W. D. HENKLE. 
 
 ^ a t< . / ^ y 
 
 / 
 
 CF THE 
 UWiVERSTY 
 
J 
 
LECTURES 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE A UNIVERSAL DELUGE THE 
 
 DESTRUCTION AND RE-FORMATION OF OUR 
 
 SOLAR SYSTEM, 
 
 > ^ ^ *"' 
 
 THE 
 
 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF CREATED PRINCIPLES, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF LIGHT, HEAT, &c. 
 
 BY GEORGE BREWSTER, 
 
 Author of Lectures upon Education A New Philosophy of Matter, &c. 
 
 COLUMBUS I 
 PRINTED BY SCOTT AND BASCOM. 
 
 1850. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred 
 and fifty, by GEORGE BREWSTER, in the Clerk's office of the District 
 Court of the United States for the District of Ohio 
 
 
$17 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE train of thought, which led to the pro- 
 duction of the first five lectures of the follow- 
 ing series, was suggested by a discussion, some 
 two or three years since, with a Swedenbor- 
 gian. The circumstances, which led to that 
 discussion, were these : Being then the editor 
 of a paper, and having made a remark edito- 
 rially with regard to some of the opinions of 
 a certain lecturer, upon the Swedenborgian no- 
 tions of Genesis ; he became offended at my 
 dissent from those opinions, and sent me a 
 challenge to debate the question with him. 
 Having made it one invariable rule of my life 
 never to shrink from the responsibility of de- 
 fending ideas, which I may have advanced 
 upon any subject, I, consequently, accepted the 
 challenge. In the course of the argument, I 
 was surprised at the strong infidel tendency 
 
 M370423 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 of his opinions, which tendency became more 
 and more clearly manifest, the further the dis- 
 cussion proceeded. 
 
 In combatting, for instance, opinions, which 
 I advanced, respecting the conflagration and 
 disappearance of stars, and the creation of new 
 ones, he quoted Swedenborg, as his authority 
 for the sentiment, that, when the stars disap- 
 peared, their light became veiled by an incrus- 
 tation, like an egg shell, and was thus covered 
 for years or ages, until, at length, by the self 
 moving effervescence of the internal fires, that 
 shell was burst asunder and thrown off around 
 the central light in the form of worlds. Thus 
 he evidently disclaimed, altogether, the agency 
 of the Almighty in the origination of those 
 worlds, and was, so far, a practical atheist. 
 Other absurdities, contained in the belief of 
 that sect, came to light during that discussion, 
 equally glaring, which convinced me of the 
 infidel character and tendency of their whole 
 system. Their claim to be worshippers of the 
 God of the Bible, weighs not a feather in my 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 mind, when they virtually mutilate that Bible, 
 and give to its Author attributes contrary to 
 those which the Bible gives him. An imag- 
 inary Deity, clothed with all the attributes of 
 the Jupiter of heathen mythology, might, for 
 instance, be called by some fanatical errorists, 
 the Jehovah of the Bible. But does that make 
 him so ? Certainly not ; and we are not bound, 
 by the pretensions of such a claim, to extend 
 charity to the error. 
 
 These are some of the reasons, which have 
 induced me thus to come before the public 
 with a defence of the authenticity and literality 
 of Genesis ; which defence is sustained by ar- 
 guments drawn mainly from Astronomy, Geol- 
 ogy, and reason. 
 
 The last five lectures of the series, are more 
 purely philosophical, and are devoted to the 
 examination and illustration of the organic 
 laws and peculiar properties of electricity, 
 light, heat, and some of the other impondera- 
 ble agents. The reason why I have introduced 
 such subjects, in connection with a defence 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 of the Mosaic history of the Origin of the 
 Globe and the Deluge, is, (if apology be need- 
 ed at all,) because much is said in that defence 
 about the effects of light, in producing the 
 various phenomena of the creations of the six 
 days, and the chemical changes resulting from 
 its agency ; and it, therefore, seemed quite ap- 
 propriate, that the properties and organic laws 
 of light and other chemical agents should be 
 examined, in connection with the other sub- 
 jects of this work. 
 
 Without further remark, by way of intro- 
 duction, I shall, now, submit, to the candor of 
 the reading public, this effort to defend truth 
 and expose error. 
 
 COLUMBUS, Feb'y, 1850. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 Introduction The asssaults which have been made against 
 the Mosaic history of creation and the deluge, and the 
 
 ~. final conflagration and re-formation of our solar system 
 Two classes of opponents to the truth of that history, Infi- 
 dels and Swedenborgians, the one denying the authenti- 
 city, the other the literality of Genesis Their objections 
 answered and refuted by facts and arguments drawn from 
 Astronomy and Geology Proper rules of Biblical inter- 
 pretation The meaning of the word " created," in the 
 
 first verse of Genesis Astronomical facts with regard 
 7 to the conflagration, disappearance and re-formation of 
 
 stars The probable causes of their conflagration The 
 question, " what becomes of their material?" answered 
 The probable construction of our system from nebulous 
 matter $ 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 The subject of the nebulae considered and examined The 
 
 - Hebrew idiorn of the words ''light" and "lights" 
 Probable meaning of the phrase, " God divided the light 
 from the drrkness " The " first day " proven, by a vari- 
 ety of arguments, to have been a single literal revolution 
 of the earth upon its axis The various opinions of 
 scholars upon this subject 35 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 The opinions of scholars examined The geological forma- 
 tions of the first day, or the primary fossiliferous period 
 That day, although constituted by a single revolution of 
 the earth, proven to be ages in length by those forma- 
 tions David Christy's examination of geological data 
 The remaining days considered 59 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Introduction to the proof of a general deluge Testimony 
 drawn from universal tradition that such an event once 
 took place The prophecy from the Aprocryphal book 
 of Enoch Proof from Astronomy in the change of the 
 north pole star, 2,300 years before the Christian era, to 
 the distance of twenty-three and a half degrees from the 
 present pole star - 77 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 The probable cause of the change of the earth's polarity 
 The effect of such a change The poles of the earth at 
 right angles with the plane of the ecliptic before the del- 
 uge This was probably the natural cause for the longev- 
 ity of the Antediluvian race The change of polarity 
 and consequent inclination of the poles, the cause of those 
 extreme variations of temperature which have shortened 
 life Testimony from Geology in favor of a universal 
 deluge Reason unites her testimony with Astronomy 
 and Geology in proof of such an event The destruction 
 of our solar system by fire, and its re-formation 98 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 The three essential principles of the created Universe 
 The organic laws and peculiar agencies of electricity 
 examined The cause of its attractions and repulsions 
 considered That cause resides in the electric current 
 itself, and exists independent of any relation which it 
 bears to mere ponderable matter The wonderful phe- 
 noiiema of an alkaline and an acid taste, which is produ- 
 ced by the passage of the electric current over the 
 tongue The effect of electricity upon the animal sys- 
 tem exhibited by its application in a variety of experi- 
 ments to the dead body of a murderer 125 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 The properties of light considered The conflicting theo- 
 ries of Herschel and Newton examined The theory of 
 a direct emanation, as sustained by Newton, considered 
 the most philosophical The sun supplied by the return 
 of its own particles Its light proven by a variety of 
 facts, to be electric 152 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Heat proved to be identical with light The curious exper- 
 iment of Mr. Cross, showing that electricity can be drawn 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 from the atmosphere by conductors either in fair or foul 
 weather The electricity of the atmosphere proven to 
 be the caloric which vaporises water 172 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 Magnetic attraction which guides the needle of the com- 
 pass, caused by the influence of the sun upon the earth 
 The Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, or the northern 
 and southern lights, produced by the caloric, that runs 
 from the equator to the poles, and there passes upward 
 into the rarer regions of the atmosphere Gravitation, 
 also, produced by the sun 189 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 Cohesive attraction proved by a variety of experiments, to 
 be the effect of caloric Both the diurnal rotation and 
 annual revolution of our earth, and of all the planets of 
 the solar system, caused by the electric influence of the 
 sun upon them 203 
 
LECTURES, 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 v. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF OUR GLOBE ASTRONOMICALLY AND GEOLOG- 
 ICALLY CONSIDERED, AND THE MOSAIC HISTORY OF IT 
 JUSTIFIED AND DEFENDED BY SCIENCE. 
 
 A subject, more popular and attractive to the mass- 
 es than the above, might, I am well aware, have been 
 selected for discussion, for the public taste has, in a 
 measure, been vitiated by the too great prevalence of 
 frivolous reading matter, but none more intrinsically 
 important can be named among all the various topics 
 of remark : For, certainly, to no higher or nobler 
 purpose can the powers of mind the force of argu- 
 ment or the developments of science be devoted, than 
 to the defence of the word and unimpeachable verac- 
 ity of Him, who established all mental, moral and phys- 
 ical law, from the assaults, which have, from time to 
 time, been made upon them. 
 
 Strange, indeed, is it, that there should be any ne- 
 cessity for such a defence ; but yet it is as true as it is 
 strange. With the most plausible sophistries with 
 an almost unlimited invention of petty quibbles and ob- 
 jections with an untiring industry, worthy of a better 
 cause sometimes even with a rankling, spiteful and 
 burning malice, the very incarnation of the pit, have 
 that word and veracity been assailed. But against no 
 2 
 
10 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 point of the citadel of truth have all these resources of 
 opposition and error been marshalled with more in- 
 genuity, or urged with greater vehemence, or hurled 
 with more dexterity and bitterness, than against the 
 Mosaic history of creation and the deluge, and the 
 testimony of inspiration respecting the final conflagra- 
 tion of our system. 
 
 And such has, sometimes, been the fancied success 
 of these assaults, that a loud shout of triumphant ex- 
 ultation has rung through Christendom, as though the 
 impregnable walls of that citadel had been battered 
 down ; and the champions of truth have, sometimes,, 
 turned pale, and felt the anchor of their hope giving 
 way, and trembled for the consequences, and have? 
 under the influence of such fear, sometimes made un- 
 necessary and unjustifiable concessions, and thereby, 
 in a measure, weakened the positions, which they 
 should have maintained unflinchingly, without one 
 single iota of compromise, keeping ever before them, 
 in characters bright as the pencillings of the sunbeam. 
 " Truth is mighty and will prevail."" 
 
 With unlimited confidence in the immovable stabili- 
 ty and everlasting endurance of this great proposition, 
 I shall proceed, in a series of six or seven lectures, to 
 defend the truth of the Mosaic history of creation and 
 the deluge from the assaults which have been made 
 upon it, as well as the testimony of inspiration respect- 
 ing the final conflagration and re-formation of our sys- 
 tem ; and shall attempt to show, wherein injury has 
 been sustained by the zealous but ill advised and mis- 
 directed efforts of the champions of revelation. 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 1 1 
 
 That we may proceed understandingly and syste- 
 matically to the performance of our task, I will first 
 mark out the whole field of controversy, and define its 
 boundaries, and reconnoitre the precise position of our 
 adversaries, and describe their armor, and the weap- 
 ons in which they trust for offensive and defensive war- 
 fare. 
 
 Marshalled in two grand divisions, the enemies of 
 revelation are arrayed in hostility to the Mosaic history 
 of the origin of the earth, the deluge, and the proph- 
 ecy respecting the conflagration and re-formation of 
 our globe, mainly upon the ground, or within the field 
 of reason and science, and upon that ground or within 
 that field we shall meet them. 
 
 The champions of a rank and bold infidelity head 
 one division. They utterly deny both the authenticity 
 and literality of Genesis and the Bible generally, be- 
 cause, as they affirm, it is inconsistent with reason 
 because there are discrepancies in the account of 
 creation itself, which can not be satisfactorily explain- 
 ed and reconciled, and because it conflicts, as they af- 
 firm, with all the known facts of science and Geology. 
 
 The advocates of the dreamy phantasies of Swe- 
 denborg head the other division, and, although appa- 
 rently discarding the bold assumptions of infidelity, 
 as untrue, they are, nevertheless, equally enemies of 
 the truth, and inculcate a less open and reckless, but 
 more subtle and dangerous infidelity, inasmuch as its 
 plausible sophistries are much better calculated to mis- 
 
12 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 lead and deceive the unwary. They admit, it is true, 
 that Genesis is authentic, but yet entirely fritter away 
 its truth, by denying its literality. They affirm that 
 there was no such creation and deluge, as a literal con- 
 struction of the history would indicate, but that the 
 first eleven chapters of Genesis is an allegory, incom- 
 prehensible to the mass of mankind that the key to 
 this allegory was lost to the world at the confusion of 
 tongues that Frederick Emanuel Swedenborg has 
 found it, a special revelation having been made to him 
 respecting it, and that he and his initiated followers can 
 alone unlock the hidden arcana of its mysteries. 
 
 It is, furthermore, worthy of record and remem- 
 brance, that the champions, who head this division of 
 the forces of error, use precisely the same arguments 
 against the literality of Genesis, that the champions, 
 who head the other wing of opposition to truth, do 
 against its authenticity. And wherein, then is the 
 difference in reality, between them ? There certainly 
 is none, except that the infidelity of Swedenborgian- 
 ism is the subtlest and most dangerous of the two. 
 
 I will here give a brief outline of their argument, 
 both against the authenticity and literality of Genesis, 
 and then attempt to show that their reasoning is false 
 and inconclusive. 
 
 They affirm that there are discrepancies in the Mo- 
 saic account of creation itself, which cannot be recon- 
 ciled, inasmuch as it is said that light was created upon 
 the first day, whereas the sun was not, according to 
 the same account, created until the fourth day, and 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 13 
 
 they, therefore, affirm that the whole history is unphi- 
 losophical, since light could not exist before the sun 
 that, if the record of tiie six days creation be intend- 
 ed to be regarded as literal, the world is not, according 
 to that history, but about six thousand years old, which, 
 as they affirm, conflicts with the known and acknowl- 
 edged facts of Geology, by which it is proved to be 
 myriads of ages more, that it is contrary to every 
 principle of reason and philosophy to suppose that the 
 deluge should so overflow the whole earth, as to sub- 
 merge it beneath the water fifteen cubits below the 
 tops of the highest mountains, and that the entire his- 
 tory is, therefore, altogether unworthy of belief, if re- 
 garded as anything but an ingenious allegory. 
 
 Now, in my answer to these objections of Sweden- 
 borgianism and infidelity, I shall assume the proposi- 
 tion, that the history contained in the first eleven chap- 
 ters of Genesis is both authentic and literal, and that, 
 if the original Hebrew be properly construed and un- 
 derstood, that history does not conflict at all with the 
 known and acknowledged facts of Geology, nor with 
 any sound principle of reason or philosophy. 
 
 I am aware that, in thus assuming that the history is 
 both authentic and strictly literal, I object to certain 
 admissions, which have been made by the champions 
 and defenders of the Mosaic account. But, in justifi- 
 cation of such a course, I have reasons to urge, the 
 validity of which forcibly impress my own mind. ,1 
 think those admissions have been very incautiously and 
 injudiciously as well as unjustifiably made, and have, 
 in many cases, materially weakened the defence of 
 
14 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 those champions, and unnecessarily given their oppo- 
 nents the decided advantage in the discussion. 
 
 It is a settled principle of interpretation, I believe, 
 and one perfectly correct, that, in an apparent narra- 
 tion of facts, if there be nothing preceding it, or in 
 the narration itself, which indicates a figure, a parable 
 or an allegory, it is uniformly to be regarded as literal. 
 Any other rule would inevitably introduce complete 
 confusion and perplexing uncertainty into the medium 
 for the conveyance of thought or of intellectual im- 
 pressions from mind to mind, and every man, howev- 
 er wild and crazy in his notions of things, would ac- 
 commodate the language to his own mental vagaries, 
 and build upon it his own peculiar fabric of mysti- 
 cism, having his own peculiar key to unlock its mean- 
 ing. 
 
 It is, then, I say, an established rule of interpreta- 
 tion, that every statement, purporting to be a state- 
 ment of facts, should be construed literally, according 
 to the comprehension of unsophisticated minds, unless 
 the narrator intimates by either the text or context, 
 that he is uttering or writing parables or allegories. 
 
 Now let us apply this rule to the matter under dis- 
 cussion. There is no indication whatever, in the Mo- 
 saic account of creation, of any thing but a plain, 
 straight forward narrative of events, which actually 
 and literally transpired, exactly in the order in which 
 they were described. Any other hypothesis would 
 create confusion in our ideas would send the honest 
 enquirer after truth afloat upon a dark and wild ocean 
 
<ON THE OR1CIN OF THE GLOBE. 1 
 
 of doubt and uncertainty, without compass, or rudder, 
 or helmsman. 
 
 There is something, for illustration, directly to this 
 point in the matter under discussion. When it is af- 
 firmed in the narrative of Genesis, that -"the evening 
 and the morning were the first day," we must either 
 regard it as a single revolution of the earth upon its 
 axis, which constitutes a literal " evening and morn- 
 ing" or else, the moment we depart from its strict lit- 
 erality, and admit that ihe days spoken of might be 
 each of them many hundreds or many thousands of 
 years or ages, we can then, set no boundaries at all to 
 the extent of the figure, and, at once lose sight of al'l 
 reliable landmarks in the discussion. The objector 
 may then very plausibly and justifiably declare, that 
 we have no authority whatever to assert, for the sake 
 of convenience, or to help ourselves out of a dilemma, 
 that a part of the narrative of Genesis is figurative and 
 a part literal. He may very justly require that we 
 should make the narrative either entirely figurative or 
 entirely literal, and not make it the one or the other, 
 just so far as it may happen to suit our purposes or 
 convenience. I cheerfully concede, and must, in hon- 
 esty, concede, that he is right in the requirement. 
 
 But it may be asked by some of the champions of 
 revelation, whether, by assuming this position of strict 
 literal ity, I do not, in fact, deny the well attested facts 
 of Geology. Not at all. For I consider a well au- 
 thenticated and indisputable fact of Geology, just as 
 worthy of implicit belief, as an equally well authenti- 
 
16 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE, 
 
 cated and indisputable fact of revelation, for both facts 
 had their origin in the same reliable source, and both 
 emanated from the same fountain of eternal truth. 
 The same Being, whose hand, in the exertion of its 
 resistless Omnipotence, formed and moulded each geo- 
 logical stratification of the globe, in its respective or- 
 der, gave utterance, also, to each recorded fact and 
 event mentioned in revelation. Both Geology and 
 Revelation must, then, of necessity harmonize perfect- 
 ly, and instead of conflicting, as the sceptic affirms, 
 must mutually corroborate the truth of each other. 
 Instead, therefore, of attempting, in this discussion, to 
 array Revelation against the facts of Science, or Science 
 against the facts of Revelation, I shall regard them 
 both as equally true and equally worthy of implicit 
 confidence, and shall use them as mutual elucidators 
 of each other's meaning. 
 
 Now, one thought more upon the subject of strict 
 literality, and I will dismiss the subject. The great 
 fountain of all wisdom and knowledge must be quite 
 as felicitous in his choice of language to convey his 
 meaning, as the most critical and acute philologist. 
 He uses no word at random, or loosely and ambigu- 
 ously, when conveying his thoughts and purposes. 
 Every phrase signifies precisely what it was intended 
 to signify. He must, also, know perfectly the menta* 
 calibre and strength of understanding of those to 
 whom he condescends to communicate his thoughts* 
 When, for instance, he made a revelation to man, he 
 knew precisely what man was, and of course, he made 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 17 
 
 it to be understood by man, or else it was no revela- 
 tion at all ; for that, which purports to be a revela- 
 tion, must, of course, be communicated in language to 
 be understood by those to whom it is addressed, or 
 else it is no revelation certainly, but a tantalizing de- 
 ception a mockery, to which no pure and benevolent 
 being would stoop. God, then, who cannot stoop to 
 any such deception and mockery, made that revela- 
 tion to man to be understood, without relying upon 
 the aid of Frederick Emanuel Swedenborg to help 
 him explain himself, by unlocking the arcana of mys- 
 teries, otherwise sealed and incomprehensible without 
 his aid a man who violates every single rational, 
 common sense, reliable principle of interpretation 
 who distorts language with all the wildness and inco- 
 herence of insanity who impiously arrogates that im- 
 portant revelations have been made to him by Deity, 
 and yet is the author of a book " concerning conju- 
 gial and scortatory love" which ought to be classed 
 with the very filthiest of obscene publications, unfit to 
 be seen in any decent family, and richly worthy of 
 being presented, as an intolerable nuisance, by every 
 grand jury in the nation. 
 
 We draw this conclusion, then, from what has been 
 said, that, when the Deity made a plain statement of 
 certain facts, as those regarding creation, he expected, 
 doubtless, that they would be received as facts, ad- 
 dressed to the comprehension of common minds. Any 
 other supposition would be a libel upon the fountain 
 of all wisdom and knowledge. 
 2* 
 
18 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 I must, then, from our deductions, regard the Mo- 
 saic account as literally true, and proceed, as best I 
 can, to show how the facts of Geology can be recon- 
 ciled with that account, or that account with the facts 
 of Geology : For I hold it to be a proposition, capa- 
 ble of incontrovertible proof, that every fact made 
 known by Deity, in the revelation of his creation, has 
 its corresponding fact in Geology, which exactly coin- 
 cides and must, of necessity, exactly coincide with it, 
 whether with my limited research and finite powers of 
 mind, I can discover that coincidence or not. 
 
 We will now commence a careful and critical re- 
 view of the history of creation in Genesis, and exam- 
 ine it step by step to ascertain its real meaning, bring- 
 ing in the aid of science and reason to explain and 
 elucidate its extreme brevity. 
 
 When it is said that " In the beginning God crea- 
 ted the heavens, and the earth," it is generally under- 
 stood by the phrase, I believe, that the Deity, then, 
 originated from non-entity the material, out of which 
 our system was formed. Now, in a discussion, where 
 important truths are at stake, I regard it as a very in- 
 expedient policy to assume that anything is a positive 
 fact, past controversy, contradiction or doubt, if it be 
 at all doubtful. Such an unwise course only weakens 
 the position it was intended to strengthen, and gives an 
 opponent of real truth a decided advantage. Such 
 has been the case in my estimation with regard to the 
 first verse of Genesis. The original Hebrew word, 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBEo 19 
 
 translated " create^" in that connection, does not 
 necessarily signify an absolute origination of material 
 from nothing^ for the word is used elsewhere to signi- 
 fy the modification of material which already existed, 
 and I shall not, therefore, for the reasons before stated, 
 so consider it, since such an assumption is not at all 
 essential to the validity of our argument. That ma- 
 terial, I ana willing to concede, might, from aught that 
 appears in the Hebrew idiom, have existed, in other 
 forms, for untold ages previous to this grand event, 
 and might, for aught we can say to the contrary, have 
 undergone ten thousand various transformations be- 
 fore, in accordance with the phenomena of ceaseless 
 change which Astronomy reveals. In conceding this 
 point, I concede nothing worth controversy to the ob- 
 jector. It is entirely immaterial to our argument, 
 whether it were then originated, or whether it had un- 
 dergone innumerable changes and modifications pre- 
 viously. Let it not, however, for a moment be under- 
 stood, that in making this concession, I concede, also, 
 that the same material might have existed eternally and 
 been unoriginated ; for I admit no such thing. There 
 was a period of time in the untold ages of the past, 
 when it must, in the very inherent necessity of things, 
 have been originated from non-entity. For it could 
 easily be shown, by a process of incontrovertible rea- 
 soning, which, however, is foreign from the present 
 discussion, that there could not possibly exist together 
 two co-eternal, self-existent essences ; so that, if mind 
 foe eternal, matter cannot be, and must, therefore, of 
 
20 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE, 
 
 necessity, be under the control of that eternal mind ? 
 and must have been originated. 
 
 We will here introduce a quotation from the British 
 Cyclopedia, which coincides, in a measure, with the 
 view above expressed of the first verse of Genesis. 
 
 " Creation, in its strict and primary sense, denotes 
 the causing of a substance or being to exist, which 
 had no existence before ; and, therefore, it implies no 
 contradiction. That there is one underived and self- 
 existing cause from which all other beings derive their 
 existence, and upon which they entirely depend, is a 
 truth capable of incontestable demonstration. Con- 
 sequently, all beings, except the first cause, must have 
 been produced, or brought into being, by the power 
 and agency of the first cause ; not produced " out of 
 nothing," as some have inaccurately expressed it, but 
 out of nothing besides the immense and inconceiva- 
 ble fullness of the self-existent being, who must have 
 in himself the power and possibility of all being ; 
 though we cannot comprehend or conceive in what 
 manner, or by what kind of agency, he creates or 
 communicates existence to beings distinct from him- 
 self. The term " creation" is used, in a secondary 
 and less proper sense, where any particular bodies are 
 formed out of such a mass of matter as seems to be 
 entirely unfit for that purpose ; when such changes 
 are made in any substance as are generally supposed 
 to be above the power of creatures, and to belong to 
 God alone: thus God created fish and fowls out of 
 the water, and man and beasts out of the earth ; 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 21 
 
 though the creation of the substance of water or earth, 
 or the matter out of which they were made, is the 
 original sense of the word. The Hebrew word, 
 (Gen. i, 1.) rendered " created" has, it is said, chiefly 
 on the authority of Maimonides, been considered as 
 implying what theologians call " an absolute creation 
 out of nothing." But this, it has been alleged, is not 
 its appropriate meaning. It rather means to fashion, 
 form and decorate, a matter already existing; and in 
 this connection especially it means to retrieve from a 
 state of desolation, and to embellish this little spot of 
 earth, so as to render it fit for its inhabitants. In this 
 limited sense God is afterwards (ch. ii, 7.) said to have 
 created man, not out of nothing, but out of the dust 
 of the ground. Joshua (xviii, 15, 18,) bids the chil- 
 dren of Joshua create to themselves a more ample pos- 
 session, by cutting down the woods. Goliath (1 Sam. 
 xvii, 8,) desires the Israelites to create, that is, choose 
 or prepare, a proper champion to fight with him. In 
 Numb, xvi, 30 ; 1 Kings xii, 33 ; and Nehem. vi, 8, 
 it signifies to devise, as it is rendered in the cited pas- 
 sage of Kings ; and the word devise would have been 
 more proper in the other places." 
 
 Again the same authority makes the conclusive re- 
 mark, " upon the whole we may observe, that it seems 
 to have been a current opinion among the ancient 
 Jews and earliest Christians, that the world was created 
 by God of pre-existing, unfashioned matter. The 
 matter of which the Earth was created, or rendered 
 
2 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE, 
 
 a habitable world, was " without form and void," 
 (v. 2,) or a desolate waste, or in a state of dissolu- 
 tion ; that is, as some have supposed, a pre-existing 
 earth reduced by some awful calamity to a chaotic 
 state." 
 
 As we shall be required, in the proper illustration of 
 our subject, to take notice of the various changes 
 which are going on among the systems of the starry 
 heavens, it may not be inappropriate here to make the 
 passing remark, that the very fact of those changes, 
 proves that matter is not eternal, for, if it were it 
 would not change, and that the self-existent and eter- 
 nal Essence which produces and controls these changes 
 must himself be unchangeable and everlastingly the 
 same. 
 
 We will now glance at some of the startling phe- 
 nomena of mutation which Astronomy reveals, so 
 lhat we may call in the important aid of analogy to 
 the defence of the positions, which we may, hereaf- 
 ter, assume. And here I will introduce several facts 
 from Burritt's Geography of the Heavens, from which 
 JL design to draw certain conclusions. They relate to 
 the wonderful disappearance and re-formation of fixed 
 stars or suns. 
 
 " Two hundred and fifty years ago, a bright star 
 shone, five degrees north-northeast of the star Caph, 
 in the constellation of Cassiopeia, where now is a 
 dark void !" 
 
 "On the 8th of November, 1572, Tycho Brahe 
 and Cornelius Gemma saw a star in the constellation 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 23 
 
 of Cassiopeia, which became, all at once, so brilliant, 
 that it surpassed the splendor of the brightest plan- 
 ets, and might be seen even at noonday ! Gradually, 
 this great brilliancy diminished, until the 15th of 
 March, 1753, when, without moving from its place, 
 it became utterly extinct. 
 
 " Its color, during this time, exhibited all the phe- 
 nomena of a prodigious flame first it was of a daz- 
 zling white, then of a reddish yellow, and lastly of 
 an ashy paleness, in which its light expired. It is 
 impossible, says Mrs. Somerville, to imagine anything 
 more tremendous than a conflagration that could be 
 visible at such a distance. It was seen for sixteen 
 months. 
 
 " Some astronomers imagined that it would reap- 
 pear again after 150 years ; but it has never been dis- 
 covered since. This phenomena alarmed all the as- 
 tronomers of the age, who beheld it ; and many of 
 them wrote dissertations concerning it. 
 
 "Another instance of the same kind was observed 
 in 1604, when a star of the first magnitude suddenly 
 appeared in the right foot of Ophiuchus. It pre- 
 sented, like the former, all the phenomena of a pro- 
 digious flame, being, at first, of a dazzling white, then 
 of a reddish yellow, and lastly, of a leaden paleness ; 
 in which its light expired. These instances prove 
 that the stars are subject to great physical revolu- 
 tions. 
 
 " Rev. Professor Vince, one of the most learned 
 and pious astronomers of the age, has this remark : 
 
24 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 The disappearance of the stars may be the destruc- 
 tion of their system at the time appointed by the 
 Deity for the probation of its inhabitants ; and the 
 appearance of new stars may be the formation of new 
 systems for new races of beings then called into ex- 
 istence to adore the works of the Creator." 
 
 " Thus, we may conceive the Deity to have been 
 employed from all eternity, and thus he may continue 
 to be employed for endless ages ; forming new sys- 
 tems of beings to adore him ; and transplanting be- 
 ings already formed into happier regions, who will 
 continue to rise higher and higher in their enjoyments, 
 and go on to contemplate system after system through 
 the boundless universe. 
 
 "La Place says: As to those stars which sud- 
 denly shine forth with a very vivid light, and then im- 
 mediately disappear, it is extremely probable that 
 great conflagrations produced by extraordinary causes 
 take place on their surface. This conjecture, contin- 
 ues he, is confirmed by their change of color, which 
 is analogous to that presented to us upon the earth by 
 those bodies which are set on fire, and are, then, 
 gradually extinguished. 
 
 The late eminent Dr. Mason Good observes, that 
 " worlds and systems of worlds are not only being per- 
 petually created, but are also perpetually disappear- 
 ing. It is an extraordinary fact, that, within the pe- 
 riod of the last century, not less than thirteen stars 
 in different constellations seem to have totally perish- 
 ed, and ten new ones have been created. In many 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 25 
 
 instances it is unquestionable that the stars them- 
 selves, the supposed habitation of other kinds and or- 
 ders of intelligent beings, together with the different 
 planets, by which it is probable they were surround- 
 ed, have utterly vanished, and the spots, which they 
 occupied in the heavens, have become blanks!" 
 
 Aside from the consideration of the grandeur and 
 sublimity of the ideas contained in the above extracts, 
 I have been influenced in their selection for the sake 
 of certain practical conclusions, relevant to the sub- 
 ject under discussion, which I design to draw from the 
 interesting and startling facts, which they unfold. 
 
 Those stars, whose wonderful disappearance is thus 
 spoken of, were suns, and, reasoning from analogy 
 we must conclude that they were not isolated that 
 they shone not on empty space in vain, but that they 
 were surrounded, like our sun, with their attendant 
 retinue of worlds or opaque bodies, which revolved 
 around their central and guiding influences. Now 
 when any one of those fixed stars or suns disappeared 
 from the heavens when, for instance, that in the con- 
 stellation of Cassiopeia expired in such a remarkable 
 manner, what became of the planets, which were con- 
 troled in their movements by its light and heat ? Why, 
 they, doubtless, perished with it ; as all mere matter 
 must, when the controlling element of light is with- 
 drawn from it. For should our sun, for instance, be 
 suddenly blotted from the heavens, the order and reg- 
 ularity of the whole solar system would be instantane- 
 
*6 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 cmsly destroyed, and all the planets, which compose 
 that system, would rush headlong to anarchy and chaos. 
 Another important query here naturally suggests it- 
 self in connection with the subject under discussion. 
 When the star in 1572 increased so immensely in 
 size and brilliancy, as to present the appearance of a 
 tremendous conflagration, what supplied the fuel for 
 that conflagration, which was so intensely luminous as 
 to be apparent to astronomers of our globe more than 
 forty millions of millions of miles distant. The cir- 
 cumstances of the case press with great urgency fora 
 definite and satisfactory answer ; for, never was there, 
 be it remembered, an effect without a cause, or a cause 
 without an effect never was there a fire without fuel 
 or combustible materials of some sort to make it ! The 
 only answer to this question, then, which I can con- 
 ceive as at all appropriate or reasonable, is, that 
 the law of centripetal and centrifugal force, which 
 kept the opaque worlds that surrounded that star so 
 perfectly balanced in their several spheres up to the 
 time appointed for its destruction, was suspended by 
 the same Almighty power that enacted that law, and, 
 then, those planets, no longer balanced in their orbits, 
 must have rushed into the great central fires of their 
 system, and been buried beneath its ocean waves of 
 flame ten thousand times ten thousand cubits deeper, 
 than was this globe of ours beneath the waters of the 
 deluge of Noah. The necessary result of such a 
 grand catastrophe would have been a vast increase of 
 the size of that star, and would have produced a con- 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 27 
 
 flagration so prodigious as to be noticed some forty 
 millions of millions of miles distant by Tycho Brahe, 
 the astronomer of our globe, who observed it. 
 
 But some one may here ask the question whether 
 that sun was hot enough thus to burn up its depend- 
 ent worlds, since some philosophers assume that the 
 suns or fixed stars of the universe are nothing more 
 than opaque bodies themselves, surrounded by a lu- 
 minous atmosphere ? 
 
 To answer this question satisfactorily, as we imag- 
 ine can easily be done, we must appeal to facts, 
 which are the only safe criteria, whereby to form a 
 judgment. It was estimated, for instance, by Sir Isaac 
 Newton, and other astronomers of the day, who care- 
 fully computed the elements of the celebrated comet 
 of 1680, that it approached only within one million 
 and three hundred thousand miles of the surface of 
 the sun, and yet that it was heated, even at that dis- 
 tance, two thousand times hotter than red hot iron 
 hotter, indeed, by several degrees, than was sufficient 
 to burn up and completely vaporize any known sub- 
 stance within the compass of our observation. If then, 
 at the distance 1 ,300,000 miles from the surface of 
 the sun, the heat be so intense as to burn up and va- 
 porize any substance with which we are acquainted, 
 even including the rock-ribbed hills of granite, what 
 must have been its effect upon worlds plunged beneath 
 its mountainous waves of fire ? Why surely, just 
 what Tycho Brahe saw in 1572 a conflagration so 
 
28 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 enormous, as to astonish astronomers millions of mil- 
 lions of miles distant. 
 
 But again, was that star large enough thus to en- 
 gulph its dependent worlds within its capacious vor- 
 tex of etherial fire ? By analogy we infer that it was. 
 
 Had the appointed time now come, for instance, 
 long since predicted in the Bible, for the dissolution 
 by fire of our system, and for the melting and burning 
 of our elements by fervent heat, how could the great 
 event be accomplished ? It is a known fact, the re- 
 sult of accurate mathematical calculation, that the ag- 
 gregate magnitude of all the primary planets with 
 their attendant satellites, put them all together, would 
 be over one million and three hundred thousand 
 times less than the bulk of the sun. To acquire, so 
 far as possible, an adequate idea of its immense com- 
 parative bulk, and to fill the mind, in some measure, 
 with the grandeur of the subject, I will here quote a 
 remark or two from Burritt. " Of a body so vast in 
 its dimensions, the human mind, with all its efforts, 
 can form no adequate conception. The whole dis- 
 tance between the earth and the moon would not suf- 
 fice to embrace one third ot its diameter. " Were 
 the sun a hollow sphere, perforated with a thousand 
 openings to admit the twinklings of the luminous at- 
 mosphere around it and were a globe as large as the 
 earth placed at its centre, with a satellite as large as 
 our moon, and at the same distance from it as she is 
 from the earth, there would be present to the eye of a 
 spectator on the interior globe, a universe as splendid 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 29 
 
 as that which now appears to the uninstructed eye a 
 universe as large and extensive as the whole creation 
 was conceived to be, in the infancy of astronomy." 
 
 It must be apparent then from what has been said, 
 that the sun is large enough to engulph all the planets 
 that surround it ten thousand times ten thousand fath- 
 oms beneath its ocean waves of etherial fire. By an- 
 alogy we infer, then, that the star, which burnt out in 
 1572 was large enough thus to swallow up and devour 
 its whole retinue of dependent worlds. 
 
 Now, if fixed stars have been burnt out, and have 
 disappeared from the heavens, leaving their places a 
 blank, as is a well attested fact of science, and if, as 
 is very probable, these dependent worlds have suppli- 
 ed the fuel for that immense conflagration, what has 
 become of the material of those suns and worlds? 
 Was it annihilated ? From analogy I conclude not. 
 Whenever there is a destruction, for instance, of any 
 combustible material by fire, annihilation is not a ne- 
 cessary consequence. Not a single particle of its re- 
 sulting elements is lost. They all exist some where, 
 either in smoke, or in the gasses, or in ashes. When 
 water becomes united with heat, it passes into an 
 aeriform condition, and is magnified some eighteen 
 hundred or two thousand times. Each minute parti- 
 cle forms a little vesicle or minute balloon filled with 
 caloric, but still there is no diminution of its substance 
 by the change. You have only to abstract the calor- 
 ic to condense it into water again, having the same 
 bulk as it had before vaporization. 
 
