110 THE OSIG1N OF CREATION. 



other compounds or gases ; and, if cold be applied, they then 

 return to their former condition as water. Evaporation, on 

 the other hand, is a chemical action induced by cold as well 

 as by heat, and is a throwing off into gases of the particles of the 

 material acted upon. Thus we have seen the wet muddy streets 

 of a city in spring, dried up in a few hours by a piercing north 

 wind, and such clouds of dust raised, that would have taken 

 the sun a day or two in summer to have accomplished. 



When bodies are evaporated into their original elements, 

 either by heat or cold, or fire, or water, and then allowed to 

 come into contact with other gases in the atmosphere, those 

 compounds will be chemically changed into a variety of 

 new compounds, and are thus in a position to produce a variety 

 of atmospheric phenomena, such as rain, hail, snow, fog, clouds, 

 lightning, thunder, auroras, etc., etc. 



If all bodies can be converted into gases or their original 

 elements, water cannot be an exception. The main scientific 

 objection to this, is the statement given by professors of chem- 

 istry, that oxygen is the most universal gas, for it is found in 

 connection with every other gas on earth, while hydrogen is 

 only found beside metals. This is only apparently so. Vegeta- 

 ble gas must, as a matter of course, be contiguous to vegetation. 

 It is also more dense than mineral gas, consequently we find it 

 close to the earth. But as we ascend into the atmosphere, the 

 air becomes more cold and rarified, so that we breathe with 

 difficulty. This atmosphere cannot be composed principally of 

 oxygen or vegetable gas, for no vegetation grows on the tops of 

 high mountains ; it must then partake more of the hydrogen or 

 mineral gas. If a large quantity of this oxygen, should come 

 in contact with the hydrogen, the result would probably be 



