1884. 89 Drans, IVY AC. Set, 
at all gradual, would produce no visible effect. All it could do was to 
affect the length of days and nights, and, consequently, introduce 
seasons. These changes, if they occurred, would have registered 
themselves in changes in the plants and animals of high latitudes ; 
while in low latitudes no perceptible effect would have been produced, 
and, consequently, the species would continue as they were before. 
Geology teaches very clearly that in high latitudes there did occur 
toward the end of the geological record a complete disappearance of 
old species, while in low latitudes they were unaffected. 
The conclusion toward which these facts point would be readily ac- 
cepted, were it not for reasons derived from another source than 
geology. Astronomers say that a permanent change in the inclination 
of the earth’s axis is impossible, so far as any force is concerned which 
is known to science. But, as this is equally true of many other things 
which have actually been done, it is not an insuperable objection. 
“‘ No force known to science’”’ can vivify matter, yet living beings are 
all around us. 
There are only two theories as to the existence of our world. The 
one attributes it to an Omnipotent Intelligence, that, for His own pur- 
poses, made the universe, and, by His wisdom and power, brought it 
through stages of development, some of which we have been able to 
recognize, and some so far to understand as to class them with others, 
and then, having named the order in which the events are arranged, 
call it ‘‘ law,” and sometimes think we have thereby comprehended it. 
The only theory of the solar system on mechanical principles is the 
nebular hypothesis in its several forms. In all, the earth and moon 
were once one body, revolving, of course, on one axis. At some 
remote time they separated. But no force of avulsion, whether the 
moon was left behind as the mass contracted, or whether, as has been 
more lately held, it was thrown off by the great centrifugal force after 
the earth had become solid, and then was gradually pushed back by 
the influence of the friction of the tidal wave, could affect the plane 
of rotation or the direction of the axis of either. On mechanical 
principles, the moon, when it left the earth, moved in the plane of the 
earth’s equator, and the axis of the earth and the moon and of its 
orbit were parallel to each other. The normal position of the three 
was perpendicular to the ecliptic. But now the axis of the moon is 
inclined 14°, and that of the earth 233°. Very evidently, either the 
earth’s axis or the moon’s has changed. The moon’s axis is now 
nearly in the normal position. Hence I conclude that it was the 
earth’s axis that changed. 
Astronomy, therefore, proves too much. It proves that the present 
condition is not eternal, that normally the axis was perpendicular to 
