80 REVIEWS, 
of similar bodies in the heavens. May not a conjecture of its antecedents be 
properly presented here? It is that when the great Creator would form a 
new system of worlds, having allotted a district of suitable form and dimen- 
sions for the purpose, he changes the primordial matter in it from a gaseous 
condition, in which it had been under the law of repulsion, into cosmical dust, 
by which slight change it became subject to the law of gravitation. 
And the following from pages 72 and 73: 
Any matter erupted from the sun can return to it again, as it does con- 
stantly from its prominences. But there seems to be a repulsion between all 
comets and the sun. They are attracted toward it, but never toit. After 
one revolution the reason may be given that they have established orbits. 
But that reason does not apply to the first approach. Any other bodies gravi- 
tating toward the sun from the depths of space would fall directly upon it. 
But cometary matter seems to be governed by an unknown law, a law of 
gravitation limited. There is attraction at a great distance, but repulsion on 
near approach. Is it not evident from the following quotation’? ‘The great 
comet of 1843 passed within three or four minutes of the surface of the sun, 
and therefore directly through the midst of the corona. At the time of near- 
est approach, its velocity was three hundred and fifty miles a second, and it 
went with nearly this velocity through at least three hundred thousand miles 
of corona, coming out without having suffered any visible damage or retarda- 
tion’ (NEwcoms’s Popular Astronomy, p. 251). 
Was not that a clear case of mutual shrinkage or gathering of skirts as 
two persons would gather their delicate rebes to avoid contact when passing 
too near each other ? 
Occasionally the style falls off to this: 
This hypothesis presents, in a greater degree than any explanation hereto- 
fore offered, the elements of possibilities in the tissue of forces and their 
observed effects. Indeed those effects demand a reasonable exposition of 
producing causes. 
The author attempts to solve some of the fundamental problems of 
geology by giving enormous magnitude to the rendering and tritura- 
ting effects of the descent of the waters of the supposed primitive 
vaporous atmosphere upon the assumed hot earth. Respecting this 
he says: 
The inquiry must arise in every thoughtful mind, to what depth will 
the breaking of the rocky crust extend? What can arrest the destructive 
action of the water? Will the weight of the débris affect it at the depth 
of one mile, or two miles, or three miles? No, nothing can resist the 
explosive power of steam. It opens the way and keeps it open for the 
