5 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



revolve about other bodies, and chemical affinity unites the atoms into 

 compounds. Henceforth there will be no cessation of activity till the 



mature condition, it may be of eternal desolation, has been attained. 



« 



Fig. 1. 

 O B 



A— Size op Earth when in the Nebulous Period, compared with its Present Diameter, 



AS SHOWN BY B. 



Bernard von Cotta styles these successive phases of development 

 stadia, and reduces their number to seven. He conceives that during 

 the first stadium only one agency — gravitation — acted upon matter, 

 the results being a spherical aggregation of the particles and the pro- 

 duction of an intense degree of heat. The second stadium adds to 

 gravitation the agency of heat and other physical forces. In the 

 third, chemical affinities are developed, and a cooling globe is the 

 sphere of their action. The fourth stadium brings to view water, 

 with its ability to accumulate formations by deposition of detritus. 

 In the fifth, life and the power of organization are introduced. In 

 the sixth, ice first appears. Last of all comes Mind, the other activi- 

 ties being present also with it. 



This theory is beautifully elaborated in his interesting memoir ; 

 but its consistency with the following statement is not readily per- 

 ceived : " Since the history of the development of matter is for us ab- 

 solutely an infinite series, it is impossible to recognize, or even to con- 

 ceive, a real beginning of things. We must enter arbitrarily into the 

 infinite series of events, and follow it from that point down to the 

 present time." The organic cycle commencing with the kernel of 

 corn may repeat itself endlessly ; but we demand, eventually, whence 

 came the first seed ? So we can follow back the grand cosmical series 

 of mutations to a point antecedent to which there is nothing rational 

 but the presence of the Infinite Mind, the same that sustains all Nature 

 in its present activity. Progress implies a beginning. Following out 

 the argument to its legitimate extent, we are forced to the conclusion 

 that the Almighty actually created the material of the solar system 

 out of nothing. Matter could not have existed from eternity, else the 



