198 CIECLES. 



nal change, vary as to their length, temperature, etc., with the 

 different stages of progress which are attained in the annual 

 circle of revolution. But, if the reasonings of Maedler and 

 others are to be relied upon, the whole Solar System, includ- 

 ing the earth, is sweeping round a grand common center, which 

 is so distant, that a single orbitual revolution can not proba- 

 bly be accomplished in a less period than eighteen millions 

 of years. As such a revolution will constitute the great year 

 of the solar system, it is extremely probable that the progress 

 of this revolution will be marked with changes in ethereal 

 elements which affect climate and the various circles of organic 

 creation upon our globe, in a manner analogous to the influ- 

 ence of the orbitual revolution of the earth, upon the length 

 and other characteristics of the days and nights, and thence, 

 also, upon the annual developments in the vegetable and ani- 

 mal kingdoms. This gradual alteration of the position of the 

 Solar System in the sidereal spaces, and the elemental changes 

 consequent thereupon, may of itself be sufficient in the course 

 of time to work an entire change in the character of organic 

 life upon our globe ; and still mightier changes in still mightier 

 periods of time, may be wrought in the whole aspect of crea- 

 tion, physical and moral, by those inconceivably more stu- 

 pendous revolutions to which all of these are subordinate.* It 

 is by the combined influences of all other circles of movement 

 and creation, that each particular circle is precisely what it is; 

 and whenever there is any change in the functional operations 

 of any portion of the grand system of Being, or of any of its 

 sub-systems, physical, mental, or moral, there is, according to 



* Professor Nichol has suggested the idea that the marked changes of climate, and 

 hence of the organic and other productions of the earth, which occurred during tho 

 geological periods, may not have been entirely disconnected with the movements of 

 the solar system through the stellar spaces. (See Nichol's " Architecture of the 

 Heavens.") 