30 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 Now, what is the rational conclusion with regard to 
 the star of 1572, or that of 1604 in the right foot of 
 the constellation of Ophiuchus, or of that of any oth- 
 er star, which has thus burnt out and disappeared ? 
 Why, that the opaque bodies, which surrounded them, 
 were precipitated into them were vaporized by their 
 intense heat the material of each was united with 
 the other, as is always the case with caloric and opaque 
 matter, when brought into contact in certain propor- 
 tions being vaporized, it became vastly magnified and 
 aeriform in its character, and disappeared from its for- 
 mer fixed location and floated away through space, to 
 mingle, probably, with the nebulous matter, or irresol- 
 vable star dust of the skies, which is, doubtless, the 
 faintly luminous and vaporized material of burnt out 
 worlds and suns, held there in chemical union by some 
 mysterious bond, until, by the all creating fiat of the 
 Almighty, it shall be ordered to some appointed spot 
 of the universe, be there separated, the opaque mat- 
 ter by itself, and the caloric, which holds it in a state 
 of vaporization, by itself, and there be re-formed by 
 the Omnific Word, which every where controls it, in- 
 to another solar system, taking its place again among 
 the clusters of some one of the constellations. Is this 
 mere fiction, or sportive ideality ? Is there, in fact, 
 any other rational solution of the question with which 
 we started ? Is there any other more satisfactory the- 
 ory to account for the phenomena of the luminous 
 nebulae or irresolvable star dust of the skies, than that 
 it is the vaporized material of burnt out suns and 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 31 
 
 worlds held in aeriform condition by caloric, the great 
 vaporizing agent, and rendered slightly phosphorescent 
 or luminous in its appearance, by the excess of the 
 caloric of each sun over the bulk of its dependent 
 worlds, as we have seen is the case, by a comparison 
 of the solar system ; for were the material of our sun 
 and worlds to be vaporiz-ed and held in chemical union, 
 the caloric so far exceeds, in bulk, the opaque matter, 
 that the vapor must necessarially be luminous. 
 
 Now, if, in such matters, we have any right at all 
 to draw conclusions from scientific analogies, and I 
 believe we have, for God invites investigation of his 
 works, then, I conceive, that this is precisely the phe- 
 nomena which is described in the second and third 
 verses of Genesis. Mark the language of that rec- 
 ord. It was true, and will be found, scrutinize it 
 closely as you may, to coincide with all true science. 
 " The earth was without form and void" that is, 
 there was nothing but perfect vacuum, so far as mere 
 matter is concerned, where it now hangs, " and dark- 
 ness was upon the face of the deep." Yes, the vast 
 space now occupied by our solar system, might well 
 be called a " deep" " a void" or vacuum a blank 
 ocean, whose immensity can scarcely be fathomed or 
 comprehended by finite minds. 
 
 Sirius, the bright star in the constellation Canis ma- 
 jor, is considered the nearest fixed star to our earth, 
 and yet its distance is computed to be twenty millions 
 of millions of miles from us a distance so great,, 
 that a cannon ball, flying at the rate of nineteen miles 
 
32 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 a minute, would be two millions of years in passing 
 over the mighty interval; while sound, moving at the 
 rate of thirteen miles a minute, would not reach it 
 in less than three millions of years."* This distance, 
 however, is only a part of one of the radii shooting 
 out from the centre of this ocean of space, occupied 
 by our system, the whole diameter of which, must 
 have been more than forty millions of millions of 
 miles, and whose cubic bulk must have been past all 
 finite comprehension. " Darkness was upon the face 
 of this deep," as there was nothing throughout the 
 whole boundaries of its " void" or vacuum to illumi- 
 nate it. And the important hour had now come to 
 fill this " void." " The Spirit of God moved upon 
 the face of the waters" This is the language of our 
 translation with which, from careful investigation, I 
 am not entirely satisfied. The Hebrew of the origi- 
 nal will bear a different construction. We may safe- 
 ly and appropriately render it " The Spirit of God 
 brooded upon the surface of the billowy confusion" 
 that is, upon the vaporous masses of matter that had 
 been decomposed by the convulsion of some previous 
 destruction and reduced to a chaotic state. 
 
 Now where was the material which constituted this 
 billowy confusion? Was it in the " void" spoken 
 of? I apprehend that it could not have been. No- 
 thing was there but a blank a " void" throughout 
 whose vast extent " darkness" rested. But the ma- 
 
 * Vide Burritt's Geography of the Henvens. 
 
XJN THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 33 
 
 Serial , which constituted this " billowy confusion" was 
 something, and had a location. Now was it not the 
 vaporous and chaotic elements of burnt out systems, 
 since the material of lost suns and worlds must exist 
 somewhere in space in a state of decomposition, un- 
 less, when they so wonderfully disappeared, they were 
 absolutely annihilated, for which hypothesis we have 
 no proof at all ? Was it not the billowy material of 
 the floating and irresolvable nebulae ? By the investi- 
 gations I have made, I prefer this as the most ration- 
 al and philosophical hypothesis, the one best calcula- 
 ted to rescue the Mosaic history from the difficulties 
 which surround it and defend it from the subtle ob- 
 jections whcih are urged against it. 
 
 Upon these vapours these billowy masses, " the 
 Spirit of God moved" with energizing power. Then 
 was issued that ornnific mandate, which Longinus 
 and others have so much admired for its sublimity, 
 -grandeur and brevity : " And God said, let there be 
 light and there was light." Light, where? Why, 
 light diffused through that " deep," where " dark- 
 ness" dwelt before. Was it there previously, or its 
 material? No, for the space wa? a "void" previous- 
 ly. It must either have been originated then, or been 
 ordered there. It certainly was not originated then, for 
 " the Spirit of God had just moved upon a" material, 
 which existed. The rational conclusion then is, that, 
 when the "Spirit of God moved upon the billowy mass- 
 es," they were the luminous nebulous masses of the 
 sky ; and when " God said, let there be light, and there 
 3 
 
H4 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE., 
 
 was light," so much of that luminous star-dust, ay 
 had been "moved" upon, energized, and separated ; 
 beyed, instantaneously, the will of its sovereign, and 
 filled the " void" of the " deep" with its luminous- 
 ness, upon whose " face" " darkness" had brooded 
 before. This light certainly, which God then spoke 
 into existence, was not the sun ; for, the sun was not 
 created until the fourth day, an account of which is 
 contained in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth 
 verses of the same Chapter. 
 
 As this is a very important point to establish, anrf 
 as the validity of our theory depends upon it, I shall, 
 in my next lecture, consider, more at Iarge 7 the char- 
 acter of the nebulae, and bring to our aid the discov- 
 eries of astronomers in this department of Science. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF OUR GLOBE ASTRONOMICALLY AND GEOLOGI- 
 CALLY CONSIDERED, AND THE MOSAIC HISTORY OF IT JUS- 
 TIFIED AND DEFENDED BY SCIENCE. 
 
 IF I am diffuse in my remarks, and the chain of 
 argument appears protracted and attenuated, my jus- 
 tification is, in the novelty of the positions I take, 
 and the necessity of being very explicit in their de- 
 fence. For this reason I shall quote from Burritt a 
 condensed view of all the various discoveries which 
 have been made with regard to the nebulae, so that we 
 may have, in one view before us, every aspect of the 
 subject, which has either a favorable or an unfavora- 
 ble bearing upon our theory. 
 
 "The nebulae, so called from their dim, cloudy ap- 
 pearance, form another class of objects which furnish 
 matter for curious speculation and conjecture, res- 
 pecting the formation and structure of the sidereal 
 heavens. When examined with a telescope of mod- 
 erate powers, the greater part of the nebulae are dis- 
 tinctly perceived to be composed of little stars, im- 
 perceptible to the naked eye, because, on account of 
 their apparent proximity, the rays of light proceeding 
 from each are blended together, in such a manner as 
 to produce only a confused luminous appearance. 
 
36 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 In other nebulae, however, no individual stars can 
 be perceived, even through the best telescopes ; and 
 the nebulae exhibit only the appearance of a self- 
 luminous or phosphorescent patch of gaseous vapor, 
 though it is possible that even in this case, the ap- 
 pearance may be owing to a congeries of stars so 
 minute, or so distant, as not to afford, singly, suffi- 
 cient light to make an impression on the eye. In 
 some instances a nebulas presents the appearance of 
 a faint luminous atmosphere, of a circular form, and 
 of large extent, surrounding a central star of consid- 
 erable brilliancy. 
 
 One of the most remarkable nebula? is in the sword 
 handle of Orion. It is formed of little flocky mass- 
 es, like wisps of cloud, which seem to adhere to ma- 
 ny small stars at its outskirts. It is not very unlike 
 the mottling of the sun's disc, but of a coarser grain, 
 and with darker intervals. These wisps of light, 
 however, present no appearance of being composed 
 of small stars ; but in the intervals between them, we 
 fancy that we see stars, or that, could we strain our 
 ' sight a little more, we could see them. These inter- 
 vals may be compared to openings in the firmament, 
 through which, as through a window, we seem to get 
 a glimpse of the heavens, and brighter regions be- 
 yond. 
 
 Another very remarkable nebulas is that in the gir- 
 dle of Andromeda, which, on account of its being 
 visible to the naked eye, has been known since the 
 earliest ages of astronomy. It is often mistaken for n 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 37 
 
 comet, by those unacquainted with the heavens. Ma- 
 rius, who noticed it in 1612, describes its appearance 
 as that of a candle, shining through horn. Its form is a 
 long oval, increasing by insensible gradations of bright- 
 ness, from the circumference to a central point, which, 
 though very much brighter than the rest, is not a star, 
 but only a nebula? in a high state of condensation. 
 
 No power of vision hitherto directed to this nebu- 
 lae has been able to resolve it into the least appear- 
 ance of stars. It occupies an area comparatively 
 large equal to that of the moon in quadrature. This 
 nebulae may be considered as a type, on a large scale, 
 of a very numerous class of nebulae, of a round or 
 oval figure, increasing more or less in density towards 
 the centre. 
 
 Annular nebulae also exist, but are among the rarest 
 objects in the heavens. The most conspicuous of this 
 class, is to be found exactly half-way between the 
 stars Beta and Gamma Lyrae, and may be seen with a 
 telescope of moderate power. It is small, and partic- 
 ularly well denned ; appearing like a flat oval ring. 
 The central opening is not entirely dark, but is filled 
 with a faint, heavy light, uniformly spread over it, like 
 a fine gauze stretched over a hoop. 
 
 Planetary nebulae are very extraordinary objects. 
 They have, as their name imports, the appearance of 
 planets, with round or slightly oval disks, somewhat 
 mottled, but approaching, in some instances, to the 
 vividness of actual planets. Some of them, upon the 
 supposition that they are equally distant from us with 
 
38 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 the stars, must be of enormous magnitude. That one, 
 for instance, which is situated in the left hand of Aqua- 
 rius, must have a volume vast enough, upon the low- 
 est computation, to fill the whole orbit of Herschel. 
 
 The nebulae furnish an inexhaustible field of specu- 
 lation and conjecture. That by far the larger number 
 of them consists of stars, there can be little doubt ; 
 and in the interminable range of system upon system, 
 and firmament upon firmament, which we thus catch 
 a glimpse of, the imagination is bewildered and lost. 
 Sir William Herschel, conjectured that the nebulae 
 might form the materials out of which nature elabor- 
 ated new suns and systems, or replenished the wasted 
 light of older ones. But the little we know of the 
 physical constitution of these sidereal masses, is alto- 
 gether insufficient to warrant such a conclusion. 
 
 There is a luminous zone or pathway of singular 
 whiteness, varying from four degrees to twenty de- 
 grees in width, which passes quite round the heavens. 
 The Greeks called it Galaxy, on account of its color 
 and appearance : the Latins, for the same reason, 
 called it Via Lactae, which, in our tongue, is Milky 
 Way. 
 
 Of all the constellations which the heavens exhibit 
 to our view, this fills the mind with the most inde- 
 scribable grandeur and amazement. When we con- 
 sider what unnumbered millions of mighty suns com- 
 pose this cluster, whose distance is so vast that the 
 strongest telescope can hardly separate their mingled 
 twilight into distinct specks, and that the most con- 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 39 
 
 \iguous of any two of them may be as far asunder 
 as our sun is from them, we fall as far short of ade- 
 quate language to express our ideas of such Immen- 
 sity, as we do of instruments to measure its bounda- 
 ries. It is one of the recent achievements of astronomy 
 that has resolved the Milky Way into an infinite num- 
 ber of small stars, whose confused and feeble lustre 
 occasions that peculiar whiteness which we see in a 
 clear evening, when the moon is absent. It is also a 
 recent and well accredited doctrine of astronomy, that 
 all the stars in the universe are arranged into clusters, 
 or groups, which are called Nebulae or Starry Sys- 
 tems, each of which consist of many thousand of 
 stars. 
 
 The fixed star which we call our sun, belongs, it 
 is said to that extensive nebulae, the Milky Way ; and 
 although apparently at such an immeasurable distance 
 from its fellows, is, doubtless, as near to any one of 
 them, as they are to one another. 
 
 Of the number and economy of the stars which 
 compose this group, we have very little exact knowl- 
 edge. Dr. Herschel informs us that, with his best glass- 
 es, he saw and counted 588 stars in a single spot, 
 without moving his telescope ; and as the gradual mo- 
 tion of the earth carried these out of view and intro- 
 duced others successively in their places, while he 
 kept his telescope steadily fixed to one point, there 
 passed over his field of vision, in the space of one 
 quarter of an hour, no less than one hundred and six- 
 teen thousand stars, and at another time in forty-one 
 
40 ON THE ORIGIN ON THE GLOBE'. 
 
 minutes, no less than two hundred and forty-eight 
 thousand. 
 
 In all parts of the Milky Way he found the stars 
 unequally dispersed, and appearing to arrange them- 
 selves into separate clusters. In the small space, for 
 example, between Beta and Sad'r, in Cgyni, the 
 stars seem to be clustering in two divisions, each di- 
 vision containing upwards of one hundred and sixty- 
 five thousand stars. 
 
 At other observations, when examining a section 
 of the Milky Way, not apparently more than a yard 
 hi breadth, and six in length, he discovered fifty thou- 
 sand stars, large enough to be distinctly counted ; and 
 he suspected thrice as many more, which, for want of 
 sufficient light in his telescope, he saw only now and 
 then. It appears from numerous observations that 
 various changes are taking place among the nebulae , 
 that several nebula? are formed by the dissolution of 
 larger ones and that many nebulae of this kind are at 
 present detaching themselves from the Milky Way. 
 In that part of it which is in the body of Scorpio., 
 there is a large opening, 4 degrees broad, almost des- 
 titute of stars. These changes seem to indicate that 
 mighty movements and vast operations are continually 
 going on in the distant regions of the universe, upon 
 a scale of magnitude and grandeur which baffles the 
 human understanding. 
 
 More than two thousand five hundred nebulae have 
 already been observed ; and, if each of them contains 
 as many stars as the Milky Way,, several hundreds of 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 41 
 
 millions of stars must exist, even within that portion 
 of the heavens which lies open to our observations : 
 
 " O what a confluence of etherial fires, 
 
 From urns unnumber'd down the steep of heaven 
 
 Streams to a point, and empties on the sight* 11 
 
 Although the Milky Way is more or less visible at 
 all seasons of the year, yet it is seen to the best ad- 
 vantage during the months of July, August, Septem- 
 ber, and October. When Lyras is on, or near the 
 meridian, it may be seen stretching obliquely over the 
 heavens from northeast to southwest, gradually mov- 
 ing over the firmament in common with other con- 
 stellations. 
 
 Its form, breadth and appearance are various, in 
 different parts of its course. In some places it is 
 dense and luminous ; in others, it is scattered and 
 faint. Its breadth is often not more then five degrees ; 
 though sometimes it is ten or fifteen degrees, and even 
 twenty. In some places it assumes a double path, 
 but for the most part single. There are several other 
 nebulae in the heavens as large as the Milky Way, 
 not visible to the naked eye, which may exhibit the 
 phenomenon of a lucid zone to the planetary worlds 
 that may be placed within them." 
 
 Having quoted above, all the discoveries of astron- 
 omers respecting the nebulae,! am aware that the ob- 
 jection will here be strongly urged against the views 
 we have taken, that, since a proportion of their ex- 
 panse has been resolved into stars, the whole might, 
 therefore, be. But some of them, be it remembered, 
 which are apparently as much within the ken of the 
 3* 
 
2 ON TtiE ORIGIN OF TfcE GLOSfi. 
 
 telescope, as others, have remained irresolvable, and, 
 before the power of the best glasses that have ever 
 been invented or constructed, have presented nothing 
 but a hazy, vaporous luminousness, and, doubtless, 
 will forever continue to present such an appearance, 
 being in reality, utterly irresolvable. We must reason 
 from the facts which the discoveries of science have 
 actually given us and not from any conjectured facts 
 which some future scientific discoveries may peradven- 
 ture bring to light. 
 
 Now these irresolvable nebulae, which, by some 
 mysterious attraction are mostly drawn to a certain 
 section of the universe and there form a luminous belt 
 or zone of enormous circumference, may, as I have al- 
 ready observed, be the decomposed material of lost 
 systems, "out of which," as Herschell very properly 
 remarks in the extract, which we have quoted, " na- 
 ture," or I would rather say Deity, " elaborates new 
 suns and systems." It is also remarked in the same 
 extract that "several nebulae are formed by the disso- 
 lution of larger ones, and that many of this kind are 
 detaching themselves from the Milky Way." 
 
 Now this is precisely such a phenomenon as was 
 presented to the universe, if our theory be correct; at 
 the glorious spectacle of which " the morning stars 
 sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." 
 So much of the luminous nebula, or light, as would fill 
 the immense "void" where our system is located, was 
 " detached" in the language of the extract, and ordered 
 
i>N fHE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 4 
 
 into that space, where " darkness" dwelt before, and 
 was there ^'elaborated into a new sxm and system." 
 
 And now, before this theory, what becomes of the 
 -objection, upon which infidels have laid so much stress, 
 that light cou-ld not exist before the sun. It vanishes 
 in a moment. So then^ here upon the very ground, 
 where the objector to the authenticity and literality of 
 Genesis had proudly taken his -stand, confident of tri- 
 umph, the truth, never foiled-^mighty to conquer, 
 will prevail over him. This very objection itself can 
 be used against him with irresistible keenness, and, 
 <c like Damascus blades without their hilts all edge" 
 will wound him wherever he seizes hold of it. 
 
 The word in the original Hebrew, translated " light" 
 in the third verse of the first chapter of Genesis, is 
 different altogether from that translated " lights" in 
 the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth verses of the 
 same chapter, and which has reference to the sun, 
 moon and planets, created upon the fourth day. The 
 two have a different signification. The word trans- 
 lated " light" in the third verse is " aour" in Hebrew, 
 ;c phose" in Greek, and " lux" in Latin, which signi- 
 fies light in a state of diffusion rather than light in 
 B. body ; while that, translated "lights" in the four- 
 teenth, fifteenth and sixteenth verses, is " mart" in 
 Hebrew, "phostares" in Greek, and " luminares" in 
 Latin, which signify " enlighteners^ or light con- 
 densed into a focus, or collected into a body like the 
 sun. 
 
 Now all the supposed discrepancy of Genesis vanish- 
 
44 ON THE OHIGTN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 es in a moment before a proper understanding of its 
 real meaning. The light of the third verse is not an 
 "enlightener" in the sense of "mart" that is, not 
 light in a body, shedding from a concentrated focus, it& 
 rays upon other bodies or other matter, but simply 
 light in a diffused state, which it appears to me, can- 
 be no other than the floating nebulous masses of lum- 
 inous vapor or star-dust as I have supposed, and this 
 is the " aowr" with which the Omnifie Word filled 
 the " deep," where darkness before brooded, when 
 " God said, let there be light and there was light." 
 
 What now becomes of the luminous matter, thus 
 ordered into the space, occupied by our present Solar 
 System ? The very next verse will answer the ques- 
 tion, and bring us one important step nearer to the 
 consummation of our argument, and will, further, 
 prove conclusively, that we need no better guide, in 
 this discussion, than the word itself, properly under- 
 stood. 
 
 After God had said, " let there be light," and the 
 great " void" of the " deep" had been filled up with 
 it, he next does precisely what we should suppose he 
 would, if our theory be correct. " And God saw the 
 light that it was good" in amount and quality just 
 as he would have it, and just as he had ordered it, 
 " and God divided the light from the darkness." 
 Now what does this remarkable expression mean ; 
 for it has a definite meaning, and a meaning very dif- 
 ferent, I imagine, from that generally ascribed to it ? 
 Was a sun then created ? No. Was light collected 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE, 45 
 
 into a body ? No ; for that was not done until the 
 fourth day. But a separation is produced. Now, a 
 separation of what ? Why of " light 7 ' from " dark- 
 ness." But what does this singular expression mean ? 
 " Light" has no more communion or union with 
 " darkness/' in the common acceptation of the term 
 "darkness," than " Christ has with Belial." There 
 certainly can be no chemical combination whatever 
 between the two. simply in themselves considered. 
 For where light is, there is no darkness at all, and 
 can be none as the term darkness is generally un- 
 derstood. What, then, does this division this sep- 
 aration mean, for, although Moses has been sneered 
 at, as being ignorant and uriphilosophical, yet it may 
 eventually be satisfactorily proven,, that he was far 
 more philosophical than his arrogant deriders what, 
 then, I say, does it mean ? 
 
 Why, if the material, with which the " void" of 
 the "deep" was filled, was the nebulous vapour of the 
 skies, and, if that nebulous vapour was the material 
 of suns and worlds combined in chemical union by 
 conflagration, as we have supposed, then is there a 
 wonderful, most beautiful and philosophical appropri- 
 ateness in the language, and the critical acumen of 
 Moses, and, through him, of Eternal Wisdom, is ful- 
 ly justified and defended against the profane witicisms 
 and blackguard sarcasms of self-opinionated fools. 
 When " God divided the light from the darkness," 
 he simply dissolved the connection, or chemical union, 
 which conflagration had formed between the two, by 
 
i> Otf THE ORIGIN OF THE CLOSE. 
 
 abstracting the caloric from the dark opaque mate* 
 rial, with which it had been combined. What fol- 
 lowed 1 ? Why the vapour ceased to be vapour any 
 longer, as is always the case when caloric is abstract- 
 ed from it, and so the liberated material returned to 
 its native dark state, and was, of course, immensely 
 condensed from its gasseous condition. 
 
 That is the only " division" indicated by the pas- 
 sage, which I consider as at all appropriate, and I am 
 unwilling to dishonor the great Fountain of all wis- 
 dom and knowledge so much, as to concede for a mo- 
 ment, that he cannot use language quite as appropri- 
 ately as the very wisest and most learned of his puny 
 and short sighted revilers. The very original Hebrew 
 word, translated " divided," indicates just such a 
 chemical decomposition as we have supposed, for the 
 Lexicon, in giving its definitions of the word " divi- 
 ded" refers to this very verse, and construes it to 
 mean, " a separation of things mixed together or 
 united" So that the Mosaic history is carefully and 
 wisely guarded against the puny assaults and mali- 
 cious misinterpretations of its adversaries. 
 
 Was a sun now made of the caloric or light ? Not 
 yet. It was still " aour" still light unconcentrated 
 into a focus still light in diffusion. Almighty Pow- 
 er, for the wisest purposes for he does nothing in 
 vain, separated, doubtless, the light to one part of 
 the space, occupied by the solar system perhaps to 
 the centre still however, spread undoubtedly, judg- 
 ing from the testimony in the case, as well as from 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 47 
 
 geological data, over a vast area like a nebulae, as be- 
 fore, yet more intense being free caloric that is 
 being pure and uncombined and, then, he dis- 
 tributed the opaque material, thus separated and divi- 
 ded into planets, into other parts of that same space, 
 as he would have them located, at various and appro- 
 priate distances from the separated central light, 
 though as yet that light was not intense enough to 
 give them visibility by its reflection from their opacity. 
 
 And now what occurred ? Why, a revolution of 
 the earth upon its axis, and probably of all the other 
 planets, took place, which constituted the first " day" 
 and " night" or " the evening and the morning" of 
 the " first day ;" since it is a conceded point among 
 all philosophers, that light controls the movements of 
 the planetary worlds, and if now, it certainly must 
 have done it then. 
 
 Now I hold that that revolution, which constituted 
 the " first day" was a single, literal revolution of the 
 earth upon upon its axis, as I assumed at the outset 
 of my argument, and, here we now come to the sup- 
 posed discrepancy which is urged to exist between 
 Geology and the authenticity and strict literality of 
 Genesis ; which supposed discrepancy can, I believe, 
 upon correct and acknowledged scientific principles, 
 be fully shown to be no discrepancy at all. 
 
 At this progressive stage of creation, what now 
 was the condition of our earth, provided that our pre- 
 mises and consequent deductions from them be cor- 
 rect, when the caloric was abstracted, and its chemical 
 
48 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 union was dissolved by Almighty agency and it was 
 reduced from its aeriform condition ? This question 
 can be satisfactorily answered ~by imagining what it 
 would be, now, had its oceans, seas, lakes, fountains 
 and solid earth and rocks been all vaporized together 
 by an amount of heat sufficiently intense to do it, 
 and, then, had that caloric been abstracted by any 
 means from the resulting vapor, and been again con- 
 densed from its gasseous condition. As the water of 
 our globe far exceeds the amount of the land, the 
 material, when condensed from vapor would have 
 been precisely in that soft, plastic condition, in which 
 both Geology and Genesis shows it to have been at 
 its origin. Water and the more solid particles of the 
 material must have been in a commingled and fluid 
 mass, but in the lapse of time, the heavier particles 
 would have gradually settled down or ^gravitated to- 
 wards the centre of that mass, by degrees have be- 
 come solid there, and water, being the lighter ele- 
 ment, must have covered its entire surface to a con- 
 siderable depth, and constituted one unbroken ex- 
 panse of ocean. Instead of conflicting with true 
 science, then, how beautifully geological is the M"o- 
 saic history ; for, in this view of the suhject, it har- 
 monizes precisely with the whole testimony of Ge- 
 ology. 
 
 Now in this condition of things, what must have 
 been the effect of the "aour" or nebulous, uncon- 
 centrated light upon it, supposing it to have been as 
 far removed from the centre of that light, as it now is 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 49 
 
 from the centre of our present sun ? Let us make a 
 calculation. Suppose that that light was diffused over 
 a space in bulk five or six million times greater than- 
 that occupied by the sun- as it now appears, which, it 
 must be presumed was the case, both from the facts 
 of Geology and Genesis. Then, as light, by a 
 known and invariable law diverges according to the 
 squares of the distance in passing from a luminous 
 body, its effect, according to this hypothesis, in pro- 
 ducing the motions of the earth and the planets, must 
 have been several million times less intense upon them 
 than it is now. And what would have been the neces- 
 sary consequence ? Why, the movement of the earth 
 upon its axis must have been exceedingly slow and 
 scarcely perceptible. Provided that light was several 
 million times less intense upon the earth, as it must 
 necessarily have been, and, as light is, most certainly, 
 God's agent to govern and control all its motions, then 
 must it have been several million times longer in ma- 
 king its first rotation upon its axis, which constituted 
 its " first day," than it is at present. So then, up- 
 on this hypothesis an hypothesis actually and surely 
 built upon the facts recorded in Genesis, the first ro- 
 tation of the earth might have been just as many, and 
 was just as many ages as the facts of Geology indi- 
 cate, and yet have constituted but a single, literal 
 "evening and morning," which produced the " first 
 day " of creation. 
 
 After having, for the sake of the contrast, quoted 
 at some length, the vague notions, which have been 
 
50 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 entertained by the champions of Genesis, as well as 
 its antagonists, I will then show what must have neces- 
 sarily been the Geological formations of the " first 
 day," if our theory be correct. 
 
 The British Cyclopedia makes the following re- 
 marks upon the subjects under discussion, which I 
 will here insert for the sake of contrasting our views. 
 
 " The first step in the recovery of the earth from its 
 chaotic or desolate state, and the commencement of 
 the six days' creation, was the production of light. 
 This operation is expressed in the original with a beau- 
 tiful conciseness which even Longinus has admired, 
 and better rendered by Wicldiff than in our transla- 
 tion, " Be light : and light was." The light here men- 
 tioned, says a learned annotator, (Dr. Geddes,) may 
 readily be conceived to have been a partial incipient 
 light, which progressively penetrating the dense at- 
 mosphere that enveloped the sea-covered <3arth, as to 
 admit the clear and uninterrupted sight of the celes- 
 tial luminaries. The appearance of light three days 
 before what some conceive to have been the creation 
 of the sun has occasioned a difficulty, which indeed 
 is not easily resolved upon this hypothesis. Some, as 
 Dr. Taylor, in his " Scripture Divinity," and the au- 
 thor of " Nature Displayed," have adopted the notion 
 that light is a distinct substance from every other, and 
 that it exists independently of the sun and other lu- 
 minous bodies ; and that these serve merely to excite. 
 Light, say they, exists in a state of expansion or dif- 
 fusion through the whole universe, and at all times, 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 51 
 
 by night as well as by day ; and that, in our system, 
 the sun is the great exciter, by which the substance 
 of light is impelled, and becomes visible : and they 
 add, that if no substance of light previously existed 
 through the whole system, no light would appear, 
 though ten thousand suns should at once be placed 
 in our hemisphere. Hence it is argued, that the ele- 
 ment or substance of light was created on the first 
 day, and that the divine power alone might be the ex- 
 citer, which made the light appear for the three first 
 days of creation, until the sun, the instrumental ex- 
 citer was produced. " God," says the author, "was the 
 parent of light, and it was created by his almighty fiat, 
 before there was a sun to dart it over one part of the 
 earth, and a moon to reflect it on the other." (See 
 also Patrick on Genesis i. 3, &c.) But waiving any 
 remarks on this hypothesis ; it is more reasonable to 
 conceive, as others have done, that the light, which 
 was made to appear on the first day, was nothing more 
 nor less than an emanation from the same sun, pre- 
 viously existing, that still enlightens us ; and which, 
 though it had not yet appeared in its full glory, yet 
 shed sufficient light through the dense atmosphere to 
 make the surface of the terraqueous globe visible. 
 This was evidently the idea of Origen, and probably of 
 Basil also. The former affirms that no one of a sane 
 mind can imagine that there was an evening and 
 morning, during the three first days, without a sun : 
 the latter ascribes the darkness that covered the earth, 
 before the appearance of light, to the interposition of 
 a dense body." 
 
52 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 We shall, without stopping to comment at present, 
 continue our extracts upon the subjects under discus- 
 sion from the same authority. 
 
 "Many absurdities have been charged both by ancient 
 and modern writers, upon the Mosaic account of cre- 
 ation ; some of which, we conceive, might have been 
 precluded by restricting this account to the formation 
 of the creation of the sun, moon, and stars, which are 
 here mentioned merely as they bear relation to the 
 earth, and some for its accommodation. According to 
 this interpretation, the operation of the fourth day was 
 not the creation of the sun, moon, and stars, but that 
 of assigning to them their appropriate use, with res- 
 pect to the new formed earth. The whole passage de- 
 scribing this operation may be read from a collection 
 of different copies, in the following manner, (v. 14 
 18): "Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the 
 heavens, to illuminate the earth, and to distinguish the 
 day from the night ; let them, also, be the signals of 
 terms, times and years." "And let them be for lumi- 
 naries in the expanse of the heavens, to illuminate the 
 earth, (conjectured to be an interpolation.) and so it 
 was. For God having made the two great luminaries 
 (the greater luminary for the regulation of the day, and 
 the smaller luminary for the regulation of the night) 
 and the stars ; he displayed them in the expanse of the 
 heavens to illuminate the earth, to regulate the day 
 and the night, and to distinguish the light from the 
 darkness." Dr Geddes, in a note on v. 14, " let there 
 be luminaries," &c., observes, that it is not necessa- 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE,. 53 
 
 ry to suppose that these luminaries, were now first crea- 
 ted. The text does not say so, and there are many 
 strong reasons for believing the contrary. The objec- 
 tion that may seem to arise from v. 16, "God made 
 two great lights," &c. in our version has no force but 
 what it derives from theological systems, and an igno- 
 rance of the Hebrew idiom. To make is often equiv- 
 alent to appoint to a certain use : the luminaries, then, 
 may have long existed, and most probably did long 
 exist before this period ; although now, for the first 
 time, they shone forth in their full splendor on this 
 little world of man. The opinion above stated, was 
 maintained not only by the most learned of the Jew- 
 ish rabbins, but by the most learned of the Christian 
 writers. Origen affirms, as we have already observed, 
 that "no man of a sound mind can imagine, that there 
 were an evening and a morning, during the first three 
 days, without a sun." St. Basil ascribed the darkness 
 that covered the earth, before the appearance of light, 
 to the interposition of an opaque body between it and 
 the heavens. In this simple hypothesis, the whole 
 Hebrew cosmogony is clear and consistent. It is plain 
 that the light, if it emanated from the sun, or were ex- 
 cited by the sun, could not, even imperfectly, illumin- 
 ate more than one half of the world at once ; and while 
 that half was illuminated, the other would remain in 
 darkness ; and this is fitly called " separating the light 
 from the darkness," namely, by that ever-changing 
 boundary the " horizon." But in order to move this 
 boundary and to carry alternate light and darkness to 
 
54 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 every part of the globe, it was necessary either to make 
 the sun revolve gradually round the earth, cr the earth 
 to turn gradually round its own supposed axis toward 
 the sun ; which latter motion we now know to be the 
 fact. Light being thus separated from darkness by the 
 aforesaid ideal boundary, they would follow one anoth- 
 er without interruption, and produce successively those 
 vicissitudes which we call " day" and " night," two 
 other terms, only, for " light" and ''darkness ;" and the 
 former, being justly considered as the principal and 
 most precious portion of time, an entire revolution of 
 light and darkness was denominated "one day ;" the 
 " evening" being the term of " light," and the morn- 
 ing" the term of " darkness." 
 
 By the " six days," in which the work of creation 
 is said to have been performed, the generality of crit- 
 ics and commentators have understood, literally and 
 strictly, so many days. Some of them have understood 
 as many years ; some, in order to favor a slow pro- 
 gressive creation, have made one day a period of 1000 
 years ; and others, again, have thought the creation of 
 the world to have been instantaneous, and that the 
 number of days mentioned by Moses is intended only 
 to assist our conception, who are best able to think of 
 things in the order of succession. It has also been 
 supposed, that the distribution of the work of creation 
 into six days, followed by a day of rest, was designed 
 to enforce the observance of a weekly sabbath, both 
 as a day of religious worship, and as a day of solacing 
 repose to the human, and even to the brute creation. 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 55 
 
 Many among the ancients and moderns have ob- 
 jected to a literal interpretation of the cosmogony of 
 Moses. Whilst it has been a source of doubts and 
 difficulties to the best commentators, it has furnished 
 occasion of indecorous and misapplied raillery and rid- 
 icule to the enemies of revealed religion in all ages. 
 Eusebeus, by way of apology for the Mosaic account 
 of creation, says, (Presp. Evang. I. ii. 7,) " that it was 
 not Moses' intention to give a philosophical account 
 of the formation of the world, but to signify only, that 
 it did not exist of itself, or by chance, but was the 
 production of an all-wise and powerful Creator." 
 Cyril makes a similar reply to the scoffs of Julian, 
 " that Moses' view was to accommodate his story to 
 the ignorance of the Jews ; not to reason accurately 
 on the origin of things, but to show that there was one 
 God who created them all." (Julian, Oper. and Cyril 
 Contr. Vol. ii, 1, 3, p. 50, &e., Ed. Leps.) Philo, 
 (Cosmop. 1. i, torn, i, p. 123,) calls it a " piece of 
 rustic simplicity to imagine that God really employed 
 the labor of six days in the production of things ; " in 
 which he is followed by Origen, Austin, Ambrose, &c. 
 Accordingly, several ancient writers have adopted an 
 allegorical interpretation. Josephus, in the first chap- 
 ter of his "Jewish Antiquities," intimates, "that the 
 story of the creation was of the allegoric kind." Phi- 
 lo is evidently of the same opinion. Among the mod- 
 erns, and especially among those who have been re- 
 ferred to the class of sceptical writers, the same alle- 
 gorical interpretation has generally been adopted. 
 
56 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 SeeBlunt's "Oracles of Reason.;" Tolland's Pan- 
 theistican ; " and " Letters to lerena ; " Burnett's 
 Archaeologia," (1. ii, c. 7,9;) Middleton's "Essay 
 on the Allegorical and Literal Interpretation of the 
 Creation and Fall of Man," in his " works," vol. ii, 
 p. 123 126, and his " Examination of Sherlock's 
 discourse on Prophecy," in his " works," vol. iii, p. 
 192, &c. Dr. Burnett, in particular, maintains that 
 the Mosaic account was merely a fable, though, ac- 
 cording to this representation of it, a fable too absurd 
 for a wise man, and much more for an inspired per- 
 son to have formed. But surely there can be no rea- 
 son for admitting this hypothesis, it the literal inter- 
 pretation be capable of a philosophical explanation . 
 more especially as Moses does not inform us where 
 his fable ends, and where his true history begins, and 
 as Christ and his Apostles refer to the slory of the cre- 
 ation and that of the fall (see fall,) inseparably con- 
 nected with it, not as an allegory, but true history. 
 2 Cor. iv, 6 ; xi, 15. 1 Cor. xv, 45. Matt, xix, 4, 5. 
 1 Tim. ii, 13, 14. 1 Cor. xi, 9. Besides, it is not 
 very natural to suppose that God would so solemnly, 
 from Mount Sinai, make the circumstances of a fable 
 the foundation of the fourth commandment. Exod. 
 xx, 11. Heb. iv, 3, 4. 
 
