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THE GEOLOGIST. 



there must be a motion of the external hardened crust different from 

 that of the internal fluid mass, and this motion must go on, if the 

 present views of mathematicians, astronomers, and internal-heat 

 geologists are right, without any friction. Now, if the earth's crust 

 is the effect of a cooling-down process from a molten condition, there 

 must be a gradual hardening still going on; and with such a gradual 

 hardening, there must be a portion intermediate between the solid 

 crust and the fluid core, which must be in every possible degree 

 of viscosity from next to hard to next to fluid; and if there be any 

 difference of motion between the external crust and the internal 

 core, such an intermediate viscous portion must be a source of much 

 friction, it being absolutely in the very zone where friction would be 

 manifested. There is no manner of doubt whatever that the internal- 

 heat doctrine was invented to account for the supposed former higher 

 temperature of our planet, — a point also not yet proven. Still, we 

 are not adverse to the idea of former differences of temperature ; but 

 will they be found, when facts and experience have determined more 

 exactly the grander truths, repeatedly variable, or permanently in one 

 direction or the other ? 



One subject has never, as far as we know, been contemplated 

 by either geologists or astronomers. We are taught at school to 

 believe, and it is generally asserted in society, that the orbits of our 

 earth and the other planets are nearly circular, or at most but 

 slightly elliptical ; and these ellipses are supposed to work round 

 periodically, and thus to right themselves. "We are taught, too, 

 to believe in the fixity and permanence of the planetary and sidereal 

 systems, and that the great Creator has laid the foundations of the 

 world so sure that they can never be moved. Now, on the contrary, 

 we sincerely believe that all creation, throughout all space, is in 

 as active a state of change as the world we inhabit, upon which no 

 day brings forth its similitude, and no one night is like another. If 

 the sun be a burning body, whatever it consumes must be dissipated 

 as vapour, or solidified as incombustible matter upon its surface. If 

 the sun be dissipating its mass, it is lessening in bulk, and its attrac- 

 tion upon the earth must be lessened. If the sun be adding any 

 residue of combustion to its mass, then the attraction of the sun 

 upon the earth increases. If the attraction diminished, the earth 

 would recede from the sun ; if the attraction increased, the earth 

 would be drawn nearer towards it, unless the velocity of the earth in 

 its orbit increased or diminished, so as to make a compensation. 



