158 
But, grand as is this conception, deduced, as we believe, 
accurately from observed facts, and wonderful as are the ideas 
which we gain of the vastness of the works of God, how little 
does it tell us of the way in which a single globe like ours 
was in the course of successive periods of geological time pre- 
pared for its inhabitants, or of those nice adjustments of tem- 
perature, fluidity, rigidity, &c., which were necessarily made 
before it was possible that life could be sustained at all ; and 
still less of those Fatherly providential adaptations to the in- 
tellectual and moral nature of man which are ours to enjoy 
and to thank the Giver for. We can still, after acknowledging 
and using all the discoveries of modern science, and making 
them the basis of future research, only adore the wisdom of 
the Creator, and confess that we are still only on the threshold 
of His temple. 
There is still something more to be said in connection with 
this subject, of great interest and importance. * 
Mr. Lockyer had been led to the conclusion, in the course 
of his observations and experiments on the effect of pressure 
on the gases which form the atmosphere and chromosphere 
of the sun, that, owing to the groat height of the atmosphere, 
the effect of gravity is to produce an arrangement of the 
different elements in layers similar to our geological strata. 
Thus, in the coronal atmosphere exists the cooler hydrogen ; 
in the chromosphere incandescent hydrogen, magnesium, and 
calcium ; and in the reversing lajmr, sodium, chromium, man- 
ganese, iron, &c. He is also of opinion that the metalloids 
(sulphur, carbon, silicon, &c.) lie outside the metallic atmo- 
sphere, and givesreasons for thefaintness of their record amongst 
the metallic lines. He then attempts to answer these two 
questions : 1st. Assuming the earth to have once been in the 
same condition as the sun now is, what would be the chemical 
constitution of its crust ? 2nd. Assuming the solar nebulas to 
have once existed as a nebulous star at a temperature of com- 
plete dissociation, what would be the chemical constitution of 
the planets thrown off as the nebulosity contracted ? 
Mr. Lockyer suggests that, with regard to the earth, the 
arrangement of the earths and minerals consequent on the 
supposition given above, would be that which we find to be 
actually existing ; and, with regard to the planets thrown off, 
the exterior planets approaching in their constitution to that 
of the sun's outer atmosphere, and the nearer ones being more 
* See Professor Prestwick’s Inaugural Lecture, 
