6

If,' said

others, he imagined this hypothetical illustration. he, the earth were formed of an uniformly yielding substance, and if it were to become deprived of its motion, the law of attraction or gravity, acting equally, and without resistance, from all points of its surface, towards its centre, would cause that yielding substance to settle into the figure of a perfect sphere. But if it were then to receive a transverse impulse, causing it to revolve upon its axis, this new impulse would cause a centrifugal force, counteracting the force of gravity, by urging the particles, composing the yielding substance, from the centre towards the circumference, and thus would produce an alteration in the figure of the sphere. For this new force would tend to elevate the surface, and would have most power at the equator, and least at the poles; whereas, the opposite force of gravity would tend to depress the surface, and would have most power at the poles, and least at the equator. The result of this inequality of gravitation must necessarily be, that the original sphere, becoming elevated at the equator, but not at the poles, and the power by which this elevation was occasioned gradually diminishing from the equator to the poles, the figure would be eventually changed into that of an obtuse spheroid.'

"It being thus shown that such would be the necessary result of the compound power of gravity, and centrifugal force, it followed, that those two antagonist forces, acting at the same time in the earth, (SUPPOSING it to have been formed of an uniformly yielding substance,) would have worked themselves into harmony and equilibrium, by assuming that figure, which they would thenceforth maintain. Whereas, if we suppose the case of a true sphere, which should consist of a solid and resisting substance, the two opposing forces would act in perpetual and violent discord, with a constant tendency to disunite and rend the texture of the fabric. Now Newton having maintained that God, in the beginning, formed all material things, of such figures and properties as most conduced to the end for which he formed them; and having demonstrated that the property of an obtuse spheroid was that which most conduced to the end for which God formed the earth, viz. to revolve with regularity, and with perfect harmony in all its parts; he left it to the capacity of every one to draw the obvious inference, in conformity with his known principles, viz. that it is highly probable that God has formed the earth with the same figure, which it is manifest he has given to

the other planets, and for which an adequate reason is thus rendered plain to the intelligence: and he confirmed this ar gument of probability by adding the positive fact, that unless the earth actually was flatter at the poles than at the equator, the waters of the ocean constantly rising towards the latter, must long since have deluged and overwhelmed the equatorial⚫ regions, and have deserted the polar; whereas the waters are now retained in equilibrio over the whole surface of the globe."*

Maclaurin, in his account of Sir Isaac Newton's philosophy, thus draws his inference from the above clear and beautiful demonstration:

"What we have said of a FLUID earth must hold good of the earth as it is; for if it had not this figure in its solid parts, but a spherical figure, the ocean would overflow all the equatorial regions, and leave the polar regions elevated many miles above the level of the sea; whereas we find that one is not more elevated above that level than the other."

The supposed figure of a globe of an yielding substance, made use of by Newton, merely to explain the effects of the two great forces which are constantly in action upon the earth, has been construed, by the continental philosophy, into an argument in favour of the actual primitive fluidity of the globe in a chaotic state;‡ and thence it has argued, that that particular form which was given to all the revolving heavenly bodies, by the great wisdom of the Creator, to obviate the effects of two contending powers, was assumed by the globe itself while in a fluid state, by the mere laws of nature.S

Nothing, however, could be further from the ideas of Newton, who had previously stated his belief, that "as God had formed matter with such figure and proportions, as most conduced to the end for which he formed it; and as the end, in this

*Com. Estim. vol. i. p. 73.

De Luc. Lett. Geol. p. 81.

+ Page 364.

"The spheroidal figure of the earth, its crystalline and stratified structure, and its numerous petrifactions, are proofs of its original fluidity. The fluidity, according to Werner, was aqueous; and he conjectures that the various rocks were originally suspended or dissolved in water, and gradually deposited from it."-Edin. Encyclop. Mineralogy, p. 408.

It has been already shown, that this Wernerian theory of primitive formations is entirely at variance with these very laws of nature, to the agency of which alone these formations were attributed. (See page 21.)

instance, was regularity and harmony, it was unphilosophical to seek for any other origin, either for the substance, or the shape of the globe; or to pretend that it could have risen out of a chaos by the mere laws of nature."

From the announcement, then, of the sacred record, that "in the beginning, God created the earth;" and from the preceding considerations, from the great mind of Newton, on the subject of this announcement, we are to conclude, that, "in the beginning" our globe was of the same solid, spheroidal figure, we now find it to be; and, consequently, that granite, and all other rocks, which do not bear the stamp, of subsequent formation from the effects of those laws, commonly called of nature, but in reality those of God, and to which the earth, and all things upon its surface, have been subjected since the first creation, are to be considered as primitiye creations; and, also, that the elastic fluid, forming the firmament or atmosphere, and the waters, which were at first spread over the whole surface, but were afterwards collected "into one place," at the command of the Almighty, are to be included in our minds as primitive creations.