 A late biblical critic (see Dr. Geddes' critical re- 
 marks, vol. 1,) rejects both the literal narration and 
 the pure allegory, and alleges that the Mosaic account 
 is a most beautiful mythos, or philosophical fiction, 
 contrived with great wisdom, dressed up in the garb 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 57 
 
 of real history, adapted to the shallow intellects of a 
 rude barbarous nation, and perfectly well calculated 
 for tlie great and good purposes for which it was con- 
 trived ; namely, to establish the belief of one supreme 
 God and Creator, in opposition to the various and 
 wild systems of idolatry which then prevailed ; and to 
 enforce the observance of a periodical day to be chiefly 
 devoted to the service of that Creator, and the sola- 
 cing repose of his creatures. In fact, says this wri- 
 ter, what stronger motive could be urged to preserve 
 a people from idolatry, than by showing, in so minute 
 a detail, that all the worship-objects of the surround- 
 ing nations were themselves but mere creatures, the 
 great celestial luminaries (most probably the first ob- 
 jects of adoration,) not excepted ? He had, no doubt, 
 particularly in view the idolatry of Egypt ; where, as 
 Bassent elegantly says, " Tout etoit Dieu, excepte Dieu 
 meme ; et cete Terre, qu'il avoit fait, poury manifes- 
 ter sa gloire, sembloit etre devenue un temple d'- 
 Idoles." (Disc. sur. 1. Hist. Univ.) Beside the sun* 
 moon, and stars, they adored the fishes of the sea - 
 the birds of the air, the animals of the earth, and even 
 the herbs of the field, radishes, leeks and onions. 
 " O sanctas gentes : quibus haec nascuntur in hortis 
 Numina! " 
 
 It was then of the utmost importance to persuade 
 the Israelites, who had during their stay in Egypt, 
 been more or less contaminated by those idolatrous 
 rites, that every plant of the field, fish of the sea, bird 
 of the air, and beast of the earth ; the whole visible 
 4 
 
58 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 world, in short, was the production of a superior Being, 
 to whom alone divine worship could be due. In par- 
 ticular by the great quadrupeds and the great sea-mon- 
 sters, it is supposed that he alluded in the former, to 
 the worship of Apis in the form of a bull, and in the 
 latter to a crocodile, which, in some parts of Egypt, 
 was held in the greatest veneration. The hypothesis, 
 says Dr. Geddes, of a mere partical mythos, histori- 
 cally adapted to the senses and intellects of a rude 
 unphilosophical people, will remove every obstacle, 
 obviate every objection, and repel every sarcasm ; 
 whether it came from a Celsus or Prophyry, a Julian 
 or a Frederick, a Boulanges or a Bolingbroke. 
 
 As we have already exceeded the proper bounda- 
 ries of a single lecture. I shall defer to my next, such 
 remarks as the last quotations may suggest. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF OUR GLOBE ASTRONOMICALLY AND GEOLOG- 
 ICALLY CONSIDERED, AND THE MOSAIC HISTORY OF IT 
 JUSTIFIED AND DEFENDED BY SCIENCE. 
 
 Not having had space in my last lecture for com- 
 ments upon the closing extracts, which I quoted for 
 the sake of reviewing some of the singular opinions 
 expressed in them upon the subjects under discussion, 
 I will here recur to them again. From them it will 
 be forcibly apparent, that learned men will sometimes 
 entertain and give utterance to most consummate phi- 
 losophical nonsense, so to speak, when struggling to 
 account for difficulties, without the proper data, from 
 which to reason, and such a knowledge of facts and 
 analogies, as is indispensable to guide one correctly 
 through long chains of intricate deduction to legiti- 
 mate conclusions. 
 
 The idea expressed in one of the extracts, that, 
 " if 10,000 suns should, at once, be placed in our 
 hemisphere," " no light would appear," " unless the 
 substance of light previously existed through the 
 whole system " is a rare specimen of '-'confusion worse 
 confounded " the grossest solecism a perfect con- 
 tradiction in terms, which no scholar would perpetrate, 
 unless he had got into an inextricable dilemma, and 
 knew no other way of getting out again. It is, in 
 
60 Olf THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 fact, saying that suns can exist without shedding 
 their rays, which is the same as asserting the self evi- 
 dent contradiction in terms, that light can exist with- 
 out light a most heathenish blunder. How infinite- 
 ly better it is to meet acknowledged difficulties fairly 
 and boldly, as we find them, and attempt to solve 
 them just as we find them, upon rational and com- 
 mon sense principles, instead of perpetrating such 
 puerile inconsistencies, or resorting to the miserable 
 subterfuge of sophistry. 
 
 But I must defer any further comment upon the 
 various unphilosophical opinions contained in those 
 quotations, until we come to that part of the present 
 lecture, where we speak of the creations of the fourth 
 day, remarking, however, in the present connection, 
 that, before the explanation we have made, many of 
 the difficulties, which have perplexed philosophers 
 and have environed the subject, will vanish, and there 
 be no necessity for resorting to absurd hypotheses to 
 obviate those difficulties. 
 
 We now come naturally to the consideration of the 
 geological formations of the " first day," or to what 
 is technically denominated, the " Cambrian or Gray- 
 wake and the Silurian systems," which constituted 
 the Primary fossiliferous period. Was the condi- 
 tion of things, which our theory supposed to have ex- 
 isted during the first day of creation, congenial to the 
 production of all those fossiliferous remains and geo- 
 logical phenomena, which the primary period reveals, 
 for if not, it cannot be sustained, however plausible, 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 61 
 
 since, as we have assumed, the facts of Revelation 
 and Geology must of necessity, harmonize, emanating 
 as they do, from the same source or authorship ? Let 
 us examine the subject and decide this question ac- 
 cording to the evidence, which may come before us. 
 
 1st. The organic remains of the primary fossilifer- 
 ous period are marine animals and plants, which agree 
 so far, entirely with our view of the oceanic sub- 
 mersion of our globe during the first day. 
 
 2d. Those organic remains were the zoophytic 
 tribes among the animals, and the flowerless plants 
 and algae, chiefly or entirely marine, among the vege- 
 table classes. Now these, both animal and vegetable, 
 were the very feeblest forms of life, but one slight 
 progression from the condition of absolute inanimate 
 substances. 
 
 Nearly the whole zoophytic tribes, in every variety 
 of their organization, were exceedingly sluggish and 
 almost inert, scarcely moving from the spot in which 
 they were born during the whole period of their ex- 
 istence. 
 
 Now let us apply the test of these facts to our the- 
 ory. Was there aught in our supposed primary con- 
 dition of things, calculated to sustain and foster such 
 feeble life? Most certainly. For if animals and veg- 
 etables require caloric to sustain them, as no philoso- 
 pher who understands the subject will deny, and if 
 the vigor and energy of that life is, within certain lim- 
 ited boundaries, in proportion to the amount of calor- 
 ic, as is equally undeniable, then is there a definite 
 
62 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 reason in our theory, why the primary animal and veg- 
 etable organizations should have been so sluggish and 
 of such a character. The light being, according to 
 our hypothesis, several million times less intense upon 
 the globe than it is now, would, of course, in amount, 
 be precisely calculated to foster and sustain just such a 
 feeble race of animals and vegetables as existed du- 
 ring the period of the first day. Indeed, had the light 
 been any more intense than it then was, it is presum- 
 able that such organizations could not have existed 
 exactly in the form they then existed, but must, doubt- 
 less, have perished, and that is very probably the reas- 
 on why they became, in a great measure, extinct, 
 when light became more intense or concentrated. 
 
 3d. There is abundant evidence, derived from the 
 acute investigations of geologists, that the various or- 
 ganizations of this period, which constituted its fossil- 
 iferous petrifactions, required a perfect quiescence of 
 the waters in which they were generated. Some of 
 the champions of the Mosaic history " maintain," I 
 am aware, " that the fossiliferous rocks of the primary 
 formation were not the result of slow deposition and 
 consolidation," but might have been deposited by the 
 deluge of Noah. This supposition is not, however, 
 sustained by the facts in the case, for there must have 
 been a violent and tumultuous action of the waters of 
 the globe during that remarkable convulsion, " for the 
 ocean must have flowed over the land in strong cur- 
 rents ; and, when it retired, urged on as it was " by 
 the resistless pressure of a gale, similar currents must 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 63 
 
 have prevailed, which must have entirely precluded 
 the possibility of such a deposition of organic remains, 
 as Geology reveals, since they, evidently, required a 
 quiescent location. They were, doubtless, deposited, 
 then, during some more favorable period, long pre- 
 vious to the Noachian deluge. 
 
 Now it is worthy of consideration, whether our the- 
 ory concerning the condition of the earth during the 
 first day, would not be more favorable in producing 
 that quiescent state of the waters which must have 
 existed throughout the long lapse of time required for 
 the deposition of the fossiliferous rocks of the primary 
 formation. We think it would, and for these reasons : 
 
 1st. The ocean could not have been agitated then 
 as it is now, by the rapid rotation of the earth upon 
 its axis every twenty-four hours, causing, of necessity, 
 changes of temperature and windy currents. 
 
 2d. Another very important reason why the waters 
 of the ocean must have been quiescent is, the fact that 
 there was no revolution of the earth around the sun, 
 because there was, as yet, no sun. We know that 
 the earth now moves in its orbit at the mean rate of 
 sixty-eight thousand miles in an hour. Being whirled 
 at such prodigious velocity through space, there must, 
 of necessity, be produced some agitation among the 
 fluids upon its surface, either by the rapidity of its 
 motion, or the change of temperature and variable cur- 
 rents of wind consequent upon it. 
 
 3d. A quiescent condition of the water must have 
 been the result of another fact. There were, undoubt- 
 
64 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE, 
 
 edly, no tides then as there is now, since the influence 
 of the moon, in the production of those tides could 
 not have been the same that it is at present, as it ro- 
 tated not around the earth, and reflected not tiie light 
 of the sun as it now does. There could then have 
 been no oceanic currents produced by this cause. 
 
 4th. But the most important reason of all, and 
 one of itself sufficient to account for the perfect qui- 
 escent condition of the waters at the geological period 
 of the deposition of the fossiliferous rocks, is, the fact 
 that there was no atmosphere, and of course no wind, 
 and therefore, no currents produced by wind. 
 
 But here, undoubtedly, will be urged a serious ob- 
 jection to our theory. It is this. If ? as we have as- 
 sumed, the earth might have been as many thousand 
 years as the primary geological formations indicate, in 
 performing its first rotation on its axis, that half of it 
 which must have been consequently turned, for ages, 
 away from the light, must, the objector will strongly 
 urge have been congealed to an immense ice-berg. 
 But he must recollect that, in drawing this conclusion f 
 he is reasoning from false premises, without the data 
 of facts to sustain his argument. He reasons, for in- 
 stance, from the present condition of our globe, which 
 Is unwarrantable. Having ascertained that the oceans 
 of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, when turned away 
 from the sun for six months of the year, become con- 
 gealed to ice-bergs, he concludes that the same must 
 be the case with the earth under the circumstances- 
 which we have supposed to exist. But he must recoi- 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 65 
 
 lect that there is no parallel between the two cases. 
 There was then no rotation of the earth upon its axis 
 in twenty four hours as now there was no revolu- 
 tion yearly around the sun to produce a variation of 
 temperature from heat to cold or from cold to heat 
 there was no atmosphere to lower the temperature by 
 currents of wind, or to carry off the caloric by evap- 
 oration. Besides, having been recently reduced to 
 its plastic condition, it was less dense than it is now, 
 and, therefore, more pervious to heat. Now being in 
 this perfect quiescent, and almost immoveable con- 
 dition without any medium by which caloric could 
 have been carried off, the whole mass of waters must 
 have been so completely pervaded by it, that its tem- 
 perature must have been nearly equal on all sides of 
 the globe, and the half of it which was turned away 
 from the light, could not, therefore, have been frozen 
 by any means to an ice-berg, as the objector supposes. 
 
 Now here existed an order of things, it seems to me, 
 precisely, and most admirably adapted to generate, 
 during the supposed long period which intervened be- 
 tween the creation and the second day, all those zo- 
 ophytic and other forms of feeble life, which followed 
 each other in a succession of generation after genera- 
 tion, until their remains were consolidated into the 
 fossiliferous rocks of the Graywake and Silurian sys- 
 tems, to the depth of over sixteen thousand feet. 
 
 Having no data, whereby to form a correct judg- 
 ment as to the rapidity of the successive generations 
 of those primary forms of existence, no geologist is 
 *4 
 
66 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 able to decide positively as to the length of the period 
 required for the production of the primary fossilifer- 
 ous stratifications. But one thing, I think, is certain 
 that we have here a perfect solution of the appa- 
 rent discrepency, which has seemed to exist between 
 the Mosaic history thus far considered, and Geology. 
 Whether the chronological data of the scientific, 
 with regard to the length of time required for the ge- 
 ological formations of this period, are correct or not, 
 remains yet to be proven. For one, I am inclined to 
 think their orthodoxy extremely problematical. Since 
 commencing my investigations of this subject, with 
 reference to a publication of their results, I have, in 
 the course of my reading, met with some novel and 
 highly interesting calculations upon the subject of 
 these data, with which I have been much pleased, and 
 which are contained in a work entitled, " Letters on 
 Geology," by David Christy, Esq., who has made ex- 
 tensive geological researches in Ohio, and in the west- 
 ern sections of the Union. I will here insert his re- 
 marks upon this subject entire. 
 
 " There are many of my friends who are unwilling to 
 think favorably of the study of geology, because of its 
 supposed infidel tendencies. These suspicions have been 
 strengthened by the writings of a few doctors of divinity, 
 who have undertaken to reconcile certain geological spec- 
 ulations with the Mosaic account of the creation ; or, ra- 
 ther, who have adopted a new rule of interpretation to 
 suit the geological theories. 
 
 " The vast thickness of the formations of fossil bearing 
 rocks, some of which are almost wholly composed of pe- 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 67 
 
 trifled sea shells, have led some to suppose that many mil- 
 lions of years would be required for the propagation and 
 accumulation of such immense quantities of organic re- 
 mains, or beings, once possessing life. 
 
 " The common Bible chronology gives 1656 years from 
 the creation to the deluge. Doubts, however, exist, as to 
 the accuracy of this computation, and some prefer that of 
 the Septuagint, which allows about 2000 years to have 
 passed away before that period. 
 
 " Geological researches have shown, that a period of 
 comparative repose existed in the beds of the ancient 
 oceans, of sufficient duration to allow of the formation of 
 a vast thickness of rocky strata. [See Letter to M. de 
 VerneuiL] These strata were produced by the influx of 
 sedimentary matter into the seas from the rivers and coasts, 
 and by the propagation of the shells and corals existing 
 in the ocean, and which, in the process, were buried by 
 the sediment, and afterward petrified. The strata of rocks 
 formed during this period are the Silurian, Devonian, 
 and Carboniferous formations. Their average thickness 
 will not exceed five miles in depth, and the area covered 
 by them will not equal more than one half of the land now 
 above the level of the ocean. 
 
 " Now the problem to be solved is this : How long would 
 it take the causes in operation, in the earlier period of the 
 world's history ; that is, the natural increase of the sea 
 shells then living, together with the sedimentary matter 
 brought in constantly by rivers from the uplands and by 
 tides from the coasts, to produce an extent of rocks equal 
 to the formations above mentioned ? 
 
 " I have this object in view, in instituting the inquiry. 
 I wish to shew that there is no certainty in any geological 
 estimates when applied to time. The reason why I make 
 
63 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE, 
 
 such a positive declaration, is because we cannot form any 
 just conception of the extent of the agencies which were 
 in operation in the production of the earlier secondary 
 rocks. And we know about as little of the rate at which 
 such formations may now be accumulating in the depths 
 of the sea. 
 
 " I shall pass by the quantity of sedimentary matter re- 
 ceived by the ocean from the lands, and base my estimates 
 upon the shells alone. The formations above named, I 
 will suppose to have been produced between the creation 
 and the deluge, a period, say, of 2000 years. The inves- 
 tigations in these formations have discovered near three 
 thousand species. There are but few of these shells which 
 occupy a less space than one tenth of a cubic inch, and 
 some of them will equal a cubic inch, and others much 
 larger. Marine shell-fish are known to propagate very 
 abundantly indeed, nearly equal to the herring. 
 
 " To obtain the information I desired, I addressed a note- 
 to the Professor of Mathematics in Miami University, T, 
 J. MATTHEWS, and have received the following reply: . 
 
 Question. Suppose 3000 species of animals, one 
 pair of each species to commence bearing young after one 
 year, to continue bearing yearly for the ten. following years r 
 and all their progeny to continue bearing according to the 
 same law, the annual rate of increase being ten for each 
 pair, what will be their number at the end of 2000 years ; 
 and how many cubic miles (if they be supposed to be shell 
 fish,) will they occupy, supposing each one to be one tenth 
 of a cubic inch in magnitude ? 
 
 The object of this question, I understand to be, to as- 
 certain whether the vast amount of fossil remains, disclo- 
 sed by geological researches, can be accounted for, by any 
 reasonable rate of increase, within a period of 2000 years. 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE- 69 
 
 * In order to meet this object, it is not necessary to cal- 
 culate the result of the above question, by including all 
 the particulars there given. I shall, therefore, state the 
 question as follows : 
 
 * Suppose one female to bear^zt'e young for one year, 
 and then cease bearing, each one of the progeny bearing 
 according to the same law for 2000 years, what will be 
 their number? &c. 
 
 4 It is well known that the expression for the sum of a 
 geometrical series, is, 
 
 N = . r -l 
 r 1 
 
 when N. is the number, or sum of the series, r, the ratio? 
 or rate of increase, and n, the number of terms. 
 For the present question, this formula becomes, 
 
 2000 2000 
 
 r 51 61 
 
 omitting the unit in the numerator as inconsiderable ; there- 
 fore, 
 
 log. N = 2000. log. 5- log. 4. 
 Therefore, log. N =1397.33794, and 
 
 N = 21775000, &c., to 1398 places of figures. 
 1 If each occupy one tenth of a cubic inch of space, 
 the number contained in a cubic mile will be expressed in 
 sixteen places of figures ; dividing the whole number of 
 shells by the number contained in a cubic mile, will give 
 the number of cubic miles occupied by the whole number. 
 Now a number consisting of 1398 places of figures, divi- 
 ded by a number consisting of sixteen places of figures, 
 gives a number containing 1382 places of figures. To 
 write this number down would require nearly one page of 
 
70 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 foolscap paper ; to numerate it would be next to impossi- 
 ble ; to conceive of it would be quite impossible. 
 
 1 If we wish to ascertain the cubic space in cubic miles ; 
 that is, the length, breadth, and height, of the whole space, 
 in linear miles, considering it as a cube, or having equal 
 sides, divide 1398 by 3, and the quotient, 466, is the num- 
 ber of places of figures representing the miles in each 
 side. Now a billion is expressed by ten figures ; divide 
 466 by 10, and 46 will be the number of repetitions of 
 billions ; that is, the number of miles in each side, will be 
 billions of billions of billions of billions, repeated 46 times. 
 
 1 Of course the above calculation takes no account of 
 the philosophical question as to how much of the shelly 
 matter of one generation may be redissolved, and go to 
 the formation of succeeding generations. The question is 
 answered in its strict and literal sense, supposing each in- 
 dividual to be formed of matter furnished by the great re- 
 servoir of the ocean, independent of all others.' 
 
 " Having received the above lucid statement, and its re- 
 sults having been much beyond what I conceived would 
 be the bulk in the time specified, I addressed another note 
 to the Professor, asking him to state the number of cubic 
 miles in the earth, and its comparative size to the cubic 
 miles in the above calculation. His reply follows : 
 
 *The diameter of the earth being 7912 miles, the num- 
 ber of cubic miles contained in it, is 259,333,411,700, a- 
 bout, and the number of such globes contained in the space 
 occupied by the shells would be expressed by 1382 12= 
 1370 places of figures.' 
 
 " It should be particularly noticed that this estimate takes 
 but one species, instead of three thousand, the true num- 
 ber ; that one tenth of a cubic inch is much below the 
 average size ; and, also, that an increase of five for one 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 71 
 
 year only, instead of, perhaps, one hundred for ten years, 
 reduces the estimate low enough to satisfy any one. And 
 yet the results are astounding. The cubic miles in the 
 earth are expressed by twelve figures. The natural in- 
 crease of one species alone, at the rate above stated, in 
 2000 years, produces a mass of matter which would make 
 as many billions of worlds, as large as the earth, as is ex- 
 pressed, not by 12 places of figures, which is the size of 
 the earth, but by 1370 places of figures." 
 
 We have dwelt minutely upon the fossiliferous for- 
 mations of the primary period, because here, mainly, 
 the Mosaic account of creation has been supposed to 
 conflict with the facts of Geology. Having done so, 
 there will be no necessity for dwelling, with such mi- 
 nuteness, upon the history of the remaining days, 
 we shall therefore consider them much more briefly. 
 
 The next step in the process of creation was the 
 production, by the Almighty, of the expanse, or at- 
 mosphere, which surrounds the Earth. This must 
 have vastly changed the previous condition of the 
 globe. There was now a medium for evaporation, 
 and a new element, upon which the vapors could be 
 borne and the clouds formed, which existed not dur- 
 ing the first day. The waters of the globe must now 
 have become more agitated than before, the tem- 
 perature of the atmosphere, being necessarily varia- 
 ble, must have begun to produce currents of wind, 
 these must have disturbed the former quiescence 
 of the water and the consequence must have been 
 the extinction of many of the previous forms of life, 
 
72 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 which accords exactly with the discovered facts of 
 Geology. But the places of these extinguished ex- 
 istences were supplied by the creation of new orders 
 of being, adapted to the changed condition of the 
 globe. 
 
 Another important result was produced by the 
 creation of this new element. As, according to com- 
 putation, the atmosphere extends forty-five miles 
 above the earth, it became a medium to sustain a vast 
 amount of vapor, which was now to be separated 
 from the waters of the Ocean, so that their amount 
 might, thereby, be lessened, and the dry land the 
 sooner appear. 
 
 The period of this creation constituted the even- 
 ing and morning of the " second day" which was a 
 literal revolution of the earth upon its axis, but yet 
 another immense period of time one as long as 
 Geology indicates, for not yet was the light gather- 
 ed into the focal intensity of a sun, although that light 
 might have been much more concentrated than du- 
 ring the first day, which the fossiliferous formations 
 of this period indicate, and it would, therefore, have 
 been shorter than the first day though very long. 
 
 , On the third day the waters of the Globe were col- 
 lected together into separated oceans, seas, and lakes, 
 and the dry land was made to appear, very probably 
 by the upheaving of its submerged surface into heights 
 or mountains, by the action of subterranean fires or 
 chemical agencies, which had been generated during 
 the immense period of the two previous days, leaving 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 73 
 
 corresponding cavities for the water. And now grass, 
 and trees, and fruit, were produced, but the light was 
 not yet formed into a sun, although the geological for- 
 mations of this period indicate a still greater conden- 
 sation than heretofore. 
 
 Now the caviler may affect to scofY at the gradual 
 condensation of light, but if he does he scoffs also at 
 some of the well attested discoveries of Astronomy. 
 Sir William Herschel draws the conclusion, from cer- 
 tain appearances in the heavens, that the detached 
 masses of nebulse are, in some cases, assuming, very 
 slowly, but surely, a more and more globular and con- 
 centrated form, as though new suns and systems were 
 in the process of formation. 
 
 On the fourth day God completely condensed the 
 light into the focal intensity of our present sun. Then, 
 for the first time, the Moon, and Venus, and Mars, 
 and Jupiter, and Saturn, and all the other planets of 
 the Solar System, which had before been invisible, 
 on account of the feebleness of the light, flashed out 
 into visibility as though they had for the first time 
 been created, and commenced their diurnal and an- 
 nual revolutions which have since been maintained 
 with such perfect and undeviating regularity in ac- 
 cordance with those physical laws which were then 
 established by the Almighty. 
 
 Having thus passed through with our examination 
 of the progress of the first four days of creation and 
 considered the effect of a gradual condensation of 
 light into the focal intensity of our sun, we are willing 
 
74 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 to contrast our views upon this subject with the 
 various and conflicting opinions which appear in the 
 quotations we have made from the British Cyclope- 
 dia. Upon our hypothesis we need not make the re- 
 ply that Cyril makes to the scoffs of Julian " that Mo- 
 ses' view was to accommodate his story to the igno- 
 rance of the Jews ; not to reason accurately on the 
 origin of things," nor need we like Philo call it a 
 " piece of rustic simplicity to imagine that God real- 
 ly employed six days in the production of things ;" nor 
 need we yet with Dr. Geddes consider " that the Mo- 
 saic account was a most beautiful mythos or philoso- 
 phical fiction." For we think that any unprejudiced 
 mind must conclude that upon this hypothesis the phi- 
 losophy of Moses was quite as sound and rational as 
 that of a Newton, a Locke, or any other sage that 
 has existed or written since his day. 
 
 And now, as the earth had previously been pre- 
 pared for it, and as the light had become sufficiently 
 intense to produce vegetation, God created upon the 
 fifth day, all the various races of beasts, birds, and 
 fishes, which now exist upon the globe, and which, 
 according to Geology, took the place of many of those 
 modes of organic life which had previously existed, 
 and which had, one after another, become extinct, as 
 the several successive changes occurred in the pro- 
 gressive organization of the earth, which extinguished 
 forms of life constituted the remainder of those fossil- 
 iferous depositions existing in the rocky stratifica- 
 tions of the globe not heretofore considered in our ar- 
 gument. 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 75 
 
 To crown the whole amazing work of creation, on 
 the sixth day God completed his work by the creation 
 of Man in his own image, whom he endowed with 
 rational faculties and constituted Lord of this new and 
 beautiful province of his universal empire. 
 
 I have carried out my argument thus far to show 
 that Genesis may be both authentic and literal, and 
 yet most perfectly harmonize with all the known facts 
 of Geology, and I must here express my deep and un- 
 wavering conviction that in no other way can they 
 possibly be so harmonized. 
 
 One thing is apparent from our investigation of this 
 subject, which we will notice before closing. Grad- 
 ual progression was the order of creation, and seems 
 to be the established order of all God's works. He 
 has thus shown us that he accomplishes his purposes 
 by means, and that, in the production of every event, 
 there is chained together a certain train of dependent 
 antecedents and consequents. As we have seen in 
 creation, by a certain progressive process of six days, 
 the Almighty brought into existence that part of the 
 material universe with which we are conversant. The 
 spirit of God moved, as we suppose, with energizing 
 power upon the nebulous masses of the sky. At the 
 command of the Eternal, light was poured upon the 
 formless " void " of the " deep." The dark, chaotic 
 mass of material substance was separated to its ap- 
 pointed destination. From the basis of that mass of 
 matter there arose, then, by degrees, into beauty, or- 
 der, and magnificent vastness, this globe and her sis- 
 
76 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 ter planets. The nether firmament was spread out 
 between the clouds and the deep, and the buoyant at- 
 mosphere was formed to sustain the floating vapors : 
 visibility was given to the dry land, arid the hills 
 and valleys and landscapes were clothed with blos- 
 soms and fruits and vegetation. The sun was, on the 
 fourth day, collected together into one mass of burn- 
 ing glory, and hung out like an immense ocean of fire 
 in the vault of the sky. The moon and the stars 
 were located around it, so as to reflect its radiance 
 with diminished intensity. Streamlets, rivers, and 
 oceans were filled with living substances. .Flocks and 
 herds were "scattered over a thousand hills :" and 
 finally, to crown the whole, Man, the almost angelic 
 proprietor of this uncursed, beauteous, green earth, 
 was introduced into the fragrant groves and arbors of 
 Eden. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE TRUTH OF THE NOACHIAN DELUGE PROVED BY HIS* 
 TORY, ASTRONOMY, GEOLOGY AND REASON. 
 
 Our investigations have, thus far, in this series of 
 lectures, been confined to that grand and stupendous 
 event, the progressive and wonderful origination, by 
 the great Omnipotent, of this Globe and its associat- 
 ed solar system. Assuming, at the outset, the phil- 
 osophical and rational ground, that, as God is the 
 author of nature as well as of revelation, every known 
 fact of physical science is, therefore, of necessity, just 
 as true, and just as worthy of credence, as every re- 
 corded fact of revalation, I undertook, by a chain of 
 deductions from certain premises, sustained by anal- 
 ogical allusions and inferences, derived from physical 
 science, to defend the truth of the latter, from the 
 virulent assaults of scepticism, without denying any 
 one of the well attested facts of the form.er, and en- 
 deavoured, as much as possible, to harmonize the two 
 completely, as they do most, assuredly harmonize in re- 
 ality. How far I have been able to succeed in that 
 attempt, I shall now leave to the judgment of the 
 candid and unprejudiced reader. There is yet before 
 me another important field of controversy. Not onlv 
 have the bitter enemies of truth and advocates of sub- 
 
78 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 tie error attempted to sneer at, and bring into ridicule 
 the Mosaic history of the origin of the earth and the 
 solar system, but they have entered another enclosure 
 of consecrated ground, and entrenched themselves 
 there, and have there opened their batteries against the 
 authenticity of revelation, and have, from their en- 
 trenchments, hurled at the champions and defenders 
 of truth their darts, dipped in a venom more virulent 
 than the " poisons of asps." Into this enclosure of 
 consecrated ground we now purpose to enter, and to 
 dispute, with them, its occupancy, and bring to bear 
 upon their position weapons of celestial temper, drawn 
 from the great armory of truth, both natural and 
 revealed, and attempt to break up the entrenchments 
 which they imagine so impregnable, and, if possible, 
 dislodge them from that ground, and spike the batte- 
 ries in which they have trusted. This we shall attempt 
 to do, not from any vain confidence in the power of 
 our own arm, for, of that we are diffident. There is 
 no strength in that, unassisted by the great fountain of 
 all strength. But we shall do it, impelled by that un- 
 limited confidence, which we have heretofore express- 
 ed, in the immovable stability and everlasting endu- 
 rance of that eternal proposition, which is every where 
 enstamped, in brilliant letters of fire, upon the pillars 
 of God's throne - " Truth is mighty and will pre- 
 vail." 
 
 On this ground of controversy, upon which we are 
 entering, we find marshaled, in hostile array, the same 
 champions, who head the two great divisions of the 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 79 
 
 forces of error and opposition to truth, whom we no- 
 ticed in the commencement of this series of Lectures. 
 While the champions of one division deny, altogeth- 
 er, the authenticity of the history of the deluge, those, 
 who head the other, with equal subtlety and strenu- 
 ousness, deny its literality, and so both unite in the 
 common purpose of undermining and bringing into 
 disrepute the Mosaic narration of that wonderful event. 
 
 In opposition to their opinions and arguments, we 
 shall assume the position, that the account of the del- 
 uge, contained in the Bible, is both authentic and 
 strictly literal that, in the sublime and graphic lan- 
 guage of inspiration, " the windows of Heaven were," 
 actually "opened, and the fountains of the great deep" 
 were actually " broken up " that it actually rained 
 " forty days and forty nights " that the deluge, ac- 
 tually, so prevailed over the earth, as to overflow and 
 overtop the "highest mountains" of the earth "fif- 
 teen fathoms," and that, by the grand and awful cat- 
 astrophe, and by this terrible exhibition of divine dis- 
 pleasure against the impurities of the antediluvian 
 race, every form of animated existence upon the Globe 
 was actually destroyed actually swallowed up in the 
 devouring vortex of the mighty flood except those, 
 who floated safely in the ark, over the billowy surface 
 of the ocean enwrapped earth. 
 
 For the sake of perspicuity, I shall arrange my ar- 
 gument and defence of this position, under the follow- 
 ing general heads. { 
 
 1st. A general deluge is proven by the almost 
 
80 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 universal traditionary testimony in favor of such an 
 event, which prevails in the archives and mythologi- 
 cal fables of all heathen and barbarous nations. 
 
 2d. There is positive proof in certain facts of as- 
 tronomy, that some such remarkable event or convul- 
 sion has formerly occurred, and that too, since the 
 organization of our Globe in its present form. > 
 
 3d. There is abundant proof in Geology that some 
 violent deluge of waters, similar to that described in 
 the Mosaic history, has once prevailed over the whole 
 earth. 
 
 4th. In harmony with every physical fact and law, 
 reason unites her important testimony with science, 
 to establish the undoubted certainty of such an event 
 as a universal deluge. 
 
 We will here commence our argument in favor of 
 the authenticity and literality of the scriptural history 
 of the deluge, in the order of those propositions, 
 which we have laid down for our guidance in this dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 . t 
 
 1st. Then, a general deluge is proven by the al- 
 most universal traditionary testimony in favor of such 
 an event, which prevails in the archives and mythol- 
 ogical fables of all heathen and barbarous nations. 
 
 In proof of this proposition we shall take the liber- 
 ty of quoting largely from the British Cyclopedia, 
 where u large amount of traditionary and mythological 
 testimony has been gleaned from the annals of many 
 nations, and condensed into a limited compass. 
 
 "The account given by Moses of this catastrophe is 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 81 
 
 confirmed by the concurrent testimonies of several of 
 the most ancient writers and nations in the world ; 
 and as the possibility of it cannot be denied, we need 
 not recur to the hypothesis of an ingenious biblical 
 (but eccentric and paradoxical,) critic, (see Gedde's 
 Crit. Rern. p. 72,) who suggests, " that a good deal of 
 the fabulous is mixed with the history of Noah's 
 flood." Although the history of this event has been 
 varied, and modelled according to the notions and 
 traditions that prevailed in different countries and 
 different ages, yet the ground-work was always estab- 
 lished on the foundation of truth ; and the event was 
 for a long time universally commemorated. Josephus 
 who seems to have been a person of extensive knowl- 
 edge, and well acquainted with the history of nations, 
 says, that this great occurrence was to be met with in 
 the writings of all persons who treated of the first 
 ages. He mentions Berosus of Chaldea, Hierony- 
 mus of Egypt, who wrote concerning the antiquities 
 of Phoenicia ; also Mnaseas, Abydenus, Melon and 
 Nicholaus Damascerius, as writers, by whom it was 
 recorded ; and adds, that it was taken notice of by 
 many others. From Berosus, a Chaldean by birth, 
 who lived in the time of Alexander the great, we 
 learn, that Chronus or Saturn appeared to Xisuthrus, 
 the tenth or last of the Chaldean kings, in a dream, 
 and warned him, that on the 1 5th of the month Des- 
 ius, mankind would be destroyed by a flood; he there- 
 fore commanded him to write down the original, in- 
 termediate state, and end of all things, and bury the 
 
82' ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 writings underground in Sippara, the City of the sun j 
 he likewise directed him to build a ship, and go into- 
 it, with his relations, and dearest friends, having first 
 furnished it with provisions, and taken into it fowls 
 and four-footed creatures ; and told him, that when 
 he had provided every thing, and was asked whither 
 he was sailing, he should answer, "to the gods, to 
 pray for happiness to mankind." Xisuthrua accord- 
 ingly built a vessel, whose length was five furlongs, 
 and breadth two furlongs. He put on board all that 
 he was directed to provide, and went into it with his 
 wife, children and friends. The flood being come, 
 and soon ceasing, Xisuthrus let out certain birds., 
 which, finding no food or place to rest upon, returned 
 again to the ship. After some days he sent forth the 
 birds again, but they came back to the ship, having 
 their feet daubed with mud ; but when they were 
 sent away the third time, they returned no more ; a 
 circumstance from which Xisuthrus understood that 
 the earth had appeared again. He now made an 
 opening between the planks of the ship, and seeing 
 that it rested on a certain mountain, came out with 
 his wife, his daughter, and his pilot ; having worship- 
 ed the earth, and raised an altar, and sacrificed to the 
 gods, he and those who went out with him, disap- 
 peared. They who were left behind in the ship, 
 finding Xisuthrus, and the persons who accompanied 
 him did not return, went out to seek for him, calling 
 him aloud by his name ; but Xisuthrus was no more 
 seen by them ; only a voice, issuing from the clouds, 
 
ON THE DELUGE, 83 
 
 enjoined them to be religious, declaring that Xisu- 
 thrus, on account of his piety, was gone to dwell 
 with the gods ; and that his wife, and daughter, and 
 pilot were partakers of the same honor. It also di- 
 rected them to return to Babylon, and taking the wri- 
 tings from Sippara, to communicate them to mankind; 
 and finally told them, that the place where they were 
 was the country of Armenia. Thus informed they 
 offered sacrifices to the god, and immediately repair- 
 ed to Babylon, dug up the writings at Sippara, built 
 many cities, raised temples, and rebuilt Babylon. Aby- 
 denus also gives a similar relation. It is said that 
 Xisuthrus or Sisithrus, Ogyges, and Deucalion, are all 
 names signifying the same thing in other langunges, as 
 Noah does in the Hebrew, in which Moses wrote. 
 (Vide Alexander, Polyhestor, ex Beroso, apud Syn- 
 cell, P. 30, 31, et apud Cyrill, contra Julian, 1, 1, p. 
 8. Abydenus ex eodem, apud Syncell, p. 38, 33, et 
 apud Euseb. de Praep. Evang. 1. ix, c. 12.) The In- 
 dians and Persians had also traditions concerning 
 the deluge. Accordingly an eastern writer tells us, 
 that some of those who embrace the Magian rdigion, 
 are said to deny the flood, or at least the universality of 
 it ; pretending that it reached no farther than a cliff 
 near Hulwan, a city of Irak, bordering on Curdistan. 
 Nevertheless the orthodox among them acknowledge 
 this general destruction by water, sent by God to pun- 
 ish the crimes of mankind; one of whom, named 
 Malcus, was a monster of wickedness and impiety. 
 One odd circumstance maintained by them is, that the 
 
84 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 first waters of the deluge gushed out of the oven of 
 a certain old woman, named ZalaCufa ; and Mahom- 
 et has borrowed this circumstance and inserted it in 
 his Koran ; the commentators on which say, that it 
 was the sign by which Noah knew the flood was com- 
 ing. (Al Koran, cap. xi, d, Herbelot, Bib. Orient. 
 Hyde de rel. vet. Pers. c. x.) Lord's account of the 
 religion of the Perses, p. 9. 
 
 Plutarch (De, Solert, Anim. vii, p. 968,) men- 
 tions the Noachic dove, and its being sent out of the 
 ark; and its going out was to Deucalion, a sign of 
 fine weather, as its leturn denoted the reverse. Melo, 
 or Melon, who wrote a treatise against the Jews (see 
 Euseb. Praep. Evang. i. ix, c. 19,) takes notice, 
 among other things, of the person who survived the 
 deluge, retreating with his sons, after the calamity, 
 from Armenia; and he supposes that they came to 
 the mountainous parts of Syria, instead of the plains 
 of Shinar. This writer seems to represent the deluge 
 as tropical, and not to have reached Armenia. 
 
