CHAPTER X 



HOW THE EARTH WAS MADE 



F^AR back in the measureless abyss of time, 

 our imagination first beholds the glowing 

 nebular mass whence science would trace 

 the origin of our solar system. Earth and its 

 future moon were begotten in this fiery birth. 

 Torn away at length from the spiral nebula of 

 their parent sun, by the attraction of some great 

 star that swung by in its orbit, or in whatever 

 other way scientific hypotheses may still picture 

 this event, they slowly radiated their heat into 

 the surrounding space. Only when this had been 

 done could the earth-mass densify and contract 

 into a solid globe. Henceforth it ceased to be 

 self-luminous. But it was void and empty, 

 wrapped in mist and clouds. 



In the intense heat through which the earth 

 had passed in its formative period no germ of 

 life could possibly have subsisted, as all scien 

 tists agree, unless indeed we are to speak of a 

 seminal virtue placed there from the first by the 

 Creator, in the sense assumed by St. Augustine. 

 On its surface, science tells us, clouds rested miles 



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