflux of particles in- cessantly flowing to a centre, and carrying down all bodies along with it — that centre being itself in rapid motion through absolute space ; for, by what source is the stream fed, or what becomes of the accumulation ?" The principal objection of Paiey then, to the idea of a fluid or aeriform substance existing in the spaces be- tween the sun and the planets, aifd between each of themselves, is contained in his question — " By what source is the stream fed, or what becomes of the ac- cumulation f If we allow, however, that the sun is a body in a state of constant combustion, and that its ignition is supported in the same manner as terrestrial fires, (and without allowing this we cannot, according to our knowledge of combustion, conceive how the fire of the sun is continued,) we shall meet with no difficulty in finding " by what source the stream is fed." The spaces between the sun and planets, and also the regions of infinite space, if they be allowed to contain aeriform fluids, whether these be oxygen and hydrogen gases, or a mixture of these or of other inflammable gases, these inconceivable extents of space would cer- tainly contain sufficient fuel to supply not only our sun, but probably all the suns of the other systems that may exist. It is, I think, proved above, that resisting media may be contained in the planetary spaces, without destroying the planetary motions. Hydrogen gas being fourteen times lighter than atmospheric air, and being very combustible, that is, easily uniting with oxygen, and thus setting free its latent heat and light, may therefore we find icles in- lown all n rapid Durce is ation ?" idea of aces be- each of ly what the ac- dy in a lition is es, (and to our e of the culty in also the contain ydrogen mmable uld cer- nly our mm that dia may stroying fourteen ig very ;en, and herefore be i^ppoeed to form a great proportion of these «eri- furm media. (See Note 12.^ In fact, as we know of no such thing as a vacuum in any part of nature around us, it seems difficult to conceive that the vast spaces between the heavenly bodies are in that state, and this has no doubt sugges- ted to the ancients the idea of the abhorrence of nature qf a vacuum, ( See Note 6th to 2d Edition at the end of this Work. J By what means then, a sufficient quantity of this aeriform fluid can be found is, I trust, evident ; and the question of the Archdeacon, " By what source is the stream fed," is answered. And the end to which the stream is applied, namely, the support of the sun's waste by combuotion, will also answer the other ques- tion, ** What becomes of the accumulation ?" I answer, It is consumed by the sun's fire. If the media then, of the planetary and infinite spa- ces may be supposed to con3ist of hydrogen, oxygen, or other inflammable gases, or a mixture of these, the hydrogen and the oxygen gases being drawn into the sun, would be immediately decomposed, giving out their latent light and heat for the supply and restora- tion of the immense waste of these elements which must take place by the emission of their rays from the sun. Water would thus be formed in the state of vapour, which would probably be driven off into the heavens by its own elasticity, or carried off by the attraction of comets, and there condensed into globes of water, des- tined thereafter to form new planets or worlds, like those of our own system, and evincing the unceasing tendency of nature, in obedience to laws by which it is endowed by the Creator, to give, life and enjoyment to Gl is Ml W. '» p.. .. kit 78 countless myriach of beings, on which novel iubject I bhall treat in the sequel. ( SeeNotell.) •"'"-■■ If the fact be founded, that the attraction of a planet is formed by the atti'action of its parts, and that thero- fore the power of its attraction is in proportion to the density of the planet ; then, if we allow the sun to be a body of ajriform matter in. combustion, its attraction must be much less in proportion to its bulk, than the attraction of each of the solid planets — although its greater bulk may compensate for its inferior density ; but the current of aeriform fluids which, to use Paley's words, " would be powerful enough to carry bodiei down with great force towards a centre," will it not al- so account in whole or in part, for the attraction the sun exerts on the planets ? As to these fluids being, as lie says in another place, " powerless with respect to the motions which result from the projectile impulse," I trust I have explained before, that the resisting force of these aeriform fluids may have been counteracted by an additional power having been given to the projectile force to overcome that resistance ; whereby it has hap- pened, as he says again in page 393, " that resist- ance has had no sensible effect on the moon's motion for two thousand Ave hundred years," and, I may add further, that these fluids never can have any such eflect ; and I trust to explain this more fully hereafter. We now recur to Paley's observation in page 388 of his " Theology of Nature," that " by a comparative calculation with the force of attraction of a rock of granite, the earth was said to have twice the density of that rock, or about Ave times that of water." Has the mode of ascertaining the force of this attrac- tion of the earth been grounded on the supposed force 79 •ct I of the attraction of the sun on the earth and plant ts ? Ilaa the earth's attraction in the above experiment been come at by calculating its proportionate bulk to that of tiie sun, and assigning it therefrom its proportionate attraction ? If so, and it should be conceded that the theory I have ventured to propose, of the sun's power of attraction being created or increased by the streams of oeriform fluid passing towards his centre, to supply him with fuel — if this theory be correctly founded in nature, it is evident the above experiment »n the at- traction of the earth cannot be correct in its results. The force of attraction of a body is composed of the united attraction of its parts; but if the sun's density has hitherto been considered by philosophers to be ac- cording to hii powers of attraction, and it should be agreed to that the streams of aeriform fluid have a great influence in producing that attraction, the density of the sun must, in this case, be much less than it has hi- therto been estimated at, and of course the density of the earth also, if it has been grounded on this supposed density of the sun. . . I now conclude the theory of the sun's formation by some observations on the following extract from Pa- ley's Work, page 380. Speaking of the intervening spaces between the planets, he says that " the intervals between them are made devoid of any inert matter, either ^uid or solid, because such an intervening sub- stance would, by its resistance, destroy those very amo- tions which attraction is employed to preserve." I have before endeavoured to shew that there may be such aeriforni substances existing in these space?, which would indeed resist these motions of the planets, but that this resistance is sufiicient only to diminish ' ' t™ 1» II 80 I the velocity of these motions. To explain this more fully : — May not the moon have been originally pro- jected by the Creating cause to move in its orbit or course at the rate of three thousand two hundred and seventy miles per hour ? and, supposing the resistance of the media or aeriform fluids of my theory to be equal to one thousand miles per hour, this resistance would only diminish the rate of the moon's motion to two thousand two hundred and seventy miles per hour, V. 'sh is the actual rate she is said to travel in her cotrse round the earth, f See tiote 5.J In fine, the theory of the sun's being replenished with fuel by means of aeriform fluids, is supported by another observation of Paley's. In page 350 of the above work, he says — " The light and heat of the sun follow the same laws, and, to us, appear nowise differ- ent from the light of a candle and the heat of a coal fire." Why, then, may not this heat and light of the sun be supplied in the same manner as that of the can- dle and coal fire ? In our planet, this heat is now known to be pro- duced by the decomposition of oxygen gas by those combustible bodies, and the consequent extrication of its latent light and heat ; but if the light and heat of the sun be generated by the same laws, and, as there is probably some physical cause for the attraction of the planets by the sun — as it is possible his great magni- tude would not require less than the spaces between him and the planets, and between each of them, to sup- ply the aeriform fluid for his combustion — and as this amazing current must have a great physical influence on the motion of those planets round their central Sun, and may therefore throw additional light on the great §1 :-m principle of his attraction — I therefore humbly submit the forego'ng Theory of the Sun's Formation, and the means of supplying the waste of his combustion, to the scrutiny of a candid and enlightened world : and being sensible of my incompetence in respect of that profound degree of scientific knowledge required in the attempt I have made to reconcile and explain the account of the Creation, handed down to us by our re- ligion, with the great discoveries in the sciences of Ge- ology, Chemistry and Pneumatics, I have only to hope I may, at all events, have exalted the utility of these sciences by shewing their tendency and power to di- minish or quiet the doubts of scepticism, and to open greater sources of our admiration of the goodness, power, wisdom and glory of the Great First Cause. — {See concluding Note.) Having now presented to the public the theory of the sun's formation, arising, as I conceive, naturally, from the stupendous quantity of light and heat which must have evolved from the combustion of the gases required for the formation of the ocean of Genesis, and having therein given my ideas on the manner in which the waste of the sun's light and heat may be replen- ished, I purpose now to make a few observations on the opinion stated by Dr. Herschell as to the opaque- ness of the sun, and also of tlie spots which are found on, or adjacent to, his surface. Sharon Turner, in his Sacred History, page 46, vol. 1st, savs — " Of the actual substance of the sun, so little satisfactory to our judgment has been discovered, that all which is mentioned concerning it, can rank no higher than conjectures more or less plausible. Dr. Herschell thought his body to be opaque with an upper ■ ■ «' Pi ^m 82 Btratum of black luminous clouds. Black spots of va- r3'ing magnitude and form are continually appearing upon it and receding ;" and in a Note from La Place, page 20, it is said — " Dr. Herschell has inferred that what he deems the sun's luminous atmosphere, is 2,500 miles from its surface.'* The preface to Sharon Turner's Work is dated 1832. The first edition of mine was published in 1836 ; — his observations as to the substance of the sun could not, therefore, include it ; and I shall now make one final observation in support of the probability of my system, namel}', that it is, I conceive, highly probable, the Deity would convert the stupendons quantity of heat and light which must have been extricated from the combustion of the gases of which the oceanic waters are formed, to some great purpose. The fabric of the sun thereby, was it not the most prominent and neces- sary one he could have applied it to ? Now, respecting Dr. Herschell's opinion as to the opaqueness of the sun, as I am well aware of the ex- alted talents of that philosopher, and equally conscious of my own want of scientific knowledge to cope with them, I must leave the decision on the validity of my theory of the sun to men of scientific acquirements, should it meet their eye ; and in that case, I beg to submit 10 them, should they agree to that validity, two questions : — 1st. The luminous atmosphere of Doctor Hers- chell being, as he says, 2,500 miles from the sun, will it not be accounted for by the vast bodies of Hy- drogen and oxygen gases which I have supposed, by their combustion, to serve as alimentarv fuel for the sun ? Also — the spots on the sun's surface, or, as some say, adjacent thereto, may they not be accounted f va- aring Mace, I that 2,500 1832. ; — his d not, ; final ystem, le, the f heat im the waters 5 of the neces- to the the ex- nscious with of my ements, 3eg to ty, two Hers- he sun, ofHy- )sed, by for the e, or, as counted 3e 83 for by the above said cause, from the denser volume of aqueous vapour which must '*-; produced by this vast combustion of hydrogen ? ihe combustible gases would probably be ignited at xue distance mentioned, (2,500 miles from the sun) and no doubt they would prove luminous enough. 