THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



complete tho survey of &quot;this huge rotundity on 

 which we tread :&quot; so that, had he commenced his 

 excursion on the day in which Adam was creat 

 ed, and continued it to the present hour, he would 

 not have accomplished one third part of this vast 

 tour. 



In estimating the size and extent of the earth, 

 we ought also to take into consideration the vast 

 variety of objects with which it is diversified, 

 and the numerous animated beings with which 

 it is stored ; the great divisions of land and 

 water, the continents, seas, and islands into 

 which it is distributed : the lofty ranges of moun 

 tains which rear their heads to the clouds ; the 

 unfathomed abysses of the ocean ; its vast subter 

 raneous caverns and burning mountains; and the 

 lakes, riverSj and stately forests with which it is 

 so magnificently adorned ; the many millions of 

 animals, of every size and form, from the ele 

 phant to the mite, which traverse its surface ; 

 the numerous tribes of fishes, from the enormous 

 whale to the diminutive shrimp, which &quot; play&quot; 

 in the mighty ocean ; the aerial tribes which sport 

 in the regions above us, and the vast mass of the 

 surrounding atmosphere, which encloses the earth 

 and all its inhabitants as &quot; with a swaddling 

 band.&quot; The immense variety of beings with 

 which our terrestrial habitation is furnished, con 

 spires with every other consideration, to exalt our 

 conceptions to that power by which our globe, and 

 all that it contains, were brought into exigence. 



The preceding illustrations, however, exhibit 

 the vast extent of the earth, considered only as a 

 mere superficies. But we know that the earth is a 

 solid globe, whose specific gravity is nearly five 

 times denser than water, or about twice as dense 

 as the mass of earth and rocks which compose its 

 surface. Though we cannot dig into its bowels 

 beyond a mile in perpendicular depth, to explore 

 its hidden wonders, yet we may easily conceive 

 what a vast and indescribable mass of matter 

 must be contained between the two opposite por 

 tions of its external circumference, reaching 8000 

 miles in every direction. The solid contents of 

 this ponderous ball is no less than 263,858,149,- 

 120 cubical miles amass of material substance 

 of which we can form but a very faint and im 

 perfect conception in proportion to which all the 

 loftv mountains which rise above its surface are 

 less than a few grains of sand, when compared 

 with the largest artificial globe. Were the earth 

 a hollow sphere surrounded merely with an ex 

 ternal shell of earth and water, 10 miles thick, its 

 internal cavity would be sufficient to contain a 

 quantity of materials one hundred and thirty-three 

 times greater than the whole mass of continents, 

 islands and oceans, on its surface, and the foun 

 dations on which they are supported. We have 

 (he strongest reasons, however, to conclude, 

 that the earth, in its general structure, is one 

 solid mass, from the surface to the centre, ex 

 cepting, perhaps, a few caverns scattered here 



and there amidst its subterraneous recesses : and 

 that its density gradually increases from its sur 

 face to its central regions. What an enormous 

 mass of materials, then, is comprehended within 

 the limits of the globe on which we tread ! The 

 mind labours, as it were, to comprehend the 

 mighty idea, and after all its exertion, feels it 

 self unable to take in such an astonishing mag 

 nitude at one comprehensive grasp. Ho .v great 

 must be the power of that Being who com 

 manded it to spring from nothing into existence, 

 who &quot; measureth the ocean in the hollow of his 

 hand, who weigheth the mountains in scales, and 

 hangeth the earth upon nothing !&quot; 



It is essentially requisite, before proceeding to 

 the survey of objects and magnitudes of a supe 

 rior order, that we should endeavour, by such a 

 train of thought as the preceding, to form some 

 tolerable and clear conception of the bulk of the 

 globe we inhabit; for it- is the only body we can 

 use as a standard of comparison to guide the 

 mind in its conceptions, when it roams abroad 

 to other regions of material existence. And, 

 from what has been now stated, it appears, that 

 we have no adequate conception of a magnitude 

 of so vast an extent; or, at least, that the mind 

 cannot, in any one instant, form to itself a dis 

 tinct and comprehensive idea of it, in any 

 measure corresponding to the reality. 



Hitherto, then, we have fixed only on a de 

 terminate magnitude on a scale of a few inches, 

 as it were, in order to assist us in our measure 

 ment and conception of magnitudes still more 

 august and astonishing. When we contem 

 plate, by the light of science, those magnificent 

 globes which float around us, in the concave of 

 the sky, the earth with all its sublime scenery, 

 stupendous as it is, dwindles into an inconsi 

 derable ball. If we pass from our globe to some 

 of the other bodies of the planetary system, wo 

 shall find that one of these stupendous orbs is 

 more than 900 times the size of our world, and 

 encircled with a ring 200,000 miles in diame 

 ter, which would nearly reach from the earth 

 to the moon, and would enclose within its vast 

 circumference several hundreds of worlds as 

 large as ours. Another of these planetary bodies, 

 which appears to the vulgar eye only as a bril 

 liant speck on the vault of heaven, is found to 

 be of such a size, that it would require 1,400 

 globes of the bulk of the earth to form one equal 

 to it in dimensions. The whole of the bodies 

 which compose the solar system, (without tak 

 ing the sun and the comets into account,) con 

 tain a mass of matter 2,500 times greater than 

 that of the earth. The sun himself is 520 times 

 larger than all the planetary globes taken to 

 gether; and one million three hundred thousand 

 times larger than the terraqueous globe. This 

 is one of the most glorious and magnificent 

 visible objects, which either the eye or the ima 

 gination can contemplate ; especially when we 



