392 THE BIOCOSMOS PARTICULARIZED. 



outer to inner Generation is specially the 

 \vork of the Earth-Life in its totality, whose 

 first form is that of inorganic or cosmical 

 evolution. So we bring before us the beget- 

 ting of the Earth (sometimes called Geog- 

 nony). 



The general sweep of the Earth's genesis 

 has been elsewhere given. We may start with 

 that shred of fire-mist or nebulous matter, 

 in its first apparent, more or less chaotic 

 form (of which the great nebula in Orion may 

 be taken as an example) ; then the shred be- 

 comes a part of the nebulous spiral (say like 

 that in Canes Venatici) ; then it passes into 

 the evolution of solar systems, to which our 

 Heliosphere belongs; the latter then throws 

 off the planets of which our Earth is one; 

 this in turn throws off its moon, and begins 

 to cool and to solidify, till air, water and land 

 differentiate themselves, and the inorganic 

 process of our globe begins which finally un- 

 folds into the organic (for the cosmogonic 

 evolution of the Earth see Cosmos and Dia- 

 cosmos, pp. 251-256). 



Such is the general view of science today, 

 largely speculative ; but it does not stop here. 

 It is supposed that we have reached about 

 the middle period of Earth-life at present- 

 one-half gone, one-half still to come each 

 half representing perhaps a hundred million 