2d. If, as it has been lately suggested, our atmos- pheric heat is produced by the sun's rays operating on a calorific medium, can we allow this heat to be pro- duced by any other means than by abstraction from that medium ? Heat is undoubtedly a material substance, and from whencesoever it is abstracted by the sun's rays, and car- ried off, must not a corresponding degree of cold be produced ? and must not the whole extent of the space between the earth and sun become continually more and more refrigerated, unless some means are found for replenishing this waste of heat ? and this we hum- bly conceive, our theory of the sun will do. I wish here to reply to a suggestion on our theory, by a person of some scientific acquirements. This was an idea that the gases (which in the above theory we conceive to be employed in supplying the waste of the sun's light and heat) might be ignited before arri- ving at the sun s atmosphere, and thereby endanger the planets. This person however, observed, that as Sir Humphrey Davy's safety lamp precluded any bad ef- fects in mines, nature may have prepared some contrivance to ensure safety in the regions of space. The observation was judicious ; for if the science of feeble man can counteract the evil on earth, how much more easily can the power do so who rules the heavens ! In fact it is not difficult to conceive an effective mode m ■ ■ iP ■ m aHl ■'■J '•11 ■ ■■, 4J TM I. '-M •''Si 84 which may be employed by nature to ensure the safety required. Neither oxygen gas, nor hydrogen gas, are intiammable/?er *e, that is when not in contact with each other ; and it is easy to conceive that each species of gas may come from opposite points of the regions of space. Oxygen may come from the parts of the hea- vens above the sun ; hydrogen from those parts which are below it — and thus, both streams- nci'^er meet, till they enter their centre of attraction, the atmos- phere or the body of the sun ; by which means no igni- tion whatever could take place, until they arrived there. Moreover, there is hardly a doubt, the trJ'a of comets consist of inflammable gaseous matter ; dad these bo- dies traverse the regions of space perhaps in all direc- tions, without injury to the planetary bodies. J. now present to the reader a short outline of Sir Richard Phillips' Theory of the cause of the motions of the heavenly bodies, taken from a work called *' Wonders of tl . i -eavens," Lecture 2d, page 30, prin- ted for Richarci Fhillips, London. I make this ex- tract as presenting a singular sanction of our theory, of the existence of a gaseous medium in the regions of space ; but do not agree with him in rejecting the Newtonian principle of gravity and attraction, and refer our readers to our observations thereon in the intro- duction to this edition. *' About 100 years passed from the discovery of the theory of gravitation, without any remarkable addition to it, till the year 1818, when Sir Richard Phillips, in some essays on the proximate causes of the phenomena of the universe, impeached the entire theory founded on the simultaneous existence of universal gravitation, projectile force, and an alledged vacuum in space. safety- is, are : with ipecies ions of le hea- whicli eet, till atmos- no igni- d there. comets ese bo- ll direc- i of Sir motions k called 0, prin- this ex- leory, of jgions of ing the md refer le intro- ry of the addition lillips, in lenomena founded avitation, )aee. This writer has shewn that Hook's Law of Gravity, which Newton so fortunately applied, is not a universal law, but a law created locally by the transfer of motion through any medium, such as the medium of space, ^nd that the motions of nature, necessarily propagated according to that law, are, in truth, the cause of all the phenomena which heretofore had been ascribed to the occult and unintelligible principles of attraction and gravitation. Hence, as the law called the law of gra- vity, which Newton applied to the problems of his Prin- cipia, is proved not to be universal, and not an innate property, but an accident of matter, so there no longer exists any occasion for the projectile force with which Newton endowed the planets to prevent their falling into the sun ; nor was it any longer necessary to extin- guish the medium, which it may be supposed is co-ex- istent with space, for tlie purpose of conferring perpe- tuity on the projectile force. He considered all matter as the possible parent of motion, and motion as power, and then proceeded to show, that all bodies on the earth are the parents of its motions, and that its motions are competent to pro- duce all the phenomena which we witness on earth ; that weight or gravity is the mere effect of motion, or a tendency to move by the transferred impetus of the earth's motions ; in fine, that twofold motions are pow- ers of aggregation in all planets ; and that these motious, or that of the sun, propagated through the medium oj space, diverge as the square of the distance, and act with the same precision through an elastic medium, as a '«ver of iron. He shewed also, that the fall of bodies to the earthy ascribed to terrestrial gravitation, is a ne- eessary result of the twofold motions of the earth, and H }. .tj 'MO Wt > 86 that all the phenomena heretofore explained, by a prin- ciple which, considered as universal, led to many false analogies, are mere results of motions, or accidents of matter, altogether local and mechanical The philosophy of material phenomena promulgated by Sir Richard Phillips, teaches that the universe con- sists of extension of matter under various expansive jjaseous, fluid, and fixed forms of body, proceeding in relative density from the rarest and most extended fluid media, to the most condensed aggregate of fixed atoms. ** In fine," says Sir Richard Phillips, " motions of matter, subject to regular mechanical laws, act- ing absolutely or subordinately, generally or locally, on aggregates or atoms, and producing various densi- ties, and difterent degrees of locomotion, and aftinity, in atoms of matter, of different constituent forms, are the proximat(j causes of all phenomena ; and as one series of phenr^mena depends on another, so all existing phe- nomena are, in regard to others, physically fit, compati- ble and harmonious ; and as matter cannot originate its own motion, so in considering motion as the proximate cause of all phenomena, we arrive, through the ascend- ing series, at the necessary and sublime First Cause of ,il! motion and all phenomena."* Page 35. The next sanction of our thtory of the existence of gasij^us matter in the Sun's atmosphere, we take from Sir John Herschell's Astronomy of last year, pac/e 407, chap. 12. ** We shall conclude this chapter by the mention of a phenomenon which seems to indicate the existence of some slight degree of nebulosity about the Sun itself, * It being thought by some that Sir Richard Phillips' Theorj was of Atheistical tendency, I have extracted the foregoing jparagraph to show the reverse. 87 Theory 'oregoiii)f und even to place it in the list of nebulous Stars. It is called the Zodiacal light ; and may be seen any very clear evening soon after sunset, about the month of April or May, or, at the opposite season of the year, before sunrise, as a cone or lenticular shaped light, ex- tending from the horizon, obliquely upwards, and fol- lowing generally the course of the ecliptic, or rather that of the Sun's equator. The apparent angular dis- tance of its orbit from the sun varies according to cir- cumstances from 40"^ to 90^, and the breadth of its base perpendicular to its axis from 8*^ to 30*^. It is extremely faint and ill defined, at least, in this climate, though better seen in tropical regions. It cannot be mistaken for any atmospherical meteor or Aurora Borealis. It is manifestly in the nature of a %hin lenticuiarly formed atmosphere, surrounding the Sun, and extending at least beyond the orbit of Mer- cury and even of Venus, and may be conjectured to be no other than the denser part of that medium, which, as we have reason to believe, resists the motion of comets, loaded perhaps with the actual materials of the tails of millions of them, of which they have been stripped in their successive perehelion passages, and which may be slowly subsiding into the Sun." It appears hereby that Sir John completely sanctions tiie existence of gaseous matter in the Sun's atmosphere. And for what other purpose could it be there, but for the supply of the waste of its light and heat by the combustion of this gaseous matter ? And Sir Tohn may well say as he does in the above most admirable treatise on Astronomy, " that there is an enormous de- gree of heat in the San." The last extract we shall here make, as sanctioning "% a'i^', ** .'ig n. -, Jd , .11 i 1 88 our theory of supply of the waate of the Sun's heat and light, is from a work published in 1 841, called "Gra- ham's Elements of Chemistry." " It has always been observed that there is a black line or lines among the rays received from the Sun through the prism on a spectrum. These black lines Philosophers had not been able to account for. But the atmosphere of the Sun has now received an entirely chemical cha- racter from late experiments of the celebrated Sir David Brewster, who found that on passing a ray of light from a common lamp through a medium of nitrous oxyd gas, it formed a thousand black lines on the spectrum. He, Sir David, thence infers (in accounting for the black lines when rays are received from the Sun) that gaseous matter exists in the sun's atmosphere, by which medium the black lines are pro- duced on the spectrum." Doctor Graham adds, " that we may thus be able hereafter to explain how the light of the Suns of other systems is formed and maintained." He thus evidently considers that the mode of sup- plying the waste of our own Sun's light and heat is ex- plained by means of this gaseous atmosphere, and there- by supports our theory of the combustion of that mat- ter for producing that supply.* On a review of these concurrent testimonies, we, with humility, conceive therefore that our theory of the original formation of our Sun, by the light and heat evolved by the combustion of the gases for the forma- tion of the universal ocean of Genesis ; and of the mode of supplying the waste of the Sun's light and heat may be considered as nearly established. Having thus concluded my attempt on the system of * The above extract is taken from memory, but the substance will be found in Graham's Elements. 89 3at and " Gra- '6 been ig the on a 1(1 not here of il cha- ,ed Sir a ray nediura jk lines fers (in eceived tie sun's ire pro- , "that he light tained." of sup* at is ex- d there- lat mat- ies, we, y of the nd heat 3 forma- of the ght and ystem of Bubstance the creation of our earth and planet^ and of the fur- mation of their central Sun, with the means which I conceive may have been adopted by the Creator to sup- ply the vast waste of his combustion, we now proceed to the last part of our prospectus, namely, the dissolu- tion of our globe, with the possible changes which the [jresent state of our knowledge would lead us to pre- sume would be the result of it. DISSOLUTION OF OUR GLOBE. By the authority of Scripture, we are informed, that the globe we inhabit is doomed to dissolution by the element of fire. We cannot, indeed, presume to say that the nature of this conflagration shall be the same, and be governed by the same laws as those which take place at present, but judging from the hitherto immu- table nature of those laws, we shall proceed to consider the principal changes which, according to them, would take place at this general conflagration. There are, indeed, many parts in the external and internal pheno- mena of the earth, which subject it continually to change and decomposition. The probable effects also, of its continual motion in the heavens, and the possible contact of other heavenly bodies, perhaps igneous, ap- pear to confirm the destiny recorded in the Scriptures. The late discoveries however, in pneumatic chemis- try, have proved to us, that what had hitherto been considered as destruction by fire, is only a change, or decomposition of the various combustible bodies, in- to the elements of which they are composed. A great proportion of the vegetable world is found to be reduc- ed by combustion, into elastic vapour called gases ; and it is not improbable, (at least if we assent to the facts stated by, an 1 the opinion of, professor Chaptal, which I have before mentioned, on the productions of the Hi ■"■'■• 'I (I Ml I in,,! ■ i t'- H 90 •■at i vegetative pioccss ; and also, the still higher authority of professor Linneeas, quoted above, whereby irany of the primary earths and metals are proved to be the p-o- ducts of vegetation,) that the various earths and metals, and their combinations, may hereafter be found to con- sist of compounds of the buses of the gases of oxygen, hydrogen and azote. In the foregoing system of creation, I have stated that lead is found to gain an accession of weight by oxydation of nearly ten pounds in one hundred pounds, by the absorption of oxygen from the atmosphere. This oxygen must therefore exist in the oxyd, in a solid state. Pit-coal and pot-ash are found also to contain oxygen and hydrogen in the same state, and the Schisti or slate mountains are also said to have been composed by the decomposition of vegetables, which are prima- rily composed of these gases ; and these schisti, there- fore, in part, consist of solid oxygen, &c. In fine, from these facts, and many others stated in the forego- ing pages, we have, in the theory of creation, come to the conclusion that the processes of vegetation and of animalization were the machinery chosen by the First Cause for the gradual production of all the geological bodies of which our earth is composed. Now, the marine vegetables of the waters or ocean of Genesis, can have imbibed their nourishment only from these waters and the air imbibed by them, and must have had the power conferred on their natures to de- compose these waters, and to re-compose by the pro- cess of vegetation (as we find to be the case in terres- trial vegetables) a vast variety of new productions, all of which, however dense, must have possessed the con- stituent elements of water and air, oxygen, hydrogen and azote, for their final elements. m 91 The depositions then of the marine vegetable world, having formed a certain and a very great proportion of the geological bodies of the earth, the remainder of them we have conceived to have been formed by the depositions and labours of the marine animals. The habitations or shells of these, we have shewn in various parts of the foregoing theory, to compose a considera- ble portion of the earth ; and the vast generations of these animals, after their decay and decomposition, have, no doubt, according to their affinities and gravities by their deposition, formed or entered into the structure of the remaining geological products. In the course of our theory, we have endeavoured to shew, that the vast chalk and lime stone formations of the earth, may also have been the result of the de- composition or disintegration of these marine shells. — On this subject, we have to add one observation ; bear- ing considerably on our present object, namely, the ^nal elements of the geological bodies. It is, that chalk and lime stone, being carbonates of lime, must also, therefore, consist of a great proportion of oxygen in a solid state, their carbonic acid being compounded of oxygen and carbon. Lime itself, also has afforded Sir H. Davy a metallic button ; it is therefore an oxyd, and contains oxygen ii the same solid state. Dr. Buckland, in his late Bridgewater Treatise, states, that lime stone and some other rocks are, in great part, composed of the remains of certain fossile animalculse. CSee Note 5th to 2d Edition. J The marine animals, again, of the waters of Genesis, whether they derived their nutrition directly from those waters, or from the plants contained in them, or both, must finally have been composed of the constituent I 'Pi .4% t .'■i'l ;\ , * ' \^ 1 li / ■ ' '-i ^ ^ |« ^ %: fc ' ,-'^^ V^k :'n \ 'v)< IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1/ /¥r % :a 'U. (A ^ .6> 1.0 I.I 1.25 125 1^ 12.8 |50 ""^ : 2.0 Its IM 1.8 U 116 V Photographic ^Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 1 4580 (71«) 872-4503 \ iV '^ <> ^ V ^ t cS^ V 4^ ^ ^ .^^. 