THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE CRUST OF THE EARTH. 



By Prof. George Pilar, of the University of Brussels. 



[Translated for the Smithsonian Institution hy M. A. Henry] 

 CHAPTER I. 



ORIGIN OF THE EARTH. 



As far as the assisted eye can penetrate the depth of space, we find 

 that attraction is one of the fundamental properties of matter. It is 

 inherent in all bodies, whatever may be their form, whatever their na- 

 ture. Its energy is in inverse proportion to the square of the distances, 

 and proportional to the masses : its action is limited neither in time nor 

 space. 



If we examine attentively the universality of this force, its unlimited 

 action, we must arrive at the conclusion that matter, of which attraction 

 is only a property, is equally infinite in time and in space ; that it exists 

 everywhere, and is constantly transformed; its activity is a natural 

 result of its properties, and we may say after careful study of all rela 

 tive phenomena that matter without properties, and consequently with- 

 out activity, cannot exist. 



We have only to direct our thoughts to the innumerable worlds, 

 whose history, written on the starry vault, has left much concerning them 

 still unrevealed ; to consider simple immensity and eternity and oppose 

 to them the icliere and the ichen of the origin of matter; to endeavor to 

 imagine what could have existed before or at the time of its appear- 

 ance, and we will easily conceive that its essence is necessarily infinite, 

 and that its activity, which is partially manifested in universal attrac- 

 tion, is permanent and eternal. 



We may say then that matter fills space without limit, and that from its 

 bosom constantly proceed worlds without number under the form of* light 

 vapors, which, grouped together by the effect of attraction, create nebulae, 

 which unceasingly increase in volume by the addition of matter of analo- 

 gous formation. In these nebulae are produced different centers of 

 attraction, around which collects the still diffuse matter. As condensa- 

 tion advances, the heat disengaged increases in proportion, aud when- 

 ever this exceeds radiation there is an accumulation of heat which pro- 

 duces incandescence of the entire gaseous mass. 



Each of these centers of attraction forms the germ of a solar system, 

 and each passes through the same phases in the course of its develop 



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