G. Hinrichs on Planetology. 283 
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” 
means according to 
~ Newton, 1686: a direct, immediate creation of every globe as it 
 isnow 
: gehen Hutton, and modern Geologists: a direct creation of 
the heavenly globes as fiery masses, circulating in the system 
P as they do now 
_ Kant, 1755, Laplace (later): a direct creation of a rotating mass 
 _of chemical elements; giving rise to the planetary system. 
_ We, in 1854, conceived this rotating mass of elements to be the 
__ product of a created nebula consisting of but one single element. 
We will now contemplate the different ages manifest in the 
development of this Urstoff, 
First Day or Age.—The atoms of “Urstoff” combine—light 
(and heat) and the chemical elements result. 'I'he mere production 
_ of light would not entitle it to be considered one of the days of 
_ Meation; but light is by the divine writer taken as a type to 
_ ‘Represent itself, and the loss obvious, though much more import- 
_ att, chemical elements, It was not so much the light as the for- 
; mation of the elements, the basis of modern physical science, 
_ Which characterized the first day. We think that a rotation was 
Produced hereby. (‘This Journal, 1864, vol. xxxvii, p. 52.) 
— cona Lay or Age.—Formation of the planetary orbs with their 
_ ‘Wlellites—The nebula developed itself into a great number o 
— “Sinilar planetary nebule, which again gave birth to similar lu- 
- ‘Tatnebule. Thus we see here the simplest kind of “ life,” re- 
Production by division, as exhibited by many plants, and even 
 iimals, which to distinguish them as such from inanimate mat- 
¢ ter, have another mode of reproduction besides. The planets 
_ Represent the children, the moons the grandchildren of the sun. 
; Third Day or Age —The fiery balls resulting from this subdi- 
y a cool down and are shaped, as Geology has ascertained in 
_ ation to our own earth. ‘ 
ha Fourth Age of the inorganic era is the present. We have 
ety that the further characteristic of life, namely, death, is 
Testricted to the organic but is participated in by inorganic 
: i. - (this Journal, [2], xxxvii, 56). As every breath of our 
: et, 8 a differential of decay—so every rotation of the earth 
aan 38 the enjoyments of another day, and every revolution 
‘Mother § US with the succession of the’ seasons, brings our own 
 ;_. arth nearer to her grave.’ 
don oie the scientific reader's pardon for these aphs, which do not be- 
we! Place, But we felt it urgent to say at least this much, as some, even 
‘om the best base the cry of “heretic,” “infidel,” etc, on any such deviation 
the i The nebal: 
‘Quarters ot 820k ven yesterday 
; te . : be. 
‘fitelies, Laplace called ple atheistic dreamer”! We wrote this paragraph as a 
eS *8Ainst such imputations. 