 That the Egyptians were no strangers to the del- 
 uge appears, not only from several circumstances in 
 the history of Osiris and Typhon, particularly the 
 very day when it began, or when Osiris, (who is taken 
 for Noah) was shut up in the Ark, and the name of 
 Typhon, which according to some learned men, sig- 
 nifies a deluge or inundation ; but also from the tes- 
 timony of Plato, who says that a certain Egyptian 
 priest recounted to Solon, out of their sacred books, 
 the history of the universal flood, which happened 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 85 
 
 long before the particular inundations known by the 
 Grecians. It is the tradition of the Egyptians, as we 
 learn from Diodorus Siculus, lib. i, that the univer- 
 sal deluge was that of Deucalion. But the most par- 
 ticular history of the deluge, and the nearest of any 
 to the account given by Moses, is to be found in Lu- 
 cian. (De Dea Syria, vol. ii, p. 882.) He was a 
 native of Samosata, a city of Comagene upon the 
 Euphrates; a part of the world where the memorials 
 of the deluge were particularly preserved, and where 
 a reference to that history is continually to be observ- 
 ed in the rites and worship of the country. His 
 knowledge was therefore obtained from the Asiatic 
 nations, among whom he was born. He describes 
 Noah under the name Deucalion, and says, that "the 
 present race of mankind are different from those who 
 first existed ; for those of the antediluvian world were 
 all destroyed. The present world is peopled from the 
 sons of Deucalion having increased to so great a num- 
 ber from one person. In respect to the former brood, 
 they were men of violence, and lawless in their deal- 
 ings. They regarded not oaths, nor observed the 
 rites of hospitality, nor showed mercy to those who 
 sued for it ; on this account they were doomed to de- 
 struction ; and for this purpose there was a mighty 
 eruption of waters from the earth, attended, with 
 heavy showers from above, so that the rivers swelled, 
 and the sea overflowed, till the earth was covered with 
 a flood, and all flesh drowned. Deucalion alone 
 was preserved to re-people the world. This mercy 
 
00 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 was shown to him on account of his justice and piety. 
 His preservation was effected in this manner ; lie put 
 all his family, both his sons and their wives, into a 
 vast ark, which he had provided ; and he went into it 
 himself. At the same time animals of every species, 
 boars, horses, lions, serpents, whatever lived upon the 
 face of the earth, followed him by pairs, all which he 
 received into the ark, and experienced no evil from 
 them ; for there prevailed a wonderful harmony 
 throughout, by the immediate influence of the Deity. 
 Thus were they wafted with him, as long as the flood 
 endured." After this he proceeds to mention, that 
 upon the disappearing of the waters, Deucalion went 
 forth from the ark, and raised an altar (altars accord- 
 ing to Gen. vi, 20,) to God ; but he transposes the 
 scene to Hierapolis in Syria, where the natives pretend- 
 ed to have very particular memorials of the deluge. 
 Most of the authors, who have transmitted to us these 
 accounts, inform us at the same time, that the remains 
 of the ark were to be seen in their days upon one of 
 the mountains of Armenia. Abydenus says, that the 
 people of the country used small pieces of the wood 
 as amulets ; and Berosus says the same of the asph- 
 altus, with which it was covered, and which they 
 scraped off. 
 
 The learned Bryant, in his "Analysis of ancient 
 Mythology," (vol. n.) has traced out a reference to 
 Noah and the deluge, and a resemblance of the ark, 
 in many of the religious rites and ceremonies of an- 
 cient nations. The well known ship of Isis, among 
 
N THE DELUGE. SI 
 
 the Egyptians, was, as he conceives, a sacred emblem ; 
 in honour of which these people celebrate an annual 
 festival. It was, in after- times, admitted among the 
 Romans, and set down in their calender for the month 
 of March. The temple of Osiris (or Sesostris) at The- 
 ba was built after the model of a ship, 280 cubits in 
 length; and both the city, said to be the most ancient in 
 Egypt, as well as the province, was denominated from 
 the ark, called Theba by the sacred writer. The same 
 memorial is to be observed in other countries 3 where 
 an ark, or ship, was introduced in their mysteries, and 
 often carried about upon their festivals ; and many in- 
 stances of emblematical representations are cited by 
 Bryant, which related to the history of the deluge, and 
 the conservation of one family in the ark. This his- 
 tory was pretty recent, when works of this kind were 
 executed in Egypt, and when the rites to which they 
 belonged were first established ; and this learned wri- 
 ter imagines, that in early times most shrines among 
 the Mizraim were formed under the resemblance of a 
 ship, in memory of this great event. He adds further, 
 that both ships and temples received their names from 
 hence ; being styled by the Greeks, who borrowed 
 largely from Egypt, Naus and Naos, and Manners 
 Nautai and Nautae, in reference to the patriarch, who 
 was variously styled Noas Naus, and Noah. Plutarch 
 (Isis and Osiris, vol. I, -p. 366, 367,) gives us a re- 
 markable account of Osiris being exposed in an ark. 
 He says, that, it was on account of Typhon ; and that it 
 happened on the 17th of the month Athyr, when the 
 
88 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 sun was in Scorpio. " This in my judgment ;' r says 
 Bryant, " was the precise time, when Noah entered 
 the ark, and when the flood came ; which in the 
 Egyptian mythology was termed Typhon." From 
 these, and many other circumstances that might be 
 recited, it sufficiently appears, that the history of the 
 deluge was no secret to the gentile world. They 
 held the memory of it very sacred ; and many colonies 
 which went abroad, styled themselves Thebeans, in 
 reference to the ark ; and many cities of the name of 
 Theba occur, not in Egypt only and Bceotia, but in 
 Cilicia, Ionia, Attica, Phthiotis, Catonia, Syria and 
 Italy. 
 
 The tradition of the deluge has, indeed, spread 
 throughout the world, and is preserved in the memo- 
 ry of all nations; in the continent of America, as 
 well as Asia, in the East and West Indies, among the 
 Africans and Europeans. (See Burneti Telluris Theor, 
 Sacra. 1, i. c. 3.) 
 
 We are told, indeed, (see Code of Gentoo Laws, 
 Pref. p. 38,) that the Gentoo scriptures make no men- 
 tion of the deluge ; and that the Bramins affirm, that 
 the deluge never took place in Hindoostan. If this 
 be true, it may well excite astonishment, since the de- 
 luge is an event so singular in its nature, that suppo- 
 sing it to have happened, the memory of it could nev- 
 er have been extinguished amongst the generality of 
 nations which inhabit the earth ; and more especial- 
 ly, since learned men have abundantly proved that a 
 tradition concerning a deluge has prevailed in everj 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 89 
 
 quarter of the globe ; not only amongst the Romans ; 
 Grecians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Scythians, 
 but amongst the Iroquois, Mexicans, Brazilians, Pe- 
 ruvians, and other nations of America. Moreover, 
 we are informed by one of the navigators to the South- 
 ern Hemisphere, that the inhabitants of Otaheite be- 
 ing asked concerning their origin, simply answered, 
 that their supreme God a long time ago, being angry, 
 dragged the earth through the sea, and their Island 
 being broken off was preserved. 
 
 Now, if a tradition concerning a deluge has pre- 
 vailed in almost every part of the Globe, except in 
 India, and, as some say, in China, may we not hesi- 
 tate a little till we know more of those countries, be- 
 fore we positively affirm, that they have no such tra- 
 dition? For it deserves to be remarked, that what is 
 said in the preface to the code of Gentoo laws, rela- 
 tive to the want of a tradition concerning a deluge in 
 the Gentoo Shasters, (or Scriptures,) is contradicted 
 by an author who lived in India, and wrote his ac- 
 count of the Banians about 150 years ago; for he 
 expressly says, that he made his collections, by the 
 help of interpreters, from the Shaster, and he has the 
 following words : " As if the world needed cleansing 
 of its defilement and pollution, there came a flood, 
 that covered all nations in the depths and so con- 
 cluded the first age of the world according to the tra- 
 dition of the Banians." (Lord's Discovery of the 
 Banian religion, c. 6.) Sir William Jones, than whom 
 ~ 
 
90 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 there could not be a more competent judge, and one 
 on whose testimony we may more securely rely, af- 
 firms, " that a tradition concerning a deluge does cer- 
 tainly subsist in Hindoostan," and that in the oldest 
 mythological books there is such an account of the 
 deluge as sufficiently corresponds with that of Moses. 
 (See Bishop Watson's Discourse to the Clergy, &c., 
 in his sermons and tracts, p. 220.) The learned pre- 
 late, (p. 229,) has recorded a very curious passage, 
 quoted in the " Flora Saturnisans" of Henckel (Par- 
 is ed. 1760) from the works of Ramizini, concerning 
 the primitive state of the earth, and the subsequent 
 deluge, taken, as it is said, from the most ancient an- 
 nals of Ethiopia." 
 
 The foregoing extracts from the British Cyclope- 
 dia, which contain a large amount of traditionary and 
 mythological testimony respecting the deluge, gleaned 
 from various sources, fully sustain the truth of our 
 first proposition, and we will therefore pass on, with- 
 out further comment, to the consideration of the two 
 succeeding propositions, upon which we shall mainly 
 rely to defend our position. 
 
 Before proceeding further, however, we will intro- 
 duce here, from " Fairholme's Geology of Scripture," 
 a prophecy respecting this event, contained in the 
 Apochryphal Book of Enoch. 
 
 " In the very curious and interesting work, called 
 the book of Enoch, referred to by St. Jude, v. ]<!, 
 which had long been looked upon as lost, but which 
 was at length discovered in the Ethiopia language by 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 91 
 
 Bruce, in Abyssinia, who brought home three manu- 
 script copies of it, one of which was presented to the 
 Royal Library at Paris, a second, to the Bodleian Li- 
 brary at Oxford, and the third, retained by himself; 
 we find a very remarkable corroborative testimony to 
 the above view of the subject of the deluge. In quo- 
 ting from this apocryphal book, it is not necessary, in 
 this place, to enter into the question of its actually be- 
 ing, what its title professes it to be, a prophetic work 
 of the antediluvian Enoch. This point has been 
 clearly settled by Dr. Laurence, to whom we are in- 
 debted for an English translation of the copy in the 
 Bodleian Library. But, although, in the opinion of 
 the learned translator, this original Hebrew, or Chaldee 
 work, was composed subsequent to the Babylonish 
 captivity, it must be admitted to be a very interesting 
 and curious piece of antiquity, though not worthy of 
 a place among the canonical books of Scripture. 
 
 " The passage I am about to quote, however, will 
 serve to show the prevailing opinion on the subject of 
 the deluge in the times of the author of it, and is quite 
 consistent with the passage in St. Peter's Epistle, and 
 with the above passage in the book of Job. 
 
 " In the 82d chapter of the book of Enoch, and 
 the 5th verse, we find the writer prophetically descri- 
 bing the destruction of the c earth, that then was,' in 
 the following manner : 
 
 " ' And falling to the earth, I saw likewise the earth 
 ABSORBED BY A GREAT ABYSS, and mountains suspend- 
 ed over mountains, hills were sinking upon hills, 
 
92 ON THE DELUGET. 
 
 lofty trees were gliding off from their trunks, and were 
 in the act of being projected, and of SINKING JNTO 
 
 THE ABYSS. 
 
 " ' Being alarmed at these things, my voice faltered. 
 I cried and said, THE EARTH is DESTROYED ! Then y 
 my grandfather, Malaleel, raised me up, and said to 
 me, Why dost thou thus cry out, my son ? And 
 wherefore dost thou thus lament? 
 
 " ' I related to him the whole vision which I had 
 seen. He said to me, confirmed is that which thou 
 hast seen, my son : 
 
 " f And potent the vision of thy dream respecting 
 every secret sin of the earth. ITS SUBSTANCE SHALL 
 SINK INTO THE ABYSS, and cc great destruction take 
 place. 
 
 " ' Now, my son, rise up ; and beseech the Lord of 
 Glory, (for thou are faithful,) that a remnant may be 
 left upon the earth, and that he would not wholly de- 
 stroy it. My son, all this calamity upon earth comes 
 down from heaven, upon earth shall there be a great 
 destruction. 1 J> 
 
 2d. There is positive proof in certain facts of As- 
 tronomy, that some such remarkable event or convul- 
 sion, as a general deluge, has formerly occurred, and 
 that, too, since the organization of our globe in its 
 present form. 
 
 For the sake of perspecuity I shall, under this head, 
 state several propositions, as the outlines or landmarks 
 of the discussion, and then sustain them by a chain 
 of reasoning, supported by appropriate analogical ref- 
 erences and inferences drawn from them. 
 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 93 
 
 1st. There must, doubtless, have been a natural 
 cause for the deluge. 
 
 In assuming this, we by no means disclaim, nor 
 would we, for a moment, disclaim Omnipotent agen- 
 cy in the production of that great event. God works 
 by means, but, then, the means themselves would have 
 -no power at all, did he not ENERGIZE them, and ren- 
 der them effectual. When He overthrew Sodom and 
 Gomorrah and the cities of the plain, for instance, 
 which had been for some time previously predicted, 
 He did it by a natural cause. At the moment ap- 
 pointed, volcanic agency and the subtle elemental 
 fires of the clouds effected the work of destruction. 
 They had no power of themselves to move until He 
 bade them. They were chained to their subterranean 
 and rocky caverns of sulphur by a decree more bind- 
 ing than the "laws of the Medes and Persians, which 
 altered not." But the moment he dissolved that de- 
 cree, by his mandate, and loosened their bonds, they 
 burst forth from their citadel, and poured the scath- 
 ing thunder of their artillery upon these devoted 
 cities. 
 
 Another instance of the agency of means employed 
 by the Eternal, to accomplish his ends, is found in the 
 admirable order and regularity of the solar system. 
 The sun is the agent, who, by the influence of the 
 steady emanation of his light, whirls all the planets 
 upon their axes, and bears them, with resistless ener- 
 gy, in their rapid circles, through the enormous cir- 
 cumference of their orbits, perfectly balancing, by 
 
94 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 never changing physical law, their centripetal and 
 centrifugal forces. But, then, the sun, after all, is 
 only an agent, and the immutable physical law by 
 which he wheels the planets with such perfect regu- 
 larity, producing seed time and harvest, cold and heat, 
 summer and winter, day and night, is, strictly speak- 
 ing, only the sovereign and all-controling will of the 
 Eternal. There is, therefore, no disparagement of 
 the Almighty, in supposing that there must have been 
 a natural cause for the deluge. It rather magnifies 
 immensely, his wisdom, foresight and omnipotence to 
 suppose that the very agent and instrument for the 
 production of that event, had been created and pre- 
 pared ages before, and only waited for the bidding of 
 its author, to rush forth, " like a giant refreshed by 
 slumber," to the work of awful vengeance and deso- 
 lation. 
 
 2d. Whatever might have been that agent or cause, 
 its evident effect was to drag the earth from its/brmer 
 position and change its polarity. 
 
 I should not dare thus boldly to assume this novel 
 proposition, without I had proof positive to sustain 
 me in making the assertion proof as plain, as pos- 
 itive, and as immovable as the fixed stars proof, 
 which will blaze from the heavens, as an everlasting 
 and undeniable memorial of that great event, which 
 the infidel cannot sooner gainsay or resist, than he 
 can, with his puny lance of error, tilt against the stars, 
 arid push the twinkling lights of heaven from their 
 brilliant thrones proof so plain, that I am aston- 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 95 
 
 ished that it has been overlooked by the scientific 
 world. 
 
 I will introduce in this connection, an important 
 fact from Astronomy, bearing directly upon the sub- 
 ject at issue, which shall stand the test of scrutiny, 
 and ward off the pigmy assaults of the sceptic, as long 
 as the starry universe shall stand. 
 
 * " Thuban is a bright star of the 2d magnitude, 
 eleven degrees from Asich, in a line with, and about 
 midway between, Mizar and the southernmost guard 
 in the Little Bear. By nuiical men this is called the 
 Ut agon's Tail, and is considered of much importance 
 at sea. It is otherwise celebrated as being formerly 
 the north polar star. About 2,300 years before the 
 Christian era, Thuban was ten times nearer the true 
 pole of the heavens than Cynosura now is."~ 
 
 We will first remark upon the chronological data 
 of the astonishing event mentioned in the foregoing 
 extract. It is stated that " Thuban " was the north 
 pole star of the earth, instead of " Cynosura," the pres- 
 pole star, " about 2,300 years before the Chris- 
 tian era" that is, that the earth, in its rotation up- 
 on its axis, seemed to revolve around tht point in 
 the heavens, where " Thuban " is located, rather than 
 that point around which it now revolves, aid where 
 " Cynosura," the present pole star, is located, and 
 that "Thuban" was then " ten times nearer " that 
 point of revolution than " Cynosura" now is. About 
 the sources of the information, from which Burritt 
 
 * Vide Bu nit t'? Creoornphy Heavens, page IIP. 
 
96 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 drew this important fact, we shall not here remark, 
 taking it for granted that a man of such profound re- 
 search and scientific attainments, would not have in- 
 troduced such a fact into his work, as positive, with- 
 out sufficient data in testimony of its truth and relia- 
 bility. This surprixjng event, then, happened " about 
 2,300 years before the Christian era." Now this 
 must, it will be found, by a comparison of chronolog- 
 ical tables, have happened at the time of the deluge, 
 for scholars generally compute that that catastrophe 
 happened about 2,300 years before the same era. 
 They do not vary over forty or fifty years either way 
 from that period. 
 
 Not only did this change of polarity take place at 
 the time of the deluge, but there is another most cu- 
 rious and astonishing fact, bearing directly upon the 
 question at issue, and giving the important aid of its 
 testimony to the elucidation of the subject. It refers 
 to the distance of the former pole star from the pres- 
 ent, or, of the former point of revolution from the 
 present. 
 
 It will be found by measurement upon the celestial 
 map, that the present pole of the heavens is just 
 about twenty-three and a half degrees from "Tim- 
 ban." What does this fact show ? Why, either that 
 both "Thuban," "Cynosura," and, indeed, all the 
 other stars of the sidereal heavens, must have moved 
 from their former positions, or else that the earth has 
 been changed in its polarity just that distance. The 
 former certainly cannot have done it, for they are 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 97 
 
 \A fixed immoveably fixed, in their several locations 
 the latter must, therefore, have been so changed. 
 How admirably this agrees with what is denominated 
 the " inclination of the poles" for it is a fact of Ge- 
 
 -t// ography, which is familiar to every little ^hool boy, 
 that this inclination from a line at right angles with the 
 plane of the ecliptic is just twenty-three and a half 
 degrees. 
 
 But, as I have already exceeded the appropriate 
 limits of a single lecture, I must break off in the midst 
 of the discussion of this intensely interesting subject, 
 and refer its further consideration to the next lecture. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 THE TRUTH OF THE NOACHIAN DELUGE PROVED BY HIS- 
 TORY, ASTRONOMY, GEOLOGY AND REASON. 
 
 Havirig, in our last lecture shown, by a positive 
 and undeniable fact of Astronomy, which fact shall 
 give its testimony to a great truth, so long as the starry 
 heavens shall endure that the polarity of the Globe 
 has been changed since creation that, that change 
 must have occurred about the time of the Noachian 
 deluge and that the distance of that change of po- 
 larity is, by actual measurement upon the celestial 
 map, just twenty-three and a half degrees, the same 
 as the present "inclination of the poles" of the 
 earth, we shall now proceed with the further consid- 
 eration of this intensely interesting subject. 
 
 3d. That change of polarity, which Astronomy so 
 clearly proves, was either gradual or else sudden. 
 
 Had it been gradual had the star "Thuban,"by 
 a slow process, changed places with "Cynosura," so 
 that its apparent movement should have been twen- 
 ty-three and a half degrees, the phenomenon would 
 have been so remarkable that it must, certainly, have 
 been noticed by some of the ancients, who were such 
 close observers of the stars, and who early classed 
 them into constellations it must have been noticed 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 99 
 
 by them, even though so gradual as to occupy an 
 age in making the transition, and a record of the 
 wonderful fact would have been made and handed 
 down from generation to generation, like the " pre- 
 cession" of the equinoxes. But no such observation 
 or record lias ever been made or handed down in 
 fact no such gradual change of polarity ever oc- 
 curred. In the language of Burritt, " as the earth 
 performs its annual revolution around the sun, the 
 position of its axis remains invariably the same ; 
 always pointing to the north pole of the heavens, and 
 always maintaining the same inclination to its orbit" 
 The change of that polarity was not gradual, there- 
 fore, but, as it actually occurred, must, of necessary 
 consequence, have been sudden. 
 
 4th. That change of polarity was either produced 
 by an external or an internal cause. 
 
 It could not have been produced by an internal 
 cause, for we cannot possibly conceive of any cause, 
 acting internally, which could have suddenly turned 
 the world around from its former position in space 
 twenty-three and a half degrees. The earthquake 
 might shake the globe with a terrible concussion 
 the volcano might burst it asunder, but we cannot con- 
 ceive that either those, or any other internal convul- 
 sions could have been productive of .such an event. 
 The cause must, therefore, have been external. 
 
 5th. This cause must have been either the direct 
 agency of the Eternal or else some appointed instru- 
 
100 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 ment of his, prepared by his foresight, wisdom and 
 omnipotence, expressly for the purpose. 
 
 That it was not by direct agency of omnipotence, 
 we infer from the analogy of divine economy. 
 Throughout his immense empire, God works by the 
 agency of means by the operation of secondary 
 causes, as we have elsewhere intimated. It certainly 
 argues no want of efficiency and power in the Al- 
 mighty, to suppose that he prepares instruments be- 
 forehand in the vast and intricate machinery of worlds 
 and systems to execute His purposes. It must rath- 
 er vastly magnify, in the estimation of all rational ex- 
 istences, the infinitude of that foresight, wisdom and 
 omnipotence, which could thus prepare, in the secret 
 counsels of eternity, instruments for the accomplish 
 ment of any given stupendous event, as, for instance, 
 the destruction of a world, at the precise moment of 
 its destination, and then, send it unerringly and infal- 
 libly to the swift commission of its appointed errand. 
 The cause, then, of the change of the earth's polari- 
 ty was not, we infer, the direct agency of the Eternal, 
 such as turning it in space without the intervention of 
 physical means, but an instrument expressly appoint- 
 ed by him for that work, and chained, until that pe- 
 riod, by an unalterable decree, safe and harmless in 
 the great arsenal of eternity. 
 
 6th. If the change of the earth's polarity was sud- 
 den, as we have already proved conclusively, the con- 
 cussion, which shook it out of its previous firm and 
 stable position, must have been tremendous in its en- 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 101 
 
 ergies must have "shaken terribly the earth" 
 must have produced a convulsion that made nature 
 groan to her inmost recesses, and sent terror and dis- 
 may, agitation, tumult and blank desolation through- 
 out every department of this province of her domains. 
 Now what was this agent ? Can we ascertain with 
 any reasonable certainty any natural cause, which 
 could have produced such a result? Let us examine. 
 Comets are a very mysterious class of bodies, which 
 are attendants upon our solar system, and, whatever 
 may be their design, and the specific duties which 
 they fulfil, they were certainly not created in vain. 
 Perhaps they were the bodies spoken of in Genesis, 
 which were created for " signs." Certain it is, that 
 the appearance of the most remarkable of them has 
 ever inspired the nations with fear. There seems to 
 be a sort of instinctive dread of them in the bosom 
 of mankind, the same as there is of the serpent tribes, 
 and, perhaps, for the self same reason a sort of pro- 
 phetic presentiment that they are dangerous neighbors 
 that they may have done us damage heretofore, in 
 their erratic and apparently lawless wanderings, and 
 may, one day, accomplish the destruction of the plan- 
 et, in whose welfare all are so vitally interested. In 
 the graphic language of Burritt, " when we look up- 
 wards to the clear sky of evening, and behold, among 
 the multitudes of the heavenly bodies, one blazing 
 with its long train of light, and rushing onward to- 
 ward the centre of our system, we shrink back, as if 
 from the presence of a supernatural being." 
 
102 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 Let us trace one or two of these strange messen- 
 gers in their course, as they make their appearance, 
 after having wandered, for centuries, away from the 
 sun, through the infinitude of space. 
 
 "The Comet of 1630 " says Burritt, "was -of the 
 largest size, and had a tail, whose enormous length 
 was more than ninety-six millions of miles. 
 
 "At its greatest distance, it is thirteen hundred mil* 
 lions of millions of miles from the sun, while at its 
 nearest approach, it is only five hundred and seventy- 
 four thousand miles from his centre or about one 
 hundred and thirty thousand miles from his surface- 
 In that point of its orbit, which is nearest the sun, it 
 flies with the amazing swiftness of one million of 
 miles in an hour, and the sun, as seen from it, appears 
 27,000 times larger than it appears to us ; conse- 
 quently, it is then exposed to a heat 27,000 times 
 greater than the solar heat of the earth. This inten- 
 sity of heat exceeds, several thousand times, that of 
 red-hot iron, and indeed all the degrees of heat that 
 we are able to produce. A simple mass of vapor, ex- 
 panded to a thousandth part of such a heat, would be 
 at once dissipated in space a pretty strong indication 
 that, however volatile are the elements of which com- 
 ets are composed, they are, nevertheless, capable of 
 enduring an inconceivable intensity of both heat and 
 cold." 
 
 The nucleus of the comet of 181 1, according to 
 observation made near Boston, was 2,6 1 7 miles in di- 
 ameter, corresponding nearly to the size of the moon. 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 The brilliancy with which it shone, wag equal to one 
 tenth of that of the moon. The envelope, or aeriform 
 covering, surrounding the nucleus, was 24.000 miles 
 thick, about five hundred times as thick as the atmos- 
 phere which encircles the earth ; making the diame- 
 ter of the comet, including its envelope, 50,617 miles. 
 It had a very luminous tail, whose greatest length was 
 one hundred millions of miles. 
 
 This comet moved, in its perihelion, with an almost 
 inconceivable velocity fifteen hundred times greater 
 than that of a ball bursting from the mouth of a can- 
 non. According to Regiomontanus, the comet of 
 1472 moved over an area of 120 1 in one day. Brydone 
 observed a comet at Palermo in 1770, which passed 
 through 50 of a great circle in the heavens in 24 
 hours. Another comet, which appeared in 1759, 
 passed over 41 in the same time. The conjecture of 
 Dr. Hally therefore seems highly probable, that, ( - if a 
 body of such a size, having any considerable density^ 
 and moving with such a velocity, were to strike our 
 earth, it would instantly reduce it to chaos, mingling 
 its elements in ruin." 
 
 Now have we not here, in one of these swift wing- 
 ed messengers, who dash through space with such 
 terrific velocity, the very agent that changed the po- 
 larity of the earth ? I believe we have, for there is 
 no other known natural cause besides in the universe, 
 which could have done it. At the precise time ap- 
 pointed, then, foretold to Noah, one hundred and 
 twenty years before, one of these comets, in its light- 
 
104 ON THE BELUGE. 
 
 ning tfpeed probably towards the sun, must have come 
 in contact with one of the poles of the earth by the 
 concussion dragged it from its existing polarity and 
 passed along, in its terrible career, leaving our doom- 
 ed planet to its fate. And what must have been the 
 effect of such a concussion ? Why just such a del- 
 uge as occurred. The land, being the more solid 
 substance, must have been submeiged beneath the 
 yielding water by the blow, and, as " the fountains of 
 the great deep " terribly agitated by the convulsion 
 came pouring and foaming in mountain billows along 
 over the earth, the consequence of that agitation 
 would have been, to Kave filled the whole atmosphere 
 with vapor, and caused it to rain " forty days and for- 
 ty nights," until by the influx of the disturbed ocean 
 and the out-pouring of the treasures of the surcharged 
 clouds, the whole earth was completely buried beneath 
 the mass of waters, just as deep as Moses described ; 
 for as much the largest space of our globe is covered 
 with the oceans, and as they must have been forced 
 from their beds by the concussion, there was certainly 
 water enough to overflow the tops of the " highest 
 mountains fifteen cubits." This is in accordance with 
 the opinion of Sir David Brewster, with regard to such 
 an event, expressed in the following extract. 
 
 " The transient effect of a comet passing near the 
 earth, could scarcely amount to any great convulsion, 
 (says Dr. Brewster,) but if the earth were actually to 
 receive a shock from one of these bodies, the conse- 
 quences would be awful. A new direction would 
 
ON THE DELUGE, 105 
 
 be given to its rotary motion, and it would revolve 
 around a new axis. The seas, forsaking their beds, 
 would be hurried, by their centrifugal force, to the 
 new equatorial regions; islands and continents, the 
 bodies of men and animals, would be covered by the 
 universal rush of the waters to the new equator, and 
 every vestige of human industry and genius would 
 be destroyed.' 5 
 
 I know that such a contingency is opposed to the 
 computations which have been made by some emi- 
 nent philosophers upon this subject. I will here 
 quote an extract, showing their reasonings and the 
 data upon which they build their arguments against 
 the possibility of such a contingency, and, then, at- 
 tempt to show wherein those reasonings are very fal- 
 lacious, and describe the controlling agencies which 
 they have entirely ommitted in their calculations. 
 
 " The chances against such an event, however, are 
 so very numerous, that there is no reason to dread its 
 occurrence. The French government, not long since, 
 called the attention of some of hr ablest mathema- 
 ticians and astronomers to the solution of this pro- 
 blem ; that is, to determine upon mathematical prin- 
 ciples, how many chances of collision the earth was 
 exposed to. After a mature examination, they report- 
 ed, "We have found that, of 281,000,000 of chan- 
 ces there is only one unfavorable, there exists but 
 one which can produce a collision between the two 
 bodies." 
 6 
 
106 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 " Admitting, then/' say they, " for a moment, that 
 the comets which may strike the earth with their neu- 
 cleuses, would annihilate the whole human race ; the 
 danger of death to each individual, resulting from 
 the appearance of an unknown comet, would be ex- 
 actly equal to the risk he would run, if, in an urn 
 there was only one single white ball among a total 
 number of 281,000,000 balls, and that his condem- 
 nation to death would be the inevitable consequence 
 of the white ball being produced at the first drawing." 
 
 Now these reasonings may, it is true, be philosoph- 
 ically correct, but, there are other agencies besides the 
 operation of mere physical law, which must be taken 
 into the computation to arrive at a perfectly logical 
 conclusion. The philosopher or astronomer may 
 speculate upon the " chances " or contingencies that 
 certain great events in nature may or may not happen, 
 but theologically considered, there is no such thing 
 as " chance " or contingency admissible in the calcu- 
 lation as to the possibility or the probability of the 
 occurrence of such events. The comets may rush 
 in their erratic and lightning course by the orbit of 
 our earth nine hundred, ninety-nine thousand nine 
 hundred and ninety-nine times and yet be perfectly 
 harmless, terrifying the nations in their inconceivably 
 swift and awfully brilliant career. And why ? Sim- 
 ply because the will of the great Omnipotent, who 
 has formed them for specific purposes and every where 
 controls their movements, chains them to that harm- 
 less career by ligatures, which they cannot break, and 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 107 
 
 to orbits from which they cannot vary the minutest 
 iota. But, as they rush onward in their course to or 
 from the sun the millionth time, they may, controlled 
 by the self same all pervading and all powerful influ- 
 ence, dash right straight onward to our doomed plan- 
 et, and accomplish, in the twinkling of an eye, the 
 mighty desolation we have been considering, and yet, 
 too, without the violation of a single physical law of 
 their organization ; for in the vast and wonderfully 
 complicated machinery of the universe, they were 
 destined, by their author, in the far reaching and in- 
 finite counsels of eternity, for just such a specific pur- 
 pose, if formed for such a purpose at all. " Chance " 
 or contingency, then, is not admissible in the calcula- 
 tion as to the probability of their agency in the pro- 
 duction of any specified catastrophe as, for in- 
 stance, the destruction of a world. That single 
 "unfavorable one," in the 281,000,000 of chan- 
 ces " which the French philosophers supposed, in the 
 extract, to exist, might have been the very one, if we 
 allow the theological admissibility of such a phrase, 
 that God had ordained, when he constructed the body 
 arid established the all-controlling laws of its revolu- 
 tion, for the accomplishment, at the precise moment 
 predicted, of the destruction, which we all know once 
 occurred. 
 
 From all our arguments thus far, supported by va- 
 rious facts and analogical inferences, drawn from the 
 physical sciences, we infer that the change of polari- 
 ty, which the earth has undergone, since creation, and 
 
108 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 the occurrence of which took place, as Astronomy 
 proves, " about 2300 years before the Christian era, 
 must have been produced by a comet, as it dashed by 
 our planet, and, that change pf polarity, occurring 
 suddenly, as it did, must, of necessity, have produced 
 the deluge and all its wondrous and startling phe- 
 nomena. 
 
 There is something very appropriate and to the 
 point, in the language of the extract which we made 
 in our last lecture from the Apocryphal book of 
 Enoch, the " seventh " antediluvian patriarch from 
 Adam, which contains a remarkable prophecy respect- 
 ing the destruction of the world by a deluge, and, 
 which, as its divine inspiration was recognized by the 
 Apostle Jude, is valid scriptural authority in the case. 
 In the vision there recorded, the earth is represented 
 
 aS " SINKING INTO THE ABYSS " OR DEEP. NoW this 
 
 is just such an effect, as we have supposed to be pro- 
 duced by the blow or concussion which changed the 
 polarity of the earth. Such a blow must, as we have 
 said, have submerged the Globe in the waters of the 
 u abyss" and given the appearance of "sinking." 
 
 Taking it for granted, now, that we have thus far, 
 satisfactorily provep, what we have attempted to prove, 
 we will proceed with our other proposition to account 
 for other phenomena connected with this subject. 
 
 6th. The poles of the earth, before the deluge, 
 must have been at right angles exactly with the 
 plane of the ecliptic, since the distance from " Cy- 
 nosura" to the star " Thuban " in the constellation 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 109 
 
 Draco, being the distance which it was dragged from 
 its former polarity, is about twenty three and a half 
 degrees, that being, also, exactly the present inclina- 
 tion of the poles. 
 
 There is in this remarkable fact, a natural and de- 
 finite cause for the longevity of the antediluvian race. 
 If the poles of the globe were, as they must have 
 doubtless been, at right angles with the plane of the 
 ecliptic, then there could have been no change of 
 seasons from intense heat to intense cold, as there is 
 now, as any scholar will see at a glance, for the sun 
 would always have been at the equinox, or over "the 
 equinoctial line," as it is called, and there would, there- 
 fore, have always been equal day and equal night the 
 world over. This would, as every one must see, have 
 produced such an equability, mildness and balminess 
 of temperature, as we, in the present condition of 
 things know nothing about ; for it is evident that the 
 great and sudden variations of temperature, from heat 
 to cold and from cold to heat, producing storms, tem- 
 pests and hurricanes, which pervade this planet, are 
 owing mainly, if not entirely, to the inclination of 
 the poles, and we know not but that the first awful 
 storm, which ^beseiged the condemned earth, might 
 have occurred at its sudden change of polarity. 
 
 Owing to this equable and balmy temperature, 
 many of the most prominent causes, which now pro- 
 duce disease in its ten thousand various forms, excru- 
 ciating torture and sudden death, which make such 
 furious onsets upon this " poor terrestrial citadel of 
 
1 10 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 man," human life must have been much longer than 
 it is at present, and man was then young when lie 
 was an hundred years old, in the vigor and prime of 
 manhood, when he was three or four hundred years 
 old, and aged only when he had attained the remark- 
 able longevity of some eight or nine hundred years. 
 
 Just as soon, however, as the deluge subsided, and 
 the population of the earth began to be multiplied, 
 human life was very essentially shortened, caused un- 
 doubtedly, in a great measure, by the sudden and ex- 
 treme variations of temperature, owing to the present 
 inclination of the poles, and the consequent change 
 of the seasons ; for it is an established fact, that such 
 variations are productive of disease in its every vari- 
 ety to an alarming extent, so that a person is now in 
 the prime of manhood at thirty-five or forty and very 
 old at seventy. 
 
 One generation, which now constitutes the average 
 life of man, is computed to be but thirty years, and 
 the immense mortality, consequent upon this fact, is 
 a standing memorial of God's displeasure against sin, 
 and of the awful cause which produced the deluge. 
 
 This leads to a train of most melancholy thought. 
 It is computed that there exists upon the earth at any 
 one period about one thousand millions of inhabitants. 
 Now, if thirty years constitute one generation or the 
 average life of man, then this whole vast army of one 
 thousand millions speeds its rapid march into the land 
 of silence and darkness, during every successive pe- 
 riod of thirty years. This is at the rate of thirty- 
 
ON THE DELUGE. Ill 
 
 three millions three hundred and thirty-three thou- 
 sand three hundred and thirty-three in a single year, 
 over ninety-one thousand three hundred and thirty- 
 four in a day, three thousand eight hundred and Jive 
 in an hour, sixty-three in a minute, and over an av- 
 erage of one every second of time every lick of the 
 clock! How startling the thought that mankind are 
 hastening into eternity with such a hurricane rush! 
 How humbling to the pride and pomp of a vain glo- 
 rious world ! 
 
 We now come to the consideration of the next gen- 
 eral proposition, which we laid down for the guidance 
 of this discussion, in our first lecture upon the deluge, 
 and shall for the want of time, bestow upon it but a 
 passing glance, considering, as we do, that our posi- 
 tions are abundantly established by the arguments 
 under the head of the previous proposition. 
 
 3d. There is abundant proof in Geology, that 
 some violent deluge of waters, similar to that describ- 
 ed in the Mosaic history, has once prevailed over the 
 whole earth. 
 
 To sustain this proposition, I will here quote from 
 the testimony of Hitchcock's Geology, showing that 
 there must have been a mighty and violent flood of 
 waters at some remote period, which formed the up- 
 per strata of the earth, which is called diluvium or 
 drift. 
 
 " Drift is distinguished from alluvial deposits : 1st. 
 By its occurrence in situations where no agency at 
 present in action could have produced it. 2. By 
 
112 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 requiring, if not a different agency from any now in 
 operation to produce drift, at least a greater intensity 
 of action. 3. By the evidence of a great difference 
 of climate between the two periods. 
 
 In the disposition of drift, we find the evidence of 
 two distinct phases of action, which may, however, 
 have been the result of the same general cause, ope- 
 rating in different circumstances. In the first case, 
 the drift has been carried outward from the summits 
 and axes of particular mountains, and spread over the 
 neighboring plains. 
 