It appears strange, that the consideration of air and water, (we may, perhaps, also, include fire,) has been hitherto omitted by those philosophers who have formed theories on the chaotic formation of the earth. In those theories we hear of nothing but the formation of rocks by natural or secondary causes; and though, by some, fire was considered the chief agent in these formations, and by others, water, we have no account given, or attempted, of how these two important elements first came into existence. Thus, in the systems of the chaotic philosophy, out of the four elements of which the system of our globe is composed, three remain utterly unaccounted for; and we may justly add, that the origin of the primitive elements, from which the fourth is supposed, in those theories, to have arisen, is equally concealed from the reason and understanding.

Some philosophers, undeterred by the apparent impossibility of any satisfactory result, have attempted to ascertain the mean density of the earth. This problem only admits of an approximated solution, derived from the principles of universal gravitation. For our actual view of the interior of the earth does not extend, as has been before said, to more than one-sixteenth thousandth part of the whole. The calculations of Dr. Maskelyne, from observations on the attraction of the mountain, called Schehalien, in Perthshire, followed up by

Hutton, Playfair, and Cavendish, lead us to the same conclusions, which, a priori, we should have expected; viz. that the central parts of the earth abound with some species of heavy and solid matter; and as our inquiries, with regard to the surface of the globe, are in no way affected by the question of its interior structure, which will probably remain forever unknown to us; and as the above result is in no way contradictory, either to our reason, or to history, we may safely assume the internal solidity of the earth, as a fact, until stronger reasons are adduced in opposition to it.*

We have, then, presented to the mind, on the first day of the creation, and created out of nothing, by the incomprehensible power of the Almighty, a solid mineral globe, with its whom? surface invisible, (from being covered with a thin coating of water, and there being as yet no light, for "darkness was upon the face of the deep.") And here, it is not without effort, that the mind is restrained within the limits to which our present inquiries must be confined. For when we consider that this great globe is but a small member of a stupendous system; and that even that system is lost in the immensity of other systems throughout boundless space, the apparent similarity of all which suggests the probability of each revolving sphere being destined to the same ends as our own ;t the mind is overwhelmed with the extent of the prospect, and with our own incomparative insignificance, which would almost induce a doubt of the reality of those numerous blessings which we feel have been conferred upon us by our Ma- ker. There is, indeed, nothing that so completely overwhelms the finite mind of man, as the discoveries which his genius and his reason have enabled him to make in astronomy; by which he finds, that, great as our solar system is, the immensity of space is filled with such systems, each moving in its own sphere, and all retained, in the most won

* The terms so commonly used in geological writings, the crust of the earth, is but too well adapted to mislead the mind as to the true nature of the globe, which, as far as we know, or can understand, is solid throughout. The above term would seem to imply a mere outer shell, covering a hollow interior. Of the many false or problematical ideas of men, there is, perhaps, none more common or unfounded than that which attributes to the globe a hollow interior.

We may say of the universe, what Pascal has so beautifully expressed of the immensity of God: "C'est un cercle infini, donc le centre est partout, et la circonference nulle part."

derful regularity and order, by the laws to which the Creator has submitted them. When we raise our thoughts, from our own little planet, to the contemplation of so boundless a creation, it is not without the utmost effort of the mind that we can connect time, and more especially a short time, with such immensity. But we must keep in mind, while dwelling on such subjects, that man's most erroneous notions of creation, arise from the necessity he experiences of connecting length of time, with extent, or difficulty of operation in his own finite labours. We must not forget that most of our great astronomical discoveries have been founded on our own earth, and its single satellite, as a base: and if, in the study of this earth, we find it revealed to us in the most unequivocal manner by history, and corroborated by physical facts, that our planet has not existed more than what may appear to us infinitely too short a time for the formation of so great and so perfect a body, we have no power to limit this discovery to an individual member of the solar system; we must extend it to the whole, upon the same principle of analogy on which so many astronomical discoveries have been suggested, and subsequently demonstrated to be true; our reason must bend, with whatever difficulty, to so conclusive a corollary. But this is a field much too wide for our finite comprehensions. We cannot proceed far on such inquiries as the present, without the conviction being pressed upon us, that "the ways of God are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts." We feel the necessity of curbing our curiosity respecting the state of other planets, and of other systems; and we must be satisfied and thankful for the merciful dispensations it has pleased the Almighty to bestow so abundantly upon our own.

We must feel satisfied, however, from what history announces, and our reason corroborates, that not only our own earth, but the whole of our solar system, started into being at the same instant, and by the same incomprehensible and Almighty power; and that the laws by which the revolutions of the various members of our system are regulated and preserved, were enacted on this, the first day of the creation; when, though the sun had not yet actually shone forth, it yet produced the effect of light, and of the "evening and the morning," which "were the first day."

It is here scarcely necessary for us to dwell upon that most remarkable part of the first day's creation, the fiat that light should appear, as it has no very intimate connexion with