38 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



remaining constant, the form of these bodies depends upon 

 the temperature. Every one knows that the same is true 

 of sulphur, and zinc, and several other substances. Science 

 has succeeded in changing the form of numerous bodies 

 usually regarded as extremely refractory. Copper, gold, 

 platinum, and the other metals may be readily fused. The 

 same is true of many rocks and minerals. On the other 

 hand, several gases have been liquefied, and some, like car- 

 bonic acid, have even been reduced to the solid state. It 

 would seem that, if the appliances of science were as effect- 

 ive as those which we know that Nature wields, every rec- 

 ognized substance might be changed at pleasure into a 

 solid, a liquid, or a gas. 



"What, indeed, are we to learn from the ejection of melt- 

 ed rocks, in the form of lava, from the throats of volcanoes? 

 Must we not conclude that somewhere within is a reservoir 

 in which all things are melted together ? 



And what is to forbid our assuming that the history of 

 matter has proceeded, from the remotest epoch to which we 

 can climb, by the chain of cause and effect? What hinders 

 us from mounting beyond the molten to the gaseous state 

 of the world ? We will do it. We venture to gaze upon 

 a world glowing as an immensity of flame. Matter it must 

 be, but matter in its most attenuated condition. Its pre- 

 eminent characteristic is luminosity. It is primeval light. 



But the history of this terrestrial vapor involves the his- 

 tory of the other planets. Geology has become cosmogony. 

 We behold the matter of the solar system — sun, planets, 

 and satellites — but one vast ocean of ignited materials, 

 swung by Omnipotence in mid-space, with other oceans of 

 flaming matter gleaming on it, from every direction, across 

 the cold intervals of infinite space.* 



* A period anterior to any definite arrangement of the materials of the 

 earth seems to be mentioned in Gen. i., 1, 2: "In the beginning God 



