1908-9.] - A NEBULAR THEORY OF CREATION. 457 
trifugal impetus a compromise Was agreed upon between the two forces; 
the result of which was that the planet would make a circuit around its 
parent the sun in a given path and a fixed period of time, a most important 
epoch in the history of a world. I need not go into detail regarding the 
different members in our system as to magnitude, distance from the sun 
or time of rotation or revolution. But I may say that besides those es- 
tablished and recognized bodies called planets, planetoids, satellites and 
comets, there were millions of millions of tons of loose material scattered 
in all directions from every point of the then bursting sun and from the 
flying fragments on the Way out to form worlds, which apparently never 
aggregated into solid bodies but took up a kind of vagrant life. Any 
amount of such material remained in comparatively close proximity to the 
sun to mystify future observers as the Zodiacal light, incalculable masses 
sweep around the sun in swarms, and thousands of tons are annually 
captured by the earth and doubtless by all the other planets as well as by 
the sun himself. In fact, space within the area of the solar system must 
have been filled with that small rubble. 
I must now draw this paper toa focus, and confine my remarks to that 
mass of molten matter which settled down and commenced business at 
about ninety- wo millions of miles from the sun, which we shall from 
henceforth call the earth. When this block of molten matter reached its 
destination, it no doubt was a magnificent globe of ruddy brightness and 
began at once to revolve around the sun as now and rotate on its axis 
many times faster than now. In the course of time segregation in the 
hitherto apparently homogeneous body of this glowing sphere begins. 
The seattered atoms of the various elements seek their own, when united, 
seek their affinities, forming the embryo, as it were, of all the diversified 
constituents of our world as now known. Air, if air it could be called, so 
attenuated that no kind of living creatures could live by it, and 
Water would remain in a gaseous condition until the temperature 
of the earth and atmosphere were reduced below 212° F. After many 
millenniums a thin crust will form over the quivering surface of the still 
warm globe. The water gas will begin to condense into vapour, commenc- 
ing most probably in the upper regions of the now settling down atmos- 
phere, being more exposed to the surrounding cold of space. Vaporization 
of gases keeps pace with the cooling process in the air and on the surface 
of the earth until the entire surface is covered with a thick impenetrable 
cloud, which effectually shuts off every ray of light from sun, moon or 
stars. At this point the most ancient account of the creation I believe 
extant takes up the parable, and it is certainly most interesting to notice 
how near that old record comes in many points to the best we now know, 
A.D. 1909, of the modus operandi of creative processes. ‘‘ Darkness 
