"To illustrate this, it will be sufficient to mention, that without the power of heat or repulsion, there could be no winds, rain, dew, rivers, streams, or springs."*

With these expositions, on this abstruse subject, the complex and seemingly capricious machinery of the weather, we shall conclude this chapter, that we may enjoy a slight respite, and have time to meditate on what we have perused before proceeding to its application in conformation of the Dynamical Theory; and ere we attempt to show by what means these meteorological phenomena, and the formation of the atmosphere, or "firmament," at this juncture, can be made available, to convince our readers, that there was a long but indefinite period, during which the earth had no rotation around

its axis.

* Popular Treatise on Chemistry, p. 22.

SECTION VIII.

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

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Preliminary observations.

Different consequences which result from the application of the Expansive principle to the Aerial and to the Aqueous bodies of the atmosphere exemplified by what took place at the epoch alluded to. Evidence that it was at this juncture the Atmosphere was completed, and the Sea and the Land were separated from each other. Concurring testimony that these events were effected by VAPORIZATION. Scientific evidences as to the action and reaction of these great natural bodies on each other, and their beneficent results. A corroborative line of proof adopted and made good by the character and capabilities of the Phanogamous division of plants; and the opportune period recorded in Scripture as that of their formation.

THE immediate results of the first rotation of the earth around its axis would be to elevate continental ridges, intensely heated; to depress oceanic hollows of corresponding magnitude; to carry upwards, by means of the former, immense longitudinal waves, the latter retreating and carrying down, to a certain extent, masses of water, corresponding to the spaces upon which they rested; while the upper strata of water would be dispersed in great tenuity, by the general rotatory impulse, augmented in the zones above the continents by the incandescent mountain chains thrust into their midst. Before this period, it must be reiterated, there existed no motion of matter, except in straight lines, either to or from the centre, or diagonal thereto as a compound of those primary directions, but none which could cause particles of inert matter to move out of parallelism; while there now exists, as we have seen by the theorem and evidences last appealed to

in the previous chapter, a law in nature, whereby the aerial portion of the atmosphere propends from the colder to the hotter regions; and the vaporous constituents from the hotter to the colder places, without reference to direction beyond what is impressed upon them by these irresistible impulses. And another constitutional law, by which its aqueous associate is induced to form itself into vaporous vesicles, of wonderful tenuity, possessing diffusive principles within and immediately around themselves, yet with general attractive affinities by which they congregate or gather together into those gorgeous but fantastic forms which visible vapour or clouds assume; and having been made aware of these several conditions, and of the existing phenomena connected with the comprehensive machinery of the weather, the mind may now be considered capable of making the requisite application of them to the subject more immediately under consideration.

Alluding again to that normal law of materialism, to which we have so frequently had occasion to refer-" that inert matter can neither generate, alter, nor overcome motion in itself”— and being without the knowledge of the existence, up to the period to which we allude, of any source of motion save in direct lines, while we are firmly persuaded of the insufficiency and inappropriateness of this description of motion, to effect the separation of the water from the earthy and the saline residium, which exists to this day as an incontestible proof of the separation which actually took place; we are reduced to one of those unavoidable dilemmas into which reliance alone on the laws of materialism would infallibly lead us. Motion, impelling matter in parallel lines could never have effected what we are constrained to admit has been done. And it is precisely when thus critically circumstanced, when we cannot take one step forward of ourselves, that the revelation of the interference of the Creator at this opportune juncture relieves us from the difficulty: "Let the waters under the heaven," (not under the firmament, be it observed), "be gathered together," (there could be no gathering together in parallel lines), "and let the dry land appear."

Now, from what has been said, it will not be difficult to imagine the land to have been entirely enveloped by watery

vapour, which, by reason of the causes then in combined operation, especially of the diffusion principle, had risen up, and, for a limited period, was sustained by the new-formed atmosphere, in which, as there had yet been no lateral motion, the mass of encircling vapour remained unbroken and undispelled; and that, had there existed a mortal eye within the compass of the universe, that eye, however space-penetrating, however keen, could not have distinguished the continental ridges: to it the land would not, as yet, have appeared.

It may be well at this juncture to remember, that the principal agent, or impelling power, which, we are told, the Deity chose to wield while He was thus putting forth those manifestations of creative energy, was the expansive principle of light in its primary condition; moreover that the direction in which it impinged upon the world, while in the character to which we are now referring, was tangential; and, from the causes so frequently alluded to, that the surface of the earth was divided into several immense longitudinal ridges of high temperature, being our present continents; and of corresponding colder depressed regions, those which constitute the oceans of our day.

And, bearing these few important circumstances stedfastly in mind, we have only to recur to what we have just made so clearly to appear from the announcements of philosophy, when declaratory of the meteorological phenomena:-"That the application of the same heat, looked upon as a synonyme of the principle of light or electricity, applied to the globe, and acting upon the two principal constituents of the atmosphere— Aqueous Vapour and Air—would produce currents of these fluids tending in opposite directions: the air tending from the colder to the warmer parts; the vapour from the warmer to the colder."* While the application of this double and contrary result of the same propelling power, as shown by the preceding quotation from the works of Professor Whewell and other meteorologists, is so apposite, that we have only to recur to it, to understand thoroughly and for ever, how the impartation of the primary light, and of the intense heats from the

Theorem 94 and evidences.

continental ridges, at the period referred to, was the most fitting agency, in the hands of the Creator, to have occasioned an almost instantaneous dispersion of the watery vapour from off the warmer regions, over the continents, by transference to the colder zones above the oceanic depressions, where, losing the latent heat which retained the aqueous portion in a vaporous state, it would be discharged in copious rain, and thereby fulfil the command-" Let the waters under (the temperature of) the Heaven, be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." There is so much sublimity in the simplicity of this announcement: so much of omnipotence combined with omniscience; a handling of the vast materials of the universe with so much ease; and the constraining of potent and comprehensive powers to fulfil a definite purpose, that it is, we apprehend, scarcely possible to peruse this portion of scripture, and view it as we have now done, without confessing, that it is the announcement of the Spirit of HIM who alone could so deal with those elements, and cause them to produce those monuments of His power which appear everywhere in creation. This will also enable us to understand, that it is solely as the permanent consequences of the command then given, that watery vapour still propends from the hotter to the colder regions, in opposition to its atmospheric associate, the aerial part; that they are, in fact, differently acted upon by electricity, and not from any inherent principle which resided in these before that announcement went forth from the Creator.

The reasons so strongly urged by us in favour of the position assumed, namely-That the waters were separated from the land by vaporization, are all borne out and confirmed by what we have just stated. There existed powerful and influential motives for vaporization having rapidly, extensively, and effectually taken place all over those parts of the earth's surface which now constitute its terraine portion. It was absolutely essential, for the completion and adaptation of those portions for the world's future occupants, that the various mineral salts, soils, and sand should not be swept away, when the water with which they were combined was separated from the dry land, but that the aqueous portion should be insensibly and almost invisibly wafted away, like a spirit, from the salts