172 NOMOS. 



densation of portions of a revolving " fire-mist," 

 with which space was once filled, and that these 

 bodies are moving now because they retain the 

 original movement of that portion of the mist from 

 which they sprang. The earth, according to them, 

 retains even now so much of the heat of the parent 

 mist that it is at heart a fiery molten mass. On the 

 other hand, there are some who say that the earth 

 was created as a solid body, and that the internal heat 

 is caused by the oxidization resulting from the 

 admission of water to certain elementary substances 

 which are supposed to be hid in the interior. 



Be the original condition of the earth what it may, 

 however, it is agreed that sooner or later there were 

 lands and rivers and seas as there are now, and that 

 the rivers began to rob the land and carry the spoils 

 to the sea as they do at present. There were lands 

 and rivers and seas as there are now, and the general 

 law by which they were governed was the same, but 

 the appearance of the earth in these primaeval times 

 was very different to what it is at present. In these 

 primaeval times, indeed, there was neither plant 

 nor animal, and the only spoils which were carried 

 to the sea were such as could be robbed from a 

 land which everywhere was bare and inhospitable 

 granite. In this state the earth is supposed to have 

 continued age after age, with no other change but 

 that which was caused by the slow wasting of the 

 land, and the slow deposition of sediment upon the 

 bottom of the sea ; and in this state it is supposed 

 to have remained until the time had arrived for the 

 land to change places with the sea. And then begins 



