On the Paleozoic Formations of the Earth. 147 
Suppose the materiel above mentioned to consist of fragmen- 
tary portions of other planets (one or more) which, having 
discharged their functions in other spheres, contained in them 
(modified according to the transitional laws to which mean- 
while they might have been subjected) the stratified remains 
of such animals and productions as had lived or grown upon 
them in different cycles of space and time; and that from 
the aggregation of such materials the outer incrustations or 
Strata: of this earth were consolidated. If we admit this 
theory, the embarrassingly long epochs assigned to the solidi- 
fying process of the earth’s formations become more natu- 
rally reconcilable to our own perceptions, and easier of 
solution, comparatively speaking, as the result of foreign and 
extrinsical action—distant as to time and space; and such 
as, on the supposition that this globe (as such) existed for 
ages before the creation of man, it would be difficult to har- 
monize with the Inspired Narrative ; in such case, too, no 
obstacle will present itself to the unqualified reception of that 
account as the simple record of this earth’s original forma- 
tion, and of that event being contemporaneous with the 
creation of man. 
We may further observe, if this hypothesis be admitted; 
that it will furnish corroborative proof of the existence of 
distinct species of animal and vegetable life in other spheres, 
subject, as to its gradations and developments, to the laws 
both physical and atmospheric, under which it may exist ; 
and is there not much in the fossil remains of animals which 
we denominate ewvtinct (and if extinct, how came they to be 
so?), that may be considered indicative of a foreign origin 
and of physical properties unsuited in many respects to our 
own planetary atmosphere and position? The theory of 
aérolites, combined with other discoveries, astronomical as 
well as geological, raises a presumption in favour of the 
existence of external matter, and the not impossible forma- 
tion of this globe from the fusion of adventitious accretions ; 
while the action of heat visible in the primeval strata leads 
also to the supposition, that the materials of which the earth 
consists may have been the fragmentary accumulations of 
worlds dissolved by fire precisely as our own world will in 
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