MOLTEN INTEEIOJt OF THE EARTH. 281 



On the common theory of creation, these phenomena 

 are inexplicable. To what end the Earth should once have 

 existed in a molten state, incapable of supporting life, it 

 cannot say. To satisfy this supposition, the Earth should 

 have been originally created in a state lit for the assumed 

 purposes of creation ; and similarly with the other planets 

 While, therefore, to the Nebular Hypothesis the evidence 

 of original incandescence and still continued internal heat, 

 furnish strong confirmation, they are, to the antagonist hy 

 pothesis, insurmountable difficulties. 



But the argument from temperature does not end here. 

 There remains to be noticed a more conspicuous and still 

 more significant fact. If the Solar System was formed by 

 the concentration of diffused matter, which evolved heat 

 while gravitating into its present dense form ; then there 

 are certain obvious corollaries respecting the relative tem 

 peratures of the resulting bodies. Other things equal, the 

 latest-formed mass will be the latest in cooling will, for an 

 almost infinite time, possess a greater heat than the earlier- 

 formed ones. Other things equal, the largest mass will, bo- 

 cause of its superior aggregative force, become hotter tha 

 the others, and radiate more intensely. Other things 

 equal, the largest mass, notwithstanding the higher tempe 

 rature it reaches, will, in consequence of its relatively small 

 surface, be the slowest in losing its evolved heat. And 

 hence, if there is one mass which was not only formed after 

 the rest, but exceeds them enormously in size, it follows 

 that this one will reach an intensity of incandescence much 

 beyond that reached by the rest ; and will continue in a 

 state of intense incandescence long after the rest have 

 cooled. 



Such a mass we have in the Sun. It is a corollary from 

 the Nebular Hypothesis, that the matter forming the Sun 

 assumed its present concrete form, at a period much more 

 recent than that at which the planets became definite bo- 



