242 PROUT AND LLOYD. 



tion, have taken a different view of this im- 

 portant subject. In his late Bridgewater Trea- 

 tise, Dr. Prout observes, that "the world itself 

 before arriving at its present condition, has not 

 only undergone a progressive series of different 

 states ; but in these different states, different laws 

 of nature have prevailed." (Book I. Section 4.) 



It is also maintained by the Rev. Mr. Lloyd, 

 that " the forces by which the world was brought 

 into its present form, were originally far more 

 energetic, before the appetences of matter for 

 matter had been so extensively satisfied. Shall 

 we expect (he adds,) to find the same activity 

 in a neutral salt, as in its separate elements 

 before chemical combination?" (Transactions 

 of the British Association for 1835.) 



In answer to such hypotheses, it may be 

 stated, that they are not only unsupported by 

 the slightest evidence, but are contradicted by 

 all analogy. The truth is, that unless the laws 

 of nature were uniform throughout all her 

 changes and transformations, there could be no 

 established principles of science. Old things 

 pass away, and all things become new, but 

 the properties and laws of the primitive ele- 

 ments never change. Memphis and Thebes, 

 Nineveh and Babylon, Balbec and Jerusalem, 

 with their gorgeous palaces and solemn temples, 

 have passed into other forms of existence 