92 elements of water, the only mode of nutrition of these plants. But it is possible, and even probable, that the marine animals had the power of decomposing the im- bibed air of the atmosphere, by which they would ob- tain another elementary principle, Azote,* This is an jeriform substance, which is always found to be pro- duced by the remains of terrestrial, and, no doubt, marine animals also. ^ Thus we are led to conclude the final elements of all geological bodies, and of the marine plants and ani- mals of the ocean, and of the vegetable and animal productions of the earth to have been aborigine^ Oxy- gen, Hydrogen, Azote, Heat, and, perhaps. Light and Electricity ; and thai the immense variety of proportions of these, blended together by the vital principle, con- stitutes the distinctive characters of those bodies. Now, in the event of the dissolution of the Globe by fire, the consequence would be, (as combustion is known to be nothing but the extrication of light and caloric, by the decomposition of the oxygen gas of the atmos- phere, and thi subsequent absorption of its oxygen by the combustible body,) that the elements of all com- bustible bodies would enter into new combinations. — The waters of the oceans, if not directly decomposed by this vast combustion, but, merely evaporated, would probably collect together, be finally con- densed into water, be attracted together into vast bodies, and form a part of an oceanic globe, which must obey the laws of gravitation and motion, and might thus form a part of the matrix of a future planet. On the contrary, should the watery vapours of our * Atmospheric air is always decomposed in the lungs of terres- trial animals. 93 earth and ocean be drawn into the conflagration at this dissolution, and be decomposed by the intensity of its heat and the contact of the combustible bodies, which is indeed probable; these vapours would thereby be re- solved into their primary elements, oxygen and hydro- gen, in the state of gases ; and the vegetable and animal creation would, also, be decomposed into these ga^es and the azotic and carbonic gas. The earthy, mineral, and metallic substances of the globe, many of which we have shewn in the foregoing pages of our theory, to contain an abundant quantity of these gases in a solid state, would be partly decom- posed into these primary elements, and the remaining more indestructible parts, if not decomposed by tlie heat of the conflagration, would be resolved by it into vapours ; for we have found, as before stated, that even by the comparatively small degrees of heat which the art of man has discovered, the diamond, and some of the perfect metals, have been resolved into such va- pours ; and, allowing even that these metallic, earthy, or mineral vapours, should not be decomposed into their final elements, even by the heat of the conflagration, they must, after the combustion, be collected into vast bodies, mix with the other gases resulting from the decompositions above stated, and, probably, by the agency of chemical affinity, And their decomposition effected by these gases ; or, otherwise, their decompo- sition into the primary elements of oxygen, hydrogen, and azote, may be Anally effected by the electric fluid' Thus, although it may be the design of Providence to put a flnal period to the present state of existence of our globe ; yet, as the primary elements of which we have conceived it to be composed, are indestructible at .n 94 least in the present state of our knowledge, these ele- ments must unite to form the materials of a new mode of existence ; unless, indeed, counteracted by the divine ordinances, by which these very elements themselves should be annihilated. Now that this globe is destined to dissolution as 1 have already mentioned, is probable, from many facts in its internal and external phenomena. But its pit coal, sulphureous and nitrous combinations, the inflammable and other gases it produces, and the tendency of these to produce earthquakes and vol- canoes, may not operate sufficiently deep in the earth to produce its total dissolution. This is, indeed, more likely to arise, from its various motions in the heavens, and the possible contact of igneous bodies, as comets, &c. We do not mean to imply by this that the earth is in danger from comets in its annual course round its orbit, the chances of such dangers being very small. All we imply is, that the dissolution foretold in scrip- ture will be more probably brought about by means of a comet than any internal cause .in the earth, and it may form a part of the design of the Creator, that the heavenly bodies should thus be subject to continued changes ; yet, does it not appear consistent with the unceasiug evidences we have of His benevolence, to suppose, these changes are not to destroy the final ele- ments of His creation ; but to produce higher and bet- ter states of existence by their instrumentality ? Assuming, therefore, that the conflagration we are considering, shall have finally decomposed and resolved by combustion, and the power of mutual affinity, or by the electric fluid, all parts of the earth and oceans, into the primary elements oxygen, hydrogen and azote, or 95 leae ele- vr mode le divine jmselves on as I iny facts inations, ;es, and and vol- earth to d, more heavens, \ comets, i earth is 'ound its ry small, in scrip- eansof a d it may that the 3ntinued with the ence, to inal ele- and bet- we are resolved y, or by ms, into jzote, or otlier elements, we have now to consider how these elements would re-combine to form other heavenly bo- dies. These primary elements, having been drawn to- gether by the laws of affinity or attraction, would pro- bably be soon ignited and brought into combustion by the electric fluid, or the light and heat of the general conflagration. The hydrogen gas would then unite with the oxygen of the oxygen gas, whose light and heat, or caloric, would be set free, and the formation of watery vapours would ensue. These condensing in the course of time, (for it is probable the light and heat of the conflagration would, by laws of its gravity, find its way to the higher regions of infinite space) would form an oceanic globe, which, also, in obedience to the same laws of gravity and attraction, would be attracted or driven, according to our theory, round its central Sun ; and being endowed by the pow- erful and benevolent ordination of the Frst Cause, with the mo!ats, fires 13 nnder- city. In after the 103 perusal of the latest works on geology, to vary from the theory of Creation, I now venture to present. On the contrary, I Hnd several uf tiie German Geologiiiti have adopted the t>ame opinion, namely, " tiiat vegetable and animal life have been the cause of the production of the solid portion of the Earth." The eminent Geo- logist Hutton was of the same opinion. I therefore, must adhere to the opinion I have stated, in the 11th Note, that the discoveries of the marine or- ganic remains, will be satisfactorily explained by this theory, and the necessity precluded of supposing the earth more ancient, since the separation of the waters, than by the Mosaic account ; and I now conclude this note, with an observation from Sharon Turner's '* Sa» cred History of the World." Therefore, (he says.) "it appears to me most probable, that whenever the right theory of the fabrication of the earth, and the era and succession of its organized beings, shall be discovered, it will be found to be compatible with the Mosaic cos- mogony, in its most natural signification." Happy should I be, if the theory I am now present- ing to the world, should, in its estimation, be found to approximate to this description. The late discoveries in geology of Baron Cuvier, Lyell, and Buckland and others, as they comprise not more than a few miles of the depth of the earth, (being a mere fractional part of its diameter) do not in the least invalidate the theory I have formed, which com- prises the entire of that diameter. I, however, repeat and extend here, the observations I have made already in these notes. Firsti that Baron Cuvier, in his computation of the distance of time, namely, 5 or 6,000 years, (at which he »";..: V t: 104 l£4 -•.y 'I w places the date of his revolution as the result,) does not state by what comparison or scale he arrived at his de- cision ; and it is difBcult to conceive any scale he could have had, except a known quantity or depth of deposi- tion from rivers or lakes, in a given time. If this, however, be the source on which he has founded his computation, I cannot but consider it a very insufficient one. The power of deposition of lakes or rivers could no more be compared to the quantum of that power^ possessed by the waters of a deluge, or by the primeval oceans, than the currents of those rivers or lakes could be, to the almost, inconceivable force of the waters of a deluge overwhelming a great part of the earth, which must have been the case when the waters of Genesis 9th verse were gathering together. I should therefore humbly suggest the query whether the period, at which these fossil remains of the bones of terrestrial animals were deposited, may ascend no high- er than|the time of the Deluge of Noah ; and whether the circumstance of no human bones being found in the par- ticular place of these discoveries, has been owing to those parts not being then inhabited by our species. Or ; secondly, allowing him to be correct as to the period of 5 or 6000 years, at which he dates his revo- lution, and which, as he says, " has buried and caused to disappear the countries formerly inhabited by man, and the species of animals now most known, that, con^ trariwise, it has left the bottom of the former sea drv, and has formed on it the countries now inhabited." I would ask, is not this period, which agrees very nearly with the time of the separation of the waters by the Mosaic account, equally well accounted for by that separation, and; therefore, instead of the countries for- 105 oes not his de- e could deposi- If this, ded his jfficient s could power^ irimeval s could aters of t, which Genesis whether jones of 10 high- her the he par- king to cies. to the s revo- caused y man, it, cori' sea dry, ed." 'l r nearly i by the by that ries ibr- merk 'ohabited by man " having been then buried and cau8v,d to disappear," shall we not rather say, that the Earth was then separated from the seas in which it had according to our Theory of Creation, been formed, and that soon after this period of the separation, Man was created, -v. < , -,■?:■! .^- • .:■; ■ --,. >v„- i. ..•■':■■- This Theory will also account equally for the pre- sent appearance of those marine deposits and organic remains now found at the greatest depths of the Earth to which mankind have yet penetrated. All tliese ma- rine exuviae and organic remains, and the strata undtr which they are deposiited, are satisfactorily accounted tor by the construction of the 1st verse of Genesis we have formed, as the basis of the Theory of the foregoing Treatise; and which construction has since been sanc- tioned by the eminent Geologists and writers already specified. - I have only to add some observations on the Review of Lyell*s Principles of Geology, of April 1835, on the subject of the antiquity of Mount ^Etna. " It is thus," it is said, " that volcanic form^,tions confirm thf evidence afforded by the sedimentary strata of the im- mense antiquity and lengthened duration of even the most recent geological aeras." But is it not probable that the eruptions of -^tna were much more frequent for ages after the time of its first eruption than what they have been since ? Is it not probable the causes which produced that first eruption have since been greatly diminished by the numerous flowings of lava : according to the force of the cause, so must have been the number and frequency of those eruptions, and their frequency at first cannot be estimated by the eruptions which have happened in our times. The age of thi« 5s 106 mountain may, therefore, be very far lest than a com* putation formed on the frequency or deposits of its lato eruptions would make it. The eruptions, also, may have begun for ages before the mountain emerged from the waters of Genesis, and these sub-aqueous eruptions been deposited belbre the st^paration of those waters. Note 3. — It remains now to offer some observations on the Salt formations of the Eartii. These formations offer strong evidence of our Theo- ry of the waters of Genesis. This salt, occasionally called conimo'i salt, sea salt, or marine salt, is entirely a creature of the ocean ; no terrestial vegetable that I know of has ever produced it, except when growing nigh the salt water. These vast formations, found in various parts of the Earth, must have unquestionably originated, from saline waters; and one way, in which the separation of the salt from the water which held it in solution, may be accounted for is, that parts of these seas have been swallowed up by earthquakes or volcanoes, and their water exsiccated by internal fires ; or, that these parts of the seas have, by some revolution, been separated, and not being replenished by any rivers, have been gradually dried up by the Sun. But, I should suppose the quantity of salt produced by these accidental causes, would not, nigh, amount to the vast salt formations of our Ea/th. Some intention- al operation of Providence is more likely to have been the cause of producing an article bO indispensible for the use of man ; and, I therefore conceive, it is more probable that these formations have derived their origin from the decomposition of vast depositions of the marine plants of the waters of Genesis. These must have 107 1 a com- >f its late Iso, may ^ed from eruptions Q waters. *rvations ir Theo- asionally entirely lie that I growing ts of the >m saline n of the may be ve been knd their 3se parts parated, ve been roduced lount to tention- ve been sible for is more ir origin s marine ist have contained this salt in abundance, as do the marine plants of our seas ; and the other products of their decomposition Iiave united, according to their afHuitief, to form other Geological bodies. Thetie marine plants must have contained Sodium ; and the Murine Acid, to form the ^oa salt, has probably been produced by the decomposition of sea water, as hydrogen is said to be ttie bu^is of that acid. Sodium has the property of decomposing water, and according to Good, in his Book of Nature, " the gills of fish have it also." Or, if we adopt the analysis of sea salt by Sir H. Davy, the chlorine, (being entirely a produce of the ocean,) has entcreti into combination with the So- dium to form the chloride of it. Note 4. — It seems, indeed, almost impossible (sup- posing for a moment the idea of Button as to the origin of our earth,) was correct to conjecture by what means its waters could have been subsequently obtained. A body of molten glass would, necessarily, assume a spherical form in the heavens ; and it seems not proba- ble or possible that such vast cavities as the beds of the seas or oceans could have been formed on it by its motions. Again, vitreous substances do not contain the ele- ments that produce earthquakes and volcanoes. Hydro- gen or inflammable gas is probably required for that eilect, which is not contained in glass ; therefore, the vast cavities of the ocean could not arise from internal commotions; but, even allowing them to have been produced by some unknown cause, how is the origin of the waters to be come at ? Water is, I believe, some- times generated in our atmosphere by the combustion of hydrogen ; but this is a mere drop in the ocean com- i\ 108 pared to the general cause that produces our rain<. In fact, it could not, consistently with the safety of the productions of the Earth, or even of their embryos at the time of their formation, have been made a gene- ral law for the purpose of producing the waters of the oceans. On the other hand, the system of the formation of the Earth, from waters generated by combustion, ap- pears to be a more natural and satisfactory solution of the phenomena of creation. These waters formed and endowed, as we must con ceive, according to the design of the Creator, with the most prolific powers of generating plants and animals, produced gradually sufficient deposits to form the earth. I have stated in Note 1, that a single herring, unmo- lested for twenty years, would, as it has been computed, produce ten of our globes ; and, allowing it to produce only one globe, what must the depositions of all the vegetables and animals of the waters of Genesis amount to ? In fact, on a consideration of the probable pow- ers of deposition of these waters, and of the small proportion the known parts of the land bears to our oceans, we might be inclined to conjecture that there may be vast tracts of land on the Globe yet undiscover- ed, and it is remarkable that this idea is now verified by the discovery of an antarctic continent.