

THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 





MARCH, 1874. 



THE WORLD BEFOEE THE INTRODUCTION OF LIFE. 



By CHARLES H. HITCHCOCK, A. M., Ph. D., 



PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 



THE few hints afforded by geology respecting the earliest stages 

 of the earth's history, when compared with studies into the na- 

 ture of nebulge, comets, and suns, suggest the existence of a series of 

 mutations through which worlds destined for the occupation of intel- 

 ligent beings must pass, in order to be properly fitted for the residence 

 of mind. There is, first, existence as a nebula, or comet ; second, the 

 condition of a burning sun ; third, a stage of refrigeration ; fourth, a 

 period of habitation by the brute creation ; fifth, a time of occupancy 

 by reasoning, moral beings ; and, perhaps, sixth, a stage of frigidity, 

 impoverishment, and extinction of life. Our planet seems to have 

 passed through four of these stages of growth, with the fifth well ad- 

 vanced toward its meridian. 



The history of the world might be correlated with a certain species 

 of organic cycle, the growth of grain. There is presented to us a ker- 

 nel of corn containing within itself the elements of vital action. So 

 long as it is stored in a granary it is quiescent, but when planted in 

 the soil it germinates, producing first the tender blade, then the tas- 

 seled tops, the silky ears, and, finally, rows of mature kernels upon 

 the spike, inclosed by a sheathy covering. As soon as the seed is 

 properly situated for development, an inward impulse urges onward 

 the growth till the process is completed. 



Alike fraught with instinct has been the serial progress of the 

 earth. It first presents itself to view simply as a mass of inorganic 

 material, a heterogeneous mixture of elements, inert and motionless, 

 the " chaos " of theological writers. But this material is endowed 

 with activity ; the atoms possess affinities for one another, and the 

 mass cannot remain motionless in space, surrounded by worlds and 

 systems. Gravitation causes the mass to rotate upon its axis and to 

 vol. iv. — 33 



