MATERIAL UNIVERSE. 65 



that any animal or plant, now existing, could 

 have been generated, or matured, at a tempera- 

 ture uniformly below 60 Fahrenheit. It was 

 remarked, by the master of a ship, who was 

 becalmed, for a number of weeks, near the equa- 

 tor, that the waters around his ship literally 

 teemed with life and animation. How prolific, 

 then, must have been the waters during the im- 

 mense number of ages that were required to 

 reduce their temperature from a boiling heat to 

 that which now prevails ! So uniform was their 

 temperature, and so little motion prevailed, (ex- 

 cept when agitated by convulsions from beneath 

 the crust of the earth.) and so active were the 

 chemical materials within them, that the im- 

 mense mass of water, surrounding the globe, was 

 stagnant with animation; and, as the tempera- 

 ture became reduced, they became pregnant with 

 life, and the germs of all organized living forms 

 were generated, as the waters passed through 

 6* 



