190 SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



existence, but as great an interval as ages of material condensation in contrast with the 

 duration of a world. , 



In each of the subordinate realms of animated nature, there is the same law of gradual 

 advance developed. The cattle upon a thousand hills are subject to it, with the bird that 

 wings its flight through the air, the sovereign of the jungle or the desert, and the thousand 

 existences that swarm in the ocean, from the smallest upon its sands to the leviathan 

 in its depths. The history of their physical constitution displays the principle of progres- 

 sive formation the gradual advance of the functions of life from weakness to strength, 

 from immaturity to vigour the elevation of the individual from an inferior stature to 

 one more formidable, or perfect, or independent. So, the almost infinitely varied vegetable 

 substances of the globe develope progress, differing in its rate of advance in different 

 classes, but an unfailing condition of their being ; and, if we turn to inanimate existence 

 around us, we find testimonies as strong of the operation of the same law. The descend- 

 ing rain or the silvery snow is the offspring of preceding processes of evaporation from 

 the seas, rivers, lakes, and moist earth, producing the ascending vapour, and then the 

 fantastic clouds, that discharge their showers upon the soil. The most powerful and 

 the most gentle winds are called into activity by previously preparing agencies of heat 

 and electricity, creating a vacuum in the atmosphere more or less large, and more or less 

 sudden, which the surrounding air proceeds to fill. The dew and rain give birth to the 

 scanty spring that issues from the earth, and also to the flowing stream ; and to the 

 extended river, which rolls onwards to meet the tides of the ocean, terrifying by its cata- 

 racts, and fertilizing by its exundations ; and though we know but little of the theory of 

 the earthquake and the volcano, yet we know enough to show us that, sudden as are their 

 eruptions, they are not the events of the moment, but preceded by processes of chemical 

 action, combinations of earths and alkalies with water, which gradually produce a high 

 temperature, and lead ultimately to an explosion. Even of extensive tracts of solid land, 

 we may speak of birth, childhood, and youth, without at all abusing language, or torturing 

 phenomena. In the seas of tropical climates there are countless myriads of madrepores, 

 and other minute marine insects, which, with astonishing precision and skill, erect walls 

 and reefs of coral rock, which become the bases of new islands, or additions to those 

 which have already been formed. The process is proceeding extensively in the Pacific 

 and Indian Oceans, where multitudes of such formations emerge above the waves, which, 

 uniting with sands and weeds drifted upon them, lay the foundation of a territory, upon 

 which vegetation speedily blooms, and on which man ultimately plants his footsteps. A 

 single coral reef of seven hundred miles in length, extends from the north-west of Australasia 

 towards New Guinea. Millions of polypii are thus at work preparing abodes which are 

 destined ultimately to be the residence of other animals living in another element, in com- 

 parison with which the artificers themselves are utterly insignificant. The crests proba- 

 bly of submarine mountains form the basis upon which their beautiful erections rest. 

 Gradually the reef rises to the surface, and is laid bare to the light and air of heaven. 

 Soil is formed upon it, by accumulations of earthy matter deposited by the ocean. The 

 land and sea birds visit it seeds are wafted to it by the winds, or borne by the waters, 

 or brought by the wild-fowl, plants spring up, and herbage blooms and finally man 

 comes to give to the territory a name, and a population to connect it with the occupations 

 of human life, and to render it in revolving years, at once the cradle and the grave of 

 his race. 



With inductive philosophy such considerations as these have no weight, and will 

 properly be dismissed without regard. The fabric of true science rests upon facts that 

 are rigidly demonstrable, and not upon appearances supported by analogical phenomena. 

 Yet the preceding remarks may serve to show that the hypothesis of the nebular philo- 



