i88o.J The Constitution of the Earth . ZZ 1 
from 20 to as much as 250 inches in a year ; and, if we take 
the average fall at 36 inches, the ponderable matter which 
thus falls upon every square mile of surface amounts, in 
round numbers, to no less than 2,326,000 tons. T. hat, in 
certain dry and warm conditions of the air, some poitions 
of this water rise again in the form of vapour is undoubtedly 
true, but even such comparatively small quantity probably 
all falls once more in the form of dew. Certainly it is a 
pure theory that all the water which falls is lifted up again to 
produce those beautiful creations of the atmosphere which, 
beginning in the light and fleecy curl-cloud, pass, by a pro- 
cess of growth, to the dark grey rain-cloud, and finally fall 
in rain, snow, or hail. . 
True, we cannot take pure water, which is said to be a 
compound of oxygen and hydrogen, and transform it at 
pleasure into salt, or lime, or iron. Man can only work 
successfully in the ways of God. We cannot transform, by 
any mere effort of our will, the acorn into the oak tree, and 
yet, if the acorn is planted in the soil and subjected to all 
the other necessary conditions, it will grow into an oak tree. 
Man has discovered the means by which a mixture of two 
light gases can be transformed into water, — why should 
water not be changeable into salt ? We certainly know 
how to reverse the process. By means of heat, salt can be 
fused or liquefied, and so transformed into vapoui 01 gas, in 
which condition it will return to the air from whence it 
descended, modified, however, by the circumstances through 
which it has passed. . 
Nor is this a view of creation essentially at variance with 
the accepted theory of scientists as to the formation of the 
earth. The theory of Immanuel Kant assumes that every 
form of matter was created out of gas, or the etheieal sub- 
stance which occupied boundless space. I assume the 
same, with this difference, that, whilst Kant propounded an 
entirely fanciful process, I maintain that all the elementary 
bodies and every form of matter of which the senses can 
take cognizance, have been the result of natural processes 
which are now going on. He set up an idol in the narne of 
gravity ; I worship only the “ living and true God, whose 
power and presence I recognise in all created things. 
If the earth be not an emanation from the sun by means 
of the laws of God in creation to which I have briefly re- 
ferred in this article, but which are described more at length 
in my book, how have all the several kinds of immutable 
atoms” of which the elementary bodies are composed, and 
which it is assumed once existed in the form of gas, been 