* * Our readers are aware, that Captain Ross, of the British Navy is on a voyage of discovery to the South Sea. From extracts, from his journals, published in some English papers, it seems that he has reached lat. 78^^. 8'. South ; and that he has discovered what he has called, South Victoria Land, extending from latitude 70J°. to 79. and how much further is unknov/n. Its Eastern coast lies between the 163d. and 171st. degrees of long. It was girt with a barrier of ice many miles in breadth, which rendered it in- aoeessible, the ice being in some parts 150 feet high. He repre. 109 rain -I. — ty of the embryos i a gene- rs of the lation of ion, ap- ution of lust con with the animals, he earth. J, unmo- >mputed, produce f all the amount ale pow- le small to our at there liscover- verified itish Navy extracts, eems that discovered m latitude stem coast t was girt iered it in- He repre. Note 5* It may be observed further respecting this resistance of the seriform media of our theory, that, as our sy^item itself, and I believe also the fixed stars, are allowed by Astronomers to have some progressive mo- tion, and which must be owing to the principle of at- traction towards some centre ; therefore, the resisting aeriform media must move the same way also in their courses towards the Sun, having thus two motions ; they must be thus attracted towards the same centre as our system is said to be ; the resistance they give to the Earth and Planets in their rectilinear motion, though it may thereby diminish the velocity of that mo- tion, yet it cannot **■ destroy it,'* these aBriform media being themselves under the influence of the same attrac- tion towards an unknown centre. — (See Note 8 in confirmation of this.) This idea of a general motion of our system, and of the fixed Stars, will be found in the work I have so often quoted, " Paley's Natural Theology.'* He states, if I rightly remember, " that the fixed Stars have cer- tainly small motions," and considers them to be attract- ed to a centre ; and if this be really founded in fact, it certainly ofiers one of the grandest ideas of the Deity the mind of man can conceive, namely, that if all the Systems of the Heavenly Bodies thus move round one common unknown centre, may we not conceive that centre to be the Empyreal Throne of God men- tioned in the 4th chapter of Revelations, from whence He bnholds continually, the immense opera- tions of His hands, performing their revolutions roond Him ? sents the land as rising in peaks from 9,000 to 12,000 feet high perfectly covered with snow. He saw various volcanoes.— 2V«s^ fcrtf t, March 19, 1842. m 'M '^ I : '♦ li I!;;-. 110 ^ The above idea of universal attraction also offers ano- ther vary important one, of the cause of the Projectile Force or rectilinear motion of the Planets of our sys- tem, namely, that this universal attraction to a common centre IS that cause. . r ! .. . Since writing this Note I have seen the substance of the second paragraph confirmed by the eloquent dis- courses of Dr. Chalmers, lately published, on the Christ- ian Revelation, in connection with the Modern As- tronomy. Note 6. The reasoning in this work, in pages 96 and 97) in grounded on the idea, that the entire substance of man, including the soul, is not destined to perish with the material substances of the globe. On that idea I have supposed, that the corporeal parts of his frame, may be, by some arrangement of the Deity, reunited with the soul or intelligent part ; but should the future state of existence be one altogether spiritual, the con- stituent elements of the body, may then, perhaps, enter into indiscriminate combinations with other matter ; all I wish to infer from the reasoning offered on this subject is, that the intelligent spirit or soul of man is ifidestructible. Note 7. I wish, now, to call the reader's attention to the ingenious and profound researches of Mr. Cuvier in Geology. It appears that as the result of these re- searches, he comes to the conclusion, "that if anything be proved by the geology of the Earth, it is, that a great revolution took place on it from 5 \o 6,000 years ago," antecedent too, to the existence of man on those parts at least, of the Earth, for he is said to have proved, that no vestige or organic remains of the human spe- cies have ever been discovered, among the remains of ers ano- rojectile [>ur sys- 2ominon tance of lent dis- j Christ em As- » 96 and stance of with the Ei I have me, may ted with J future the con- [)s, enter matter ; on this man is ittention '. Cuvier hese re- inything it a great irs ago," )se parts proved, nan spe- nains of 111 the other animab found among the strata or deposits ht treats of. The period at which he states, this revolution io have taken place, agrees very nearly with the Scriptu- ral account of the separation of the waters of Genesis. We know, therefore, that man did not then exist. We have, in concurrence of the opinion of this great revolu- tion, Plato's account of his Atalanta, supposed to be the extent now covered by the Atlantic ocean, which, according to Plato's opinion, was formerly hX'yfl'^' i'-< i I ("•". dry land. That it is possible such revolutions may have taken place since the Creation, is not to be doubted. The oceans may, in the course of time, have worn away those boundaries that have prevented their over- flowing extensive tracts of the Earth, or the power of earthquakes, or volcanic fire may have produced a disruption and carried away the barriers of the ocean. It is, however, to be observed, that it is singular this opinion of Cuvier's is not supported by any ac- count in the Scriptures. Had such a great convulsion taken place soon after the Creation, is it not probable some oral tradition would have reached the time of Moses, or other Scriptural writers, just as we have handed down to us the account of the deluge of Noah? ■, '>■■■•■■■■:■ - • 'i>!;v !t:>^ 'oit "f* ^'"'' ' '"• . '■■J>.iv::si«v- i f* in It were to be wished, therefore, that this eminent Geo- logist had turned his attention to the waters of Genesis ; as, I cannot but think, he would have therein found a more plain and easy solution of the phenomena he has so ably developed. The few miles of strata containing the remains on which he treats would, probably, haVe been deposited by these waters in a very limited period. wecn y$( r thoae » he had if lime, > geolo- rinution, believe deliver- ^ that he account iMion of ne such rth was eovered ir« after i said in account can re- e prov- umatics Kistence ithenti- gives us of this IS very . The »ts of a i. known thiokneaa would avail him nothing, as thrir power of deposition could not be compared to that of such a deluge. May it not, therefore, be possible that the revolution he refers to, may have been that of the deluge of Noah in parts of the earth not inhabited by the human species ? Note 8. It is Muid, indeed, by philosophers, that a body once put in motion, if all the resistance to it were taken away, would continue to move in its course for ever ; that is a caHf«, however, which never can be proved by actual experiment, and it must rest solely on the opinion or arguments of those philosophers. If, however, tlie above supposition of perpetual mo- tion of bodies moving in a vacuum be founded in nature, and that the heavenly bodies are made to move in a vacuum, to obtain the object of perpetual motion, we may, in addition to what wc have observed in Note 5, on the sul)ject of universal attraction to an unknown centre, remark, that this universal attraction, (suppos- ing our theory of the regions of space being filled with aeriform media to be correct) may be the cause which prevents the diminution of the projectile force in the courses of those heavenly bodies through those aeriform media. Note 9. It is true, that only some f the earths and none of the metals have yet been {? cji -osed, and are therefore considered as simple suN lances. Carbon, however, which would appear to be the chief solidify- ing principk of the vegetative process, is well known to be susceptible of receiving the gaseous state by com- bination with oxygen into carbonic acid gas. If any method should ever be discovered of separating the oxygen from this carbonic acid gas, the carbon would be Kl 'n\ ( y Ill /ound ngtiiti ill its^oliii stuto.* Ciilorine gafl alno, wlu^ti united witli liydi'o;;:*'!) by cungclation, is found by a l;ii«* discovery to ushiiiiio tlu; Holid state, in the slmpe ot chryataU more tiniii oiik inch lon^. Tliis modern ex- periment is of gnsit importance, ao it proves that two gaseous l>odies (mii, by their combination, form a Hoiid one.f As I liavc ()lt,<^n repeated, also, in the body of this work, and in these Notes, all the metallic oxyds and several of tiie earths and alkalies nmst contain a great quantity of oxygi »i in a w/tV/ state. The most dense nature of bodies, therefore, is no proof that they may not be composed of jerlform sub- stance; and a vast and most important field of discovijry is, probably, yet reserved for pneumatic chemistry, namely, the separation of the gases from the calorie, and the light which retains them in that form, and the obtaining their bases in. (he solid state. As a proof of the vast importance of such a discovery., we now suggest, that the nutritive parts of the vegetable and animal kingdom must be composed (if our theory in the fore- going work b(; well founileil,) of the solid bases of those gases ; the discovery, therefore, of obtaining these bases separated from tlunr heat and light, may possibly offer a mode of forming nutritive matter not yet known to mankind. Note 10. — Thus, bv our construction of the 1st vers( of Genesis, it would ai)pear that the present actual state of the geological bodies, their frequent chrystailization * This! has bicti doju; l)y tlio action of potassium on carboiui acid gas. t Carbonic acid {ja^ has lately been condensed by the pros- of a certain nutniier of i»luios|(lieres into a solid body. lire 115 And their {(miiiml ilcpoHitioiiH in titrutu and lainiiiae, f.dii b(! rcconi^ilcd to llio Scriptural uouuuiit. Tliut «:iiry!}tiiiii/.;iti(>ii and tliKNi; Mtratu and laiuinu; inuHt ac- •jording to the rvitlfnoc of our nenHCM, havo n-quired niiniurouH ag<>4 lor their t'urniation and deposition. By # tiie supposition that the time of the Int verHe wan ante- oedent to tiiii ni\ dayn of the Heparution, the time ne- fpiired for thcMc dcpooitions m obtained, and they nre satisfactorily ac(;ounted for ; and aluo their having liie appeururice of gradual depoHition which tiiey pre- sent to us. Ah it woidd appear, tiierefore, that the Creator has forme 1 the Karth by these natural laws we find every where estabiisiu'd, we Hhail now with humility suggest, that tlie true meaning of the ith commandment is that in six dayt) the \ And prepared the L^arth, for the use of its inliabitants. Note 11. — Having just now obtained a sight of the liito publication of Lord Hrougham of last year, 1835, I here subjoin an extract from it, describing the late tliscoveries of Fossil remains by Cuvitjr, Bucicland and otiier Geologists, to which I add some observalionrt bearing on the relation of tliese facts to our theory of Oeation. In pfactorily shewn, that it inhabited the neighbourhood, and must have been sud- denly exterminated by drowning. His researches have been conducted by experiments with living animals, as well &s by observations on the 'bssil remains." I have now to observe ; that it is to be regretted the geographical position of these discoveries is not men- tioned by his Lordship. If they had been found in tha «< 117 Ticioity of the countries inhabited before the Flood, by Noah or his ancestors, it is singular that no oral or written tradition is given (at least that I am aware of) by Noah or hid descendant!