 In the second case, the agency by which drift has 
 been dispersed, has operated on a more extended scale, 
 and driven in a southerly direction over all the north- 
 ern hemisphere, often to a great distance. 
 
 To begin with the American continent at the north- 
 easterly point where observations to be depended upon 
 have been made, we find that the bowlders, spread over 
 the southern part of Nova Scotia, were derived, ac- 
 cording to Sir Alexander Coke and Messrs. Jackson 
 and Alger, from the ledges in the northern part of the 
 province. Through the whole extent of Maine, the 
 evidence is very striking of the southerly transport of 
 the drift, the course being usually a few degrees east 
 of south. And transported bowlders are even found 
 towards the summit of Mount Katahdn, which is 5300 
 feet high. 
 
 In Massachusetts, the direction, taken by the drifts, 
 as shown by a multitude of examples, varied from 
 north and south to northwest and southwest ; the most 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 113 
 
 usual course being a few degrees east of south. This 
 course carried the current very obliquely across most 
 of the precipitous ridges of mountains in the State ; 
 nevertheless, the bowlders held on in the general di- 
 rection with remarkable uniformity. The largest 
 blocks usually lie nearest to the bed from which they 
 were derived, and they continue to decrease in size 
 and quantity, in a southeasterly direction, for the dis- 
 tance of several miles ; sometimes as many as 50 or 60 ; 
 and not unfrequently even 100 miles, though usually 
 the sea coast is reached short of that distance. But 
 often bowlders from the continent are common upon 
 the islands many miles distant from the coast ; as on 
 Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Long Island. In 
 the western part of Massachusetts, the mountains are 
 from 1000 to 3000 feet high; yet vast quantities of 
 bowlders have been carried over their precipitous 
 ridges, and both slopes are covered with them ; the 
 largest being upon the northern side. 
 
 On Long Island the drift corresponds to the rocks 
 on the continent; those of different kinds, always lying 
 south of the ledges from which they were derived. In 
 the eastern part of New York, the course was south- 
 easterly ; as in the western part of Massachusetts. 
 But towards the western part. of the State, its general 
 course appears sometimes to have been west of south. 
 In the southeasterly part of the State, bordering on 
 Pennsylvania and New Jersey, its direction varied from 
 south several degrees west to southeast: and near the 
 city of N. York, the course was N. W. and S. E. In 
 *6 
 
114 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 the fossiliferous region of western New York, and in 
 the States south of the western lakes, great numbers 
 of bowlders of primitive rocks are strewed over the 
 surface, significantly called lost rocks. These have 
 been satisfactorily traced to the beds from which they 
 were derived in the west part of Michigan and on the 
 north side of the lakes in Upper Canada. Similar 
 evidence of a southeasterly drift exists in Virginia. 
 According to Dr. Drake, primitive pebbles occur on 
 the right bank of the Mississippi as far south as Nat- 
 chez. 
 
 The distance to which bowlders have been carried 
 southeasterly from their native beds in our country, 
 has not been very satisfactorily determined. In New 
 England, they have been traced rarely more than 100 
 to 200 miles. But in the western States they are 
 strewed over a greater distance. I arn informed by 
 the gentleman engaged in the geological survey of 
 of those States, that primary bowlders are rarely found 
 south of the river Ohio ; but they are strewed over 
 almost every part of Ohio and Michigan. Now the 
 primary rocks from which they have been derived, are 
 found on the north side of the great lakes. This would 
 make their longest transit between 400 and 600 miles. 
 
 On the western continent the evidences of a south- 
 erly direction of the force seems to be decided ; al- 
 though from some of the highest mountains it was out- 
 ward from the axes. In Great Britain the general 
 course was a little east of south, modified, however, 
 and sometimes very much changed, by the shape of 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 115 
 
 the mountains ; some of which, as the Penine chain, 
 appear not to have been passed over by the bowlders, 
 except at their lowest points. In the east part of 
 England, the drift appears to have been derived from 
 Scotland, and also from Norway. On the continent 
 of Europe, the Netherlands, Denmark, the plains of 
 the north of Germany, of Poland and Russia, are 
 strewed over with bowlders and pebbles, which can be 
 traced to the parent rocks in Sweden, Lapland and 
 Finland ; in which countries they are yet more nu- 
 merous upon the surface. In most cases these bowl- 
 ders must have crossed the Baltic. In Sweden the 
 current appears to have set S. S. W. The blocks de- 
 crease in size on going south, and finally at a great 
 distance (more than 400 miles) they disappear. An 
 interesting example of the dispersion of bowlders in a 
 southerly direction in Northern Syria, is given by Mr. 
 Beadle, American Missionary in that country. On the 
 coast 60 or 70 miles north of Beyroot, he " reached 
 a volcanic region with a remarkable locality of green- 
 stone. The pebbles from this locality are scattered 
 the whole distance to Beyroot. At that place they 
 are quite small, but gradually increase in size as you 
 advance to the north, and terminate entirely in this 
 locality." This is an important fact ; because it proves 
 the occurrence of glacio-aqueous action, on the Asi- 
 atic continent much farther south (about 32 N. lat.) 
 than had been before pointed out : unless it be upon 
 the Himalayah mountains. 
 
 According to Mr. Darwin, the equatorial regions of 
 
116 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 South America exhibit but few marks of glacio-aque- 
 ous action, or rather they are destitute of bowlders. 
 But beyond 41 south latitude, they appear in Chili 
 and Patagonia. Hence some geologists infer that the 
 phenomena of drift are limited to the colder regions 
 of the globe. But De La Beche describes drift as 
 abundant in Jamaica, in the West Indies ; especially 
 on the plain around Kingston ; and says that it ap- 
 pears to have been brought from the north. A simi- 
 lar statement was made to me by the late Prof. Hovey, 
 who resided two years in the West Indies. Prof. 
 Struder states that in the hill country at the foot of 
 the Himalayah Mountains in India, erratic bowlders oc- 
 cur. We have also seen above, that similar phenom- 
 ena occur in Africa, near Mount Atlas, in N. latitude 
 about 32. Mr. Darwin, however, attempts to explain 
 such cases, and very probably he is correct ; though 
 it is possible that high mountains, even within the 
 tropics, may have been subject to glacio-aqueous 
 agency, though no marks of it appear upon the sur- 
 face generally. More recently, Sir Robert Schom- 
 berg has described enormous, far transported bowl- 
 ders in British Guiana. 
 
 I have quoted the above remarks of Prof. Hitch- 
 cock, not because I agree exactly with that eminent 
 scholar in all his opinions and inferences ; but because 
 the facts, which he states, are very important. In 
 common with others, he refers many of the phenom- 
 ena of the drift to glacio-aqueous action, but I believe 
 the whole phenomena can be referred to an entirely 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 1 17 
 
 different agency. If it was the effect of glacic-aque- 
 ous action, is it reasonable or probable that such drift 
 would have occurred in the equatorial regions ? 
 
 It will be observed from the facts we have quoted, 
 that there was a current, when the drift was deposited, 
 of tremendous force from the north to the south. This 
 was its general course on both continents, and it pre- 
 vailed over the whole earth, turned aside occasionally 
 somewhat from the general course, by the obstruction 
 of intervening mountains, and showing an agency less 
 and less intense as you approach the southern end of 
 those continents. We cannot, now, it seems to me, 
 adopt the hypothesis, with any show of reasonable- 
 ness, that a general glacio-aqueous agency has thus 
 swept over both continents, and over the equatorial as 
 well as polar regions, with force enough to produce 
 all the phenomena of the drift. To what agency, 
 then, shall we refer the production of all those phe- 
 nomena? To the deluge, I think. And could that 
 have produced them ? If the deluge was caused by 
 the terrible concussion of a passing comet, and the 
 land was situated then mostly in the southern portion, 
 while the oceans occupied the northern portion, we 
 can readily conceive what must have been the result, 
 had that comet struck 'the southern pole, dashing on 
 as some of them do, at the rate of one hundred mil- 
 lions of miles in an hour. It would have driven the 
 land of the south pole against the yielding water of 
 the north pole. And what would have been the in- 
 evitable consequence ? Why plainly to have brought 
 
118 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 the waters of those oceans with an irresistible rush 
 southwardly " over the continents, in the very course 
 of the drift, sweeping before it immense rocks and 
 bowlders, torn from the tops of the mountains that 
 resisted its tremendous avalanches of water- avalan- 
 ches produced by a concussion, of the force of which 
 the boldest stretch of the imagination can hardly form 
 an adequate conception. Does any one doubt that 
 such an event could have produced such results ? 
 There is a striking illustration to the point, though 
 upon a scale of power far more diminutive, which, 
 doubtless, once occurred in the valley of the Connec- 
 ticut river. There is every appearance that Mount 
 Tom and Mount Holyoke, near Northampton, Mass- 
 chusetts, were once united, and formed the barrier of 
 a large lake, which flowed above them ; for, into the up- 
 per side, five or six hundred feet above the base of 
 Holyoke, the rocks are water worn all along the range, 
 at the probable surface of the lake, in some pla- 
 ces eight or ten feet. In the process of time, that 
 lake broke through its rocky barrier, split the moun- 
 tain in twain, cutting its way down to the pres- 
 ent bed of the river some seven or eight hundred feet 
 from the summit, leaving Mount Tom on the one side 
 and Mount Holyoke on the other, turning rocks out 
 of their original bed that would weigh thousands of 
 tons, and sweeping the principal mass five miles south, 
 and forming the falls of South Hadley. Professor 
 Silliman, who has examined the mountain pass, takes 
 the same view of the subject. Now if a lake of that 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 119 
 
 size, with no uncommon extraneous cause to have 
 produced an increased pressure, could have torn its 
 way thus through the solid rocks of a mountain and 
 swept the mass down from five to ten miles below, is 
 there any improbability in the supposition, that, when 
 the mighty oceans, aided by a tremendous extraneous 
 concussion, came thundering with their mountain bil- 
 lows along over the land, all the phenomena, presented 
 by the drift, should have been produced ? I conceive 
 not, for the force of the resisting water of the ocean, 
 under such circumstances must have been inconceiva- 
 bly greater than that of the lake, leaving its deposits 
 of drift on the southern side of the hills and moun- 
 tains as it passed along. 
 
 As we should naturally suppose, if such a catastro- 
 phe happened, as we have inferred, the land would 
 have emerged from the water, when it rose above it, 
 at the north pole or in the northern hemisphere, where 
 the main body of it actually now is, while the wa- 
 ters, forced over by the concussion, would have re- 
 mained more in the southern hemisphere which is 
 actually now the case. 
 
 From important discoveries in the geological strat- 
 ifications of the globe, there is further testimony 
 that the earth has not only been changed in its 
 polarity, by some terrible concussion, sufficiently pow- 
 erful to do if, but that it has thus been shoved 
 through the yielding waters of the ocean, from the 
 south to the north. We infer this from the fact that 
 the organic remains, both of animals and vegetables, 
 found in the drift, as well as in the lower stratifica- 
 
120 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 tions of the northern and friged zones, indicate that 
 those zones were once located at or near the equator. 
 
 Auricarias, the living species of which exist only 
 in tropical climates, are found in a fossil state in Great 
 Britain alone, while the elephant is found in the fos- 
 iliferous stratifications in the northern parts of Europe 
 Asia and America. In the frozen mud and gravel of 
 Siberia are also embedded the rhinoceros and ele- 
 phant, natives of the torid zone, as if they were sud- 
 denly surprised and overwhelmed by some torrent in 
 the region of their proper locality. I might multiply 
 thousands of specimens both in the drift and in the 
 lower fossiliferous stratifications, which would go to 
 prove, that the former equatorial regions must, by some 
 gigantic and resistless force, have been pushed north- 
 ward ; but those which I have noticed must suffice. 
 Afow well selected and incontrovertable facts are as 
 conclusive as a million. And now we come to the 
 consideration of our closing general proposition. 
 
 4th. In harmony with every physical fact and law, 
 reason unites her important testimony, with science, 
 to establish the undoubted certainty of such an event, 
 as a universal deluge. And what is that testimony, 
 so important ? Why, it is simply this. Any event, 
 recorded as having happened in ages past, and proven 
 by such an abundant array of testimony, drawn from 
 the three sources of History, Astronomy and Geolo- 
 gy, as we have drawn, must be true, must certainly 
 have occurred. Any one, who would doubt it, would 
 almost doubt the very evidence of his own senses. 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 121 
 
 Any one, who would "allegorize" away the great 
 fact, so to speak, into whimsical and insane notions 
 and mysticisms like those of Swedenborg, would 
 " allegorize" away the fixed stars, which stand as an 
 enduring memorial of its truth ; and, with an unmean- 
 ing jargon of words, or subtle sophistries, would prove 
 that those twinkling luminaries do not exist in reality, 
 but are only a vast congeries of splendid deceptions. 
 Any one, who would not believe the mass of testimo- 
 ny, which has been brought to prove the occurrence 
 of a universal deluge from so many varied sources 
 from every point of the compass, has shut his mind, 
 with inflexible obstinacy, and is determined not to be 
 convinced, even though the evidence, against such 
 unreasonable scepticism, should be as brilliant as the 
 sun at noonday. Let such an one, however, know 
 for his consolation, that he might, with just as much 
 reason, expect, that, with one wave of his hand, he 
 could sweep the constellations from the vault of the 
 sky and blot the stars all out of heaven, as to expect, 
 by the puny array of the resources of his purblind 
 intellect, or the pompous display of his rush light 
 reason, to invalidate, undermine or bring into disre- 
 pute a single evidence of the authenticity of divine 
 revelation ; for, let him know, that the great propo- 
 sition " Truth is mighty and will prevail" stands 
 against the assaults of his puerile, impotent and im- 
 pious objections, like a rock in the centre of the 
 ocean ; yea and will continue to stand, when his 
 palsied arm shall be powerless in death, or his brazen 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 brow of impiousness, which has been unblushingly 
 lifted up against heaven, shall be scathed and scarred 
 by the unerring bolts of the Thunderer, who sent the 
 awful desolations of that deluge over the earth, as a 
 punishment for the rank impiety and infidelity of the 
 antediluvian race. - 
 
 Having, thus far, considered two important epochs 
 in the history of the past, the creation of our earth 
 and its desolation by a deluge, which extinguished 
 all the animated forms of existence from its surface, 
 except those which were saved in the ark to re-people 
 it again, we will now, in closing this Lecture, turn 
 our attention, for a moment, to two eyents in the fu- 
 ture, which will, if possible, be more awfully inter- 
 esting ; and taking it for granted that there is no 
 need of further argument in favor of the anthentici- 
 ty of the Bible, we shall derive our information with 
 regard to these two events from this source. 
 
 1st. There is a day coming, known only in the 
 deep counsels of eternity, when this system shall 
 again be reduced to its original elements by a confla- 
 gration. It is predicted in the following sublime de- 
 scription. Isaiah says " The heavens shall be rolled 
 together as a scroll, and all their hosts shall fall down, 
 as the leaf falleth off from the vine and as the falling 
 fig from the fig tree." St. Peter says " the heavens 
 shall pass away with a great noise and the elements 
 shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the 
 works that are therein shall be burned up," and again 
 he says in another place " the heavens being on 
 
ON THE DELUGE. 123 
 
 fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt 
 with fervent heat." Doubtless this wonderful event 
 shall present the same grand spectacle to astronomers 
 of other worlds, if such there are, that the burning 
 star did in 1572 to Tycho Brahe a conflagration, 
 that shall not only completely vaporize our earth, but, 
 indeed, the whole system, reducing it to its original 
 condition. Dr. Young in his Night Thoughts thus 
 graphically describes the event. 
 
 At the destined hour, 
 
 By the loud trumpet summoned to the charge, 
 See all the formidable sons of fire, 
 Eruptions, earthquakes, comets, lightnings, play 
 Their various engines ; all at once disgorge 
 Their blazing magazines, and take, by storm, 
 This poor terrestrial citadel of man. 
 
 Amazing period ! when each mountain's height 
 Outburns Vesuvius ; rocks eternal pour 
 Their melted mass, as rivers once they pour'd ; 
 Stars rush, and final ruin fiercely drives 
 Her ploughshare o'er creation ! 
 
 At midnight, when mankind is wrapt in peace, 
 And worldly fancy feeds on golden dreams, 
 To give rnore dread to man's most dreadful hour ; 
 At midnight, 'tis presumed, this pomp will burst 
 From tenfold darkness, sudden as the spark 
 From smitten steel ; fiom nitrous grain the blaze, 
 Man, starting from his cou :h, shall sleep no more ! 
 The day is broke, which never more shall close ! 
 Above, around, beneath, amazement all ! 
 Terror and glory joined in their extremes ! 
 Our God in grandeur, and our world on fire I 
 
 Out of the resulting elements, the earth shall be re- 
 formed again. St. Peter says " there shall be a new 
 heaven and a new earth." The Revelator says : " I saw 
 a new heavens and a new earth, for the first heavens 
 and the first earth were passed away." So then, 
 Omnipotence will again reform it after its destruction. 
 But it will be organized very different from what it 
 
124 ON THE DELUGE. 
 
 is at present. According to St. John there will be 
 " no more sea" " no night" nor " light of the 
 sun," for " the throne of God" shall be transferred to 
 it ; and he shall be " its light." Yes, it will, as it 
 were, be the future palace of the " King Eternal" 
 perhaps be one immense planet, formed out of the 
 chaotic materials of Jupiter, Saturn, Herschel, and 
 the other planets of our system commingled with the 
 elements of our globe be the great central orb to 
 the " new heavens," and be furnished for the blissful 
 and everlasting residence of the sanctified and saved, 
 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 REMARKS UPON THE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES OF CREATION, 
 AND THE ORGANIC LAWS OF THE WONDERFUL AGENT OF 
 ELECTRICITY EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 As our attention has hitherto, in the five previous 
 lectures of this series, been confined to the organiza- 
 tion of this globe and its elements, and, as, in the four 
 lectures which are to succeed this, we shall minutely 
 investigate the essential properties and qualities of 
 Light and certain other imponderable principles iden- 
 tical with it, it is appropriate and, indeed, necessary, 
 for a full understanding of the subjects discussed, to 
 introduce here an intermediate or connecting link be- 
 tween the previous lectures and those which are to 
 follow, by an examination of what may be denomina- 
 ted the essential principles of creation, and an illus- 
 tration of the organic laws and peculiar operations of 
 the wonderderful agent of electricity. This I cannot 
 better do, than by stating as the basis of our argument, 
 the following broad and comprehensive proposition : 
 
 There are, of the productions of creative power, 
 three distinct essences, or essential principles in the 
 universe, and BUT three, and every thing created and 
 finite, of which we either have or can have any con- 
 ception, whether it be animate or inanimate physi- 
 
126 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 cat, animal or intellectual, can be referred to one or 
 the other of these three essential principles, as to its 
 native, legitimate, proper basis or substratum. 
 
 This proposition, it will be seen, embraces within 
 its comprehensive scope the whole illimitable domain 
 of science, both visible and invisible. Sceptics in the 
 republic of letters, or old fashioned book- worms, who 
 regard the slightest encroachment on what they may 
 have read, as sacrilege, will doubtless call this propo- 
 sition sweeping and chimerical. But sweeping and 
 chimerical, as it may, however, seem to them or others, 
 it is believed, nevertheless, to be capable of satisfac- 
 tory and even perfectly conclusive and logical demon- 
 stration, as will be shown hereafter. 
 
 The names of those three fundamental principles 
 we will here give in their natural order, together with 
 a concise definition of their properties. 
 
 The first we shall call Ponderable Matter, it being 
 the same technical epithet, which is used in standard 
 works. By this term we include all those substances 
 of every name and form, which are tangible which 
 can be noticed or appreciated by most of the senses 
 by which we acquire ideas of external objects 'which 
 are measurable, and which have magnitude and weight. 
 
 The properties or qualities of this first essential prin- 
 ciple of the created unverse we consider to be perfect 
 inertness and inherent dormancy, meaning by those 
 terms, that a substance under their influence has no 
 activity or disposition to activity in itself that it has 
 therefore no power of changing itself, or of commu- 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 127 
 
 nicating motion to iself, either by component parts, 
 or in the aggregate or whole that it would, there- 
 fore, remain forever changeless, as when left at crea- 
 tion, and forever unvaried by modification, a cold, mo- 
 tionless mass of inertia or sluggishness, unless opera- 
 ted upon by foreign agencies, sufficiently powerful to 
 overcome that inherent disposition to remain forever 
 sluggish and unmoved. 
 
 The second essential principle embraced in our 
 proposition we shall call Imponderable Matter, it be- 
 ing, also, the same technical epithet by which it is 
 designated in the text books. By this term I include 
 Electricity, Galvanism, Magnetism, Light, Heat or Ca- 
 loric, Gravitation, the Attraction of Cohesion, Capil- 
 lary Attraction and Chemical Attraction. These are 
 all, in their nature, alike intangible. That is they can- 
 not be handled so as to be examined like ponderable 
 substances of the first class. They are inappreciable 
 by most of the senses ; immesurable, and have no 
 perceptible magnitude or weight. 
 
 This imponderable principle is entirely distinct and 
 different from ponderable matter, not derivable from 
 it, but perfectly independent of it, and yet having 
 such a natural affinity for it, by the inscrutable attrac- 
 tion of opposites, which seems to be an immutable 
 law of nature, as to pervade it completely. Not a 
 single particle of ponderable matter is there in crea- 
 tion not an atom borne on the atmosphere not 
 a single mote floating in the sunbeam, but what is 
 
128 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 attended by its appropriate share of the impondera- 
 ble principle, when all the elements are in equilibrium. 
 This wonderful and mysterious agent is extremely 
 subtle so subtle that it is invisible and impercepti- 
 ble, except when condensed into the electric spark, 
 or accumulated by the galvanic battery, or poured 
 down upon us in the light of day, or gathered into 
 focal intensity by the lens or burning glass, or explo- 
 ded in the thunderbolt of the clouds, or collected to- 
 gether into that capacious reservoir of electric fire 
 the Sun. Elasticity unbounded is one of its charac- 
 teristics and its activity is inherent and more restless 
 than the ocean wave, it being always in motion ; for, 
 if the balance of the elements be disturbed at all, and 
 there be, any where in creation, a partial vacuum, or 
 an abstraction of the subtle fluid, so far as to make 
 that spot minus with regard to surrounding regions, 
 it rushes in with irresistible velocity, and restores that 
 disturbed balance. Rapidity inconceivable character- 
 izes its movements. If impeded in the slightest de- 
 gree in its everlasting career, and accumulated and 
 restrained by appropriate exciting causes, it exhibits 
 a fearful energy an energy perfectly overwhelming, 
 and bursts its bands with infinitely greater ease than 
 did the unshorn Sampson. 
 
 - It is that agent, independent of ponderable matter, 
 at which we have already hinted, which pervades it 
 omnipresently, according to certain definite laws, hav- 
 ing a natural affinity for it, and possessing inherent 
 power sufficient to overcome its inertia or sluggishness, 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 129 
 
 to work all the chemical changes and produce all the 
 motions in it, whether on the scale of atoms or of 
 worlds or of constellations of worlds. It, in fact, 
 seems to be the very representative of Deity himself, 
 expressly appointed and commissioned to produce the 
 multiform and almost countless transformations of 
 matter all the chemical changes of decomposition 
 and re-composition, which are constantly progressing 
 around us and throughout nature, and, by its inherent 
 energy, and the activity which it imparts, to keep up 
 the motions ot the universe of material systems, and 
 to invigorate both the animal and vegetable life, in its 
 myriad forms, with which those systems are furnished. 
 Some materialist may here draw the confident con- 
 clusion from what I have asserted, that imponderable 
 matter is mind, and that it is the only Deity in the 
 universe. No such conclusion, however, results ne- 
 cessarily from the premises. Instead of favoring the 
 doctrine of materialism in the slightest degree, I pledge 
 myself to be prepared to show, whenever necessary, 
 that, from this source, alone, can be drawn the most 
 powerful and convincing arguments which can possibly 
 be drawn from nature to overthrow that doctrine. I 
 am not one of tho.e, who tremble to acknowledge an 
 undeniable tact, lest that fact should seem, forsooth, 
 CO militate against my creed. The God of nature 
 never could have created an agent, or have establish- 
 ed a law, which, when discovered and fully under- 
 stood, would militate against his divinity, or undeify 
 himself in the estimation of a sound philosopher. 
 7 
 
130 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 We must never deny the evidence of our senses, and 
 discredit incontrovertible facts, lest, peradventure our 
 belief should be overthrown by them, but should en- 
 deavor, by ingenuous and candid investigation, to as- 
 certain how they can be reconciled with our belief. 
 We now come, naturally, to the third essential 
 principle of the created universe, which we denom- 
 inate mind. Pure etheriality seems to be its con- 
 stituent property, which term, we think, will correctly 
 define its nature, if, in the acknowledged vagueness, 
 looseness and imperfection of language, all shall at- 
 tach to it an appropriate signification. The intellect 
 is no more a substance, or the emanation of a sub- 
 stance, than thought or a train of thought is substance. 
 As the emanations and exhalations, or the minute par- 
 ticles flying off from matter are matter also, so mind 
 is, and, of necessity, must be, in the inherent fitness 
 of things, of the same nature of its exhalations, which 
 we know are thought, intelligence, moral feeling and 
 volition, properties which may be truly said to be 
 something, or realities, though there be no material- 
 ity about them. Who, for instance, would affirm that 
 an idea is matter ? Has it length, breadth and thick- 
 ness, either perceptible of imperceptible, as have all 
 the particles of matter, either ponderable or impon- 
 derable, how minute soever they may be ? To f 1 ^- 
 tempt seriously to disprove such a proposition would 
 be too much like battling, with Quixotic valiancy, the 
 unsubstantial shadows which chase each other over 
 the landscape. Such an attempt would sufficiently 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 131 
 
 establish a man's claim to the diploma of a confirmed 
 Bedlamite, and would entitle him, beyond all contro- 
 versy, to a strait jacket, and an introduction to the 
 benevolent hospitalities of a mad house. Such a prop- 
 osition is too preposterously absurd for a single mo- 
 ment's belief. The influence which the intellect, or 
 its controling power ? the will, exerts over the other 
 two fundamental principles of creation entirely pre- 
 cludes such a belief. For, as the imponderable prin- 
 ciple controls the ponderable, so mind controls both 
 the one and the other. 
 
 The intellect or will of the carpenter, for instance, 
 controls the muscles of his physical frame, through the 
 action of the nervous fluid or animal electricity upon 
 those muscles, and, by the strength and motions of 
 his physical frame, so controlled, the edifice is con- 
 structed, and the grand, the beautiful and the sym- 
 metrical in architecture are made to adorn the dome, 
 the temple, and the various other fabrications of the 
 mechanic arts. 
 
 The imponderable principle is, also, subject direct- 
 ly to the volition of intellect, although it has no guid- 
 ing will of its own. 
 
 A Franklin, for instance, could extract the subtle 
 fires from the storm-cloud, as it passed overhead, 
 with his electrical kite, and conduct the red and crash- 
 ing bolt, harmless to the earth by his lightning rod. 
 
 Galvani and his successors could extract the same 
 fiery fluid from a certain association of zinc, copper 
 
 
132 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 and the acids, in a stream strong enough to burn iron 
 like tinder. 
 
 There is, in the universe, still another Principle 
 if it be right to call the same a principle whom I 
 have not included in my classification, because he 
 comes not within the list of created substances. His 
 attributes are Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipo- 
 tence, and Eternity, as they must, of necessity be, in 
 the very inherent nature and fitness of things, if un- 
 created or self-existent, for an uncreated agent could 
 not possibly be otherwise than infinite. 
 
 This self-existent, eternal principle we call Deity. 
 Beyond Him we hold that there can be nothing either 
 created or uncreated, finite or infinite. He embraces 
 and controls and pervades and governs everything. 
 As electricity governs inert matter, and created mind 
 governs both, in a certain sense, so this fourth mys- 
 terious, incomprehensible, all pervading Essence gives 
 immutable, irresistible laws to the whole three in an 
 unlimited sense, and does precisely what He wills 
 throughout the whole illimitable vastness of both du- 
 ration and space. 
 
 Having thus stated what I consider to be the three 
 essential created principles of the universe, I shall 
 now particularly examine the organic laws and pecu- 
 liar relations of one of them. 
 
 Electricity was first detected or discovered in a sub- 
 stance called, in English, amber, which substance in 
 the original Greek was called electron from which the 
 term electricity is derived. This word electron is al- 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 133 
 
 so derived from electore, another Greejt word, which 
 signifies the beaming Sun, and, if it does not indicate 
 that the ancients supposed the Sun to be the fountain 
 of this subtle fluid, it at least developes a remarkable 
 accidental coincidence. 
 
 Thales, a celebrated Grecian of the city of Miletus 
 in Ionia, who lived 600 years before the Christian era, 
 and who was the contemporary of Pythagoras, is re- 
 puted to be the discoverer of this remarkable proper- 
 ty of amber. He ascertained, probably by accident, 
 that when rubbed, it acquired the power of attracting 
 to itself certain light bodies in its immediate vicinity. 
 For the want of amber, the student can illustrate the 
 phenomenon with a stick of sealing wax. 
 
 Familiarity with facts should never be suffered to 
 lessen their interest, nor should we overlook the sim- 
 plest truths, for, a thorough knowledge of those sim- 
 plest truths, often leads to the discovery of the grand- 
 est and most sublime ; while he that despises the " day 
 of small things," will, probably, never live to see the 
 day of large things. The most magnificent results of- 
 ten thus originate. The dim dawning of the morning 
 precedes the blaze of the meridian. The diminutive 
 acorn springs up and becomes an oak, monarch of the 
 forest. The majestic Amazon first issues as a little 
 rill on the eastern declivity of the Andes. A neg- 
 lected spark kindles a conflagration and millions of 
 wealth are lost in ashes. So with a thousand other 
 facts. Their origin is simple but their results are 
 grand. 
 
134 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 As the sealing wax before being rubbed is passed 
 over little bits of paper prepared for the purpose, they 
 are perfectly quiescent. Both are in a state of natu- 
 ral equilibrium or balance. Having excited it how- 
 ever, by friction, it immediately exhibits a singular 
 power unknown to it before. In this little experi- 
 ment, trifling and simple as it may appear, there are 
 treasured up volumes of wonder and inscrutable mys- 
 tery, enough to puzzle for ages, the clear sighted pen- 
 etration of a Newton himself. What is it that first 
 diffuses over those bits of paper, a tremulous quiver, 
 then sets them upright as if alive, and then makes 
 them leap up, as if either in affection or in anger, to 
 the cause of their momentary animation ? Echo only 
 answers " what is it ?" The chemist is puzzled and 
 silent, the books answer not, and no one can tell. 
 The influence of the charmed sealing wax over those 
 bits of paper is beyond the comprehension of the 
 most gigantic intellect. All that can be known is 
 that it is Electricity, and that its operations are guided 
 by certain fixed and immutable laws. 
 
 No wonder Thales stood in astonishment, when he 
 made the discovery. No wonder he thought the am- 
 ber animated with a principle of vitality. The emo- 
 tions of the mind, when a grand fundamental or ele- 
 mentary truth first breaks upon it, are unutterable, 
 and cannot be apprehended by the dull phlegmatic, 
 who always plods along in the beaten path of his 
 grandfathers. Such emotions often find vent in ex- 
 clamations, similar to those of Archimedes in Greek, 
 

 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 135 
 
 when he had discovered the solution of a difficult 
 problem, upon which he had been long and intensely 
 studying. In ecstacy he exclaimed " eureka eu- 
 reka" " I have found it 1 have found it" 
 
 From the time of Thales to that of Theophrastus, 
 a disciple of Aristotle, who lived between two and 
 three centuries after him, no new discoveries were 
 made in electricity, which is somewhat surprising, 
 since it is no local or occasional agent, but coeval with 
 time, pervading all substances omnipresently, and be- 
 ing the palpable cause of some of the grandest scenes 
 in nature. 
 
 In the work of Theophrastus-, entitled in Greek, 
 " Peri Lithone" he ascribes the same property, which 
 Thales discovered in electron, to the lapis lyncurius, 
 the substance now called tourmaline. "It possess- 
 es," says he, " an attractive power, like amber, and, 
 as they say, attracts not only straws and leaves, but 
 copper also and iron, if in small particles." 
 
 From the period of Theophrastus, no allusion is 
 made by authors, for more than two thousand years, 
 to any but the discoveries already noticed, and, there- 
 fore more than twenty three centuries elapsed from 
 the observations of Thales, before any material addi- 
 tion was made to the stock of electrical knowledge. 
 Since that, for the last two centuries, its accumula- 
 tions have been vastly more rapid and increasingly 
 important. 
 
 Amber and a great variety of other substances are 
 capable of exhibiting electrical phenomena. Friction 
 
136 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 is, generally speaking, the cause of the exhibition of 
 such phenomena. When they are made by friction 
 to exhibit those appearances, they are said to be elec- 
 trified or electrically excited, and the power of attrac- 
 tion, which they then exhibit over contiguous light 
 bodies is denominated electrical attraction. 
 
 ** ft* 
 
 But this is not the only power manifested, or the 
 only influence exerted, by this agent, over bodies or 
 in conjunction with their own properties. There is a 
 repulsive as well as an attractive force. This attrac- 
 tion and repulsion, depend, as will be seen, upon the 
 different electrical states of different bodies. 
 
 For illustration, rub a glass tube. It becomes elec- 
 trically excited. Hold it over little bits of paper. 
 They are attracted towards it from some distance,, 
 and with considerable force. But you perceive that 
 the moment they come in contact, they receive a por- 
 tion of the electricity, which attracted them and are 
 immediately repelled. Dropping, however, upon some 
 other substance, they impart to that substance a por- 
 tion of the electricity, which they received from the 
 glass and are again attracted towards it, though with 
 less force than before, because it is less excited than 
 before, having in the first contact lost a portion of its 
 superabundant electricity. This alternate attraction 
 and repulsion continues, though more and more feebly > 
 until the excited substance has lost entirely its elec- 
 tric charge, and has returned to its natural state. Ifc 
 then exhibits no attractive powers whatever. Contig- 
 uous light bodies, however light and easy moved, re- 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 137 
 
 main perfectly unaffected and quiescent at its ap- 
 proach. 
 
 Another piece of apparatus, by which attraction 
 and repulsion are still more forcibly and amusingly 
 illustrated, is what is called the apparatus for the 
 dancing figures, by which, pieces of paper, or images 
 cut from paste board, or the pith of elder, are made 
 to dance between two plates, by the action and reac- 
 tion of positive and negative electricities. 
 
 How wonderful the agency here exhibited ? Who 
 does not look with astonishment upon the mock crea- 
 tive and life giving energy, which electricity displays. 
 Had some chemist made an exhibition like this in the 
 dark ages, without explanation, or even in the days of 
 Salem witchcraft, it would have rung throughout the 
 country, that he fyad made a league with the evil one, 
 and he would, as a compensation for his wisdom and 
 wit, have stood a pretty good chance to get a roasting 
 for a wizzard. There is a case on record, directly in 
 point. John Faust, an ingenious German, by the in- 
 vention of types, was enabled, during the dark ages, 
 not only to publish books much faster, but also much 
 cheaper than before. This newly discovered art he 
 kept secret for a time, and hence originated the nur- 
 sery legend of Dr. Faustus and the devil, in which 
 he is represented as calling to his aid unlawfully the 
 spirit of darkness. 
 
 Our observations thus far, have been the means of 
 ascertaining these three facts : 
 
139 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 1st. Bodies electrically excited attract bodies un- 
 excited. , 
 
 2d. Two bodies electrically excited, as ivhen one 
 excited body has imparted a portion of its electrici- 
 ty to an unexcited body, mutually repel each other. 
 And, 
 
 3d. Two in their natural state have no percepti- 
 ble influence upon each other, but are perfectly qui- 
 escent. 
 
 It follows, then, as a matter of course, that these 
 three facts lay the foundation for three distinct pro- 
 positions. 
 
 1st. Opposite electrical states attract. 
 
 2d. Similar electrical states repel. And, 
 
 3d. When bodies are in their natural state, they 
 are in a perfect equilibrium or a balance, exerting 
 neither an attractive nor a repulsive influence. 
 
 In opposition to two electrical fluids, whose exist- 
 ence was maintained by Du Fay, Symmer, Coulomb, 
 Turner, and Thompson, which theory I consider un- 
 philosophical, I will here quote the opinions of Dr. 
 Franklin, the celebrated electrician of our own coun- 
 try, who took strong and decided ground against this 
 doctrine. 
 
 For it, he substituted the more simple theory of one 
 fluid, and attempted to account for all the various 
 phenomena of attraction and repulsion by the differ- 
 ent states, or degrees, or volumes of electricity, which 
 he called plus or positive arid minus or negative. 
 When a body had more than its natural share, it was 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 139 
 
 considered to be in a plus or positive state, and when 
 it had less than its natural share, it was considered 
 minus or negative. Bodies, upon this principal, are 
 positive and negative relatively, or positive and nega- 
 tive absolutely. They are positive and negative re- 
 latively, when they are both plus, but when one has a 
 greater amount than the other. They are positive 
 and negative absolutely, when one has more than its 
 natural share and the other less. But in each of those 
 cases there is attraction, though much more feeble in 
 the former than in the latter case. Franklin, how- 
 ever, found, after mature reflection upon the subject, 
 that his theory was attended with one inexplicable 
 difficulty. His penetrating mind could not solve it 
 satisfactorily to himself. This difficulty was the re- 
 pulsion of two negatives, which he confessed could 
 not be explained upon the plus and minus theory, for, 
 in this case, both would be minus, and there of course 
 be an absence of what he considered to be the at- 
 tractive and repulsive principle. 
 
