THE PRIMEVAL STORM. 219 



XXXVIII. THE PRIMEVAL STORM. 



ORIGIN OF THE OCEAN. 



LET us DOW attempt to trace the physical history of that 

 planetary mass which was destined to become the earth. We 

 contemplate it in a state of fire-mist. Here are no water, no ' 

 atmosphere, no rocks, no organic forms. In this fire-mist, 

 however, were the elements of all the forms of matter which 

 were to exist in or upon the earth, in the long progress of its 

 history. Here were the calcium and the oxygen and the car- 

 bon which molluscan life would appropriate for its shelly cov- 

 erings. Here was the stuff which, long ages after, was des- 

 tined to swim as a fish in the wide ocean. Here were the 

 ultimate elements which were to grow in forests or wave in 

 tinted sea-weeds. Here was the matter which, in the course 

 of time, would be organized in human bodies the solid bones 

 were there, the graceful contours of the flesh, and the crimson 

 life-blood destined to glow in the maiden's cheek- Only Infi- 

 nite Mind could embody in one plan, things so contrasted and 

 so remote in time. 



The moon, on what seems to me the most probable view, \ 

 had already been separated, but was still much nearer the 

 earth than at present, and performed its revolution in a shorter 

 period. The earth's axial rotation was correspondingly more 

 rapid. Earth and moon mutually exerted powerful tidal 

 actions (see also Talk XX). Each changed the form of the 

 other from the simple oblate spheroid shaped by rotation, to a 

 prolate modification of this. That is, each by its attraction 

 drew the other into a form slightly elongated. The elonga- 

 tion was a * * deformative tide" or "bodily tide." Of course, 

 the moon was much more deformed than the earth. The tidal 

 elevation on the moon, at its present distance, is one hundred 

 and thirty-four times that on the earth. Those tidal inter- 

 actions have always existed, and still exist. 



I can not affirm that the matter of the earth was now all 

 fire-mist suspended in a continuous gas. There must always 



