52 The Bible of Nature 



"There rolls the deep where grew the tree; 

 O Earth, what changes hast thou seen! 

 There, where the long street roars, hath been 

 The stillness of the central sea. 



"The hills are shadows, and they flow 

 From form to form, and nothing stands; 

 They melt like mist, the solid lands 

 Like clouds they shape themselves and go." 



—''In Memoriam," CXXII. 



Making of the Earth. — The story of the earth is a 

 long story, retold every year in our schools and 

 colleges, always becoming clearer and more pict- 

 uresque as investigation continues. All that we 

 require to do for our present purpose is to open the 

 book here and there-, to revive our impressions 

 of the sweep of events. 



In the book of the genesis of things there are 

 no pages grander than those that deal — still some- 

 what vaguely — with the making of our solar sys- 

 tem. The Nebular Hypothesis, which we owe 

 to the genius of Kant and Laplace, is one of the 

 boldest and most inspiring of all the scientific 

 guesses at truth, and with sundry emendations 

 and saving clauses this Nebular Hypothesis is 

 adhered to by most modern investigators. 



"This world was once a fluid haze of light. 

 Till toward the centre set the starry tides 

 And eddied into suns, that wheeling, cast 

 The planets." — Tennyson's "Princess.'* 



