16 



upon the moon's surface; nor can liquid matter exist in 

 the fissures of its solid body, for the tendency of water to 

 evaporation — all liquid matter acting in obedience to the 

 law of repulsive force, especially when relieved from atmos- 

 pheric pressure — would at once cause it to take a gaseous 

 form. There is, however, as little evidence of this form 

 of matter as of the liquid itself. 



The diameter of the telluric mass, at the time of its 

 greatest extension, is supposed to have included the matter 

 of the moon. The whole mass having the rotation that it 

 had acquired as the circumference of the sun, as well as 

 the individual motion that had resulted in its separation. 



There was in the establishment of the earth's rotation 

 no alteration whatever in its relation to the sun. All tlie 

 matter that followed its attraction of gravitation, still oc- 

 cupied and moved in its appointed place in obedience to 

 solar gravitation. There was not then, nor ever has been, 

 nor ever will be as long as it moves in its orbit, any change 

 in its external relations, or in the quantity of matter, which 

 only changes its form. 



When the matter of the moon moved in the circum- 

 ference of the earthly mass, it was composed of most of the 

 elements of the central body thrown promiscuously toward 

 the circumference by centrifugal force, there being no 

 cohesion in a gaseous body, and where this w^as counter 

 balanced by the centripetal force, forming a comparatively 

 quiescent plane favorable to the action of chemical affinity. 



When this action began to produce internal or indi- 

 vidual motion, there existed the same conditions through- 

 out the entire body, as well as the same elements , under 

 the control of the sanie Imvs. Must not then the moon 

 have undergone similar changes to those which have trans- 

 pired upon the earth ? Of the same matter originally in the 

 same condition and under the oioerations of the same laws, 

 solidification, through the action of chemical and vital agencies, 

 must have progressed and, being so much smaller in 



