18 PHILOSOPHICAL EXPOSITION 



drop more or less of water now, than there was at 

 the creation of the world. 



It is a law in philosophy, that heat expands and cold 

 contracts all bodies. It is said that there is but one 

 exception to this rule, but whether it is really so or 

 not I am not prepared to say, as the greatest philoso- 

 phers are at variance on the subject. The excep- 

 tion I allude to, is the freezing of water. It is well 

 known to every individual, that water expands in free- 

 zing, and to such a degree as often to burst asunder 

 the vessel which contains it. Now whether it actu- 

 ally absorbs heat in the act of freezing, I am not pre- 

 pared to say. If it does, it is no longer an exception 

 to the general rule. Some authors have contended, 

 that the expansion of water in the act of freezing, is 

 owing to the awkward arrangement of the parti- 

 cles. 



But tp proceed. In the beginning of the world, 

 when God said, " Let there be light, and there was 

 light," the first golden ray which fell from the glori- 

 ous orb, the sun, on the earth and ocean, by ex- 

 panding the particles of water, it became vapour, and 

 being lighter than the atmospheric air, it ascended by 

 a well known law into the regions of space. Now 

 all bodies have a tendency to approach the centre of 

 the earth, in proportion to their weight, or in propor- 

 tion to the great quantity of matter in a small com- 

 pass. An ounce of gold, which is next to the heavi- 

 est of all metals, will never Tise in the atmosphere 



