82 
HISTORY OF THE EARTH. 
free motion of its different parts, or that it was as stated in the 
proposition a fluid or semifluid mass. 
With regard to the cause of its fluidity two opinions have been 
entertained , onf^that the solid matter of which it is in part com¬ 
posed was originally dissolved in water (Sec. 14) ; the other that 
it was fused by an intense heat, with w’hich it parted by radiation, 
until a crust formed upon its surface; its temperature being gradu¬ 
ally reduced until it was fitted to become the abode of organized 
and living beings, and that its interior is still a mass of liquid 
fire. (Sec. 36.) 
The first of these hypotheses is now utterly abandoned. The 
\vaterofthe existing oceans is inadequate to effect the solution 
of a thousandth part of the matter constituting the strata of 
the globe. Between the two parts of the second there is a 
very intimate connexion. If the primeval liquidity of what is 
now a body of earth and solid rock was produced by intense heat, 
we may conclude that a high temperature still prevails in its in¬ 
terior parts ; if we have evidence of the existence of such tem¬ 
perature, it is best accounted for by supposing it to be the 
remains of what was once common to the whole mass. Those 
facts and arguments therefore which tend to establish the truth 
of one of the parts of this hypothesis, bear strongly, though in¬ 
directly upon that of the other. 
44. Of the original temperature of the earth. l.Thewholeof 
the vast expanse, stretching out on every side of us to a distance of 
which the human mind can with difficulty, if at all, conceive, is 
thickly scattered over with bodies which from the light that con¬ 
stantly emanates from them, we are warranted in believing are 
at this moment, intensely heated. The earth being one of this 
vast collection of bodies that are floating in the regions of space, 
the idea is very naturally suggested that it may once have resem¬ 
bled them in every respect, in temperature as well as in figure 
and other characters ; that the first act of Omnipotence when the 
work of creation began, was, to strew the fields of ether with 
burning orbs. The reason why the earth should differ from most 
of the others now, is apparent. Its diminutive size is such as to 
admit of its having parted with its excess of caloric by radiation, 
whilst they inconsequence of their greater magnitude continue 
to glow. 
2. The figure of the earth being that which would be assumed 
bv a liquid having the same density and revolving with the same 
velocity, it is inferred as we have just seen, that it was originally 
fluid. For producing this condition of the now solid material of 
the earth’s crust, it is necessary to suppose the existence of an 
agent, or of agents, no longer found upon its surface. Wer¬ 
ner supposed the agent to have been water; there is at least an 
equal probability that it was heat or fire. The excess of water 
required for the solution of the existing continents, over that of 
the present ocean, must have been annihilated. Its disappearance 