 Epinus, however, a celebrated electrician of St. 
 Petersburg in Russia, undertook to extricate the theo- 
 ry of Franklin from this dilemma. He maintained, 
 with Franklin, that there is but one fluid, and ac- 
 counted for all the phenomena of attraction and re- 
 pulsion, including the repulsion of two negatives, upon 
 he hypothesis that there must be a reciprocal affinity 
 or attraction between ponderable and imponderable 
 matter, and that the particles of each must be mutu- 
 ally repellant to those of their own kind, and mutual- 
 
140 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY, 
 
 ly attractive to their opposites, and that this attraction 
 and repulsion exerts itself in the ratio of inverse pro- 
 portions according to the squares of the distance. 
 This it will be seen, lays the basis for three distinct 
 propositions. 
 
 1st. The particles or ultimate atoms of ponderable 
 matter naturally repel each other. 
 
 2d. The particles or component parts of imponder- 
 able matter or electricity mutually repel each other. 
 
 3d. The particles or component parts of both pon- 
 derable and imponderable matter mutually attract their 
 opposites, and that too with a force, which not only 
 varies according to the squares of the distance, but, 
 also, according to the magnitude and density of the- 
 one, and the volume or degree of the other. 
 
 Now from this explanation of the difficulty, which 
 Franklin encountered, I dissent altogether. It de- 
 stroys virtually that " vis-inertia " or inaction, which 
 is an essential property of ponderable matter, and 
 gives to it attributes, which it never possessed. That 
 difficulty can be explained in a manner more strictly 
 in accordance with fact, for the theory of one electric 
 agent, as maintained by Franklin, is correct, his doc- 
 trine of plus and minus is also correct, but there are 
 certain invariable results., which depend upon the plus 
 and minus of bodies, which will fully explain the diffi- 
 culty, which he encountered. We must look, not to 
 the simple volume or degree, or amount of accumu- 
 lation itself not to the simple plus and minus, but to 
 the organic laws of the ultimate component particles 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 141 
 
 of electricity, for the solution of the enigma, which so 
 puzzled Franklin, which laws, however, invariably ex- 
 hibit their operations through the medium of a plus 
 and minus in bodies. 
 
 After a careful investigation of this subject, I am 
 satisfied, that the difficulty can be perfectly solved. 
 That solution is derived from a law of electrici- 
 ty, which, although it seems to have escaped the 
 attention of chemists, can nevertheless, be demon- 
 strated to exist, as easily and as perfectly, as any 
 problem in Euclid, can be demonstrated. It is this. 
 Every ultimate particle of electricity has opposite po- 
 larities that is, each end of each individual particle 
 has a different property like ends or polarities repel, 
 and unlike ends or polarities attract. This I intend 
 to prove conclusively, by the aid of that immutable 
 truth, that the laws of the whole, are, the laws of its 
 parts, and by the operation of the rule, so proven, I 
 intend to show that all the phenomena of attraction 
 and repulsion among both atoms and planets, can be 
 rationally accounted for. Let us apply the immuta- 
 ble and infallible rule, that the laws of the whole are 
 the laws of its parts, and see whether it will sustain 
 the opinion we have hazarded, and for which we de- 
 rive no support from the books. 
 
 Electricity and galvanism are, at the present day, 
 generally conceded to be the same agent. There is 
 no dispute about that. Now, if you pass a current of 
 galvanism around soft iron, bent into the form of a 
 horse-shoe, and wound spirally, with insulated copper 
 
142 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 wire, you make the iron magnetic, and the two ends 
 have different polarities. By different polarities. I 
 mean, that, what one end will attract the other will 
 repel, or the one is negative and the other is positive. 
 But by changing the poles of the battery and passing 
 the current of electricity in a different direction around 
 the spiral wire, you change the polarity of the iron, 
 and make the end that was positive, negative, and the 
 end that was negative, positive, which can be shown, 
 by experiments in electro-magnetism. So then, posi- 
 tive and negative, in this case, depend upon the di- 
 rection in which the current runs, for the current runs 
 inward at one end and outward at the other. The 
 end where the current is inward is always negative, 
 and that, where it is outward is always positive. 
 And why is this invariably so. There must be a rea- 
 son for this phenomenon. Its solution is readily found 
 in the admirable rule, that the laws of the whole are 
 the laws of its parts. If a current of electricity, 
 running in a certain direction, makes one end of a 
 bar of iron positive, and the other negative, each in- 
 dividual ultimate particle of that current must have 
 an agency in producing such a result, and, therefore, 
 each individual particle must have a positive and neg- 
 ative end ; the positive end always leading, and the 
 negative, of course, always following. We infer this 
 from the fact that the laws of the whole, are the laws 
 of its parts, or the laws of its parts are the laws of 
 the whole ; for it would be utterly impossible that the 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 143 
 
 whole of a thing should have a quality the opposite 
 of the parts of which it is composed. 
 
 To make our position still more impregnable by 
 fact, and argument, let us examine further. If you 
 pass the galvanic current around steel spirally, in the 
 same way as it passed around soft iron, you make it 
 permanently magnetic, the end, where the current is 
 inward is negative, but the end where it is outward 
 is positive. So it will remain for years. Now you 
 may cut up that bar of steel, which is thus made mag- 
 netic, into ten thousand pieces and each piece will 
 have a positive and negative end, aud the positive 
 and negative polarities of the pieces will be arranged 
 in the same direction as the whole. What, then, is 
 the unavoidable and logical inference ? Why, that 
 each ultimate particle of the electricity, that made it 
 magnetic and kept it magnetic, has opposite polar- 
 ities, as well as the whole current ; because the po- 
 larities of the whole are, most assuredly, made up of 
 the properties of its parts. A mere thimble full of 
 the atmosphere, for instance, contains ite relative pro- 
 portions of oxygen and nitrogen, as well as the whole 
 mass. A drop of water contains its relative propor- 
 tions of oxygen and hydrogen, as well as the ocean, 
 and so with every thing else. Further confirmation 
 if confirmation it needs, will be given to this opinion, 
 when we come to the subject of polarized light. 
 
 Having by fact, and by argument, attempted to 
 prove that each end of the ultimate particles of elec- 
 tricity has opposite polarities, that the positive end is 
 
144 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 always presented in the outward current, and the neg- 
 ative end, of course, in the inward current, we will 
 now apply this theory to the explanation of phenom- 
 ena of attraction and repulsion. But first, to show 
 that the facts are true, which we have stated, we can 
 prove them by an experiment with two magnets. 
 
 If, for illustration, two steel magnets, with like 
 powers, be Dipped into iron fillings, until they have 
 accumulated as large an amount as they can retain 
 upon their poles, and the opposite poles of each be 
 then presented within a short distance of each other, 
 the filings will spin out, and fill up the space between 
 them, and exhibit an oily, ropy appearance. But, if 
 like poles be presented, the filings will be blown back, 
 as it were, and stand out like hair around the points 
 of the magnet. This shows that there is attraction in 
 the one case, and repulsion in the other. 
 
 Now then, for an explanation of the attractions and 
 repulsions of electricity by this theory. A body which 
 is charged plus or positive, has an emanation or an 
 outward curre'nt. Such a body will attract a body 
 charged minus or negative. And why ? Because, as 
 we have shown by the magnets, the outward current 
 of the body charged plus present its positive end. 
 But a body in a minus state has an inward current of 
 electricity, which it attracts from contiguous substan- 
 ces. Of course the negative end of the ultimate par- 
 ticles of this inward current is presented. And what 
 is the consequence ? Why two bodies, the one hav- 
 ing an outward, and the other an inward current, pre- 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 145 
 
 sent opposite polarities to each other, and are attract- 
 ed from the operation of the immutable law, that op- 
 p6site polarities attract. 
 
 We now come to the solution of that difficulty, 
 which perplexed Dr. Franklin so much the repulsion 
 of two negatives. Before the application of this rule 
 the difficulty vanishes at once. When two bodies are 
 minus or have less than their natural share, the cur- 
 rent of electricity is inward into both. Now if, while 
 the two currents are inward, the bodies in a minus 
 state be brought near each other, they are repelled, 
 because both currents being inward, the negative ends 
 of the ultimate particles of each current are present- 
 ed to each other, and they are repelled upon the prin- 
 ciple that like polarities repel each other. Thus is all 
 attraction and repulsion among material bodies, and of 
 course, all motion produced by the agency of elec- 
 tricity alone, without the intervention or co-operation 
 of inert matter. So that the difficulty, which Dr. 
 Franklin encountered in his theory of plus and minus, 
 is obviated without the aid of the unphilosophical as- 
 sumption of Epinus and Cavendish, that matter has 
 the property of repelling its own particles. 
 
 There is an experiment which will develope anoth- 
 er very extraordinary and mysterious fact, respecting 
 one of the inherent constituent properties of electri- 
 ^ity, which we shall thoroughly investigate in this con- 
 nection, and see, if it does not throw a flood of new 
 light upon the phenomena of disease, the best meth- 
 ods of medical treatment in certain cases, and the 
 
146 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 hidden organic causes and laws of chemical changes 
 of decompositions and recompositions. The fact 
 to which I shall allude, is this : 
 
 If a person shall touch the negative end of the vol- 
 taic pile with a moistened finger, and bring a platinum 
 or gold wire from the positive end in contact with the 
 tongue, a stfong acid taste will be perceptible in the 
 mouth of the experimenter. But if the wire from 
 the negative end be brought in contact with the tongue, 
 while the moistened finger be placed in contact with 
 the positive pole, there will, on the contrary, be pro- 
 duced in the mouth a strong burning or alkaline taste. 
 Now why is this ? The answer to this question might 
 well of itself fill a volume, for it is a key to unlock 
 the rich casket of a thousand mysteries. It cannot, 
 therefore, be expected that I should do more than 
 merely glance at the solution of this wonderful phe- 
 nomenon in the space allotted for the completion of this 
 lecture, and if, in my anxiety to do as much justice 
 to the subject as can be done in a single lecture, I 
 should extend my remarks somewhat beyond the or- 
 dinary bounds of one, I hope that my reader will not 
 be offended with this burdensome tax upon his pa- 
 tience. 
 
 To proceed, then, why will the positive pole, when 
 brought in contact with the tongue, produce an acid 
 taste, and the negative pole an alkaline taste ? \^e 
 shall assume, in the first place, as the basis or data of 
 our reasonings and deductions upon the subject, that 
 it must be something inherent in the galvanic current 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 147 
 
 itself, or in some chemical change produced in the 
 system by the course of the passing current, or in both 
 combined. We believe it to be in both combined. 
 
 In our investigations of common electricity, it will 
 be recollected that we established, upon the basis of 
 a self evident proposition or axiom, that one end of 
 its ultimate particles is opposite entirely in its nature 
 to the other end, since one end of a current is attractive 
 and the other repulsive, and, as the laws of a whole 
 are the laws of its parts, then, of course, each atom 
 of that whole has an attractive and a repulsive power, 
 by the opposite polarity of its opposite sides. Now 
 then, if, as is demonstrated in the experiment just re- 
 ferred to, the whole current has a taste, just in accord- 
 ance with the direction in which it runs across the 
 tongue, each ultimate particle, which aids in constitu- 
 ting that current and its organic laws, has, also, a taste 
 in accordance with the direction in which it runs, as 
 can be proven by the same process. of reasoning. 
 
 It is demonstrated, then, by experiment and by de- 
 duction built upon self evident propositions, that each 
 of the two ends of the ultimate particles of electri- 
 city have opposite tastes the one an alkaline and 
 the other an acid taste. 
 
 Now how admirably this fact exhibits the uniform- 
 ity of nature's laws ! How lucidly it proves that there 
 is no clashing at 'all in the principles of her govern- 
 ment. What a firm and immoveable basis it lays for 
 confidence, that, when we have ascertained, beyond 
 the possibility of a doubt, one isolated fact, proving 
 
148 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 the existence of a certain definite law, other facts, 
 when discovered, will harmonize with the evidence 
 of the first fact, if they relate to the same subject or 
 class of subjects, and will increase the weight of proof 
 as to the,exisitence of such a law, thus chaining the 
 uniform testimony of isolated facts together into an 
 harmonious and irresistible convincing sum total of 
 proof, and thus giving a satisfactory and almost math- 
 ematical certainty to our knowledge ! 
 
 What is the corroborating testimony of facts in the 
 case under consideration ? It is this. We have 
 already demonstrated, by a series of deductions, 
 based upon experiments, that the two ends of every 
 ultimate particle of electricity have opposite polari- 
 ties that, when a body is charged plus, there is an 
 emanation that, in every emanation or outward cur- 
 rent, the ultimate particles of the agent, that consti- 
 tutes it, present their positive end, as that always leads 
 that a minus body has an inhalation of the elec- 
 tric breeze, as it were, or an inward current, from sur- 
 rounding substances, and is negative, because the rear 
 end of each particle, or that which always follows the 
 lead of the positive in all the movements of electrici- 
 ty, is, in its organic constitution, negative. 
 
 Now then for a forcible illustration of the admira- 
 ble uniformity of those facts, which demonstrate na- 
 ture's laws. When a current of electricity runs in 
 at the tongue, it leaves an acid taste, and when out of 
 the tongue, an alkaline taste. Now this inward cur- 
 rent, as we have before frequently remarked, presents 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 149 
 
 its negative end and the outward its positive end. 
 In the inward current, the negative end of each par- 
 ticle as it passes in ? gives inherent organic taste, and 
 so with the other. Now, in what electrical states are 
 the alkalies and the acids ? Why exactly in opposite 
 states. The acids are negative and the alkalies are 
 positive. The inward current has a negative polarity } 
 and is also acid, and the outward has a positive po- 
 lajity and is alkaline. The positive and negative, 
 then, in both cases yea in the whole three cases 
 agree perfectly, both as to taste and polarity the 
 taste of the negative end of a current being acid, 
 which acid in the form of salts is also negative, and 
 the taste of the positive end of a current being alkaline, 
 which alkaline, in the form of salts, is also positive. 
 The strong chemical affinity which exists between the 
 alkalies and the acids is familiar to all. Tartaric ac- 
 id and soda, for instance, when brought in contact 
 with each other in solution, are attracted to each oth- 
 er, a powerful effervescence ensues, and a* chemical 
 union is formed between the two. Now this attrac- 
 tion must be entirely owing to the attraction of pos- 
 itive and negative electricity, or of opposite polarities, 
 since the one is plus and the other minus, and since 
 a foundation seems to be laid for an alkali and an acid 
 in the organic constitution of the ultimate particles of 
 electricity itself. 
 
 There is one more important fact illustrative of the 
 wonderful effects of electricity upon the animal sys- 
 tem, which I will introduce here, and then close the 
 lecture. 
 
150 ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 Dr. Ure. of Glasgow, performed, some time since, 
 upon the body of a murderer, who had been hung, 
 several experiments, with a battery consisting of 
 two hundred pairs of 4 inch plates. 
 
 1st. One pole of this battery was introduced 
 into an incision in the nape of the neck, so as to 
 come in contact with the spinal marrow, while the 
 other was applied to what is called the sciatic nerve. 
 The consequence was that every muscle of the body 
 was agitated with a convulsive quiver, as if violently 
 shuddering from the effect of cold. 
 
 2d. By continuing one pole in the nape of the 
 neck, as before, and removing the other to an incision 
 made in the heel, the knee being previously bent, the 
 leg was thrown out with such force and violence, as 
 nearly to kick over one of the assistants, who endea- 
 vored to prevent its extension. 
 
 3d. One pole was inserted into an incision made 
 to what is called the phrenic nerve, and the other 
 between the ribs, so as to touch the diaphragm at the 
 bottom of the lungs. The consequence was that the 
 chest rose and fell as in heavy natural breathing. 
 
 4th. One pole was brought in contact with the 
 supra-orbital nerve in the forehead, and the other with 
 the heel, when every muscle of the countenance was 
 simultaneously thrown into fearful action. Rage, 
 horror, despair, and ghastly smiles united their hide- 
 ous expressions in the murderer's countenance. So 
 horrid was the sight, that several spectators were 
 
ORGANIC LAWS OF ELECTRICITY. 151 
 
 forced to leave the room in which the experiments 
 were made, either from terror or sickness, and one 
 gentleman fainted. 
 
 5th. One pole was inserted again in the nape of 
 the neck, and the other brought in contact with the 
 ulnar nerve at the elbow. Immediately the fingers 
 moved nimbly like those of a violin performer. An 
 assistant tried to close the hand, but found it would 
 open forcibly in spite of his efforts. When the rod 
 was removed from the elbow to a slight incision in 
 the forefinger, the fist being previously clenched, that 
 finger instantly extended, and, by the convulsive agi- 
 tation of the arm, the murderer seemed to point to 
 the different spectators, some of whom thought he 
 had come to life. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE SINGULAR PROPERTIES AND ELECTRIC QUALITIES OF 
 LIGHT AND HEAT ILLUSTRATED FROM ARGUMENTS DRAWN 
 FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. 
 
 As much was said during the discussion upon the 
 origin of the globe about the' manner in which the 
 sun was created, and the influence of its light upon 
 our globe during its various stages of organization, it 
 will be quite appropriate in this connection to consid- 
 er somewhat minutely the essential properties of the 
 substance of the sun and the element of light. By 
 such an examination we think that they both will ap- 
 pear very different from the qualities with which they 
 have been invested by certain crude notions which 
 have been entertained respecting them. We cannot 
 better give our views upon this subject than by quo- 
 ting from our own work published in 1843, entitled 
 "A New Philosophy of Matter." 
 
 The sun is to be regarded as the fountain, from 
 which continually flows all natural light, for, it will 
 appear conclusively in the course of our observations, 
 that it would be utterly impossible j^Tproduce fire 
 were it not for the existence of thi^ agent. And he^ 
 an interesting question respecting its nat;,7 e and es- 
 sential properties forcibly suggests itself to the mind : 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 153 
 
 What is light? It seems to be a subtle, ethereal, all 
 pervading fluid. No sooner does it glance upon a 
 substance than it is gone. Suddenly darken a room 
 into which a strong flood of light is pouring, and it is 
 all dissipated as instantaneously as thought. Not a 
 solitary ray is left to illuminate the darkness. Blow 
 out a -candle, whose light can be seen by the eye, at 
 any point for a mile in every direction around it, and 
 which, therefore, completely fills several cubic miles 
 of space, and not the minutest iota of time does that 
 light continue, after the candle is extinguished. A 
 thunder bolt blazes across the black canopy of a mid- 
 night of storm, and its scathing light fills perhaps a 
 thousand cubic miles of space. Blinded by the in- 
 tense and lurid glare, the eye of the beholder shuts 
 for an instant, and opens upon what ? A darkness 
 deeper, if possible, by contrast, than before. The 
 lurid flash has gone. Where ? Is it annihilated ? No. 
 It is somewhere in a state of diffusion, and conse- 
 quent invisibility, and if collected under the same 
 circumstances, it would exhibit the same flash as be- 
 fore, and again diffuse itself through the mass of sur- 
 rounding substances. Light, then, as we have al- 
 ready remarked, is subtle, ethereal and all-pervading. 
 
 It is imponderable too that is, it can be neither 
 weighed nor measured. When a ponderable sub- 
 stance of several tons bulk, is completely saturated 
 with it, the specific gravity of that substance is not 
 increased the smallest perceptible particle. 
 
 Never, for an instant, is this subtle agent stationa- 
 8 
 
154 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 ry. The lightning speed of its everlasting career can 
 be compared with no other agent in nature except 
 Electricity. It glances quick as thought from heaven 
 to earth from the sun to the planets. 
 
 There are two theories respecting the substance or 
 essentiality of light, both of which will, for a moment, 
 be examined. Dr. Herschel and his coadjutors sup- 
 posed that it was the effect of the undulation or vi- 
 bration of a subtle, etherial medium every where' pre- 
 sent in nature, and that it is transmitted to the eye 
 the same as sound is to the ear. Upon this hypothe- 
 sis there would be no direct communication between 
 the sun and the earth, or the other attendant planets, 
 and this being the case, the generally received opin- 
 ion among philosophers, that the movements of the 
 planets are governed by a certain kind of influence 
 exerted by the sun over them, would be erroneous ; 
 for we hold it to be a truth capable of the clearest 
 and most logical demonstration, that there cannot be 
 any influence exerted by one substance over another, 
 without a direct and a positive connection, of some 
 sort between those two substances. To suppose the 
 contrary, would be to suppose that there is a connec- 
 tion, and that there is not a connection in the same 
 breath, .which is a self-evident contradiction in terms. 
 We hold such an influence, without such an actual 
 connection, to be an impossibility in the nature of 
 things, which, to speak reverentially, not even Omnip- 
 otence can overcome, for God himself never claims 
 to do that which is an impossibility in the nature of 
 
PROPERTIES OP LIGHT AND HEAT. 155 
 
 things. But it may be said that the Almighty crea- 
 ted the universe with a word, and that there is no 
 positive connection between a mere word and such a 
 stupendous effect. True, but if he created that uni- 
 verse with a word, his all pervading Omnipotence 
 was present to give that word efficiency ; for to sup- 
 pose the contrary, would be to suppose that God can 
 withdraw himself from a positive connection with hig 
 own agencies, which is another self-evident contradic- 
 tion, unless you can undeify the Deity and make in- 
 finity finite. 
 
 Besides, the opinions of Dr. Herschel, upon this 
 subject are unphilosophical and contrary to known 
 facts. Instead of undulating or vibrating, light moves 
 in direct lines. This is capable of positive proof. 
 The angle of incidence arid that of reflection are the 
 same. Let a stream of light fall upon a mirror at a 
 particular angle, and it will bo reflected from that 
 mirror in an exactly opposite angle. It is a tested 
 and acknowledged fact, also, that light will not pass 
 through a bent tube. But if it moved in undulations 
 or vibrations like sound, this would not be the case, 
 for sound will pass through such a tube. These facts 
 and arguments, therefore, prove that the hypothesis 
 of Dr. Herschel, respecting light, is false and unphil- 
 osophical. 
 
 The other theory, of which we spoke, is that of Sir 
 Isaac Newton. It was the opinion of that great phi- 
 losopher, that solar light is an infinitesimal effluvia of 
 matter or an emanation of inconceivably minute par- 
 
156 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 tides flying off from the body of the sun, and dart- 
 ing ii straight lines through that space which is occu- 
 pied by those opaque bodies which are governed by 
 its influence. This hypothesis we consider to be cor- 
 rect and philosophical, if we regard it as an emana- 
 tion of matter, different in its nature and essential 
 properties from ponderable, inert matter if we re- 
 gard it as an imponderable essence, as it doubtless is, 
 governed by the very same laws, and exerting precise- 
 ly the same agencies as the other imponderable prin- 
 ciples. Newton, however, left some things unexplain- 
 ed in his theory of solar emanation, which, unless 
 satisfactorily accounted for, would involve the sub- 
 ject in an inexplicable difficulty. Although he main- 
 tained the opinion that light was constituted by a 
 flight of particles from the sun, and thus far was 
 doubtless correct, yet he neglected or failed to ac- 
 count for the supply of that waste of the substance 
 of the sun, which must unavoidably be the conse- 
 quence. The objector to his theory, who might wish 
 to puzzle the philosopher, might put the question, 
 " if light be an emanation of infinitesimal atoms or 
 particles of matter from the orb of day, why is it not 
 diminished why not exhausted and blotted out?" 
 And such a question too would be a very natural one, 
 and deserving of attentive consideration. Light is 
 constantly emanating from the sun. This is a known 
 and a generally acknowledged fact in science. Eve- 
 ry conceivable point of space for ninety-five millions 
 of miles around that luminary to the orbit, of our 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 157 
 
 earth, and so around the whole circumference of that 
 orbit is constantly filled with this light ; and as light 
 is estimated to move from the sun to the earth in 
 eight minutes, then this whole entire ocean of light, 
 one hundred and eighty millions of miles in diame- 
 ter and nearly five hundred and forty millions of miles 
 in circumference, containing billions upon billions of 
 cubic miles of light diffused over space, is displaced 
 every eight minutes by a new emanation a fresh 
 ocean of light, and that by the" flood-tides of another 
 ocean, and that by another, and so on to infinity. 
 
 Nor is this all. The whole space between us and 
 the far off orb of Herschel is thus constantly filled 
 with light, and that light is thus constantly displaced, 
 by wave succeeding wave in endless succession. 
 
 Now the idea that this is matter, which is thus pas- 
 sing off from the sun with the glance of the lightning 
 flash, and filling every eight minutes an almost incon- 
 ceivable area of space, would be preposterous in the 
 extreme, unless there were, by some process of na- 
 ture, an adequate supply for such an immense and 
 unavoidable waste. This conclusion is in strict ac- 
 cordance with every principle of philosophy, analo- 
 gy and fact. It is perfectly evident that particles fly- 
 ing off from a body must inevitably diminish that 
 body. No matter how infinitesimally minute those 
 particles, nor how immensely large the substance ; 
 this must be the case, so long as the smallest atom of 
 matter conceivable possesses both length, breadth and 
 thickness. 
 
158 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 It can, then, be mathematically demonstrated, as 
 perfectly as any problem of Euclid, thaUhe sun, unsup- 
 plied from some source, would, long since, have been 
 frittered away by infinitesimal abstractions, and been 
 utterly annihilated by this waste, even though we 
 should, for the sake of argument, adopt the supposi- 
 tion, that a million of cubic acres of those particles, 
 when condensed sufficiently, should weigh no more 
 than the ten thousandth part of a single grain ; for, 
 however vast in magnitude be the substance, such a 
 diminution as must take place by an emanation of 
 particles so immense as to fill a cubic bulk of space 
 one hundred and eighty millions of miles in diame- 
 ter, and nearly five hundred and forty millions of miles 
 in circumference, every eight minutes, must certainly 
 annihilate that substance completely in process of 
 time. As " a continual dropping wears away the sol- 
 id rock," so a continual waste must eventually ex- 
 haust completely and utterly exhaust even the bulk- 
 iest mass conceivable. 
 
 If light then, be the emanation of infinitesimal ef- 
 fluvia from the sun, as it doubtless is, how shall we 
 rescue the Newtonian theory from the difficulties in 
 which it seems to be involved ? We must suppose 
 either that there is, somehow, an unseen and imper- 
 ceptible return of those particles, to the source, from 
 whence they emanated, or that that great fount of 
 light is constantly fed by creative agency constantly 
 exerted, or else, as the horrid alternative, that the- 
 world would long since have realized the terrific phan- 
 tasies of Byron's poetic dream on darkness, when 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 159 
 
 'The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars 
 ' Did wander darkling in the eternal space, 
 'Raylees.and pathless, and the icy earth 
 , Swung blind and blackening in the moonless ar. 1 
 
 The latter alternative, we know, however, has not 
 taken place, and the position, that the waste is sup- 
 plied by direct creative agency, is contrary to all the 
 analogies of divine economy. When the Almighty 
 created the universe, he created, also, it is presumed, 
 all the natural laws and agencies by which that uni- 
 verse should be governed, until the present order of 
 things shall be broken up by the same Omnipotent 
 word and energy which established it, and, 
 
 " Final ruin fiercely drive her ploughshare o'er creation." 
 
 He di'd not leave his work half done. He completed 
 creation he pronounced the whole good, very good, 
 and on the seventh day he rested from his labor. It 
 cannot be presumed that the process of creating new 
 materials to supply any deficiency in this splendid 
 machinery of worlds is now progressing. The sup- 
 position would be derogatory to the skill of the great 
 architect. It would be contrary to the analogy of all 
 his doings. Although there are continual changes 
 going forward in the materials of which this globe 
 and its surrounding atmosphere is constructed al- 
 though there be a ceaseless progression of chemical 
 decomposition and* recomposition among various sub- 
 stances although what was a tree, one year, may, 
 'by transformation, become glass the next or what 
 was grass one day may become either flesh or milk or 
 
160 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 cheese or butter the next or what was fish in one 
 age may be petrified into limestone the next, and, in- 
 stead of floating in the water, become the material 
 with which your parlors are plastered, yet, it is pre- 
 sumed, that not a single new particle has been added 
 to the globe or its varied furniture since creation, 
 however modified it may have been, either by nature 
 or art. One might imagine, perhaps, that, in the 
 combustion of fuel, there is some destruction of ma- 
 terial. But such is not the fact. It has only under- 
 gone a change. Every particle of it exists some 
 where either in vapor or smoke or the gasses or in 
 ashes. And so with everything else. When the 
 streams dry up in the seasons of drouth, there is 
 not a drop the less water than before. It is either in 
 the deep well springs of the earth, or is borne about 
 in the vapors of the atmosphere, nor is there a drop 
 more when the streams are full, nor was there, when 
 the windows of heaven were opened, and the foun- 
 tains of the great deep were broken up, and the de- 
 luge covered fifteen fathoms deep, the tops of the 
 highest mountains. It was either spouted up from 
 the subterranean reservoirs of earth, or the surround- 
 ing atmosphere, which extends forty-five miles above 
 the globe, gave out its watery treasures, or the melt- 
 ed icebergs came down in torrents from the arctic 
 and antarctic seas. 
 
 From these analogies, and a thousand others un- 
 mentioned, we infer that no creation of material is 
 progressing to supply the waste of the sun. Shall 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 161 
 
 we then resort to the other hypothesis, that the other- 
 wise unavoidable diminution of the sun is supplied 
 by the return, through some channel, of those same 
 particles, which have accomplished the object of their 
 mission ? Let us see what testimony analogy furnish- 
 es upon this important subject, before we hazard an 
 answer. The human body affords a good illustration. 
 The heart sends out the vital stream by successive 
 pulsations, through its purple channels, to the extrem- 
 ities of the system, and is, in its turn, supplied by that 
 same blood, which is sent out in its passage back 
 through the little veins, to be again projected by the 
 self moved action of the wondrous machine. 
 
 The waters of the globe afford another very good 
 illustration. The ocean is, as it were, the heart of the 
 earth. By evaporation it supplies the clouds with wa- 
 ter. This is borne over the globe and discharged 
 among the mountainous regions, to supply the high 
 lakes and fountains. These send forth the little rills 
 and streams, which, uniting in their course, form rivers, 
 which empty into the ocean again and keep that im- 
 mense reservoir unexhausted. Now, what the heart 
 is to the human body, or the ocean to the globe, I 
 conceive the sun to be to the solar system. By its 
 mighty pulsations, it sends out its living streams to vi- 
 talize and energize creation, and when one pulsation 
 has done its work, and given its share of the mant- 
 ling blush of health to the cheek of beauty, and of 
 luxuriance to the verdure of vegetation, and of varied 
 lints to the flowers, and of ripeness to the mellow 
 8* 
 
169 PROPERTIES OP LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 fruits, and of motion to the planets, it speeds on its 
 lightning circuit, and gives place to another pulsation, 
 and thus pulsation afteT pulsation chase each other 
 in one interminable and ceaseless round, supplying by 
 some hitherto inexplicable method of return, the waste 
 which must otherwise accrue. 
 
 We have considered the Newtonian Theory of the 
 materiality of light as correct, though not matter in 
 the common acceptation of the term, for it is totally 
 different from any tangible, appreciable form of mat- 
 ter with which we are acquainted being imponder- 
 able, and immeasurable, passing through transparent 
 mediums without seeming to encounter any obstacle 
 entering readily into the eye, the tenderest and 
 most delicate organ, without causing pain or being 
 perceptible in its passage. The following appropriate 
 extract from Ferguson's Astronomy will forcibly illus- 
 trate the extreme subtlety and imponderability of this 
 agent. " Light consists of exceeding small particles 
 of matter isusing trom a luminous body; as from a light- 
 ed candle such particles of matter constantly flow in 
 all directions. Dr. NIEWENTYT* computes, that in 
 one second of time there flows 418,660,000,000,000,- 
 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 particles 
 of light out of a burning candle ; which number con- 
 tains at least 6,337,243,000,000 times the number of 
 grains of sand in the whole Earth, supposing 100 
 grains of sand to be equal, in length to an inch, and 
 consequently, every cubic inch of the Earth to con- 
 tain one million of such grains. 
 
 *JReligiou3 Philosopher, Vol. III. p. C5. 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 163 
 
 These amazingly small particles, by striking upon 
 our eyes, excite in our minds the idea of light ; and, 
 if they were as large as the smallest particles of mat- 
 ter discernable by our best microscopes, instead of be- 
 ing serviceable to us, they would soon deprive us of 
 sight by the force arising from their immense velocity, 
 which is above 164 thousand miles every second, or 
 1,230,000 times swifter than the motion of a cannon- 
 bullet. And therefore, if the particles of light were 
 so large, that a million of them were equal in bulk to 
 an ordinary grain of sand, we durst no more open our 
 eyes to the light, than suffer sand to be shot point 
 blank against them." 
 
 Now, with respect to extreme subtlety, does not 
 light resemble electricity. Is there any other agent 
 in nature, which will pass thus through the eye with- 
 out affecting it except electricity, for that will thus 
 pass. Let a pointed rod be connected with an elec- 
 tric machine, and a stream projected through the eye 
 from that point will cause no more pain than light 
 though differently modified. And if light be electri- 
 city, there would be an additional argument in iavor 
 of the supposition, that emanations of this fluid re- 
 turn again to their source, the sun, as all electricity, 
 however modified, moves in a circuit, and exhibits no 
 effect except the circuit is closed. 
 
 This is doubtless a novel idea, and may, for that 
 reason alone, be considered, at first thought, chimeri- 
 cal and baseless. But we only ask calm reflection upon 
 the subject, and candid attention to it, for, we are 
 
164 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 persuaded, that, after mature consideration, it will not 
 appear so visionary, as may, at first glance be suppo- 
 sed. If it perform a circut, it must be so immense, as 
 to be beyond computation. To illustrate this subject, 
 trace a single ray, for instance, in its passage from the 
 sun, out into space, for millions upon millions of miles, 
 and there would be a point in its outward passage, 
 and its consequent continual divergence, that the ulti- 
 mate particles, which constituted that ray, must of 
 necessity begin to separate from each other. Now, 
 when they come to that point of incipient separation, 
 what becomes of them ? If they make a complete 
 circuit, as we believe they do, the ultimate particles, 
 which composed the ray, would, when they began to 
 separate, (if they have the same organic laws as elec- 
 tricity, which we shall prove,) present their negative 
 or minus polarity toward the sun, and, in that sepa- 
 rated state, they would be drawn back to their source 
 by the simple laws of the attraction of opposite po- 
 larities. 
 
 But it may be affirmed that, as light moves in 
 straight lines, one part of our theory clashes with an- 
 other, since, according to this view of the subject, it 
 must move in curved lines. This apparent clashing, 
 however, is very easily explained, and this objection 
 obviated. So inconceivably immense is that orbit, 
 which is described by a ray, that, although it is actu- 
 ally circular, yet any perceptible part of the orbit, 
 which it describes, would appear to be straight to us, 
 and thus there be no clashing between the two posi- 
 tions in reality. 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 165 
 
 It would be very easy, we are aware for a fruitful 
 imagination to invent objections, but before our con- 
 clusions be confidently and positively denied, we 
 would ask those, who would invent such objections, 
 to tell us what becomes of light, if it does not thus 
 move in a circuit and thus return to its source. Is it 
 annihilated, or does it become stagnated and dormant 
 and lose its inherent activity in the vast abyss of space ? 
 And if it move not thus, and return, we would ask 
 those, who invent such objections, if they are pre- 
 pared, in any other plausible or rational way, to ac- 
 count for the otherwise unavoidable waste of the ma- 
 terial of the sun. If they can, we will willingly be- 
 come learners, and will pledge ourselves to give up all 
 prepossessions in favor of any opinion which we may 
 have harbored. But if they cannot, they are bound, 
 we think, to consider well the propriety of making 
 objections upon a subject, when they know not posi- 
 tively whether their objections are well founded. 
 Firmly believing, however, that they cannot, we shall, 
 for the present, at least, adhere to the conclusions to 
 which we have already come. 
 
 Light then doubtless, after having performed its of- 
 fice returns to its fountain and thus closes its circuit. 
 Else, what, I ask, becomes of it ? Has the earth, 
 for instance drank in and retained all the light which 
 has been shed upon it by the sun since creation ? If 
 it had we conceive it to be a proposition capable of 
 the clearest demonstration, that it would have been, 
 by this time, a complete ball of light like the sun. 
 
166 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 Besides had it retained all the rays which have fallen 
 upon it since the morning of time, its bulk ere this, 
 would have been very sensibly increased ; for, al- 
 though light be imponderable, yet it is something, and 
 is capable of accumulation, like other matter, if re- 
 tained. Not only would the earth be increased by 
 this accumulation, but every planet of the solar sys- 
 tem, and the sun, as every one must see, would be 
 proportionably diminished. And what would be the 
 consequence of such a diminution of the one, and 
 increase of the others ? Why, the perfect balance of 
 the system, which produces such a wonderful regu- 
 larity of revolution, that eclipses can be foretold, for 
 years before their occurrence, to the definiteness of a 
 single moment, would be entirely destroyed, and the 
 whole would rush headlong to the confusion and dark- 
 ness of chaos. Neither the earth, therefore, nor the 
 other bodies of the solar" system have retained the 
 light, which has fallen upon them, but having been 
 as completely saturated, the first twenty-four hours of 
 their existence as ever, they have thrown off all super- 
 abundance, the same as substances do, when sur- 
 charged with electricity. 
 
 We have dwelt upon this subject of the return of 
 particles to the sun with the more minuteness, be- 
 cause, if true, it may account satisfactorily for an im- 
 portant phenomenon, to which we shall have occasion 
 to advert hereafter. 
 
