force of gravity drawing each towards the earth's centre, must be greater than the repulsive power of the individual particles, in proportion to the density; and exactly where these forces balance, the extreme boundary will be found. Above this, probably an ether spreads through the planetary regions, meeting the upper limits of the atmospheres of other globes, and stretching forth to the remotest space. Mariotte discovered the law of atmospheric elasticity, that the density or volume of a given quantity of air is inversely as the pressure. Its density at any altitude may be easily found, for, as the elevation is increased in arithmetical progression, the density is decreased in geometrical progression.

"Let us imagine," he continues, "a hollow sphere of such magnitude, that the planet Saturn (whose distance from the sun is nearly 900 millions of miles) could perform its solar revolution within it. One single cubic inch of air, as rarefied at an altitude of 500 miles, would fill it entirely. That the eye may behold the vastness of this amount, we give it numerically, 3,053,635,200,000,000,000,000,000,000, or three thousand and fifty-three quadrillions six hundred and thirty-five thousand two hundred trillions of cubic miles, English notation."*

We cannot more appropriately close the evidence for this branch of our enquiry, than in the language of Mr. Donovan, when he offers so just a tribute of praise for the benignity manifested in the formation of the aerial ocean which floats around us:

"In the constitution of the atmosphere," he observes, we have ample scope to admire the design and execution of a structure, calculated with such wondrous precision, to fulfil its purposes. Were the atmosphere to consist wholly of oxygen, and the different kinds of objects which compose and are found upon the globe to remain what they are, the world would run through its stage of decay, renovation, and final destruction in a rapid cycle. Combustion, once excited, would proceed with ungovernable violence; the globe, during its short existence, would be in a continual conflagration, until its ashes would be its only remains; animals would live with hundred-fold intensity, and terminate their career in a few hours. On the other hand, were the atmosphere wholly composed of azote,

* Introduction to Meteorology, pp. 23,24.

X

life could never have existed, whether animal or vegetable, and the object of the Creator in forming this world would not have been fulfilled.

"But the atmosphere is a wholesome mixture of these two formidable elements, each neutralizing the other's baneful influence. The life of animals quietly runs through its allotted period; and the current of nature flows within prescribed limits, manageably and moderately."*

And he might have added, all demonstrating alike the goodness and the wisdom of God the Creator, and demanding the never-ceasing thankfulness of man, the conscious and sentient recipient of these bounties!

In the previous sections of this work we have made manifest, that the materials which constitute the outer crust of the earth were, for ages, preparing under the water of the primeval ocean. And, in this we have demonstrated that those which compose the firmament or heaven,† were also undergoing a similar preparation in the same element. On comparing these conclusions, which are founded on the undeniable evidence of philosophy, with the announcements of Scripture, which state, that "Int he beginning God created the heaven and the earth," the strictest accordance will be found to prevail between them; thus affording to every unprejudiced mind the most perfect and surest consolation.

We have now to direct the attention to another very satisfactory coincidence, between the experience of philosophy and the passage of Scripture contained in the fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis-" These are the generations of the heaven and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens;" on comparing which, it is necessary to pay attention, not only to the arrangement of the words of that verse, but likewise to the words themselves employed to express its meaning.

It must be remembered, that "God called the firmament

* Chemistry, Cab. Cyc. p. 103.

+ We mean this to be irrespective of the more subtile elements of light or etherial fluid.

Heaven." Now, as the oxygen which went to form that, proceeded from the exhalations of plants, and the nitrogen from the decomposition of animal substances, it follows, that both of these must have preceded whatever went to form the solid parts of the earth; and, consequently, during the period of Creation, the materials of the heaven anteceded, in strictness of terms, those of the earth; and hence the correctness of the expression, "the generations of the heaven and of the earth when they were created."

But on the other hand, when these materials came to be completed, or made, by being each placed in their final positions and relations to one another, then the rocky masses, constituting "the dry land or earth," were placed where they still remain, and the whole outer crust of the earth was finished before the elements of the firmament or heaven were completed; and consequently the earth, although created after, was made before the Heaven, "On the day (or time) when the Lord God made the earth and the Heaven:" and this, too, notwithstanding that the materials of the latter were created before those of the former.

In this remarkable, and to unreflecting readers, unnecessary transposition of the words in the verse which we have just quoted, we behold another striking instance of that strict adherence to truth, in the minutest assertions, which characterises the whole Word of God; while the perfect harmony which prevails between the experience of latter times, and the announcements made by the inspired historian upwards of three thousand years ago, evinces in the clearest manner, that he was aware of the previous existence of these materials, and framed the record of their creation and formation in the transposed style in which it is done, in order to accommodate his narrative to the sequence of events. Such information, at that remote period, must have been communicated by inspiration; for no human intelligence could have imparted it to him.

Happily we have thus been permitted to bring our labours to a point which enables us to draw a conclusion we have long desired to effect. Having shown the truth of the Mosaic narrative in all that pertains to matter, with respect to which,

tangible proofs, and evidences appreciable by the senses, deducible from the researches of philosophy, can be made available, we consider ourselves entitled to insist-That the inspired historian shall be credited, upon his mere assertion, with regard to the remaining and most important term of the whole passage, which admits of no tangible or philosophic proof whatever, namely, that they were all created and made by GOD; for he has said, that "In the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth."

SECTION VIII.

COMPLETION OF THE ATMOSPHERE; SEPARATION OF THE SEA FROM THE LAND; AND THEIR IMMEDIATE COMBINED RESULTS.

CHAPTER XXXII.

First use made, by the Creator, of the newly formed Atmosphere. Separation of the Sea from the Land. This separation effected by VAPORIZATION. Numerous preparatory explanations and advertencies necessary for the effectual prosecution of our argument, and for the establishing of this fact. Different substances vaporized at diverse temperatures: scientific evidences of this. The effects of the application of heat to a solution of salt and water. Results which occur when different descriptions of salts, held simultaneously in solution, are allowed to crystallize; and, also, when these are associated with earthy materials. Concluding proofs on these two points.

In the preceding chapter we endeavoured to exhibit the accordance which exists between the inspired narrative, and the announcements of experimental philosophy, on points connected with the introduction of the principle of expansion into the water of the primeval ocean; the indissoluble union of this buoyant fluid with the ponderable elemental bases of the atmosphere, and the remarkable property which they possess, when so united, of spontaneously diffusing themselves throughout the regions of space, in opposition to the otherwise all comprehensive law of gravity; and, likewise, the separation, from the great body of the water, of a certain portion thereof by means of the same expansive and buoyant influence, and its transformation into the more subtile watery vapour of the atmosphere. When conducting these several branches of enquiry we endeavoured to preserve the uniformity of our design by showing, that these stupendous works of the Creator