36 



ary state, as the other gas is beyond i:s own. This only proves 

 that their union takes place when both are under the game 

 degree of motion or temperature ; and, it may be thought noth- 

 ing is gained by the experiment. But have they shown precisely 

 the same character in relation to each other at this degree of 

 temperature, that they would under a different degree ? May 

 not the intensity of action resulting from their relation decrease 

 as we arise from a given point of temperature, by some definite 

 law of proportion between temperature and intensity of action, 

 until all power arising 1 from their relation ceases, thus destroying 

 all chemical action by their homogeneous character? And 

 again, is it not probable that as we decrease the temperature and 

 descend below this given point, a similar law of decreasing action 

 prevails, until we arrive at a point where all chemical action 

 ceases. Here is a great series formed ; or rather, two series of 

 action proceeding from a medium point in opposite directions, 

 until they terminate in two extremes, uniting in a certain result, 

 viz., an entire destruction of an organized material world ; the 

 one producing a complete state of rest in every atom of matter, 

 resulting from an entire absence of calorific motion, the other 

 such a high degree of this motion, as to keep every atom of mat- 

 ter at such a distance from each other as to prevent their relation 

 and union, and consequent organization. 



Here we have data from whence to commence our inquiries 

 into the origin of the solar system, commencing with the 

 three original elements in an uncombined state as the occupants 

 of space or some part of space, and constituting that chaotic state 

 of the substance of the heavens and the earth which God created 

 before he said, "Let there be light." Now it is evident that 

 matter must have been in one or the other of the extreme states 

 of motion or rest which I have pointed out, for it could not occupy 

 a place between them, that being the present state of action. It 

 could not have been in the state of the active extreme, for intense 

 calorific motion produces light, and light in this first state of mat- 

 ter did not exist, for God had not yet called it into existence. 

 Besides, we have an idea independent of this proof from Scrip- 