*, of thiti convulsion before the Flood. " We reuch a period," says his Lordtthip, ** when all was water and slime and mud, and tlie waste, without either man or plants gave resting place to enor- mous beasts, &c. " If this period of time, therefore, is to be supposed as having been between the Creation and the Flood, it must probably have taken place in a part of the world very remote from the country inhabi- ted by Adam or his descendants, before the Flood ; and if there were, as is stated, " no plants" growing in these resting places for these ** enormous beasts like lions and elephants and river horses," whence did they get their subsistence ? If no subsistence were prepared for them in these resting places in the land, is it not probable these *' enormous beasts" may have been marine or amphibious ? I must, therefore, say, that the cir- cumstance of there being no tradition handed down to us by Noah or his descendants, of so great an event as this convulsion, coupled with the fact, admitted by the Geologists who have narrated these discoveries, that ** no plants" are found to have existed in these " resting places," for the nutriment of these enormous beasts ; (for allowing them to be animals of prey, the animals they devoured must have had means of sustenance from the productions of the earth,) therefore these two cir- cumstances, would seem to warrant the opinion that these skeletons or organic remains, are those of marine animals, which had been deposited at their death more or less below the present surface of the earth from the waters of Gepesis, (according to our theory of Creation) m 118 before the time or the separation of the waters, as re- corded ia the first chapter and ninth verse of Genesis, when God said, " let the waters under the Heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land t.' in" A ■..■a«'' appear ; and it was so." As to the flying serpents, by the account itself, they appear to have been marine inhabitants of the waters ; and for the same reason that applies to the ** enormous beasts," that " no plants" have been found in those rest- ing places ; so the '' birds" mentioned in the above account must, probably, have been marine or aquatic also, and have existed as above stated before the sepa- ration of the waters at the six days of the creation. ' There are, therefore, three facts taken from the state- ments and discoveries of Dr. Buckland and the other modern Geologists, which come in support of the idea, mentioned above, that the "organic remains were those of marine animals which had been deposited at their death more or less below the present surface of the Earth, from the waters of Genesis, before the time of the se- paration of the wateas, as there recorded. The first fact is, that we have no tradition from Noah or his descendants of this great convulsion of Nature, which is said by these Geologists to have taken plac? before the Flood. The second fact is, that by the accounts of thesd Geologists, no organic remains of the body of man have been found with those of other animals. The third fact is, that no remains of any plants have been found among those other remains. - On the first fact we shall observe, that it is remarka- ble the time stated by Cuvier when this " convulsion" so. 1X9 took place, agrees very nearly with the time of the sepa- ration of the land from the waters recorded in Genesis* namely, between 5 and 6,000 year's ago. The effects of this convulsion of the Geologists we may suppose to have been general over the greatest part of the Earth ; there- fore, had it taken place since the Cieation, is it not equally probable so great an event would have been handed down to us by tradition, as that of the universal Deluge has been ? On this fact I have further to observe, that if we consider this convulsion to have taken place previous to, or rather at the time of the separation of the waters, we shall probably find it much more easily accounted for, because the 9th verse of 1st chap, of Genesis says, " And God said, Let the waters under the Heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear ; and it was so." :■. :: '■■ ^. ,.■,:..-. '^ - Now, the effects of the Deluge in the time of Noah are, I believe, generally allowed to have made great changes on the face of the Earth. The effects even of common inundations which have taken place and been recorded in history, have also had the same visible effects. Is it not therefore probable that the effects of the mighty rush of waters from, over, and all round the Earth at the time of the separation, must have had a corresponding greater effect, and produced the convulsion described by the Geologists as having taken place 5 or 6,000 years ago ; and is not this effect the more likely, from the circumstance that the land, must at that period, have been in a soft and humid state, pro- bably for a considerable depth below its surface ? On the second fact I observe, that the circumstance of no organic remains of the human species being dis- ♦ i.-f.: rm . I'f-M 'mi m 120 covered among the other fossil remains, will be com- pletely accounted for b\* supposing, as above stated, that the *' convulsion took place at the time of the separation of the waters of Genesis," since man was not as yH created. ■::•.■■::-- —■•;■; -■,.;/;■ :\ -'M The third fact, " that no remains of plants have been found," appears to me almost confirmative of the above suppositions, that these organic remains were produc- ed before the separation, and deposited from the waters of Genesis ; since, had this convulsion happened since that separation, and these organic remains been in existence on the land, there must have b^en plants growing for their nourishment; and moreover, it is stated bv Dr. Buckland, in his account of these remains (as may be seen in the Quarterly Review of April, 1836,) that the far greater part of the organic fossil remains of the secondary formations are marine. The remains of terrestrial quadrupeds or other terrestrial species have of course been formed since the separation. I cannot, therefore, but be of opinion, that the geologi- cal facts described by the modern Geologists, at least as respects marine remains, will be more satisfactorily ex- plained by the theory we have endeavoured to establish in the foregoing Treatise. That the necessity of sup- posing that the Earth, since the separation, is more ancient than is stated bv the Mosaic account, will be thus avoided, and that this Mosaic account can be thus maintained in its integrity ; and I am glad to observe that Dr. Buckland has acceded to our construction ef the Ist verse of Genesis, adopted by Dr. Pusey and others, as will be seen by the extract in the preface to this work. To conclude, whether this other great convulsion of 121 nature were really one that took place since the Crea- tion, and produced the overflow of an extent of country, formerly inhabited by the animals above described, and which has, since then, become dry land again ; whether, I say, such a convulsion has teken place since the Crea- tion or before it, does not affect the validity of the Theory of Creation which is now offered to the world ; for this theory embraces the primeval formation of the entire circumference and diameter of the Earthy and is, therefore, antecedent to any partial convulsion that may have, since that formation, taken place. I now conclude this Note with a few observations in support of the formation of the Geological bodies in the pr..iieval oceans, drawn froin the depositions of matter and consequent formations of land which must be continually taking place in our present seas. In the space of two or three miles in the harbor of Halifax, N.S., I have seen thousands of cart loads of kelp, or sea weed, collected from the shore in a season, and it is probably thrown up in the same quantities all along the coast of America. In Scotland, great quantities are burned, to extract its saline matter; as also in Spain and Portugal* What must be the quantity therefore, that annually decays and is deposited at the bottom of the Oceans I In addi- tion to this are the immense formations of Coral beds. In the Pacific Ocean the Coral Islanu. are 1500 miles long by 60 or 70 broad, formed by various species of insects called Coral Insects or madrepores. (See end of Note My pages 108, 109.) To these Coral formations may be added the still more immense depositions of shells, and different ani- i 122 / mals of the seas. These depositions are probably con- glomerated by the sand and eartliy particles brought down by the rivers, and abraded from coasts by the tides and storms. — These masses must be continually augmenting, and in due course of time will greatly en- large the proportion of land. The waters of our oceans and seas (for a vast quantity is constantly consumed ill the nourishment of the marine plants) must, on the other hand, be continually diminishing ; and although, if I recollect aright. Dr. Paley states, in his "Evidences of Natural Religion," that all the evaporations return by the rains ; I think it is easy to prove that not to be the case ; for an immense proportion of the rains is con- sumed in the nourishment of terrestrial vegetables, and by animal life ; a large proportion of vapour is also dissolved by the air, and probably decomposed by the electric fluid into its gases. Must not this continual in- crease of land and diminution of the waters of the Earth, in the course of sufficient ages, greatly alter its specific gravity ? What effect this may have on the earth's relative attraction with the other hea- venly bodies, I leave to astronomers to determine. But it is, I conceive, possible, that a change in the degree of its attraction may be the means by which the dissolution foretold in the Scriptures may be ultimately brought to pass ; and it may be also pos- sible that the design of a Benevolent Creator, in mak- ing the proportion of water so much greater than the land, has been, to retard this dissolution for numerous ages. If, therefore, our present seas do continually tend to the formation of land by the decay and deposition of their productions ; if the natural effects of the laws of con- )ught Y the lually y eii- )ceans lumed )n the lOUgh, dences return t to be is con- itables, is also by the lual in- of the ly alter y have ler hea- erraine. in the ans by es may so pos- n mak- han the imerous tend to sition of laws of 123 nature have led liia to form a just conception, that the Creator may have chosen the means stated in the fore- going ^hei y by which to form our Earth, we may be certain those means were made competent to that end, and it is therefore probable, vegetable and animal life were diffused in far greater abundance in the^e primeval waters than in our present Oceans. The processes of vegetation and of animalization, therefore, we have assumed from the facts and geologi- cal appearances stated in the foregoing work to have been the means or machinery employed by the Creator from the " beginning" to produce the land o^^ ar Earth, and by analogy the land in the other planets of our system. They have probably been thus produced and continued for a long period, in a soft and humid state, and numerous changes and decompositions have since taken place in them by the effects of the internal heats and fires they have generated. To these causes, per- haps, may be imputed the earthquakes, volcanoes, and disruptions which have produced such inequalities in the surface, and to these internal fires I conceive it may also be ascribed, that the oldest of these rocks have no appearance of stratification nor organic remains, they have probably lost the stratified state by the effects of those fires, or by the power of the electric fluid. Note 12. It may, perhaps, be objected to the idea of hydrogen, or other inflammable gases, existing in the regions between the planets, to serve as fuel iTor the Sun's waste of light and heat, that such inflammable gases, would, by taking fire, from the electric fluid, endanger the safety of these planets. It is, however, I believe, allowed, that electricity per- vades all nature, and a vast quantity of hydro- i.iij iilril 4 •tW ] * 9 124 gen gas inu»t be constantly exhaling in the deocmpost- tion of vegetables and animals ; yet, no such effect is produced. In fact, lightning is never produced, that I am aware of, in our atmosphere, but from clouds. — Mobture seems, therefore, indispensable for that end, and the hydrogen gas, being thirteen times lighter than common air, must ascend far above the atmosphere. {See p, 83, Sd edition, Theory of the Sun's Formation.) Note 13. By the experiments of celebrated chemists, and more particularly by the authority of Linneeus, we trust to have proved a considerable number of the pri- mary earths and metals to have been formed by the vegetative piocess of terrestrial vegetables. But, con> ceiving, according to the theory in the foregoing trea- tise, that it was the design of the Creator to produce the geological bodies by the instrumentality of the pro- cesses of vegetable and animal life, decay, death, and deposition, we may conceive also, that the marine ve- getables of the universal waters of Genesis were endow- ed with much more various and abundant powers for the production of the geological bodies than we have even found in the terrestrial vegetables. This superior power of production would be necessary to produce the design intended, and the same remark will apply to the marine animals of those waters.* — {See the last para- graph of Note 4.) Note 14. The substances Iodine, Brome, and above all, Silicon, lately discovered, will probably ere long throw much light on the productive powers of marine substances by co^nbustion. Iodine, at the heat of 212 • It is also to be observed, that the animals of the Primeval Ocean were never taken out of it by the hands of men as is done by our fisheries ; which must have greatly increased their accumu. lation. 125 :mpo8i- sffect id y that I [)Ud8. — at end, l:er than )sphere. mation.) hemists, 86 us, we the pri- 1 by the ut, con- ng trea- produce the pro- ath, and rine ve- endow- wers for we have superior duce the ly to the st para- id above ere long marine ,t of 212 3 Primeval as is done )ir accumu- becomes a violet-coloured gas. It forms an active acid by uniting to hydrogen. Brome is a dense iic|uid) aud forms an orange-coloured gas by a gentle heat. Silicon is procured from Silica, or the earth of flint«, by the action of potassium : it appears as a dark fawn- coloured powder, which is inflitmnabte, and which pro- duces Silica, or the ** sandy principle," by combustion. This Silicon has been, in a part of this work, proved to be the offspring jf the vegetative process, li decomposes water and acids. And here, therefore, we have some insight into the means by which Nature has produced all the sands of the earth and the rocks composed of siliceous matter, namely, by the union of the Silicon with the oxygen of the decomposed water, probably after the decoaiposition of the vegetable matter con- taining that Silicon. ■?