of the Polar Begioyis. 69 



sun with its planets does not always occupy the same position 

 in space ; it probably moves round a fixed star situated at an 

 infinitely great distance. Starting from these data^ and sup- 

 posing that the temperature of the different regions of space 

 is not the same throughout, we should find a very simple 

 explanation of the climatic phenomena which have been men- 

 tioned. Thus, if at the Miocene epoch the sun and its 

 planetary system were in a region of space hotter than that in 

 which they now move, this heat must have exerted an influ- 

 ence upon all parts of the terrestrial globe, but the effect must 

 have been most marked in the glacial and temperate zones. 

 If during this immense revolution, or solar year, hot periods 

 succeed to colder ones, or vice versa, we may by analogy as- 

 similate the Miocene period to its summer, the glacial period 

 to its winter, and the present period to its spring. It is evi- 

 dent that we must accept the idea of a course of prodigious 

 length, the extent of which our minds cannot yet conceive. A 

 time will no doubt come when we shall succeed in calculating- 

 it ; and just as we now know the orbit of the earth, future 

 generations may perhaps arrive at a sufficiently accurate know- 

 ledge of the orbit of the sun. 



Our minds are confused, it is true, in presence of these spaces 

 and periods which to us appear infinite ; but this arises from 

 the smallness of the scale according to which we measure space 

 and time, as may be shown by a simple comparison. Suppose 

 the duration of the life of man to be a single day ; those born 

 in winter could only know by tradition that there was formerly 

 a time when it was hotter, and that this time would return 

 after a long series of generations. The opposite would be the 

 case with those born in summer. To these men of a day, a 

 year would be a period of excessive length, since it would in- 

 clude 365 generations. Now the actual duration of human 

 life corresponds not to a day, but perhaps scarcely to a minute 

 of this great solar year ; what inhabitant of the earth can ever 

 know its phases ? If he cannot conceive them with his 

 bodily eye, he may do so at least with the assistance of his 

 thought, with the aid of his intellect, which enables him to 

 penetrate the obscurity of the past, and to coordinate the phe- 

 nomena which have been accomplished in the com'se of suc- 

 cessive periods. The eye of his mind penetrates into the most 

 distant times, as into the remotest spaces of the celestial vault. 

 If the body of man is small in contrast to the immensity of 

 nature, if his life is short in presence of the infinite duration 

 of time, what is not the grandeur and power of his mind, 

 which carries him beyond the com-se of ages and gives him to 

 understand that in his perishable envelope is deposited the germ 

 of immortality ! 