 As the correctness of our theory depends mainly 
 upon the demonstration of the proposition that light 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 167 
 
 is electricity, we will proceed in the examination of 
 proofs. The two possess many properties in com- 
 mon. Light, generally speaking, is attended with 
 heat so is electricity. Light has inconceivable ra- 
 pidity of motion so has electricity. The one is im- 
 ponderable, immeasurable, all-pervading equally so 
 is the other. And what if they do vary in some of 
 their appearances vary in some of their effects and 
 operations ? Does that circumstance necessarily de- 
 stroy their identity their oneness in principle or in 
 essence ? Certainly not. Known and acknowledged 
 electricities thus vary, and that too, quite as widely. ' 
 The spark and the shock of the electric machine are 
 somewhat different from the galvanic current. The 
 meteoric shower is different from the keen flash and 
 fierce energy of the bursting thunderbolt. The blaze 
 of the thunderbolt is different from the mysterious 
 corruscations of the Aurora Forealis and Aurora Aus- 
 tral is, and these again are all different from magnet- 
 ism or magneto-electricity. Even the very same gal- 
 vanic current, when modified by machinery, as can be 
 demonstrated with a piece of apparatus, is different 
 under one set of circumstances, from what it is under 
 another. If a person take hold of the poles of a 
 small battery, and close the circuit, he receives no 
 shock. But pass thai same current around a helix of 
 copper wire, enclosing soft iron, and forming what is 
 called the magneto-electric machine, and then, by the 
 action of the machine, a person receives shocks when- 
 ever he closes the circuit, by taking hold of tin tubes 
 
168 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 having a connection by conducting wires with the 
 positive and negative poles of the helix. This proves 
 conclusively that dissimilarity in appearance or in ac- 
 tion destroy not identity or oneness in principle or in 
 essence. This dissimilarity depends on modification 
 and on that alone, the causes of which are, sometimes, 
 apparent, and sometimes latent. The want then, of 
 resemblance in any respect between light and electri- 
 city, destroys not necessarily their identity. And even 
 on the score of similarity, they are, by no means, ma- 
 terially deficient. There are, in fact more points of 
 marked resemblance between them, than between ma- 
 ny known and acknowledged electricities more, for 
 instance, than between the Aurora Borealis and mag- 
 netism. And were the attention of philosophers and 
 chemists turned to the investigation of this subject 
 with all that intensity which its importance demands, 
 we are persuaded, that rhore resemblances still would 
 be discovered. Who can tell, but that, if, by any 
 means, an immense number of rays could be brought 
 together into one line of light, as they are brought to 
 a focus by the lens or burning glass, and could they 
 be continued onward in that line, without being scat- 
 tered -who can tell, we say, but that this condensa- 
 tion of rays might be one continual stream of fire, 
 like that of the electric fluid ? 
 
 But a truce to supposition. We need not resort 
 to hypotheses or conjectures to establish the plausibil- 
 ity, or even the logical certainty of our argument. 
 We appeal to incontrovertible facts, to prove that 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 169 
 
 light is electricity. These facts we shall glean from 
 the observations of practical men, which are prefera- 
 ble to any philosophical surmises or speculations. 
 
 Lieutenant Johnson, of the British navy, often no- 
 ticed that a considerable variation of the needle of 
 the compass was produced by the rays of the sun fal- 
 ling upon the glass which covers it. 
 
 In support of this testimony, I have that of Mr. 
 Harris, a resident of Ravenna, Portage county, Ohio, 
 who had been a surveyor more than twenty years, 
 and who had often been engaged in running lines. 
 Tn the commencement of his business, he was often 
 much troubled by the variation of the needle, and 
 imputed it, at first, to the vicinity of iron ore, which 
 is the popular solution generally given for such phe- 
 nomena. But he noticed, after awhile, that the varia- 
 tions occurred in a cloudless day, and just about noon, 
 when the sun was vertical. The idea occurred to 
 him, that it might be electricity, produced upon the 
 glass cover by the sun's rays. In order to test the 
 correctness of that idea, when such variations occur- 
 red, he moistened the glass so as to dissipate the elec- 
 tricity, and found by so doing, that the variation was 
 instantly prevented. Since that, he affirms that he 
 has been no more troubled with the supposed attrac- 
 tion of metalic substances, and his remedy is an in- 
 fallible preventive of the variations that so much 
 troubled him. 
 
 Since we first commenced the particular investiga- 
 
170 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 tion of this subject, in 1838, we have had frequent 
 opportunities to consult the oldest and most observing 
 practical surveyors, and they have, without an excep- 
 tion, in every instance, corroborated the statements 
 of Mr. Harris, arid Lieutenant Johnson. One whose 
 name, for particular considerations, we shall omit, but 
 who was as good authority, probably, as any one we 
 have consulted, not only testified his firm belief in 
 the cause assigned by Mr. Harris, but suggested the 
 thought, that both diurnal and annual variations of 
 the needle might, possibly, be determined by the va- 
 riations even of the thermometer. 
 
 But some may, perhaps, be willing to acknowledge 
 the premises, from which we started, but deny the 
 validity of our conclusions. They may assent to the 
 proposition, that electricity causes such variations of 
 the needle, as we have been contemplating, and that 
 electricity may be produced by the mere friction of 
 the sun's rays upon the glass cover of the compass, 
 but, that it cannot be the sun-light itself. This, 
 however, would be an assumption altogether unrea- 
 sonable and unphilosophical. Even if produced by 
 the friction of the rays, (which cannot be the case, 
 since light passes so readily through a transparent me- 
 dium, without friction,) either the light or the glass 
 must give out the electricity ; for, in all cases, where 
 electricity is developed by friction, either the rubber 
 or substance rubbed produces it. The one substance, 
 that affects the other, is, uniformly, the substance that 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 171 
 
 is the generating agent. Even if light, then, pro- 
 duces electricity by friction upon the cover, it, after 
 all, develops it from its own substance, and so, no- 
 thing is gained by the objector, nor are our conclu- 
 sions at all impaired. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 THE SINGULAR PROPERTIES AND ELECTRIC QUALITIES of 
 LIGHT AND HEAT ILLUSTRATED BY ARGUMENTS DERIVED 
 FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. 
 
 In addition to the facts, which were introduced into 
 our last Lecture, and which were of themselves suf- 
 ficient to demonstrate that light is electricity, it has 
 been ascertained by the celebrated Mrs. Somerville, 
 of England, that by passing the sun's rays through a 
 prism, and separating them, by analyzation, into the 
 seven primitive colors, the blue color possesses the pow- 
 er of imparting magnetism or polarity to the needle, 
 and magnetism, we now know, to be electricity by 
 experiments too conclusive to be controverted. 
 
 There is another very important fact respecting the 
 organic laws of the constitution of both light and elec- 
 tricity, which furnish additional and weighty testimo- 
 ny in favor of identity. The attractions of electricity 
 decrease in exact proportion as the squares of the dis- 
 tance increase, in receding from an electrified body. 
 This is precisely, (as we should suppose,) the law of 
 the divergence of light, and this law, which runs 
 throughout all the imponderables, has its origin in the 
 law of solar emanation or divergence, and the simple 
 reason why the attraction of all bodies decreases in 
 proportion as the squares of the distance increase, is 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 173 
 
 because the emanating influence of all bodies, which 
 constitutes attraction, obeys this law. 
 
 The very strongest testimony, However, in proof of 
 our proposition, is contained in the phenomena of the 
 polarization of light, by which it is demonstrated, that 
 every particle of light, as well as of electricity, has 
 opposite polarities. This curious subject will be more 
 fully examined, when we come to the discussion of the 
 subject of caloric. 
 
 By a fair logical deduction, then, with facts amply 
 to sustain it, we unhesitatingly infer that light is elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 Heat or caloric comes next in the order of remark, 
 and, in the investigation of this subject we shall accu- 
 mulate such an additional array of facts as shall es- 
 tablish our proposition beyond the shadow of a doubt. 
 
 The same arguments which would prove that light 
 is an electric fluid are applicable, also, to the agent of 
 heat. Heat like light is imponderable, subtle, ethereal 
 and all-prevading. No obstacle can stay its passage. 
 It insinuates itself between the particles of the densest 
 bodies as though it were immaterial. Its power 
 is prodigious irresistible in its energies. It gene- 
 rates the tremendous power that propels the steam 
 boat ; and were it, or could it, by any means, be con- 
 fined in subterranean volcanic caverns with bands 
 strong enough, and there accumulated, it would, by 
 the power of its expansive and explosive force, burst 
 the solid globe to atoms, and send its shattered frag- 
 ments in every direction through the vacuum that sur- 
 rounds it. 
 
174 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT, 
 
 With a glass bulb and tube, for instance, one of the 
 energies of heat, can be forcibly demonstrated. By 
 inverting it, and inserting the open end in a basin of 
 water in its natural state, you will perceive no effect 
 whatever. But, by passing into the tube the subtle 
 agent of caloric from a spirit lamp, and again invert- 
 ing it, you will see the water rise with great rapidity, 
 and fill more than nineteen twentieths of the tube. 
 This shows that heat has the power to expel the at- 
 mosphere and occupy its stead. But the moment you 
 attempt to confine it there, by closing the tube, it is 
 gone, like a flash gone like a viewless, incorporeal, 
 intangible thing, and the water rushes up to fill that 
 vacuum. 
 
 If all the imponderables, as we have assumed, be 
 identical, then Light and Heat are the same they co- 
 exist and are inseparable. But, it may occur to some 
 one, that those phosphorescent substances, which emit 
 light, do not, also, emit heat, and that our position is, 
 therefore, untenable. This conclusion is, however, 
 altogether too hastily formed. It will be seen, by the 
 following lucid extract from Turner, that heat is al- 
 ways necessary to make substances phosphorescent. 
 
 "The chemical agency of artificial light is anal- 
 ogous to that from the sun. In general the former is 
 too feeble for producing any visible effect ; but light 
 of considerable intensity, such as that from ignited 
 lime, darkens chloride of silver, and seems capable of 
 exerting the same chemical agencies as solar light, 
 though in a degree proportionate to its inferior bril- 
 liancy. 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 175 
 
 Light is emitted by some substances, either at com- 
 mon temperatures, or at a degree of heat dispropor- 
 tioned to the effect, giving rise to an appearance which 
 is called phosphoresence. This is exemplified by a 
 composition termed Canton's phosphorus, made by 
 mixing three parts of calcined oyster-shells with one of 
 the flowers of sulphur, and exposing the mixture for 
 an hour to a strong heat in a covered crucible. The 
 same property is possessed by chloride of calcium 
 (Homberg's phosphorus,,) anhydrous nitrate of lime 
 (Baldwin's phosphorus,) some carbonates and sul- 
 phates of baryta, strontia, and lime, the diamond, 
 some varieties of fluor-spar called chlorphane, apatite, 
 boracic acid, borax, sulphate of potassa, sea-salt, and 
 by many other substances. Scarcely any of these 
 phosphori act unless they have been previously expos- 
 ed to light ; for some diffused day-light or even lamp- 
 light 'will suffice ; while others require the direct solar 
 light, or the light of an electric discharge. Exposure 
 for a few seconds to sunshine, enables Canton's phos- 
 phorus to emit light visible in a dark room for several 
 hours afterwards. Warmth increases the intensity of 
 light, or will renew it after it has ceased ; but it di- 
 minishes the duration. When the phosphorescence 
 has ceased it may be restored, and in general for any 
 number of times, by renewed exposure to sunshine ; 
 and the same effect maybe produced by passing elec- 
 tric discharges through the phosphorus. Some phos- 
 phori, as apatite and chlorophane, do not shine until 
 they are gently heated ; and yet, if exposed to a red 
 
176 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 heat, they lose the property so entirely, that exposure 
 to solar light does not restore it. Mr. Pearsall has re- 
 marked that in these minerals the phosphorescence, 
 destroyed by heat, is restored by electric discharges ; 
 that specimens of fluor-spar, not naturally phospho- 
 rescent, may be rendered so by electricity ; and that 
 this agent exalts the energy of natural phosphori in a 
 very remarkable degree. The theory of these phen- 
 omena, like that of light itself, is very obscure. They 
 have been attributed to direct absorption of light, and 
 its subsequent evolution ; but the fact, that the color 
 of the light emitted is more dependent on the nature 
 of the phosphorescent body, than on the color of the 
 light to which it was exposed, seems inconsistent with 
 this explanation. Chemical action is not connected 
 with the phenomena ; for the phosphori shine in vac- 
 uo, and in gases which do not act on them, and some 
 even under water. 
 
 Another kind of phosphorescence is observable in 
 some bodies when strongly heated. A piece of lime, 
 for example, heated to a degree, which would only 
 make other bodies red, emits a brilliant white light of 
 such intensity, that the eye cannot support its impres- 
 sion. 
 
 A third species of phosphorescence is observed in 
 the bodies of some animals, either in the dead or liv- 
 ing state. Some marine animals, and particularly fish, 
 possess it in a remarkable degree. It may be witness- 
 ed in the body of the herring, which begins to phos- 
 phoresce a day or two after death ; and before any vis- 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 177 
 
 ible sign of putrefaction has set in. Sea-water is ca- 
 pable of dissolving the luminous matter; and it is 
 probably from this cause that the waters of the ocean 
 sometimes appear luminous at night when agitated. 
 This appearance is also ascribed to the presence of 
 certain animalcules, which; like the glow-worm of this 
 country, or the fire-fly of the West Indies, are natu- 
 urally phosphorescent." 
 
 Light and heat, then, we regard as the same thing. 
 They co-exist and are inseparable. All the percepti- 
 ble difference between them, consists in volume or de- 
 gree alone, and not in nature. Light exists either ra- 
 diant or in a state of diffusion, and, consequently, 
 latent. It is radiant when coming from the sun to 
 the earth, but the moment it strikes the earth, it be- 
 comes latent, but it is still light, just as much, though 
 not seen, as it was before, and, could it be condensed 
 into the same compass, and under the same circum- 
 stances as before, it would become just as radiant as 
 before. 
 
 Heat is only light in a state of diffusion, as we be- 
 fore remarked. This is proven by the fact, that, if 
 you condense it sufficiently, you make it light. Take 
 a piece of iron, for instance, and heat it to a certain 
 point, and it is still latent, or invisible, but condense 
 u trifle more heat, upon the iron, and it begins to be 
 light condense more still and it grows lighter and so 
 continue and you make it glow, at length, with a ra- 
 diance almost as intense as that of the sun at noon- 
 day, but still it is only heat. Light, then, is only heat 
 9 
 
178 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 condensed, and, the more it is condensed, the more 
 intense is that radiance ; and, on the other hand, heat 
 when latent, or invisible, is light in a state of diffusion. 
 All the difference, then, between the two, is in volume 
 or degree, and in volume or degree alone. 
 
 The same remarks apply with equal force to elec- 
 tricity. When condensed in the electric spark, or in 
 the galvanic current, or in the blazing thunderbolt, it 
 is radiant electricity, but, when not condensed, it is 
 Intent electricity, or electricity in a state of diffusion 
 and invisibility. But, whether radiant or latent, it is 
 the same thing, precisely, only accumulated in differ- 
 ent volumes. 
 
 Some suppose, that, when the electric spark, or the 
 thunderbolt explodes, the electricity is destroyed. 
 THat, however, is an erroneous supposition, as can be 
 proven by experiment. It only passes into a state of 
 diffusion, and consequent invisibility, but is essentially 
 the same thing as before, and, could it be collected 
 again, would exhibt the same appearance, as before, 
 and explode in a flash equally intense. 
 
 Mr. Cross, a literary gentleman of England, passed 
 several conductors for some distance over the trees in 
 his park, and connected them all with a single one, 
 which passed down through his parlor. In this main 
 conductor, which passed through his parlor, he had a 
 joint, so constructed, that he could break the connec- 
 tion, and leave a short interval between the two sec- 
 tions. Whenever he made the separation, whether in 
 fair weather or in foul, there was a constant succession 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 179 
 
 of brilliant electric sparks, passing from one conduc- 
 tor to the other. Without this disconnection, the 
 electricity would have passed over the conductor in 
 just as great a volume, but would have been invisible 
 or latent, and, of consequence, been the same precis- 
 ly as if radiant. 
 
 The fact that luminous and invisible electricity are 
 the same, though condensed more, in one instance 
 than in the other, can be incontrovertibly proven, by 
 an experiment with what is called the spiral tube or 
 diamond neck lace. Over the glass, at very small in- 
 tervals, are glued little pieces of tin foil. There is 
 probably a hundred of those pieces, in a distance of 
 two feet, and, as many spaces between them. Now, 
 communicate a spark of electricity, either from the 
 electric machine or a charged Leyden jar, and, in its 
 passage through the tube, it will become alternately 
 luminous and latent one hundred times in the distance 
 of two feet, which, certainly, would not be the case, 
 if electricity is destroyed or changed at all by explo- 
 sion. It is latent, when passing the tin foil, and lu- 
 minous, when passing the intervals, simply because it 
 is more diffused upon the tin foil than in the spaces. 
 Such an alternate arrangement of tin foil and spaces 
 might be extended, until they should number many 
 millions, arid an electric spark would become alternate- 
 ly luminous and latent as many millions of times, in 
 its passage over them. All the difference, then, be- 
 tween radiant and invisible electricity is in volume or 
 condensation, and light and heat, as we have seen, ex- 
 hibit precisely the same analogies. 
 
180 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEATS 
 
 We will here briefly enumerate a mass of addition- 
 al facts, which show the identity of caloric, light and 
 electricity. 
 
 Good conductors of heat are also good conductors 
 of electricity, and poor conductors of one are poor 
 conductors of the other. 
 
 Heat affects bodies inversely according to the 
 squares of the distance. This is the organic law of 
 light, electricity and magnetism. It speaks volumes 
 in favor of the proposition that the sun is the fountain 
 of all electricity, since the basis of this principle, 
 which runs through all the imponderables, seems to 
 be laid in the law of the divergence or radiation of 
 light. 
 
 Heat radiates in all directions like light, and its an- 
 gle of incidence and of reflection are the same. 
 
 Vessels containing a hot liquid will radiate heat 
 much faster, if they have a rough surface, than those 
 which have a smooth and polished one. The reason 
 of this is, because the rough surface has a great num- 
 ber of minute points, from which the heat will escape, 
 the same as electricity. The polished vessel has no 
 points for radiation, and, therefore, retains the heat. 
 
 In accordance with the same law precisely, a pol- 
 ished vessel, containing cold water, when placed be- 
 fore a fire, will not be heated so quickly, as one hav- 
 ing a rough surface, because it presents no points to 
 attract heat, but reflects it rather. 
 
 That was an important era in the history of science, 
 when the lightning of the clouds was identified with 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 181 
 
 electricity. Quite as important will be the era, when 
 caloric and that lightning shall be demonstrated to be 
 one and the same thing. If that ever take place, the 
 propositions we have assumed will be proven to be 
 correct, beyond the possibility of cavil, or the shadow 
 of a doubt. This subject, then, is richly worthy of a 
 thorough investigation. What are the phenomena 
 attendant upon a thunderstorm, and what are the 
 causes which conspire to produce it? Storms, at- 
 tended with thunder and lightning, seldom occur, ex- 
 cept in very warm weather; arid the warmer the 
 weather, the more frequent they are, and the more 
 vivid, rapid and intense are the lurid flashes of the red 
 bolt of heaven. They prevail in the northern zones 
 in the summer, in the southern in the winter, and in 
 the torrid regions throughout the year. This is the 
 "modus operandi" of their doings. 
 
 During the hot weather of the summer months, a 
 vast amount of caloric is poured down from the sun, 
 and diffuses itself throughout the waters of the foun- 
 tains, rivers, lakes and oceans of the globe, and pro- 
 duces evaporation ; for, it is a fact, which is general- 
 ly acknowledged, and which no one will dispute, that 
 caloric is the vaporizing agent the world over. This 
 vapor, when generated, rises, we know, and forms the 
 clouds. The caloric or heat, which originated it, is 
 absolutely required to keep it in a state of vapor; for, 
 the moment it is abstracted by any process or cause 
 whatever, that moment vapor ceases to be vapor, and 
 is condensed into water again. This is proved by the 
 
18'2 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 condensation of vapor or steam, in a low pressure en- 
 gine, for instance, where, by the abstraction of its ca- 
 loric by cold, it returns to water. 
 
 Now, what takes place during a thunder storm, af- 
 ter a hot sultry day, in which vast quantities of vapor 
 were generated, and with which vast quantities of ca- 
 loric rose to keep it in a state of vapor what takes 
 place, we ask, during a thunder storm at such a time ? 
 Why simply this. Clouds that are charged with ca- 
 loric, some plus and others minus, or some positive 
 and others negative, are drawn together, by the strong 
 attraction of opposite polarities, two clouds, having an 
 affinity for each other, rush together the caloric 
 which kept the vapor in a state of vapor, is thus giv- 
 en out from one to the other explosion takes place 
 the cause which produced the vapor, and kept it 
 so, having vanished, it is condensed, of course, into 
 water, and being then heavier than the surrounding 
 medium heavier than the circumambient atmos- 
 phere, which before sustained it, it is immediately pre- 
 cipitated to the earth by gravitation, in the form of 
 showers. 
 
 If a thunder storm be watched, during the process 
 of nimbification, it will be seen that little dark clouds 
 seem to congregate from every point of the compass, 
 sometimes, and will conglomerate and thicken into 
 deeper and deeper density and darkness, those, which 
 have the least caloric run the lowest, while those which 
 have the greatest quantity, run the highest ; as they 
 'come parallel to each other, the lower strata will lift, 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 183 
 
 while the upper will settle down, being attracted by 
 each other, until they come within striking distance, 
 when the plus of the upper strata is given out to the 
 minus of the lower, in the form of an explosion, and, 
 during this concussion, a large share of the caloric, 
 which was treasured up in the vaporous vesicles of 
 both clouds, is abstracted in thunderbolts, and thus 
 copious discharges of condensed vapor or water follow 
 each flash. 
 
 This accounts for the reason why the bolt, most 
 generally, passes downward from the cloud to the 
 earth. The upper strata being plus, gives out its ca- 
 loric to the lower, which is always relatively minus, 
 and, therefore, the scathing fires of heaven oftener 
 leap downward than in any other direction. 
 
 Lightning, then, or the electricity of the clouds, is 
 nothing more nor less than caloric, abstracted from 
 vapor by strong chemical affinities, and by explosion. 
 It is radiant caloric, and caloric is electricity. We 
 believe that no philosopher, or chemist can account 
 for all the phenomena of the thunderstorm, and of the 
 lightning, in any other way. 
 
 To show that we stand not alone in the advocacy 
 of such'sentiments, we will quote from that rare and 
 excellent work by Dr. Metcalf, entitled a new theory 
 of terrestrial magnetism. 
 
 " It was observed, long ago, by Dr. Franklin, that 
 masses of vapor in different states of electricity, at- 
 tracted each other far beyond what he called the stri- 
 king distance. 
 
184 PEOPERT1ES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 " It has probably been remarked by every person of 
 observation, that light masses of vapor from the ocean, 
 on approaching a mass of colder vapor from the north- 
 ern points of the compass, approximate each other 
 with accelerated velocity, when the colder current of 
 vapor attracts caloric from the warmer ; and it is con- 
 densed into a hazy mist or cloud. 
 
 " This is the rationale of serial condensations. 
 When a cloud is once formed, having parted with a 
 portion of its caloric, it is minus in relation to all un- 
 condensed or transparent vapor, which is plus. So 
 that it becomes a centre of attraction, drawing to it 
 successive masses of vapor, and abstracting their ca- 
 loric, by which a perpetual condensation or nimbifica- 
 tion is kept up, until an equilibrium is restored. 
 
 " It would seem obvious to the most superficial ob- 
 server, that caloric is. the cause of evaporation, inas- 
 much as the greatest amount of evaporation takes 
 place in regions which receive most of the sun's heat, 
 We may form some idea of the vast amount of calor- 
 ic contained in atmospheric vapor, when we reflect, 
 that a pound of vapor will raise the temperature of a 
 pound of water nearly 1000 degrees that its bulk 
 is increased about 1800 times in passing from a state 
 of water to that of vapor, and that all the rivers of 
 the earth are supplied by its precipitation. 
 
 " What then becomes of all the caloric which must 
 be given out during the condensation of this vapor ? 
 We know that thunder and lightning are most abun- 
 dant in tropical regions, and during hot, sultry weath- 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 185 
 
 er in the middle latitudes. Hence we infer, that the 
 caloric of vapor, when greatly accumulated, is giv- 
 en out rapidly, in the form of electricity, on ap- 
 proaching a colder mass of vapor, which is nega- 
 tively charged with caloric." 
 
 But it may, in this connection, be asked, what 
 causes rain, when lightning is not visible. The ca- 
 loric is given out gradually, and, in such a volume 
 that it is latent. This is either done by the vicinity 
 of cold and warm masses of vapor, or the attraction 
 of mountainous ridges, or of the minus earth. 
 
 If this be true, we can see, at once, the reason why, 
 upon the great desert of Zahara, where there are no 
 mountains, and where the earth is almost always plus, 
 it rarejy, if ever, rains. The earth, being plus, and 
 imparting caloric to the masses of vapor, as they float 
 over it, rarefies them, and makes them float higher, 
 rather than aids in their condensation. It would be 
 utterly impossible, therefore, for it to rain oftener up- 
 on that desert. 
 
 The same cause dissipates all appearances of rain 
 in certain sections during the prevalence of a drouth, 
 so that showers will pass round day after day, each 
 side of them, and seem to shun them. The earth 
 has, in those sections, become plus and rarefies the 
 clouds, as they pass by, floats them higher, and pre- 
 vents condensation. As a general occurrence, such 
 spots are encroached upon gradually by showers, un- 
 til they are, at length, made minus, and then they are 
 visited by the refreshing rain. 
 9* 
 
186 PROPERTIES OP LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 Could a large tower be erected, some one or two 
 thousand feet high, in the very centre of the great 
 desert of Zahara, and could its top be kept filled with 
 ice, it would be the cause of the perpetual nimbifica- 
 tion of clouds, by its abstraction of their caloric. 
 The consequence would be that it would be visited 
 with frequent and vivifying showers. 
 
 The sun is the great fountain of light. Were it, 
 however, extinguished, as in Byron's poetic dream on 
 darkness, there would be neither heat nor electricity, 
 and on the other hand, were there no heat nor elec- 
 tricity, there could be no light; for light is necessarily 
 produced by the heat, which is indispensably requis- 
 ite to render substances combustible, and, without 
 which, they would not ignite, nor become combusti- 
 ble, nor luminous at all. They are inseparable from 
 each other, and from electricity, and if you destroy 
 the existence of the one, by the same process, you 
 destroy the existence of all. 
 
 The fact is, the sun, which sends forth its streams 
 of light and heat, is the great fountain of electricity 
 the great galvanic battery of the solar system. 
 Could it be stripped, at once, of those splendors, which 
 sweep incessantly over the vast domain of its depen- 
 dent worlds, and be left a dark, cold, opaque body, 
 what think you, would be the consequence? Why, 
 in less than twenty-four hours, yea, in less than twelve 
 hours, this globe would become a solid mass of ice, 
 from surface to centre, as well as every other body of 
 the solar system. The very atmosphere would be 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT A^JD HEAT. 187 
 
 congealed into an iceberg. The heart of nature 
 would cease to beat. The pulse of nature would 
 stand still. The powers of nature would all be pal- 
 sied, chilled, and frozen to death. In such a sup- 
 posed contingency, the orbs, if they moved at all, 
 would wander, cheerless, black and without order, 
 through the vast expanse of desolation, dashing mad- 
 ly against each other, in their blind and ungoverned 
 career. 
 
 Or else, as is most probable in such a contingency, 
 all motion would be stagnated, and every energy, ev- 
 ery muscle, every nerve of the universe would be 
 withered, stiffened, clothed with the rigidity of death. 
 All sound would die away upon the palpable black- 
 ness of chaos. No elastic medium would convey the 
 tones of harmony by its vibrations. All nature would 
 be dumb. 
 
 While thinking upon this subject, I have permitted 
 imagination, sometimes, to have unfettered sway, and 
 to sketch the gloomy picture of the reality of such a 
 supposition. In doing so, no description of the scene 
 which I could paint, seemed so graphic, as the lan- 
 guage of Byron b s poetic dream on darkness, when 
 
 " The world was void. 
 
 lk The populous and powerful was a lump, 
 
 " Seasonless, herbless, treeless, mariless, lifeless, 
 
 " A lump of death a chaos of hard clay. 
 
 " The rivers, lakes and oceans all stood still. 
 
 " And nothing stirred within their silent depths- 
 
 " Ships sailorless, lay rotting on the sea, 
 
 " And their masts tell down piece meal 
 
 11 As they dropped, they slept upon the abyss without a surge. 
 
 " The waves were dead. The tides were in their graves. 
 
 " The moon, their mistress, had expired before, 
 
 " The winds were withered in the stagnant air, 
 
 " And the clouds perished. Darkness had no need 
 
 kk Of aid from them UBK WAS THE UMIVKRSE." 
 
188 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 This description, or a description like this, though 
 almost horrid enough to make the blood run chill, 
 would be no fiction. Should the light and caloric of 
 the sun be abstracted from the universe, there would 
 be no electricity. It would, with the rapidity of a 
 flash, complete its circuit, and perish with its cause. 
 It could be no longer excited by friction. No galvan- 
 ic arrangement of metalic plates, could produce it. 
 And then, motion would cease. All life would in- 
 stantly become extinct, and darkness and death would 
 reign triumphant and universal. 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 THE CAUSES OF MAGNETIC ATTRACTION, THE AURORA, GRAVI- 
 TATION, COHESION, AND THE MOTION OF PLANETS DEMON- 
 STRATED BY A VARIETY OF ARGUMENTS TO BE ELECTRIC 
 AND IDENTICAL. 
 
 In view of the facts and arguments, which have 
 already been submitted to the reader, we shall now 
 consider it a conceded point, that we have proven 
 the identity between solar light, caloric and electrici- 
 ty. To test still farther the correctness of the princi- 
 ples advocated, we will proceed to account, if possible, 
 for certain mysterious and hitherto inscrutable phe- 
 nomena, which can be satisfactorily accounted for, if 
 our positions be, at all, tenable. 
 
 There have, for ages, been certain vague and in- 
 definite ideas, floating in the public mind, respecting 
 the causes of magnetic attraction. While some have 
 thought, that there was a certain incomprehensible 
 control over the needle of the compass exerted by the 
 north pole star, others have approached somewhat 
 nearer to scientific accuracy, by ascribing this cori- 
 troling influence to terrestrial magnetism. But how 
 terrestrial magnetism is produced, and by what laws 
 it is governed, the latter class have been about as 
 much in the dark as the former. But, if the posi- 
 tions we have assumed be true if solar light and 
 
190 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 heat be electricity, and, if the sun be its fountain, we 
 have a key, which will unlock all this mystery, which 
 has hitherto been so inscrutable. To this important 
 and useful purpose we will then apply it. 
 
 How, upon the theory, that the sun is the fountain 
 of electric influences, is terrestrial magnetism account- 
 ed for ? The sun being the great galvanic reservoir, 
 pours its stream of light and heat, vertically, upon the 
 space embracing 47 degrees of the earth's middle re- 
 gions, or 23J degrees each side of the equator, con- 
 stituting the torrid zone. Let the temperature of the 
 other zones vary as it may, the heat of the torrid is 
 always uniform, and always excessive compared with 
 either the temperate or the frigid zones. Thus the 
 torrid regions, by being more directly under the in- 
 fluence of the sun's rays, become more deeply elec- 
 trified, than either the temperate or the frigid. 
 What is the consequence ? The equatorial regions 
 are positive or plus, while the polar regions are com- 
 paratively negative or minus. There are two rea- 
 sons for this. The 47 degrees, or the 3266 J statute 
 miles of the earth's surface, embraced between 23J 
 degrees of north, and 23 degrees of south latitude, 
 constitute the bulkiest part of the globe, and, even 
 if the remaining part, including the north and south 
 temperate, and north and south frigid zones, were 
 as directly exposed to the sun's rays, as is the torrid, 
 (which supposition is, however, an impossibility,) the 
 equator would in that case still be plus, and the poles 
 minus, because the torrid regions are the bulkiest, 
 
OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 191 
 
 and receive, therefore, the greatest amount of the 
 electric fluid. 
 
 But the principal reason why one is plus and the 
 other minus, is, because the one receives the rays 
 more vertically than the other. Now' for the appli- 
 cation of an infallible rule. The equatorial regions, 
 being plus or positive, and the poles being minus or 
 negative, there is a mutual attraction 'of the plus or 
 superabundant fluid of the one, and the minus of the 
 other, upon that immutable and universal chemical 
 principle, that opposite polarities, or a positive and 
 negative always attract, or that caloric always seeks 
 to keep up an equilibrium or restore it when dis- 
 turbed. 
 
 Besides, from this immutable and universal law of 
 caloric, to keep up or restore an equilibrium, its par- 
 ticles, if they have opposite polarities, and if the plus 
 end, in radiations, or emanations, always moves first, 
 must present, at the equator, their minus polarities to 
 each other, and of course, be continually repelled 
 outward each way toward the poles. 
 
 So, then, there are actually two forces operating 
 upon the superabundant electricity or caloric of the 
 equator. And what is the consequence of the com- 
 bined action of these two forces ? Why, there will be 
 two strong currents of electricity, rushing continu- 
 ally, with lightning speed, from the equator, each 
 way, and these currents will, if this theory be true, 
 run towards the point of greatest cold, north and 
 south, instead of the geographic pole. 
 
192 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 Some, perhaps, might contend, that if the streams 
 of caloric constitute the directive power, which is 
 exerted, by some agent over the needle of the com- 
 pass, they must move spirally, in order to produce 
 that influence, which is actually exerted. Such may 
 confidently infer this, from the fact that certain ex- 
 periments have been made, which would seem to 
 prove it. A sheet iron globe has been constructed, 
 and so wound spirally, from the north to the south 
 pole, with insulated copper wire, that it would make 
 the needle arrange itself north and south, whenever 
 the galvanic current was sent through the wire from 
 one pole to the other, by connecting the wires, at the 
 two poles with the poles of the galvanic battery. 
 
 But the inference, that such must be the spiral 
 course of the electric current around the earth, by 
 no means follows from this experiment ; for, it must 
 be recollected, that there are two different currents, 
 or two currents running in opposite directions from 
 the equator to the poles, with their polarities arranged, 
 of course, in opposite directions, the same, precisely, 
 as if, from the equator towards the poles of such a 
 hollow sphere, two currents should be sent in oppo- 
 site directions from two galvanic batteries. By such 
 an experiment it could be demonstrated conclusively, 
 that the needle would arrange itself north and south, 
 without having the galvanic fluid circulate around 
 spirally. 
 
 But it would not discredit the correctness of our 
 theory at all, if it were necessary that there should 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 193 
 
 be spiral currents, for there is, doubtless, a minor 
 current, running spirally around the earth, from west 
 to east, owing to the fact, that, by the diurnal revo- 
 lution, that side of the earth which is in darkness, is 
 relatively minus, when compared with that part which 
 is under the immediate influence of the sunlight. 
 
 Now, then, for the explanation of magnetic attrac- 
 tion. It has been ascertained by experiment, that 
 currents of electricity will influence the needle. 
 The reason, then, why the north pole guides the 
 needle when north of the equator, and the south pole 
 when south of the equator, is perfectly obvious. 
 These currents of electricity, rushing from the equa- 
 tor to the poles, constitute what is called terrestrial 
 magnetism. They give direction to the needle of 
 the compass. As the point of greatest cold varies, 
 so they vary, and as they vary, so the needle varies. 
 Were the geographic pole of the earth the point of 
 attraction, as has been supposed by some, the needle 
 would never vary at all, but, as it is, it varies both 
 diurnally and annually, because there are causes 
 always operating at the north pole to change the 
 point of greatest cold, particularly in the summer 
 season, when the floating icebergs or ice islands of 
 the Artie are continually changing their position. 
 
 There are other mysterious phenomena which can 
 be rationally and philosophically accounted for, only 
 upon the supposition, that there are such currents of 
 electricity, -as we have been describing. They are 
 the Aurora Borealisand Aurora Australis, or the nor- 
 
194 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 them and southern lights, for there are southern 
 lights as well as northern. If caloric be electricity 
 as we have supposed, and there are currents passing 
 from the torrid to the point of greatest cold in the 
 frigid zone, the question arises " what becomes of 
 this electric fluid, when it arrives at that point of 
 greatest cold ? " Why, it streams up into the rarer 
 regions of the atmosphere, and in its return to the 
 equator, it spreads out into the lambent, waving light, 
 exhibited by the aurora, the appearance being the 
 same, precisely, as electricity exhibits, when passing 
 through an exhausted tube, the same cause the rar- 
 ity of the atmosphere, operating in both cases, to 
 produce a luminous waving cloud, which proves that 
 they must be identical. 
 
 As we progress in the investigation of this subject, 
 we find evidence accumulating upon evidence all 
 linked together, and all sustaining the truth of our 
 main proposition. 
 
 Captains Parry and Ross ascertained, in their expe- 
 dition to discover a northwest passage, that the focal 
 point, from which streams upwards the Aurora Bo- 
 realis, was exactly the point of magnetic attraction, for, 
 when sailing over that point, the dipping needle stood 
 exactly perpendicular, while the horizontal needle 
 would not traverse at all, but would remain in any posi- 
 tion in which it was placed. When west of that point, 
 their dipping needle would incline to the east, when 
 east of it, it would incline to the west. They occa- 
 sionally found that the focal point, or the point from 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 195 
 
 which the Aurora Borealis streams upward, was south 
 of them, and in that case the north pole of the nee- 
 dle turned round and pointed southward, so that, let 
 them move where they might, its guiding influence 
 on the compass was still the same. 
 
 They also ascertained another important fact 
 that this point of attraction was comparatively that 
 of the greatest cold. 
 
 All these facts combining their evidence, and sus- 
 taining that of each other, can there be any rational 
 doubt., but that the caloric of the equator is elec- 
 tricity ? 
 
 See how admirably these facts are linked together, 
 and how each sustains the ultimate conclusion. Ca- 
 loric streams down from the sun deeply electrifies 
 the equatorial regions by a law of nature rushes 
 towards the greatest cold of the poles guides the 
 needle invariably towards the greatest cold streams 
 upward, as it passes out from the magnetic pole 
 rises into the rarer or thinner regions of the atmos- 
 phere, and, like electricity in its passage through an 
 exhausted tube, spreads out into a luminous cloud, 
 and forms the Aurora Borealis at the north, and the 
 Aurora Australis at the south. Now, can there be 
 any stronger proof or any greater accumulation of 
 proof, that caloric is, in fact, electricity, short of ac- 
 tual mathematical demonstration ? One, who could 
 not be convinced by such an array of facts, each 
 supporting the other, could hardly be convinced, we 
 should be inclined to suppose, by the evidence of his 
 
196 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 senses. He would be like that ancient sect of scep- 
 tical philosophers, who doubted every thing even 
 their own identity. 
 
