i8 CONSTITUENT MATERIALS OF THE EARTH, 



Vance from law to the cause of law, and ask, What is 

 that ? Whence have come all these beautiful regulations ? 

 Here science leaves us, but only to conclude, from other 

 grounds, that there is a First Cause to which all others 

 are secondary and ministrative, a primitive almighty will, 

 of which these laws are merely the mandates. That great 

 Being, who shall say where is his dwelling-place, or what 

 his history ! Man pauses breathless at the contemplation 

 of a subject so much above his finite faculties, and only 

 can wonder and adore ! 



CONSTITUENT MATERIALS OF THE EARTH, 



AND OF THE OTHER BODIES OF SPACE. 



The nebular hypothesis almost necessarily supposes 

 matter to have originally formed one mass. We have 

 seen that the same physical laws preside over the whole. 

 Are we also to presume that the constitution of the whole 

 was uniform ? — that is to say, that the whole consisted of 

 similar elements. It seems difficult to avoid coming to 

 this conclusion, at least under the qualification that, pos- 

 sibly, various bodies, under peculiar circumstances, at- 

 tending their formation, may contain elements which are 

 wanting, and lack some which are present, in others, or 

 that some may entirely consist of elements in which others 

 are entirely deficient. 



What are elements ? This is a term applied by the 

 chemist to a certain limited number of substances (fifty- 

 four or fifty-five are ascertained,) which, in their combi- 

 nations, form all the matters of every kind present in and 

 about our globe. They are called elements, or simple 

 substances, because it has hitherto been found impossible 

 to reduce them into others, wherefore they are presumed 

 to be the primary bases of all matters. It has, indeed, 

 been surmised that these so-called elements are only 

 modifications of a primordial form of matter, brought 

 about under certain conditions ; but if this should prove 

 to be the case, it would little affect the view which we 

 are taking of cosmical arrangements. Analogy would 

 lead us to conclude that the combinations of the primor- 

 dial matter, forming our so-called elements, are as uni- 



