14 



transpired in the forms of matter, through all past time, 

 are still progressing and will continue, while the present 

 laws and elements of matter exist, and from a human 

 point of view, these changes, have heen, are, and will he 

 permanent. 



It is said that the earth at a certain point of time after 

 its separation from the sun "was no less than 482,000 miles 

 in diameter, heing 60 times what it has shrunk to." * 



If this volume of matter was indeed so diffuse, the ele- 

 ments must have existed in very different forms from those 

 in which thej now exist. As a first attempt at forming 

 an estimate from scientific theories of the volume and con- 

 dition of the telluric mass at an inconceivahly remote 

 period, it is exceedingly important and interesting. It ad- 

 mits and confirms the great theory of Laplace, for from 

 our present knowledge of the elements of matter, had the 

 volume of the earth been so extended, the largest portion 

 of it must have heen in a gaseous state. 



" The geometrical form of the earth itself, which indi- 

 cates the mode of its origin is in fact its history. An 

 elliptical spheroid of revolution gives evidence of having 

 once heen a soft or fluid mass." f 



Whether this fluid body was the result of chemical com- 

 bination and condensation of previously gaseous matter or 

 not, it is another great fact in the meagre positive knowl- 

 edge man has been able to acquire of the past condition 

 of this sphere ; if the predominance of gaseous matter was 

 implied by the assertion of a diameter of the telluric 

 mass, of 482,000 miles at an earlier period of time, tlie 

 predominance of liquid matter seems to be proved by the 

 present form of the now partially solidified oblate spheroid. 



No conception can be formed of the intervals of time ; 

 but at the period of the first formation of solid matter 

 evident in the earth's crust, the conditions of temperature, 

 &c., must have been such as to permit solidification from a 

 former liquid state. 



■*Vestiges. 



tCosmos, Vol. 1.-163. 



