218 Progressive Changes of Matter. [Oct., 



of bodies, and a succession of changes, and this is but a continu 

 ation of the same link in the chain of animal life. Now when 

 the elements of organized bodies are formed into a human body 

 we obtain a new idea of animal existence, the change in this in- 

 stance has been progressive. 



The changes that have taken place among ponderable bodies 

 on the earth's surface, have also been progressive. . We have be- 

 fore stated that the two antagonistic forces prevailing over mat- 

 ter, have at times formed new continents, and have wrought many 

 interesting changes upon their surface. We refer to the force of 

 heat in the bosom of the earth, and the force of running water. 

 The former raises whole continents out of the water mountains high, 

 the latter reduces them again beneath the ocean's level. These 

 two forces are employed in rocking the great balance beam of 

 nature! Hence there has been a succession of continents and of 

 oceans. The tendency of matter has therefore at one time been 

 in a certain direction, at another period it has been reversed. On 

 the North American continent the great tendency of matter has 

 been in a southern direction, in foimer ages of the w^orld it had 

 a northerly course. From this we are to infer that a continent 

 once existed in regions where the Atlantic ocean now rolls its 

 w^aters. The proof of the existence of this ancient continent we 

 may hereafter bring forward. For the present we assume such 

 to have been the fact. From its ruins which have been scattered 

 over other localities, we can see how ill adapted it must have been 

 for the existence of man. We have before stated that man stands 

 at the head of created beings. He shines pre-eminent in the 

 world of mind: his intellectual powers become manifest from his 

 labors in the material objects around him, however delicate and 

 frail his own physical frame may be. Constituted as he now is, 

 he could not have lived on the old continent. The atmosphere 

 being then charged with such suffocating gases and exhalations, 

 and the animal economy being also so numerous, venemous, and 

 gigantic, that had man been created at that period of the earth, 

 he would scarcely have survived the day of his nativity. The 

 subsequent emergence of continents, produced a great change in 



