CHAPTER Y. 
WHAT BEFORE THE MOLTEN GLOBE? 
“ Earth took her shining station as a star 
In heaven’s dark hall, high up the crowd of worlds.”— Bailey. 
If the earth was once a red-hot sphere—and no 
one acquainted with the facts can now doubt it—how 
did it get so hot ? Was it once a self-luminous star ? 
These are difficult questions to answer satisfac¬ 
torily. We may make statements, but it is impossible 
to prove them successfully. There is, however, some 
evidence, and after going over it in order, most people 
feel that it must be true. Our space will not permit 
full discussion of all the evidence, as that would re¬ 
quire a large volume alone. Only a few of the lead¬ 
ing arguments can be stated here. The interested 
reader can find plenty of books on the subject. Prof. 
Alexander Winchell quite satisfactorily discusses these 
and other questions of cosmogony in his World Life, 
or Comparative Geology. 
No one has ever observed the growth of an oak 
through all of its stages, and yet all of us are quite 
certain we know how it came about. We have seen 
the seed, an acorn, begin to sprout in the damp soil; 
we have followed the little shoot year by year; we 
have noticed it put forth tender buds, then unfold 
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