THE HISTORY OF LIFE 161 



charged with Ether and each molecule was vibrating 

 that the whole mass was white or red hot ; 1 in fact, 

 that there was a time when this earth was a star a 

 sun, or part of a larger sun. 



The existence over vast areas of certain crystalline 

 igneous rocks, called Plutonic, and formed probably 

 under great heat, certainly favours this view. While 

 the incandescent molecules cooled (i.e. lost Ether), some 

 assumed the solid form, some the liquid form, and others 

 the gaseous form. If this be so, the aggregation of 

 certain classes of atomic matter in certain districts 

 shows the remarkable affinity certain atoms and mole- 

 cules had for their own species when they were free, at 

 a certain temperature, to attract themselves together. 

 It is magnetism at a certain temperature. 



On the other hand, the existence of igneous rocks (that 

 is, rocks that have crystallized and consolidated from 

 a state of fusion), which have been pressed up throw (jh 

 the oldest stratified rocks (that is, through rocks de- 

 posited by means of water), is direct evidence that such 

 igneous rocks must have been in a state of fusion after 

 the formation of the stratified rocks traversed by them, 

 Now, it is quite possible that igneous rocks may result 

 from the actual alteration and melting of stratified 

 rocks. We know how, in contact with igneous masses, 

 coal becomes coke, limestone becomes crystalline 

 marble, sandstone becomes partly melted to a glassy 

 state. If matters go as far as actual fusion, will not 

 igneous rocks inevitably result? As it is, in many 

 cases, fossils have been obliterated by the profound 

 structural changes that have been set up in the strati- 



1 See " What is Heat ? " for explaining these reactions, 



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