C. Lloyd Morgan — Physiography. 253 



vast masses moving at great velocity. Eacli of these masses may- 

 be supposed to have developed from a nebulous mass, in the same 

 way that the solar system has itself developed. Such nebulous 

 masses were endowed with that high form of energy, which may be 

 termed, generally, the energy of separation. But we have seen that 

 this and all other intermediate forms of energy tend to run down, 

 and be degraded to heat uniformly distributed throughout space. 

 Some men of science tell us that this will be the ultimate condition 

 of the energy of the universe. They tell us that the planets will 

 fall into the Sun, and that thus the matter of the solar system will 

 be aggregated into one mass : that this mass coming into collision 

 with another mass similarly formed will produce the nebulous 

 spheroid from which another system greater and grander than ours 

 will be formed : and that so the same thing will go on until all the 

 matter of the universe is aggregated into one mass, and all the 

 energy of the universe is converted into uniformly diffused heat. 



But here we have transcended the powers of tbe human intellect. 

 We have reached that thin atmosphere in which we can no longer 

 build. We have traced the chain of causation as far as we are able. 

 We have reached the Unknowable. When we seek to go further : 

 when we inquire what is matter, what is force, what is the etJier 

 through which force acts on matter, what is the space in which co- 

 existences are manifested, and the time in which sequences are 

 manifested : when we inquire what is consciousness, what is the 

 thouglit by which we are able to trace to some extent the chain of 

 causation, we are met by alternative contradictories. We are in the 

 presence of the Mystery of Mysteries. Let us humbly, modestly, 

 truthfully confess our ignorance. 



It may, perhaps, be said that there is much in the foregoing pages 

 that is quite out of place in the Geological Magazine — much about 

 wind and aqueous vapours, the Nebular Hypothesis and the Unknow- 

 able. But is it out of place ? If there be any truth in my opening 

 paragraph — that just as an artist has now and again to view his 

 picture from a distance, so does the man of science have from time 

 to time to take a comprehensive survey of his subject — No. In 

 any consideration, however imperfect, of the work which Geology 

 is doing for Modern Philosophy, we must weave that work into the 

 general picture presented by the study of Nature. This I have 

 attempted to do. In the first place I have endeavoured to point out 

 the law of causation ; that all that we see about us has been caused 

 in some way or other. In most cases, from the nature of the subject, 

 this law of causation has been illustrated qualitatively : but in the 

 case of the formation of water- vapour the quantitative truth of the 

 law has been indicated ; and the law of the conservation of energy 

 briefly alluded to. In the second place I have tried to show, as far 

 as was possible in the space at my command, how the crust of the Earth 

 has been built up by the mechanical agency of rivers, forming deltas, 

 " and the vital agency of simply-constituted creatures. By these two 

 agencies nearly all the rocks have been formed, with the exception 

 of salt, and, perhaps, magnesian limestone, which are due to 



