132 ORIGIN OF THE EARTH 



In our descending or analytical view of creation, we spoke 

 briefly of some of the more superficial characteristics of these 

 terrestrial developments ; but we will now glance at the as- 

 pects in which they will appear in the light of the a priori and 

 a posteriori processes of reasoning combined. 



1. THE CHAOTIC STAGE. In our analytical and analogical 

 view of the terrestrial system, we found abundant reason to 

 believe that our earth was formed from a mass of primeval 

 fiery vapor, as expressing material conditions antecedent to the 

 fiery liquid mass, of which, facts prove that our globe once 

 consisted. Following the further and obvious teachings of 

 analogy, as well as the intimations of certain celestial phe- 

 nomena, we were led to the conclusion that this mass must 

 have been a result of a previous aggregation and segregation 

 of the materials of the solar atmosphere, of which an explana- 

 tion is involved in the now apparently well-established theory 

 of the formation of the nebulous rings, and their subsequent 

 changes. 



It seems to be a well-founded opinion of believers in the 

 nebular theory, that the gaseous cycloid, whose condensation 

 resulted in the formation of the earth, must have originally 

 been nearly of the same shape and circumference with the 

 present orbit of the earth. Now, the earth's orbit is not an 

 exact circle, but an ellipse, with the sun in one of its foci. 

 Consequently, at the separation of the materials of this ring 

 or cycloid at one part of its rim, and their aggregation at the 

 opposite part, whether this occurred at the perihelion or 

 aphelion point the common mass thus formed must have 

 taken the elongated or ellipsoidal shape, and preserved super- 

 ficially all the general geometrical properties of the previous 

 circumsolar zone, on a reduced scale. 



The first distinct form assumed by the materials of our 