■■■ - • , ? - . ;^f ^ Sodium, also, a metal lately discovered by Sir H. Davy, is obtained from Soda, the basis of common sea salt. This is, therefore, entirely a marine production. The Sodium is stated by Sir Humphrey to be so very combustible, that when thrown upon water it swims oit its surface, hisses violently, and dissolves; and that Silica, or earth of flints, probably contains two propor- tions of oxygen and one of Silicon. ' As a further proof of the production of siliceous earth, by the process of vegetation, we insert the fol- lowing extract from Sir Humphrey Davy's admirable lectures on agricultural chemistry ; in page 54, he says on the epidermis of plants, " in the reeds, grasses, canes, and the plants having hollow stalks, it is of great use and is exceedingly strong, and in the microscope seems composed of a kind of glassy net work, which is prin- Ll ' «'4 i i II 'ti 126 cipally siliceous earth, and in the rattan, the epidermis contains a sufficient quantity of flint to give light when struck by steel, or two pieces rubbed together produce sparks." It is known, also, that the silicifted seeds of the chara, a plant which grows at the bottom of lakes, abound in the flints of Aurillac in France. In Evans's Agriculture, printed at Montreal, it is said, page 51, " The ashes of stalks of wheat gathered a month before the flowering, and having some of tlie radical leaves withered, contained 12 parts of Silica and 65 of Alkaline salts in 100 prrts. At the period of the wheat flowering, and when most of the leaves were withered, the ashes contained 32 parts of Silica and only 54* of Alkaline salts." Thus, at one period the straw contains 12 parts, and at another 32 parts Silica, and this, just at the time the plant is coming to its full growth. Now, if this Silica had been taken up from the soil by the roots of the plant, it would be ab- sorbed by them in the same quantity at all times, and equally diffnsed through the straw ; but if, as by our theory the vital functions of the vegetable form the Earths just as they require them, the above most sin- gular fact will be thereby accounted for.* Thus it appears that the latest discoveries of the ce- lebrated chemist Sir Humphrey Davy, confirm the ex- istence of the siliceous earth in vegetables. In fine, having had an opportunity of perusing the best and most modern works on the geology of our Earth, I * It is also to be observed, in confirmation of our theory, that, as it generally happens the rains are more abundant in the early parts of the seasons, more Silica would be dissolved by them, tJian at the time of flowering, whereas the above experi. ment proves that nigh three times more Silica is formed in the plants at this period. •X 127 mu^t here state that they serve to confirm my opinion stated in the theory of this work, that the processes of vegetation and animalization in the waters of Genesis, or universal Ocean, are the most highly natural, and reasonable means, by which we can account for the ori- ginal formation of the geological bodies ; and that these having at that origin been deposited in horizontal strata, have since been subjected to innumerable convulsions, elevations, and disruptions by internal fires, or the electric power ; and consequently to great chemi- cal changes in their component parts is beyond a doubt, and which the present appearance of almost every part of the crust of the earth confirms. It is, therefore, probable, that the metallic and mineral geo- logical bodies may be combinations of the principles of vegetable and animal life deposited, as stated in our theory ; which combinations have be^n effected by the fires, or heats of the internal parts of the Earth, and the joint action of chemical afiiinties. In fine, the vegetable and animal kingdoms are already discovered, by analysis, to be reducible to the elementary principles oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, azote, and perhaps heat, light and electricity ; and I think it probable, the mi- neral kingdom will, ere long, exhibit the same result. For who would have believed fifty years since, that from Silica or the earth of flints, a combustible sub- stance would be procured, reproducing Silica or the sandy principle by its combustion, and consequent union with oxygen ? and in fact, all the primary earths are now found to be oxyds containing oxygen as a com- ponent principle in a colid state. Note 15. It is true that Sir H. Davy states, in page 12, of his lecture on " Agricultural Chemistry," that '■ ♦'i| 1 .1 ill 128 V I fhe result of Von Helmont's experiment was shewn to be fallacious ; but that the true use of water was un- known till 1785, when Mr. Cavendish made the discovery, that it was a compound of two elastic gases, inflamnoiable gas or hydrogen, and vital gas or oxygen. Now, although Von Helmont was ignorant of this discovery, the fact he proved is still maintained, that water is the great source of nourishment of plants. In Tain would any of the modern discoveries be brought forth to invalidate this great fact, since the vegetation of every part of the earth demonstrates it. In the thickest and largest forests, in the aboriginal woods of the Earth, no sensible diminution of the soil is observ- able, though under the operation of so vast a vegetation — whence then can the products of it be obtained but from the surrounding elements of water and air ? in fact, Sir Humphrey allows in page 211 of same work, that " when pure water only is absorbed by the roots of plants, the fluid, in passing into the leaves, will probably have greater power to absorb carbonic acid gas from the atmosphefe ; when the water is saturated with carbonic acid gas, some of this substance may be given off by the leaves, but a part of it likewise is air- ways decomposed, which has been proved by the expe- riments of M. Sennebier." Now, Carbon, appears to be the great solidifying principle of vegetables. The other principles are found to be oxygen, hydrogen, and azote, all of v/hich are obtainable by the vegetative process from water and the atmosphere. Accordingly, in pa^fe 259 of the same work. Sir Humphrey states, " It is evident, from the analysis of woody fibre, by M. M. Guay Lussac and Thenard, (which shows that it consists principally of 129 lewn to was un- kde the iC gases, oxygen. : of this ed, that titd. In brought getation In the voods of I observ- igetation ined but r? of same d by the ives, will [lie acid saturated 1 may be ^e ii) aU he expe- )Udifying ire found I'hich are aier and the same from the issac and cipally of the elements o^' wcUer and carbon^ the carbon in larger quantities than in the other vt getable compounds) that any process, &c." Again he says, in page 211," Many plants that grow upon rocks or soils, containing nocar^ bonic matter, can only be supposed to acquire their charcoal from the carbonic acid gas of the atmosphere ; and the leaf may be considered at the same time, as an organ of absorption, and an organ in which the sap may undergo different chemical changes."* I shall here extract from the same work part o^ page 281, relating to the formations of the principles of vegetables by the vegetative process. M. Schrader and Mr. Braconnot, from a series of distinct investigations, have arrived at the same conclusions. They state, that "different seed sown in fine sand, sulphur, and metallic oxyds, and supplied only with atmospheric air and toater, produced healthy plants, which, by analysis, yielded various earthy and saline matters, which either were not contained in the seeds, or the material in which they grew, or which were contained in much smaller quantities in the seed ; and hence they conclude, they must have been formed from air or water, in conse- quence of the agencies of the living organs^ of the plant." These experiments are therefore confirmative of that stated in the work, performed by Yon Helmont on the willow. In p. 282, Sir Humphrey gives an experiment he made with oats to ascertain whether any siliceous earth * Now the carbonic acid gas that is formed in our atmosphere does not exceed two per cent, and I think it highly probable there- fore, that carbon itself is formed in the vegetable by the vegetative process, from the surroimding elements oxygen, azote, hydrogen, light, heat and electricity; which idea is supported by Sharon Turner. {See Note Ut to our 2d. Edition.) 130 lU would be formed in the process of vegetation, but he adds, " the oats grew very feebly, and began to be yel- low before any flowers formed ; that the entire plants were burned and their ashes compared with those from an equal weight of grains of oats ; less siliceous earth was given by the plants than by the grains, but their ashes yielded much more carbonate of limo. That tliere wets less siliceous earth, T attribute to the circum stance of the husk of the oats being thrown off in ger- mination, and this is the part which most abounds in silicon." Thus it appears by his own experiment, some silicon was actually obtained by the vegetative process from the air and the water; and had the growth of the oat^* in his experiment come to perfection, the quantity would probably have It en much greater. Moreover, in page 162. he allows that plants consume very small portions of earth ; whence then can the trees of woods and forests derive their growth but from water and air ? — {See Note \sL to 2d. Edition.) . Note 17* I have here to observe, the opinion I had formed and stated, in the Theory of the Sun's Forma- tion, of an aeriform fluid or medium existing in the regions of space, has now been confirmed by the dis- covery of Encke's Comet. It appears the Newtonians had asserted that, *^ either there was no such fluid, or that it was so thin and rare- fied, that no phenomenon yet examined by philosophers was capable of betraying its effects." Vide page 151, WhewdVs Bridgewater Treatise, 1833, and same page it is said, " But the facts which have led astronomers to the conviction that such a resisting medium really exists are certain circumstances occurring in the motion 131 but he be yel- i planU 16 from iS earth at their That circuni ' in ger- unds iu e Bilicoii ess from the oat4 quantity [oreover, !ry small )f woods and air ? >n I had Forma - : in the the dis- ;, " either and rare- osophers mge 151, ame page ronomers um really le motion of a body revolving round the Sun, which is now usually called Encke's Comet." It appears this body was first seen in 1786, and that theelTectof the resistance of the ethereal medium, from its first discovery, (in that year to the present time, say 1833,) has been to diminish the time of revolution by about two days; and the comet is ten days in advance of the place which it would have reached, if there had been no resistance. ( See page \5\iof WliewelPs Bridge- water Treatise.^ It will be seen in my Theory of the Sun, that it was on the idea I had formed of the existence of the ueri- form fiuids, oxygen and hydrogen, in the regions of space, I had founded the mode by which I conceived the Sun's waste was replenished ; and I have certainly reason to congratulate myself on the idea of the resist- ing medium being now confirmed by this singular discovery of Encke's Comet. The Nebular hypothesis also appears to me to con- firm or support both the theory of the combustion of the gases which I have ventured to produce as the origin of the Earth and Planets, and also the cause and formation of new heavenly bodies by the products of the combustion of the gases for the replenishment of the Sun's waste of light and heat, as stated in page 97 of this work. < • This Nebular hypothesis is thus introduced by Mr. Whewell in his Bridgewater Treatise of 1833, page 143. " La Place conjectures, that in the original condi- tion of the solar system, the Sun revolved upon his axis, surrounded by an atmosphere, which, in virtue of an excessive heat, extended far beyond the orbits of all I 132 the Planets, the Planets as yet having no existence.— The heat gradually diminished, and as the solar atmos- phere contracted by cooling, the rapidity of its rotation increased by the laws of rotary motion, and an exte • rior zone of vapour was detached from the rest, the central attraction being no longer able to overcome the increased centrifugal force. This zone of vapour might in some cases retain its form as we see it in Saturn's ring, but more usually the ring of vapour would break into several masses, and then would generally coalesce into one mass, which would revolve about the sun. — Such portions of the solar atmosphere abandoned suc- cessively at different periods would form * planets in the state of vapour.* " Now, it does not appear that La Place has given any clue to find how or of what this solar atmosphere and vapours were formed. He does, indeed, support the idea, that planets may be formed bjr vapours and sub- sequent condensation, which is precisely the way the Oceanic globe of our theory is conceived to have been produced ; and without infringing on the humility we wish to preserve, we may say we have presented to his consideration a real and competent cause for the pro- duction of the atmosphere and vapours of his ingenious hypothesis. Will not the combustion of the gases, of which we all now know water to be formed, as stated in p. 32 of this work, and the extrication of their heat and light, account not only for this solar atmosphere, but also means by which the great First Cause produced the sun itself? >■ 7 133 nee. — station I exte* 3st, the me the ' might laturn'a 1 break soalesce 1 sun. — led 8UC- inets in ven any lere and port the and sub- way the ive been ttility we id to his the pro- ngenious hich we p. 32 of nd light, but also uced the ^^^ ^CONCLUDING NOTE. In the contemplation of the wonderful discoveries in pneumatic chemistry, of the gaseous bodies, and pecu- liarly so of the component principles of water, I have conceived the formation of the waters of Genesis to have been produced from these elementary principles, by the creating Cause at " the beginning ;" but have, in the foregoing treatise abstained, for reasons stated in page 97, from carrying my speculations onwards to the other systems of the heavenly bodies, fur- ther than reasoning from analogy, that they mai/ have been formed by the same laws. In this Note, however, in conclusion of this work, I propose to offer some ob- servations on this subject, as a comment on the 6th and 7th verses of the 1st of Genesis. " And God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters ; and God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so." Sharon Turner, page 30, " Sacred History of the World," and^other writers, consider the firmament to refer, and to mean solely, the atmosphere. Now this extends only forty five miles above the earth. But, a column of vapour of a given breadth of 45 miles high, does not probably, exceed a column of equal breadth of water the 40th part of a mile deep, in respect to the relative quantities of water each column would contain.* Our oceans are generally said to be 4 miles deep, and the 6th verse says, " Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,'* which even in our oceans would be * Water turned to vapour by boiling exceeds the bulk of the water 1696 times. M I \\ *. 