ORIGIN OP THE EARTH. 55 



impossible to form a more magnificent conception of Infinite 

 Wisdom than that which Greology exhibits ; representing the 

 Supreme Being as first elaborating and perfecting our earth 

 into one sphere of blessings; erecting on a foundation of 

 granite a vast superstructure of sandstones, limestones, clays, 

 coal, and the varied substances known as rocks: injecting their 

 fissures with minerals and metallic ores; then, by volcanic 

 agency, bringing these varied deposits near the surface, and 

 so diversifying the soil as to present every variety of condition 

 required, for its mineral, agricultural, and economical cul- 

 tivation ; tempering the climate to the degree best adapted 

 for human existence ; peopling it with animals suited to the 

 use of man, for supplying him with food, and assisting him 

 in his labours; and finally, calling him into existence, to take 

 possession of a world which had been prepared for his recep- 

 tion and enjoyment. 



ORIGIN OF THE EARTH. Though cosmogony forms no 

 part of geology, yet we may fairly indulge a curiosity as to 

 the origin of our planet, and seek the most probable explana- 

 tion of the mystery of its creation. Our guide in this inquiry 

 must be astronomy ; we must look from the earth itself to 

 the kindred spheres which surround it, and to that far more 

 extensive universe of which the entire solar system con- 

 stitutes but a unit. The hypothesis which is supposed to 

 offer the most probable explanation of the origin of our 

 earth, is termed the nebular theory; it first originated in 

 the researches and discoveries of the late Sir William 

 Herschel and his distinguished son, and has been confirmed 

 by the investigations of continental astronomers, Laplace, 

 Gauss, &c.* As a brief summary of the hypothesis it may 

 be stated, that the observers above named were, for a 

 lengthened period, in the habit of remarking appearances in 

 the heavens which seemed to them sufficient to account 

 for the origin of new worlds. They observed that every 

 portion of universal space abounds in expansions of attenu- 

 ated matter, reflective of light, which they termed nebulce : 

 these appeared of various figures, and in different states 

 of condensation, from that of a mere shapeless film, to masses 



* See Dr. Mantell's Wonders of Geology, vol. i. p. 22. Professor Nichols, 

 works on the Structure of the Universe, &c. 



