570 | The [Harmony of Creation. 
they contain any substance unknown to our earth. Thus 
we see the laws which roll our planet in elliptic orbits, cir- 
culate these stones in similar orbits, and the substances 
which constitute these bodies, are identical with elements 
which make up our earth. 
Formerly, astronomers spoke of fixed stars, and the sun 
was presumed to be one of them; but modern investiga- 
tions have shown that while our planetary system is circling 
the sun, he, with all his satellites, is careering through space 
at the amazing rate of 800,000 miles a day, and the centre 
of his prodigious orbit has not yet been ascertained. Every 
minute the fixed stars, as they are called, travel several 
hundred miles, yet they appear to us unchanged, as they 
did to our forefathers. Such vastness overpowers the feeble 
efforts of man’s intellect to grasp, and the wonders of crea- 
tion exhibited on so colossal a scale asin the heavenly 
bodies baffle his comprehension. Yet all the universe 
obeys laws which result in constant harmony and beauty. 
The comets, however far they may wander in their erratic 
courses, are obliged by gravitation to return to their cen- 
tral orb, and we find order, regularity, unity, and perma- 
nence in the laws which govern the celestial bodies, just as 
we discover marvellous adaptation of means to the allotted 
end displayed in all terrestrial bodies, even in their minutest 
details. 
In reference to the immutability of the laws which govern 
inorganic matter, let it be understood that these laws are 
fixed in the sense that no external or internal special cir- 
cumstances are permitted to render them irregular in their 
motions, certain perturbations, to use an astronomical term, 
occur, but these apparent irregularities are shown to be 
more or less regular. Even the destruction of the earth’s 
crust has been proved by geology to be marked by a periodi- 
city, though science has been unable to determine the 
-duration of these periods. Many thousands, perhaps hun- 
dreds of thousands of years have elapsed between some of 
the convulsions which have, at different epochs, destroyed 
the earth’s surface and with it all living animals. It has 
been demonstrated that no less than twenty-eight or 
twenty-nine such catastrophes have taken place, and that 
each destruction has been succeeded by a fresh creation, 
which creation has been characterised by an advance in 
the orders which have replenished the earth. As assem- 
blage after assemblage of animated beings have peopled 
the earth which has been reclothed with vegetation for their 
