Beyond this limit all is mere speculation or hypothesis ; and the 

 Agnostic philosopher and the man of science, humbly acknowledging 

 their complete inability to solve this mighty problem of ultimate causa- 

 tion, are content to leave further speculation in this direction to meta- 

 physicians and poets. 



During many long ages this process of condensation of the 

 nebulous vapour steadily continued, being controlled by the laws of 

 gravitation and transformation, until, at length, a number of rotating: 

 spherical nebular masses were formed, in a state of high heat from the 

 shock of their recently-united atoms, which spheres gradually cooled by 

 radiation, consequently contracting and becoming possessed of a more 

 rapid rotary motion, giving off from their equatorial regions large rings 

 of vapour, which, in their turn, condensed and, under the influence of 

 the same two laws, formed separate spheres for themselves. This is- 

 the mode by which our planetary system was formed, as taught by 

 Laplace and accepted by the scientists of to-day. 



The earth, then, in common with other planets, may be said to have 

 passed from the condition of a gaseous to a highly-heated fluid mass, 

 and to have gradually become plastic, and moulded by revolution on its 

 own axis to its present shape i.e., an oblate spheroid, or globe, flatter 

 at the poles than at the equator, with a polar diameter about twenty- 

 six miles shorter than the equatorial diameter. This is the shape that 

 all plastic bodies which rotate on their axes must assume, as we are 

 clearly taught by mathematics. 



Assuming, then, that the earth was in a state of incandescence when 

 it began to take a definite form, we shall at once see that the denser 

 materials composing it would gravitate towards the centre, forming a. 

 semi-plastic mass surrounded by an envelope of gases and watery 

 vapour. The gases would be quickly disposed of in various chemical' 

 combinations, and the watery vapour would be condensed and deposited 

 in depressions on the surface of the central mass as soon as it had 

 become cooled sufficiently. The outer crust of this central, semi-solid 

 mass was soon converted, under the intense heat, into a hard, granite- 

 like rock, which was continually subject to sudden upheavals, result- 

 ing partly from the violent escape of gases, and partly from water 

 passing through fissures on the surface to the heated interior and 

 giving rise to steam of great expansive power. In this manner great 

 inequalities of the surface were, no doubt, produced, whose rugged 

 edges, after the lapse of a vast period of time, were gradually softened 