 In continuation of our explanations of various phe- 
 nomena of nature, which have, heretofore, been left 
 unexplained, or enveloped in a metaphysical fog, we 
 would remark, that there are yet other important and 
 essential links, in the chain of evidence, which we 
 have been linking together, all of which will have a 
 tendency to make the logical accuracy of our deduc- 
 tions more clear, and our conclusions more and more 
 undeniable and convincing. 
 
 Gravitation, another imponderable principle of na- 
 ture, is one of those links a link too which, so far 
 from diminishing or impairing, in the slightest degree, 
 the strength of the previous chain of deduction, adds 
 to it increasing power of tenacity, and resistance to 
 efforts of prejudice or scepticism to break it a link, 
 which is intimately connected, as we shall attempt to 
 show, with the mysterious power of electro-magnet- 
 ism. 
 
 No topic, in the whole range of the sciences, has, 
 heretofore, seemed to students more unaccountable 
 more involved in a dark and misty shroud of uncer- 
 tainty, than gravitation. Upon what known philoso- 
 phical, astronomical, or chemical law, bodies, within a 
 certain distance, are attracted towards the earth, has, 
 for a long time been regarded by the learned and 
 treated, as an inexplicable enigma. 
 
 It is no solution of the riddle no satisfactory ex- 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 197 
 
 planation, to affirm, that it is attraction. If the at- 
 tempt be made, by any one, so to define it, the ques- 
 tion instantly suggests itself to the unsatisfied mind 
 of the dilligent enquirer after scientific truth what 
 causes this attraction why do all bodies, when sup- 
 ported in mid air, fall to the earth, instead of flying 
 off in a tangent away from it, into space ?" We 
 answer, that there must be some definite reason ex- 
 isting in the nature of things for this phenomenon. 
 What, then, is that reason ? 
 
 It will not avail anything, as we have seen, to say, 
 that it is attraction, or, that it is the attraction of grav- 
 itation. This method of solving the enigma would 
 only be reasoning in a circle, as logicians would call 
 it would be only giving a simpleton's solution, by say- 
 ing that a thing is so, because it is so. It conveys no 
 definite idea to the mind is referable to no general 
 scientific law. So far as purposes of lucid and per- 
 spicuous illustration are concerned, it might just as 
 well be said, that attraction of attraction causes that 
 known disposition of bodies to seek the earth, as to 
 be said, that the attraction of gravitation causes it, 
 for, the words, indicating or defining the cause, are, 
 in both cases, equally vague, having no definite idea 
 attached to either of them. If we are told that all 
 bodies of any bulk and density, have an inherent 
 tendency to approach other bodies of matter larger 
 and heavier than themselves, upon the principle of at- 
 traction, and that this is the attraction of gravitation, 
 is it any explanation at all ? Certainly not. Instead 
 
198 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 of throwing any light upon the subject, it is only the 
 substitution of one vague term, for another term 
 equally vague. The question still rushes upon the 
 unsatisfied mind, with undiminished force " What 
 causes this gravitating tendency ? Why do bodies 
 tend downward towards the earth instead of upwards 
 from it?" 
 
 Shall it be said that it is an insolvable mystery, 
 which is beyond the ken of human investigation, and 
 so let it pass? Will men permit themselves to be 
 thus baffled in their researches into the nature and 
 causes of things, by difficulties, which, perhaps, a 
 stern and unbending perseverance might overcome ? 
 This would be neither wise nor manly. There is not, 
 we are persuaded, the cause of a single solitary effect 
 of any kind in the universe, except the great uncrea- 
 ted cause of all effects or, in other words, a single 
 secondary cause of any effect whatever, which may 
 not, in time, by patient and persevering investigation 
 by comparing laws and agencies and influences, be 
 satisfactorily ascertained. 
 
 What, for instance, is a fundamental law of elec- 
 trical attraction? Why, an excited body, attracts an 
 unexcited body, that approaches it, in exact propor- 
 tion to the square of the distance. Iron, when tem- 
 porarily magnetised by the galvanic or electric fluid, 
 or steel, when permanently magnetized, attracts con- 
 tiguous metals precisely in the same proportions, and, 
 although magnetism and electricity wexe once thought 
 to have no sort of alliance with each other, yet, they 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 199 
 
 are now proven, beyond controversy, to be but one. 
 And what may we infer from this coincidence be- 
 tween the two, and the identity of their laws and 
 agencies ? Why, that any other imponderable, which 
 shall exhibit the operations of the same governing 
 laws, without a shade of difference, may, also, yea, 
 and will be found to be produced by the very same 
 cause, upon the immutable principle of nature, that 
 like causes produce like effects. 
 
 Here then we have a key to unlock the mystery of 
 gravitation a rule to solve every enigma, and every 
 difficulty satisfactorily. The attraction which the 
 earth exerts over loose bodies above its surface, is go- 
 verned by the very same laws precisely, as magnet- 
 ism and electrical attraction it draws them, with a 
 force, which varies in inverse proportions according 
 to the squares of the distance. 
 
 Gravitation, then, is nothing more, nor less, than 
 terrestrial magnetism, produced, as all magnetism is 
 produced, by electricity, and that electricity, stream- 
 ing down from the source of all electricity, the sun. 
 Before this theory, every difficulty which surrounds 
 the subject of gravitation, vanishes at once. The 
 phenomena of bodies gravitating towards the earth 
 can be thus accounted for by the operation of known, 
 and acknowledged, and tested scientific laws. The 
 earth is, in fact, a magnet exhibiting all the proper- 
 ties of a magnet attracting the needle to the pole 
 like a magnet drawing bodies to itself with a force 
 precisely conformable to the attractive force or in- 
 fluence of a magnet, is made a magnet by elec- 
 
200 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 tricity and that electricity is the light and caloric 
 that stream from the sun. The attraction of gravita- 
 tion, then, is the attraction of terrestrial magnetism. 
 
 It has been the current opinion, among the mass 
 of the community, and even among scholars, that ev- 
 ery thing is attracted towards the centre of the earth, 
 as though that possessed some mysterious, unaccount- 
 able power of attraction over substances, (somewhat 
 akin to the unphilosophical opinion, that the north 
 pole star guides the needle of the compass,) and that 
 it increased all the way to that centre. But such is, 
 by no means the case. The attraction of gravitation, 
 instead of being the greatest at the centre, is the 
 greatest at ike surface of the earth. 
 
 Were it possible, for instance, to perforate through 
 the earth, exactly at the magnetic centre, instead of 
 the geographic, a substance, which might weigh hun- 
 dreds of tons at the surface, would weigh just nothing 
 at all at the centre. It would be suspended there, 
 were the space large enough, without any apparent 
 support, like a light needle, when suspended within a 
 helix, or coil of insulated copper wire, while passing 
 a current of galvanism around it. And why would 
 this be the case ? Because the electrical or magnetic 
 attraction would be equal on all sides of the centre 
 of the earth, and, therefore, a substance, which would 
 weigh several tons at the surface, would there be per- 
 fectly balanced, without support, and would, in that 
 position, weigh just nothing at all, since all weight de- 
 pends upon attraction, and that weight is exactly pro- 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 201 
 
 portional to the attraction. As the power of the at- 
 traction is equal on all sides of the centre of the 
 earth, and, as attraction one way, without a corres- 
 ponding attraction the other, causes all weight, there- 
 fore, a substance at this centre, must weigh nothing, 
 because the attraction being in all directions equal, 
 must be neutralized. 
 
 The attraction of gravitation, or, in other words, 
 the attraction of terrestrial magnetism) which is the 
 same thing precisely, is the greatest at the surface of 
 the earth. It may be asked, then, " Why do all fall- 
 ing bodies, fall toward the centre ? " Simply because 
 the radiations of magnetism obey the same law, pre- 
 cisely, as the radiations of light. The lines of these 
 radii if continued on within the surface, or through 
 the earth, from one side to the other, would intersect 
 the centre, and the attractions of the surface are, there- 
 fore, directly toward the centre. 
 
 From the fact that the radiations of magnetism, 
 obey the law of the radiations of solar light, and all 
 other light, that is, from the fact that the divergence 
 of the radiations of magnetism is in the exact pro- 
 portion of the squares of the distance, the same as 
 the divergence of light, gravitation, therefore, at- 
 tracts all bodies around it, in proportion to the squares 
 of the distance of those bodies. So that the organic 
 laws of magnetism, light and gravitation are the 
 same, and, like laws produce like effects as well as 
 like causes. 
 10 
 
202 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 Before dismissing the interesting subject of gravi- 
 tation, we would express our belief, that it is a prop- 
 osition capable of demonstration, that an increase of 
 the material of the earth, would increase its attraction 
 in precisely the ratio of the increase of the attraction 
 of the magnet, by the increase of its material. Were 
 the material of the earth doubled, for instance, its at- 
 traction would be quadrupled, precisely in accordance 
 with the law of the divergence of light, or the radia- 
 tions of electricity. Consequently the weight of all 
 bodies upon its surface, of the same bulk and densi- 
 ty, would, in such a supposed contingency, be quad- 
 rupled in accordance with an immutable law. 
 
 Now, from all that has been said, does it not ap- 
 pear perfectly evident, that gravitation has a cause, as 
 definite and as easily explained, as magnetism ; which 
 cause is precisely the same. The great magnet of 
 Professor Henry, for instance, to which we have al- 
 ready alluded, would, when fully charged with the 
 galvanic current, neutralize all the power of the earth's 
 gravitation, and make a body gravitate upwards from 
 the earth, with a power equal to two or three tons. 
 And why ? Simply because a vast volume of elec- 
 tricity was accumulated there in a small compass, by 
 means of the insulated copper wires, around which 
 the galvanic fluid circulated. Electricity or light, 
 then, we can legitimately conclude, is the cause of 
 gravitation. 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 THE CAUSES OF MAGNETIC ATTRACTION, THE AURORAE, GRAV- 
 ITATION, COHESION, AND THE MOTION OF PLANETS DEMON- 
 STRATED BY A VARIETY OF ARGUMENTS, TO BE ELECTRIC 
 AND IDENTICAL. 
 
 The attraction of cohesion has the same cause, as 
 the attraction of gravitation. They are both doubt- 
 less, produced by that electric cause, the light and ca- 
 loric of the sun. The one is the attraction between 
 large masses, and the other between the component 
 particles of those masses, the one attracts at great 
 distances, and the other at insensible distances their 
 attractions are, therefore, the same in essence, though 
 not in volume or degree. What holds the armature 
 of Henry's large magnet, when charged, but the sim- 
 ple power of cohesive attraction between the particles 
 of the iron, which composes the material of the mag- 
 net and armature, which cohesive power is caused by 
 electricity ? We believe it is nothing else. The 
 same power, precisely, holds the particles of all bodies 
 together, and that power of cohesive attraction varies 
 often as the amount of latent caloric varies. Ab- 
 stract the latent caloric of iron, for instance, by in- 
 tense cold, or by any other cause, and you, in a pro- 
 portionable degree, destroy its cohesive attraction, and 
 
204 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 make it brittle. JThis is proven by the ease with 
 which iron is fractured, in the intense cold of the win- 
 ter. 
 
 By hammering iron when cold, or by rolling it in a 
 rolling mill, it will also become brittle. And why ? 
 Because the caloric, which constitutes cohesive attrac- 
 tion, is pressed out upon the surface, by closing the 
 pores. This is proven by the fact that caloric accu- 
 mulates upon the surface, in proportion as the pores 
 of the iron are contracted by the rolling mill or the 
 hammer, which drive out the latent caloric. 
 
 The various phenomena of capillary attraction can 
 be referred to the same cause, as cohesion to the 
 caloric, that electrifies all substances under its influ- 
 ence. The tallow that composes the candle, for in- 
 stance, is drawn up into the wick, during combustion, 
 by capillary attraction, and that attraction is caused 
 by the caloric set free during ignition. 
 
 We are well aware that many objections to the va- 
 lidity of our positions can be started by fruitful imag- 
 inations, which may appear plausible and seem to con- 
 flict with the conclusions which we have drawn, but 
 which must be deceptive, since the laws of nature do 
 not clash, and, if some of the reasons, and the modes 
 of her operations are beyond the ken of the acutest 
 and most penetrating scrutiny, it amounts to no con- 
 clusive proof that we are incorrect. The question is 
 simply this. Have our deductions appeared rational, 
 and in accordance with known and tested laws, and 
 have they been amply sustained by an accumulation 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 205 
 
 of appropriate facts ? If so, we are under no obliga- 
 tion to explain mysteries in the essential attributes of 
 an agent, while we are attempting to trace merely the 
 effects of that agent, for most of those objections, 
 which are or may be started, will be found, upon close 
 scrutiny, to relate to essence rather than to the " mo- 
 dus operandi " of that essence. 
 
 Such questions as these, for instance, may be asked 
 by the caviling objector. If caloric be the cause of 
 cohesive attraction, why will its accumulation entirely 
 destroy cohesive attraction, as in the instance of all 
 melted metals? Or, if caloric be electricity, and, if 
 electricity be magnetism, why does not its accumula- 
 tion around the large galvanic magnet, make that large 
 magnet hot ? Or, why will this agent, under one set 
 of circumstances, produce an effect, and under anoth- 
 er, destroy that same effect it produces, if " like causes 
 produce like effects 1 " These, and a thousand other 
 questions, might be proposed by the objector, which 
 are more easily asked than answered. 
 
 But, to show that they relate to essence, we will 
 ask some questions equally puzzling, about electricity, 
 where there can be no mistake about the identity of 
 the agent. Why will the very same current of gal- 
 vanism produce both an acid and an alkaline taste? 
 Why will electricity, under one set of circumstances, 
 make a magnet, and why, under other circumstances, 
 will it destroy that same magnet. It will be readily 
 perceived, that it is much easier to ask questions 
 than to answer them, and that such questions refer 
 
206 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AN> HEAT. 
 
 rather to an explanation of essence than of effect. 
 That essence of electricity, we never attempted, nor 
 have we ever proposed, to explain. It is a wonderful 
 agent, and as mysterious as it is wonderful. Its ef- 
 fects are varied by countless myriads of modifications, 
 and these effects, we investigate, rather than the in- 
 scrutable reasons, why those modifications should be 
 so multitudinous, and why they should, in some cases, 
 appear to clash. 
 
 To show that we stand not alone in the advocacy 
 of the opinion, that cohesive and capillary attraction 
 are produced by caloric or electricity, we will quote 
 from Metcalf 's " New Theory of Terrestrial Magnet- 
 ism." Speaking of caloric, he says : " It seems to 
 be a general law of this subtle element, that it repels 
 its own particles, and is attracted, though unequally, 
 by all other matter, with an increased ratio, as th< 
 squares of the distance diminish.* 
 
 " From which it follows, that when caloric is with- 
 drawn from a body, that body has a stronger affinity 
 for caloric, than one which is filled with it ; and two 
 bodies charged with caloric, one plus and the other 
 minus, will attract each other with a force propor- 
 tioned to the different quantities of caloric which they 
 contain, and to the rapidity of its conduction from 
 one to the other. 
 
 " An experiment, which I inadvertently made when 
 a child, strikingly illustrates this principle. On the 
 
 * We do not believe in the above proportion, so far as reciprocal at- 
 traction is concerned. This would, as we have elsewhere shown, de- 
 stroy the " vis inertias " of ponderable matter. 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 207 
 
 morning of " cold Friday/' as it was called through 
 the Western country, I applied my tongue to a plate 
 of cold iron, while the mercury was about 15 degrees 
 below zero, when it adhered with such force that the 
 skin was removed on separating it. Captain Scoresby 
 relates, that frequently such was the intensity of cold 
 in the Arctic seas, that the hands of the sailors ad- 
 hered fast to whatever metals they touched. 
 
 " In such cases the temperature of the living body 
 is from 115 to 140 degrees higher than that of the 
 metals : in other words, the living body is charged 
 plus, while they are minus; and the attraction con- 
 tinues until the equilibrium is restored, when it ceases. 
 
 " The same attraction takes place, when the hand 
 is applied to metals heated greatly above the temper- 
 ature of the living body ; and for the same reason, 
 one of the two bodies being charged plus and the 
 other minus. 
 
 " When the temperature of metals is greatly re- 
 duced, they become brittle, so that a slight blow will 
 fracture them ; the same effect is produced on iron by 
 hammering, which presses out, and expels from it, 
 that portion of caloric, which is necessary to its cohe- 
 sion and malleability. Hence it follows, that a cer- 
 tain amount of caloric between the particles of mat- 
 ter is requisite to maintain their cohesion; but when 
 the amount of caloric is increased beyond a certain 
 extent, it separates the particles, and thus diminishes, 
 or overcomes, the power of cohesion. 
 
 " A great variety of facts may be adduced, to show, 
 
208 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 that capillary attraction) is owing to the operation of 
 the same law. For example ; if a piece of sugar be 
 put into a glass of water, a portion of the caloric of 
 fluidity leaves the water, enters among the particles of 
 sugar, and diffuses itself equally throughout the whole. 
 During this absorption of caloric by the sugar, the 
 temperature of the resulting mixture is somewhat re- 
 duced, Droving that, in relation to the water, the su- 
 gar is minus or negative, and the water is plus or pos- 
 itive. 
 
 " If the piece of sugar be cut into a cylindrical 
 form, of one or two inches in diameter and five or six 
 inches long, and one end of it only be inserted into a 
 glass of water, the caloric of the positive fluid being 
 strongly attracted by the negative sugar, pervades it 
 rapidly throughout, until the equilibrium is restored, 
 when the entire mass is dissolved. 
 
 " M. Lehot found by experiment, that under the 
 same pressure, water rises higher in vertical capillary 
 tubes, as its temperature is elevated. (Bibl. Univers. 
 Mars. 1820, p. 225.) 
 
 " The phenomena of a burning candle illustrate 
 the agency of caloric in producing capillary attraction 
 in a very striking manner. The wick is ignited, the 
 tallow rendered fluid, and attracted by caloric so as 
 to furnish a continual supply of combustible matter 
 to the wick, which is decomposed and expanded into 
 flame or light. The force and rapidity of capillary 
 attraction, all other things being equal, are in propor- 
 tion to the amount of heat given out in the wick. 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 209 
 
 " Capillary and cohesive attractions are only modi- 
 fied effects of the same cause. It is the attraction of 
 caloric for the particles of water, that holds them to- 
 gether ; that gives its drops their globular form ; as it 
 is the attraction of caloric for porous solids, arid ca- 
 pillary tubes, that raises the water above its ordinary 
 level." 
 
 If light and caloric then be electricity, and the sun 
 be the sole fountain, from which it issues, as we have 
 attempted, in previous lectures, to demonstrate, then 
 its influences over the planets, that revolve around it, 
 must also be an electric influence. If their motions 
 are produced by the influence of the sun, then, those 
 motions must be governed by the laws which govern 
 the electric agent. 
 
 We approach the discussion of this subject, with 
 the feeling, that it is the most important, as well as 
 the most interesting of any contained in the whole 
 series of lectures. If we shall demonstrate, that the 
 revolutions of all the planets, both diurnal and annual, 
 can be philosophically accounted for, in accordance 
 with those organic laws of electricity, which have been, 
 and may be ascertained definitely, in the laboratory, 
 in their action upon pith balls or electrometers, then 
 will our opinions upon this subject be triumphantly 
 sustained beyond the influence of cavil, and their 
 correctness incontrovertibly proven. But, if we shall 
 not be able to demonstrate such an identity, then will 
 it appear conclusive, that we have been indulging in 
 10* 
 
210 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT, 
 
 philosophical dreams, or baseless chimeras of the 
 brain. 
 
 What then are the forces, which electricity exerts 
 over pith balls ? They are two, which, as we have, 
 heretofore, abundantly shown, have their basis in the 
 inherent organic laws of this agent, and depend al- 
 ways, for their development, upon a plus and minus. 
 
 And what are the two forces, which have ever been 
 supposed to govern the motions of the planets ? Why 
 they are, what philosophers have denominated, cen- 
 trifugal and centripetal forces. The meaning of the 
 one is, a tendency to fly from a centre, and that of 
 the other, a disposition to seek the centre. Now these 
 terms are, as any one must see, exactly equivalent to 
 attraction and repulsion. Centrifugal is repulsion 
 and centripetal is attraction. So then, we find, that 
 we have to bring to our aid no new forces, if we adopt 
 the hypothesis, that the influence of the sunlight upon 
 the solar system, is electric, since its two organic for- 
 ces, correspond exactly to the centrifugal and centri- 
 petal, of all standard works. 
 
 How then is the diurnal motion of the earth, for 
 instance, produced upon this hypothesis, taking the 
 movements of this globe for example, since they are 
 more familliar than those of any other planet. Why, 
 simply in this manner. The sun illuminates one half 
 of the surface of the globe, while the other half is in 
 darkness. That hemisphere, which is in darkness, is 
 relatively minus, when compared with that which is 
 illuminated, and so, vice versa, that hemisphere which 
 is under the direct influence of the radiance of the sun, 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 2] 1 
 
 is relatively plus, while the other is minus. The plus 
 of the one side will increase from morning until sun- 
 down, and the minus of the other from sundown un- 
 til morning. This is in accordance with that tested 
 fact, that, if any substance be exposed to an electri- 
 fying cause, it becomes plus, and the longer it is ex- 
 posed to that cause, the more highly plus it becomes, 
 and so, on the contrary, if any substance be removed 
 from the electrifying influence, it becomes minus, and 
 the longer it is removed, the more deeply minus it be- 
 comes. Now, what is the legitimate result of such a 
 condition of the earth ? That part of the earth, which 
 has been longest in the sun's rays, has come, as we 
 have said, to a highly plus or positive state that is, 
 it has come to that state, in which, throughout the 
 torrid regions and part of the temperate, there must 
 be an outward emanation, which constitutes a plus or 
 positive, since any substance, exposed, for any length 
 of time to an electrifying cause, must become positive. 
 By an immutable law of electricity, two positives 
 repel. Therefore, that part of the earth, which has 
 been longest in the sun's rays, having come to a posi- 
 tive condition, is repelled by the positive sun. But 
 that part which has been the longest removed from 
 the direct influence of the electrifying cause, and has, 
 therefore, come to a deeply negative condition, would 
 of course, be attracted by the positive sun, since a 
 positive and negative always attract. If this were the 
 true principle of the revolution of the earth upon its 
 axis, the plus part of the earth must be always rolling 
 
212 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 away from the sun, while the minus part must al- 
 ways be moving towards it, from the fact, that two pos- 
 itives always repel, and a positive and a negative al- 
 ways attract. And this is the case, not with the 
 earth only, but with all the planets, which compose 
 the solar system. That part of all of them, which 
 has been longest in the sun's rays, is always rolling 
 away from him, while that part, which has been long- 
 est out of his rays, is always rolling towards him. In 
 producing the rotary motion of the earth, then, upon 
 its axis, it is evident that the sun exerts two forces 
 upon it, the one of attraction and the other of repul- 
 sion, which would cause its diurnal revolution, since, 
 if you strike a ball on each side with equal force, and 
 in opposite directions, you give it the rolling motion. 
 
 The earth, then, revolves on its axis daily, by the in- 
 fluence of the two forces of attraction and repulsion, 
 exerted over it by the sun, and those are precisely an- 
 alogous in every respect, to those of electricity. 
 
 If this be not the precise influence which the sun 
 exerts over the earth, in the production of its diurnal 
 motion, what is that influence ? It is universally ac- 
 knowledged that the sun governs all the motions of 
 the earth. But, while such an acknowledgment has 
 been made, there seems to have been no clear or well 
 defined idea, in the minds of those who have made 
 such an acknowledgment, as to what constitutes that 
 ruling power. They have almost universally taken 
 it for a conceded proposition, that such a ruling pow- 
 er of nature controls the movements of this globe of 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 213 
 
 ours, but how it exerts such a control, they seem scarce- 
 ly to have taken the trouble to enquire. 
 
 But, if the sun governs the motions of the earth, it 
 governs those motions in accordance with uniform, 
 well-defined and immutable laws. Now, if any one 
 affirm that the sun controls the movements of the 
 earth, he is bound to explain the principles of that 
 government. If he cannot, how does he know that 
 there is any such government at all. He has no right 
 to assert that one thing is governed by another, with- 
 out he can give some definite reason, or reasons, why 
 he draws such a conclusion. Nor has he any right to 
 object to conclusions, which others have drawn from 
 well defined premises, and deductions founded in reas- 
 on, and sustained by well attested facts. 
 
 We, for instance, have assumed the proposition to 
 be true, and have endeavored to prove it, that electric- 
 ity is the cause of all attraction and repulsion, upon 
 both a large and small scale, and, consequently, of all 
 motion among spheres, as well as atoms, and that the 
 sun is the fountain whence it originates. As part of 
 a connected chain of antecedents and consequents, or 
 of causes and effects, we have drawn the legitimate 
 conclusion, from the practical results of this theory, 
 that the sun governs the earth and the other planets 
 of the solar system by an electric influence. That in- 
 fluence has been tested in the laboratory upon pith 
 balls, and is, therefore, acknowledged by all, who pre- 
 tend to any very extensive attainments in science. 
 
 Now we have shown that the diurnal motion of the 
 
214 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 earth can be produced by the streams of electrifying 
 sun-light, precisely in accordance with those known 
 and tested and universally acknowledged electric in- 
 fluences, which are of every day occurrence, and are 
 familiar to every school boy. And if objections be 
 urged against such conclusions, those who urge them 
 ought, certainly, to be prepared to explain the laws by 
 which the sun governs the earth, more satisfactorily 
 and plausibly, or else forever hold their peace, and ac- 
 knowledge their incompetency to do it ; for the old 
 stereotyped method of explanation, by referring the 
 whole to the influence of the centrifugal and centri- 
 petal forces, without explaining how those two forces 
 are produced, will not answer -will satisfy no en- 
 quiring mind. 
 
 Feeling the force of the deductions which we have 
 drawn, and seeing the impossibility of denying our 
 conclusions, if our premises be correct, some may be 
 roused by the impulse of their alarmed prepossessions, 
 to attack some of those premises. They may deny 
 that the earth becomes minus during the night, and, 
 therefore, infer that there are no two forces of the kind 
 we have mentioned. But such cannot have investi- 
 gated the subject at all. The earth is a rapid radia- 
 tor of caloric, and, therefore, when the cause of it is 
 removed, it rapidly dissipates. The consequence is, 
 that, although the emanations of caloric are outward 
 from the earth during the day, especially in the torrid 
 zone, they are inward from the atmosphere to the 
 earth at night, as is proven by the deposits of dew, for 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 215 
 
 these deposits result from the abstractions, by the mi- 
 nus earth, of the caloric of the vapor, which was gen- 
 erated in the day time, and rose from the earth by the 
 force of emanating or plus caloric. The passage of 
 caloric is, therefore, into the earth at night, from the 
 surrounding atmosphere, and of course, presents its 
 minus polarities, as all inward currents do. This ob- 
 jection falls, therefore, to the ground, for the want of 
 the shadow of a support, and so would every other 
 objection, we believe, because our explanation of the 
 phenomena of the revolution of the earth is in accor- 
 dance with the immutable laws of nature. 
 
 As we have already remarked, all the other prima- 
 ry planets obey the same laws precisely, or are gov- 
 erned by the same influences, in their rotary motions 
 upon their axis, as the earth. 
 
 An objection may, however, be urged against this 
 conclusion, from the fact that there is no uniformity 
 in the diurnal revolution of those, whose motions have 
 been ascertained with certainty, since Venus turns on 
 her axis in twenty-three hours and twenty minutes, 
 the Earth in twenty-three hours and fifty-six minutes, 
 Mars in twenty-four hours and thirty-nine minutes, 
 Jupiter in nine hours and lifty-five minutes, and Sat- 
 urn in ten hours and sixteen minutes. 
 
 Now, why is there so much dissimilarity in the rev- 
 olution of these planets, if there be a common cause 
 for it, and if the laws which govern that common 
 cause are invariable ? It must be owing to the differ- 
 ent materials which compose them, to their different 
 
216 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 powers of radiating caloric, to their different distan- 
 ces from the sun, and also, doubtless, to their bulk. 
 Venus is some twenty-eight millions of miles nearer 
 to the sun than this earth, and its day is thirty-six 
 minutes longer than ours. Upon the supposition that 
 the power or capability of each planet to radiate ca- 
 loric decreases in exact proportion as the squares of 
 the distance from the sun increase, about which we 
 shall soon remark more at large, then the revolutions 
 of each primary planet would be regulated in exact 
 proportion to bulk and distance. 
 
 The difference between the relative distances from 
 the sun of the Earth and Mars, is forty-eight millions 
 of miles, and the difference between the time of their 
 revolutions is forty-three minutes. Now, if we take 
 those three planets, Venus, the Earth and Mars for 
 data, whereupon to make our calculations, we can de- 
 termine, with mathematical certainty, whether any 
 other causes than mere bulk and distance, influence 
 the rapidity of their revolutions. 
 
 The difference between the bulk of Venus and the 
 Earth, in diameter, is two hundred and forty miles, 
 between their distances from the sun is twenty-eight 
 millions of miles, and between the time of their rev- 
 olution, or the length of their day, is thirty-nine min- 
 utes, while the difference between the bulk of the 
 Earth and Mars, the next planet, is three thousand 
 seven hundred and thirty-nine miles, between their' 
 distances, is forty-eight millions of miles, and their 
 time forty-three minutes. Into this account is to be 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 217 
 
 taken, the bulk and influences of the Moon, which 
 the Earth carries along with it. 
 
 Without having space to enter into all the minutia 
 of a mathematical calculation in the present connec- 
 tion, it is our impression that, with these data before 
 us, it can be perfectly demonstrated, that the rapidity 
 of diurnal revolution depends alone upon bulk and 
 distance from the sun combined. 
 
 This accounts satisfactorily for the reason why Ju- 
 piter and Saturn revolve upon their axes in less than 
 half the time of the revolution of our earth, although 
 the one be three hundred and ninety-five millions of 
 miles further from the sun than the earth, and the 
 other eight hundred and five millions further; for 
 Jupiter has a diameter about twelve times as great as 
 our earth, making its bulk more than a thousand times 
 greater than this planet, besides carrying with it four 
 large moons, and Saturn, exclusive of the weight of 
 his enormous rings and seven moons, is nearly six 
 hundred times larger than the Earth. They may 
 therefore, in exact accordance with our data, both per- 
 form their diurnal revolutions in less than half the 
 time of our earth. 
 
 Having come, by our deductions, to the conclusion, 
 that the rapidity of revolution depends upon the bulk 
 of the planets, and their relative distances from the 
 sun, we would here remark, that, if the power or ca- 
 pability of the planets to radiate caloric, decreases, 
 according to the squares of their distance from the 
 great centre of the system, then, there is a definite 
 
218 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 
 
 cause why they all occupy just the position they do. 
 Were this the case, they could come no nearer to the 
 sun than they now do. nor could they remove farther 
 away from it, but must remain just in the position 
 they do at present, and have done since creation, so 
 long as their material remains the same, or they have 
 the same power of retaining or radiating caloric. 
 
 For, if they should come any nearer, it is evident 
 that they must become plus, and so be driven back, 
 by the repulsion of two positives. And, if they should 
 recede, farther from the centre, they would become 
 minus, and so be drawn to the position, whence they 
 started by the attraction of a positive and negative. 
 It is perfectly evident, then, that the planets are com- 
 pletely balanced in their orbits. They can neither 
 fly away from them, nor can they be drawn into the 
 sun, for the agent, that rules them, and governs all 
 their motions, holds them just where they are, with 
 bonds which cannot be broken, until the final " wreck 
 of matter, and the crash of worlds." Owing to this 
 cause alone, the earth approaches the sun, in one part 
 of its orbit, and is driven back in the other, the two 
 forces, keeping it balanced in strict accordance with 
 that law of caloric, which has a tendency to keep up 
 an equilibrium throughout nature. 
 
 Having accounted, rationally, for the revolutions of 
 the planets upon their axes, upon the principles of 
 electrical attraction and repulsion, how shall we ac- 
 count now, for their annual revolutions around the 
 sun. This, we confess, is a subject much more ab- 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 219 
 
 struse, and the problem is much more difficult to 
 solve. But yet, we believe that it is capable of being 
 satisfactorily solved, in accordance with the very same 
 electrical principles, which we have already fully ex- 
 plained and tested. 
 
 But before we proceed to do this, it is necessary 
 for us to state a few facts, which will aid materially 
 in the solution of this problem. 
 
 Not only do all the planets revolve one way upon 
 their axes, but they all move in one direction around 
 the sun. Their motions, also, decrease in regular 
 proportions and gradations, as they recede from the 
 sun. Mercury, for instance, moves in her orbit one 
 hundred and eleven thousand and ninety miles per 
 hour Venus eighty-one thousand the Earth sixty- 
 eight thousand Mars fifty-six thousand Jupiter 
 twenty thousand oaturn, according to Ferguson, 
 eighteen thousand, and Herschel fifteen thousand. 
 
 It will be seen that their movements are regulated 
 by distance from the sun, combined with bulk, and, 
 we believe it to be a proposition capable of absolute 
 demonstration, that the decrease of the motion of all 
 the planets in their several orbits, would be in exact 
 proportion to the squares of their distances from the 
 sun, if they were all of the same bulk and density 
 exactly, taking the present ratio of their movements, 
 as correct data from which to draw conclusions. 
 
 Now, then, for the explanation of the annual revo- 
 lutions of the planets. The sun seems to turn on its 
 axis once in twenty-five days. That may be nothing 
 
2*20 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 but a seeming revolution, owing to the movement of 
 its emanations in vast orbits as we have before re- 
 marked, and which would convey that impression to 
 an observer upon the globe ; but it may be real. Be 
 that as it may, all the planets move the same way that 
 the sun seems to revolve, and therefore, the same way 
 that its emanations move in their orbits. 
 
 Now by the influence of the rays of the sun, 
 moving with lightning speed in their orbital course, 
 must the planets be all moved in one direction, since 
 all their movements, both diurnal and annual, are 
 governed entirely by the emanations of the sun, as 
 we have seen. This is, doubtless, effected by the 
 amazing influence, which, as we have upon a small 
 scale, demonstrated, that opposite polarities have up- 
 on each other, in inducing the particles of the elec- 
 tric stream to follow each other, and to move with 
 them either atoms or masses of ponderable matter. 
 
 " But why," it may be asked, " does not this ten- 
 dency of electricity to control both atoms and masses 
 of ponderable matter, drag them outward, exactly in 
 the line of the course of its orbital movements ?" 
 Because, as we have seen, if they were moved out- 
 ward from their present position, they must become 
 immediately minus, and be drawn back by the posi- 
 tive sun. Besides, were not this the case, the inward 
 passage of the electric rays, in their return, as we 
 have before explained, to their source, the sun, being 
 with a lightning speed, as rapid as their outward em- 
 anation, may have a tendency, somehow, to neutral- 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 ize the tangential force, and, at the same time, aid in 
 the propulsion of the planets in their orbits, as the 
 propelling force, if they have any, would be in the 
 right direction. 
 
 The eccentric movements of the comets are pro- 
 duced by the operation of the same laws, as the move- 
 ments of the planets. In the most distant part of 
 their orbit, a thousand millions of miles, perhaps, 
 from the sun, or even more, these wandering stars 
 move very slow, and in the arc of a circle almost im- 
 measurable, having lost their charge of caloric, and 
 become minus. The sun, being positive, and they 
 deeply negative, it begins to exert an attracting influ- 
 ence over them. As that attraction increases, con- 
 tinually, in proportion, as the squares of the distance 
 decrease, they move swifter and swifter, until, as they 
 approach the sun, they sometimes fly more than eight 
 hundred thousand miles an hour. At their perihelion, 
 they are very near the sun, and become highly posi- 
 tive, as they revolve half round in its intense blaze, 
 and are propelled back again into the fields of space 
 with the same lightning speed, that they were attract- 
 ed towards the fountain of all motion. 
 
 In view of what has been said in the preceding 
 series of lectures, how wonderful is the subject of 
 electricity how various and how magical are its 
 agencies ! It streams down in the vivifying rays of 
 the sun quickens and invigorates the sluggish pul- 
 sations of nature preserves the warmth of vitality 
 works all the countless myriads of chemical changes 
 
222 PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 clothes the cheek with the blush of health spreads 
 a rich carpet of green over the landscape dresses 
 the forest in its foliage, and has, no doubt, a direct 
 agency, in the production and continuance of all the 
 forms of both animal and vegetable life. 
 
 But there is a reverse to this picture. Not always 
 does it, in the exhibition of its wondrous phenomena, 
 put on an aspect of such blandness and genial benev- 
 olence, wreathing itself in sunny smiles. No ! Its 
 countenance sometimes gathers either mysterious 
 grandeur or terrific fearfulness. Sometimes it streams 
 upward from the poles, in splendid corruscations, and 
 weaves a bright coronal of lambent light at the zenith. 
 Sometimes it exhibits itself in the effulgence and evan- 
 escence of the meteor's flash, and the meteoric show- 
 er. Sometimes it leaps out from the dark foldings of 
 the stormcloud, darts downward through the gleam- 
 ing tempest, and, with a fearful energy, which none 
 else but God can wield, blasts everything it touches. 
 Sometimes it flames athwart the heavens, in the trail 
 of the comet, as it speeds its erratic and lightning 
 course, and makes the nations pale with forebodings. 
 Sometimes it assumes the port, and majesty and ter- 
 ror of the burning whirlwind rushes forth upon the 
 red wing of the Syroc, and sweeps with desolation, 
 the hot plains of Zahara. Sometimes it musters its 
 almost omnipotent force in the deep caverns of the 
 earth's centre, and makes the earth tremble and reel 
 beneath the tramp of the earthquake; and melts rocks, 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 223 
 
 and pours rivers of lava from the crater's mouth, and 
 hurls enormous masses of blazing matter above the 
 clouds, and upheaves mountains from the depths of 
 the ocean and piles them in the sky. Such are some 
 of the wonderful agencies of electiicity. 
 


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