The Interior of the Earth 



mainder practically unaffected. This assump- 

 tion appears all the more probable if we remember 

 that these disturbances which terrify our petti- 

 ness are, in relation to the dimensions of the 

 earth, mere imperceptible tremors. 



Thus all the positive data of science lead us 

 to the same conclusion. The certainty that 

 in the past our globe has been liquid is followed 

 by the probability that it is still liquid in parts, 

 while some more hypothetical data give us an 

 idea of the possible thickness of the actual solid 

 crust. 



This confirms in one of its essential parts the 

 great synthesis of Laplace, which during the last 

 hundred years has formed the basis of all our 

 scientific cosmogonies. This synthesis has thus 

 had the double merit of gathering the known 

 facts into one body of doctrine, and of satis- 

 fying our reason, because by prolonging geology 

 into the past, as geology prolongs history, it has 

 thrust the problem of origins into the infinite 

 and has freed our mind from the obligation of 

 conceiving a time before which nothing existed. 



It has freed our mind with regard to time as 

 i 149 



