Chalk and Flint Formation. 17 



stance occupied the whole interior of that satellite's 

 orbit ; the longer radius of the rotating mass making 

 the rotation slower, and the reduced and separated 

 body having it quicker ; just as a long pendulum 

 swings more slowly than a short one. 



This nebular theory — which is not at variance 

 with St. Paul's inspired statement that " the things 

 which are seen were not made of things which do 

 appear " — has been extensively adopted as probable 

 by modern astronomers and geologists ; nob that 

 any one supposes that all matter is of a single 

 nebulous element (for modern chemistry has, I 

 believe, proved the existence of at least sixty-three 

 different elements which do not admit of being 

 resolved further), but only that all were as yet 

 unseparated and unconsolidated. But be this as it 

 may, the theory has been extensively accepted ; 

 and no doubt the Almighty Creator was able to 

 bring order out of this chaos of impalpable elements. 

 It is therefore worth noting two consequences which 

 would necessarily follow from it. 



First. In relation to the earth, the light of the 

 nebulous mass, as it gradually contracted inward, 

 must have been divided from the darkness of the 

 outer space when the nebulous mass, in its con- 

 traction, passed within the orbit of the earth ; and 

 then first, in relation to the earth, began the alter- 

 nation of light and darkness in the course of the 

 earth's rotation on its axis. But two more stages 

 in the contraction of the central nebulously diffused 

 light must have taken place in the successive separa- 

 tion of the orbital rings of the planets Venus and 

 Mercury, and in the consolidation of these planets, 

 before the light was brilliantly condensed in the sun 

 as central luminary, and from him reflected in the 



c 