134 two miles deep. ButtheOtb verse will make it clear that the word " firmament" cannot refer to our atmosphere. " And God made the firmament, and divided the waters ■which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the Jirmamenty and it was so." Thus, it is evident, that, in either sense of the word, an ocean of waters is here stated to exist above the atmosphere. And as it is very remarkable that no part of the 1st chapter of Genesis gives any direct account oi the formation of our atmosphere, we may, pefhaps, conclude, that it ■was formed in the " beginning" when " God created the heavens and the Earth" as per 1st verse; and this is the more probable, that we kno\^ ond ingredient of our atmosphere then existed, namely, oxygen, used in the combustion, for the formation of the oceanic wa- ters of Genesis, and that air would, probably, be re- quired for the animals thereof, during the formation of our earth in those waters. These verses, therefore, lead us to believe that a universal ocean of waters exists over and under the heavens. If, therefore, our theory of the primary for- mation of our earth and planets in this globe of water, be founded in the laws of nature, may we not conceive, that the planets of the other systems of the universe have also been, or will be, formed in this universal ocean by the same laws ? If the appearance of the geology of the earth have led us to believe that at the time of the separation, when the solid parts of it had been duly formed, they were, in obedience to the divine con^mand, (probably by the instrumentality of the law of their superior gravity,) then separated from this universal ocean, attracting such parts of it as were within the >phere pf attraction of these solid parts, for the forma- 135 tK^ ar that iphere. waters which 3, it is :ean of And jhapter niation that it created ind this dient of used in nic wa- , be re- ation of 'Y that a der the ary for- water, DHceive, universe d\ ocean geology time of en duly Demand, of their niversal thin the forma- tion of its seas and oceans ; that the other planets of our system have been formed and evolved in the same manner; and, that these planets, then receiving from the Creator their projectile force, became immediately sub- ject to their motions round their central sun, may we not, by analogy, also, conceive, that the planets of the other systems have been, or will be formed by the same laws ? The suns of these systems or stars, as they are commonly called, must indeed, have existed from the " beginning," of the Ist verse at the time of the crea- tion of the universal ocean, by the combustion of the elementary gases of their composition. Very few of the planets of these systems have, I believe, been yet discovered. This may be owing to their immense dis- tances ; but may it not also arise from their not being yei duly formed, and evolved from the waters of this universal ocean ? and does not the almost annual dis- covery of new heavenly bodies warrant the supposition ? • With due humility, therefore, I venture to call the attention of philosophical divines and men of science to the more extensive and profound contemplation of the universal ocean recorded in the 6th and 7th verses of the 1st chapter of Genesis. The late discoveries in geology and pneumatics, in application to this subject, appeal strongly to this contemplation. The unity of the laws of Providence would almost compel us to be- lieve, that all the planetary systems have, or will be, formed in the same manner ; and carrying with us the highest degrees of our knowledge of these laws into the contemplation of the works of the Creator, we may, perhaps, find that it will afford us an insight into His power, wisdom, and glory, far more stupendous than mankind have yet conceived. . ^ m ■i!f 136 NOTES TO SECOND EDITION. • Note l.In corroboration of our Notes to Ist edition, numbers 14 and 15, on the power of the vegetative functions to produce the primary earths, we have now to add a statement from Sharon Turner. In his " Sa- cred History of the World," vol. 1st, page 93, he says, " Vegetables have even some relation with the Mineral Kingdom ; for they not only form the carbon they con- tain, but some have been found to have copper parti- cles," (and in a note it is said) " That copper exists in a great number of vegetables, was announced in 1817. Mr. Targeau found five millogrames of copper in a killograme of grey quinquina, eight in Martinico coifee, and nearly eight in wheat." (Bull. Univ. p. 139.) He continues, " And several vegetables secrete flint and likewise sulphur, as in our common corn," (and in a note it is said) " Sulphur exists ir combination with different bases in wheat, barley, rye, oats, maize, millet and rice." (Lindsay's Nat. Bot. p. 393.) Mr. Turner continues *' We may add iron and gold also^ for both of these have been found in vegetables." ^, , " < And in page 393, in a note it is said, " The energy and even creative agency of the living principle of plants appears in its power of converting material par- ticles into other substances. Experiments on vegeta- bles seem to prove that the solid matter which entered into their composition in the more advanced period of their growth, must, in part at least, have been produced hy some action of the vital powers and could not have been obtained ab. extra." — Bui. Physic, p. 307> and Dr. Thompson's Ch. . ,.^ ,^ ,. .^,,, . vt Note 2. Since publishing the first edition of this work, I have found that Doctor Thompson, in his Che- 137 edition, etative ve now I « Sa- le says, lineral 3y con- p parti- ixists in 1 1817. er in a coffee, ).) He lint and id in a m with , millet Turner or both energy jiple of ial par- vegeta- entereu eriod of codueed ot have and Dr. of this lis Che- mistry, says " We are certain that no particle of light weighs more than the million millionth part of a grain." •—Chemistry, vol. 1st, p. 300. Note 3. Doctor Chalmers, in his Natural Theology published in 1836, page 250, says, " We shall advert once more to the Mosaic account of the creation, more especially as the reconciliation of this history with the indefinite antiquity of the globe, seems not impossible, and that, without the infliction of any violence on the litsralities of the record." He then narrates the two .Hrst verses of 1st of Genesis, and adds, " Now, let it be supposed that the work of the first day, in the Mosaic account, begins with the " Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters." The detailed history of creation, p the 1st chapter of Genesis, begins with the middle of the second verse, and what precedes might be under- stood as an introductory sentence, by which we are most appositely told that God created all things at first, and that afterwards, at what interval of time is not spe- cified, the earth lapsed into a chaos, from the darkness and disorder of which the present system of economy was made to arise. By this hypothesis, neither the 1st verse nor the first half of the second, forms any part of the narration of the first day's operation, the whole forming a p»'eparatory sentence disclosing to us the initial act of creation, at some remote and undefined period ; and the chaotic state of the world at the com- mencement of those successive acts of creative power, by which out of rude and undigested materials the pre- sent harmony of nature was ushered into being. Be- tween the initial act and the details of Genesis, the world, for aught we know, might have been the theatre^ of many revolutions) the traces of which Geology ma/ Ml U 138 I yet investigate, and to which, in fact, she has constant!? appealed, as tlie vestiges of so many successive con- tinents which have now passed away. The whole spe* culation has offered a vain triumph to infidelity, seeing first, that the historical evidence of scripture is quite untouciied by this pretended discovery of science, and that even should it turn out to be a substantial'disco- very, they do not come into collision with the narrative of Moses. Should, in particular, the explanation we now offer be sustained, this would permit an indefinite scope to the conjectures of Geology, and without un- due liberty to the 1st chapter of Genesis." . w. .. „.• Thus, Doctor Chalmers has confirmed, in the year 1836, the explanation of the 1st verse of Genesis, we had, as stated above, formed in 1825. But, with his idea of the earth lapsing into a chaos we do not at all agree ; on the contrary, there is strong reason to be- lieve, that from " the beginning" the undeviating de- sign was carrying on, of the formation of the solid parts of the earth in the waters of Genesis, as stated in our theory ; and this, the 9th verse shews ; for the earth, having been duly formed by the continued depositions of the waters, was separated from them as appears by that verse. Note 'k In further confirmation of the construction we have put upon the 1st verse of Genesis, it will be found, that the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke, in his com- mentaries on the scriptures, says, in commenting on this versef " that the true translation of it from the Hebrew is < In the beginning God created the element* perhaps, received the erroneous idea fFom their I 1311 }tantl? e con- le spc* seeing I quite !e, and 'disco- rrative ion we iefinite »ut un- he year 3818, we ^ith his )t at all I to be- ng de- e solid ated in e earth, ositions ears by ruction will be is com- ting on oin the lements hr • lankind m their infancy, " that the world was made out of nothing." — Now, Doctor Chalmers, in a late publication of his, on Astronomy, says, " that no part of the scriptures as- serts that the world was made out of nothing/' Mo- dern science has proved that most of the liquids and solids of the vegetable and animal kingdom are formed, in great part, of gaseous bodies ; and the very clays and sands we walk on, which were formerly considered mere earths, have been proved by Sir Humphrey Davy's experiments in Galvanism, to consist, in great part, of oxygen, which must be combined with the bases of these earths in a solid state. But for the origin of the elementary gases, of whose composition or origin we are yet ignorant, we must re- fer to a creating cause. Note 5. In the Edinburgh Review of Buckland's Bridge water Treatise, the following extract appears from that work. " It is marvellous that mankind have gone on for so many centuries in ignorance of the facf, which is now fully proved, that no small part of the present surface of the earth is derived from the remains of animals that constituted the population of ancient seas. Many extensive plains and massive mountains form as it were the great charnel house of preceding generations, in which the petrified exuviae of extinct races of vegetables and animals are piled up, into stu- pendous monuments of life and death, during almost immeasurable periods of past time." Mr. Ehrenberg, an eminent Naturalist has since Dr. Buckland's Treatise, discovered by the microscope, the existence of fossil animalculae, or infusorial organic re- mains, which form extensive strata of tripoly or poles- ■chiefer (polishing slate) at Franzenbad in Bohemia.— M ll'ii (J 140 The animals belong to the genus Bacularia and inhabit siliceous shells, the accumulation of which form the strata of polishing slate. The size of one of these animalculaB is the 3000tli part of an inch. Yet not- withstanding the conviction which Dr. Buckland so forcibly expresses, of the vast profusion of vegetable and animal life which must have existed in the ancient seas, and which could be no other than the waters or Ocean of Genesis, to which the Doctor agrees, by the extract from the Bridgewater Treatise, (See page 5 of our preface to first edition) yet, notwithstanding this, he gives an opinion, in another part of that treatise, that animal life did not exist, previous to the formation of those strata of the earth where their remains are first found ; namely, the transition or secondary forma- tions. In note 2d, to our first edition, p. 102, we have" given Mr. Lyall's opinion " that all traces of shells and other organic remains, may be destroyed in rocks, by a heat not amounting to fusion." If our system of the formation oi the solid parts of our globe, by the pri- iroval deposition of vegetable and animal remains, be approved ; it will perhaps, shew, that internal heats and fires generated by the gases and metals of these re- mains, were much more frequent in those early periods of the world, than at present. It is, therefore, no proof that vegetable and animal life did not exist prior to the transition formations and during the primary, to sayt that their organic remains i "e not found there : an im- mensely less heat than that which musi have been oc- casioned by the subterranean fires of the earth, previous to, the separation of Genesis, would be sufiicient to destroy all traces of organic remains, and to produce a obrystalline structure, and new chemical combinationsy 141 nhabit rm the • these Bt not- atnd so jetable ancient iters or by the ge 5 of ng this, treatise, rmation lins are ' forma- ive have ells and 3ks, by of the tie pri- ns, be eats and ese re- periods 10 proof \r to the to sai/t an im- )een oc- jrevious cient to oduce a nations, as we find them at the present day. This objection, then, to the pre-existence of animal and vegetable life because no present remains are found in the primary strata, is not, in my opinion, tenable. A great argu- ment of the modern geologists, is " that the causes at present in operation, must have been prodiicing the same effects in preceding ages." Therefore, by a parity of reasoning, conceiving the design of the Creator to have been, to produce the whole circumference and di- ameter of our globe, by the instrumentality of those na- tural causes and laws which we now see, every where in operation ; we infer that the races of vegetable and ani- mal life were continually employed for that end, since the formation of the primeval Ocean of Genesis, as sta- ted in our system ; and, that these races were compe- tent thereto, the present formation of a large tract of the earth by even a few species of marine insects, evi- dently proves ; and it also proves, that the Deity could not have chosen, from among the laws of nature he had created, so energetic an agent of production, since even electricity, though much more sudden and vio- lent in its effects, has not the continuity of the agen- cies of life. The coral insect alone, has produced, as shewn in this work, an extent of land equal in length to one eighth of the diameter of our globe, and still con- tinues its operations ; and it is even the opinion ot some geologists, that another continent will, in time, be formed, in inese seas by means of these insects. Doctor Buckland allows that some Geologists are of opinion that fossil remains may have existed in the primary formations, and all traces of them may have been obliterated by the internal fires ; but he appears himself to think, (and gives a quotation, I believe, from 'AsiU 112 Another writer.) tlint llio inanndrnofliirp of tho •nrtli M'Ri, (luring the priiimry rdniuuioiix no groat, tliut no nnimnltt couUl huvn oxUted in tlio ocriin. Now, if our tluniry )>u wcil i'ouiuicd, tluit tlio niuuo mighty rnrrgy olTorniiUion wiiicli JutM piodiirod mo liirgc A part of tlio ciUMtof tlit^ rurtli, (nuuicly, tlio lidxtui'ii of tlio uuirinu uniniulH (liirinfr \\u\ and tlioir (h-poHilion^ und (hoHo of tlio nuirino vog('ttd>l(;H tirior d(>u(li ;) if wo ullow tluU thoMt) Hunio nioMt powot I'ld cuu'ti'H nuiy huvu produced all the rorniutionH of tlio ourtli tlirough iti« entiro diuniotor, tiio ineivndi^rtoonoo during tin* primary l\>rnuUions, will not rondi^r tlii^ tli(H)ry untonablo. Hy thiit theory, wu account lor iho prosu internal tires would then bo generated by tho ignition of tho inllammablo nuittcr of their remains, and during the existences of these voU cauio fires an incandescence might have been produced over a great part of the earth, which, for a time, would destroy the animals of tho ocean near it ; but, as these firos could last onlt/y until the inflammable mutter that generated them was consumed ; when that took place, the (then) crust of the earth would be cooled down by the waters of the ocean, and future depositions of re- mains would take place, until again collected in suffi* cient thickness to reproduce internal fires and incan- descence; when the same refrigeration must, in time, have taken place, all ihe fuel of these fires being again consumed. 143 •nrlti lUt 110 \} NUIUU HM'rt of milioiitt ) if wo ,y Iiavi5 igli iU iriiimry 0. Uy L) inU'i- it'H, uiid lion of II tlopo- i coiitro cmuint (1 tliuii mutter 80 vol- oduccd wouUl bS tllUHO >r that plaoe» HVii by of ro- ll suflfi- ill can- Ill time, again fii fiict, tlii4 lti(Mfiilu4(;tfno(« may, pnrhipi, aooount for A ){tu)l()^i(!al pliniioiiiiiiuMi Ntatoil by (inolo^iiti, that Mitii'o ^I'liitni of 111 iiiius iitiiiii di uppi):ir to iiavu cxiittoti at ooriuiii (htiMjn and hiivo (li-^appoaruti in Multioquorit utratii. whiMi oUuu' ^ciiniM ami Mpcciow Uivo. HumumiUui thitiii. May thiii not hiivo hiip|M!ti(t()(J, hay Home writers. In thi* univitfHul octtan, by our theory, we conceive the earth and plamitH to have be• ' ,-,>«.. ^• ;"lho )om. CO [3 ^ O £g 'j\ A A GLOSSARY OF TERMS IN THIS WORK. Alumine, pure earth of clay. Azote and Azotic Oa»^ a constituent principle of our atmoBpherc, dostructivo to combuf^tion and to animal life. (Vide page 22.) Appetencies, a supposed aptness of matter to assume certain forms. Affinity, that particular attraction which Chemists observe dif. forent bodies have for each other. jEriform Fluids, gases or fluids resembling common air. Caloric, matter of heat pervading all bodies. Carbonic Acid, the acid of charcoal formed by burning it in thw open air. It escapes in an teriform state. Chaotic Mixture, a solution of all the solid substances of tlie Globe, supposed by the ancients to have existed. Fossil Remains, of animals or vegetables, found in the earth. Oahanic Power, a species of electricity. Geology, the science of the various substances forming the interior and the crust of the earth. Gravity or Attraction, that power in matter by which it confi- nually tends to gravitate towards other bodies, according to llie laws of its density and distance. Hydrogen, a constituent element of all water, it is called alno inflammable air or gas, and is the same that is now used for lighting cities and inflating balloons. LitnincB, the appearance of many rocks in the earth resembling the leaves of a book. Matrix, the womb of material or spiritual substance. Orbits, the paths of the moons round their planets and of the planets round their Sun. Nl 150 Ojcygan Oas^ a conatituont element of our atmosphere, support. ing combustion and life in the highest degree. It is, also, a constituent element of water. (Vide page 38.) Planets^ the heavenly bodies composing our system and revolving; round the Sun. Pnewnatic Chemigtry^ike science of ^ariform bodies. Silex, siliceous or s . \dy principle. Silicon^ the metallic basis of siliceous earth or sand. Sodium, a metal lately discovered by Sir H. Davy, to be the basis of soda, produced by marine plants. Sulphuric Acid, common oil of vitriol. Tertiary Strata, in Geology the strata or rocky fc.-mations of the earth as far as man has penetrated, are divided into three, the primary being the lowest — ^secondary '^>iing next — tertiary being the uppermost. Vacuum, a space void of matter of any kind, now known not to exist. (Vidt Note n, page 130.) ? ' <. v - •4*«'^ "> '. -■■'-** ; . ■- .■ ■ . -i.^ .; .> ri'-'f^ .■ ■ '':•.-■■ ;--«^1»l'" ■ '■■-:- ' i, v:. , \ X--' I rK-if^!.^"- ' • . T, . -. ^^ :..;■• ^^'r ■» .J.. fa;*-;*F .■..j,; 1 (' , .;v>.+.-!«.' i ^ /:*^^:•,.. v».'l '^''■ '>*'"; V' . V- Ws^v- - --^ -.-^Cvv* V .•!./' ■;'■-- ■ " • ..■■:,-:■',• Vtii > (•■, ,, J-."' ■ ' , >. '■■ ■ V «"->' / /■•^s*'w<^\\ *.•>." ^ ,. ■-:« «. '= ^ rv^'fiu a • i'Jrr • N :' ,L > '' '' vti^ ■: Xi»jL-i'sMl- *. .••. -.v U.,)-. Vf'^.','=;^v-;.|rrt^» .. u-.tt'i •ta-'-'tiii* ,:i V *!^•::,^,''■■ ' ,-a*^'fc!i .-,■ ■ .'i ; vi.^ »>.' iifi' 'V ■'•* ^'■>■t<•' ^*«j;<^ jupport- also, a erolving; o be tlie s of the ree, the ry being rn not to ■.' ■'■:! -lilft •■»- * REVISED FOR THIRD EDITION. - V;- . ,, . . ^. -v. .•^-^) ^* -■••;% -ji^ '" f Preface to first Edition 3 Ditto to second edition 7 Introduction to third Edition 12 Purposes of Geology 17 Some account of the Author 18 Insufficiency of the Chaotic system of the ancients to ac. count for the Geological appearances of the Earth 19 Formation of the Primitive Earths, Salts, and Metals, by the Vegetative Process ib. Our Earth formed in a Fluid 20 The Doctrine of Chance Formation Refuted ib. Observations on the Doctrine of the Materiality of the Soul 26 The Ourang Outang, — Brain similar to man's 27 Age of the World by Boubee's, Geol. Popul. Paris, 1833,.. 30 This supposed Age explained and reconciled to the Mosaic . Acct., by our construction of first verse of Genesis, Dis. coveries of Black, Priestly, and Lavoisier 31 The Combustion of the Gases ** at the Beginning," produced the Universal Waters of Genesis 32 The Universal Ocean formed by laws of attraction 33 Order and succession of Rocks and Organic Remains com> posing crustof the Earth 36 Cause of Marine Productions being found above the level of the sea, to be sought in the original formation of tlie Waters of Genesis 39 152 PAGE. Oxygen exists in a solid state in all the Oxyds 44 The Earths, Metals, and Minerals, found in Vegetables, arc produced by the vegetable process ib. Siliceous Earth proved by Professor Linnaeus to be the re. suit of the vegetative process 45 The Wisdom of the Creator shown in the Internal Fires of the Earth 48 Cause of the Creation of Marine Planets not being mention. ed in Genesis, 1st chapter 49 Elucidation of the Theory of the Earth 50 Observations on Mr. Mantell's Wonders of Geology 57 Theory of the Sun's formation 62 A short account of Pneumatic Chemistry ib. Heat and Light 63 Remarks on BuiFon's Theory of the Earth and Planets... . -64 An idea of the cause of the projectile force 73 Cause of the Tides explained by our Theory of the Gases in infinite space 74 Formation of watery vapours by the Sun 77 Attraction of the Heavenly Bodies, by the Sun, explained by our Theory of the Gases in infinite space 78 Observations on Sir John Herschell's idea of the opaque. ness of the Sun 81 The safety of the planets from ignition by the Gases 83 Extract from Sir Richard Phillips' Theory 84 Do. from Sir John Herschell's Astronomy of last year.. 86 Do. from Graham's Elements of C hemistry 88 Marine Vegetables and Animals of the Waters of Genesis. . 90 Final Elements of Geological Bodies 92 The Dissolution of the Globe considered from its existing Phenomena ib. Recombination of the separated Elements to form New Heavenly Bodies 95 The r.nmortality of the Sold of Man drawn as a conclusion from the Indestructibility of the Laws of Nature 96 The other systems supposed, by analogy, to have been form. od by the same Laws as our fsystem 97 An idea of the Gases, serving aa Fuel to the Sun ib. 153 INDEX TO THE NOTES. rxuE. Note 1. — The ofispring of a single Herring, undisturbed, competent to produce ten of our Globes 99 Note 2. — On the Granite Mass — Formed like the secondary and Tertiary Strata, by the deposition of Vagetable and Animal Matter 100 Rev. Mr. Fairholme's opinion on the Granite Mass, an. swered 102 On the supposed Antiquity of Mount jEtna 105 Note 3.— Salt Formations 106 Observations in support of tiic Theory of Creation of this work 108 An idea of the cause of the Projectile Force Ill) Note 6. — The Indestructibility of the Soul explained ib. The late discoveries in Geology ascribing millions of year , as the age of the World, accounted for by the Theory of this work 115 Note 10. — The present state of Geology reconciled to the Scriptural account of Creation ib. Note 11. — Extract from the late work of Lord Brougham on the new discoveries in Geology ib. Some observations in support of the formation of the Geolo- gical Bodies in the primeval Oceaiis drawn from the de- positions and formations now taking place in our Seas.. . . 121 Note 14. — Means by which the Sands of the Sea, and Rocks composed of them have been formed 125 Extract from Evan's Agriculture, proving the formation of Silica by the Process of Vegetation 126 Experiment of Sir H. Davy, proving the formation of Sili- con in vegetables 129 Note 17. — Enke's Comet from Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise in support of the aeriform media of this work 130 Supports the formation of Planets in a state of vapour, on which our Theory of their formation in this work is founded 131 Concluding Note 133 Notes to Second Edition from page 117 to 128. 154 NAMES OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THIS WORK, QUEBEC. Hon. Judge Cochrane, Messrs. J. Hale, M. J. Wilson, J. Daiu< try, D. Wilkie, M. Bell, J. S. Campbell, E. S. King, J. Grieves, Clapham, F. B. Lindsay, D. M'Carthy, J. G. Irvine, T. Cary, Edw. Borroughs, Louis Panet, T. A. Stayner, George Augustus Bedford, H. Gowen, J. Musson, A. Macnider, Geo. Hall, James Bouchette, Rev. R. R. Burrage, M. White, L. A. Cannon, T. G. Cathro, G. Pemberton, John Neilson, Alex. Haddan, William M'Master.Thos. Bickell,Gcorge Mountain, A. M*Gill, A. Wilson, W. B. Jcfferys, D. Logie, C. T. Brown, W. Le Cheminant, L. Bullingall, J. Hobrougn, John C. Nixon, Wm. M'Grath, John Codville, John Bowles, jr„ John Childs, jr., G. Fassio, H. CarwcU, J. Bolton, A. Laurie, David D. Young, H. Temple, P. Pelletier, W. Marsden, Mr. Parent, Quebec Sy., Henry S. Scott, G. W. Wickstead, Edw. Gingras, W. Power, James Seaton, Ebenezer Baird, Thos. Ruston, H. Murray, James Smillie, G. Turner, Ed- ward Wade, Jno. Campbell, Richard May, A. H. Poole, WiUiam Paterson, W. Bowles, W. Norman, John Cameron, E. Hartigan, Jno. Raccy, Jno. Lambly, Duncan M'Callum, Dr. Jos. Painchaud, P. Holt, M. Grigory, George Hall, Alex. Begg, Achd. Campbell, V. Doticet, Geo. Futoover, A. Parrott, Ed. Phillips, W. Morris, D. M'Quilken, Robt. Barclay, C. Leek, W. Bignell, P. P. D. La. chance. Dr. Morrin, Mr. Baillargeon, ptre., E. Vivian, William Walker, P. Holland, Mr. C. F. Cazeau, Dr. F. Martin, Stewart Scott, Rev. J. Brown, Alex. Henderoon, Jos. Petitclerc, Chas. Ktmp, Jas. Burnett, E. G. Cannon, John Kane, John Thomsori, A. Stuart, jun., Daniel M'Callum, Chas. Gortley, Thomas Jack, son, C. GethiA^gs, E. Antrobus, J. Lane, jun., Asst. Com. Gen., Dep. do., C Morgan, P. H. Mildmay, A. J. Russell, Arthur W. Boll, Rev. H. D. Sewell, Dr. Fargues, L. G. Baillarge, Advocate, W. B. Lindsay, H. M. Blacklock, Rev. F. J. Lundy, E. Chap, man, R. Stewart, Jas. Hossack, P. Patterson, Wm. Baxter, Rice Meredith, David Morgan, Rev. Geo. Mackie, J. O. Brunet, J. Munn, Philip Piton, T. H. Oliver, J. E. Oliver, Edw. Oliver, F. J. Young, F. Young, F. Rourke, James Clearihue, R. C. Todd, Doctor Racey, A. W. Morin, John Childs, Jno. JefFery, James Armstrong, Chas. F. Pratt, J. Bacquet, Mrs. Glass, E. Taylor, P. Le Sueur, W. Drum, Andrew King, Sam. Wright, W. M'- Alister, J. Le Lacheur, Geo. Fawcett, Hy. D. Thielcke, Wm. S. Henderson, John Bracken, sen., Thos. Braunlie, J. W. Pezet, Regis Roy, R. Macfarlane, Paul Lepper, Artimas Jackson, J. D. Lefurgy, W. D. Dupont, Mrs. Hendry, Robt. H. Scot, Wm. An- drews, William Lane, Rev. W. Torrance, Ralph Hunter, J. J. Lowndes, P. Lenfestey, Dunbar Ross, C. Stuart, G. D. Balzaretti, A. M. Vidal, H. Black, Jos. Laurin, J. H. Kerr, C. S. Bourne, Mr. Benjamin, J. M. Eraser, John Lill, Mrs. Young, Chas. Smith, Anthy. Anderson, Doctor Kelly, A. M'Donald, Geo. Black, Wm. Thompson, Henry Jessup, H. Dyde, Jos. Legare, fils., W. K. Rayside, Rev. Dr. Wilkie, Rev. Mr. Wood, Rev. Mr. Burrox. 155 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THIRD EDITION, MONTREAL. Hon. Judge Pyke, Hon. Peter M'Gill, Messrs. M. J. Hayes, Jjio. Boston, — Gcttcs, James Knapp, N. B. Doucet, Alex. Dyer, Win. Murray, J. Thornton, John George, D. Smillie, R. D. Bod. ley, T. Nye, H. Honslow, M. Solomon. M. M'Grath, James Hughes, Jno. P. Grant, S. H. Anderson, R. T. Howden, J. Bell, A. F. Holmes, John Ross, J. Jeffery, J. Hutchison, C. Goldworth, II. J. J., J. J. Phelan, J. M. Tobin, J. Gilmour, W. Francis, jun , J. Bowman, J. Rattray, J. J. Day, R. Huchins, A. Furnia, C. Rollitt, H.Stuart, M. Sommerville, — MacKay, — Hughes, R. Gerard, W. F. Grasett, L. A. Olivier, — Dyde, W. Gunn, T. Os- good, H. P. Thompson, C. D. Proctor, — Breckenridge, — Scott. F. Fraser, H. K. Bethumc, C. Dorwin, J. Playfair, — Joseph, — Oldham, — Whipple, J. White, J. Mills, Col. M'Leod, J. M'Do. nald, A. Benning, jun., Hon. C. S. De Bleury, Mr. Mackay, W. Sinclair, Robt. M'Indoo, Allison M'Donald, Alex. M'Donald, T. Hounslow, R. E. Dcp., Mr. Mack, E. M'Guire, A. Gundlack, Geo. C. Reiffeinstein, R. H. Hamilton, Rev. Mr. Torrens, Mr. Wells, Mr. Orr, The Right Rev. Bishop of Montreal. r<> .n: r . ^, \ \ ' ERRATA. Page 4, line 5, from foot after " dignitary," read of. *' 19, " 16, for '* substance," read substances. ♦' 51, " 13, for "ligune," read iflj^'oon. •' 55, '• 18, for " 7,900," read 7,800. " 58, " 24, for " what arguments," read what an argument. n u 4« 25^ for " believing," read disbelieving. " 120, last line, omit ♦' other." " 132, last line but one, for " means," read /or the means. -:P-r in argument. • \e meani.