diurnal rotation, equatorial excess of diameter, nor secular retrogradation of its nodes on the ecliptic, but that all these modifications took place on the formation of the light, and its division from the darkness.

The adoption of the former of these two suppositions, involves the following insuperable difficulties ::

1. By imagining the diurnal motion to have taken place before the geological phenomena were produced, the only conceivable period for their proper formation, and the only known force, or power in nature, capable of having elevated the continental ridges and mountain chains is set aside. Consequently, the geological evidences are opposed to this assumption.

2. By supposing the earth to have had protuberant matter about the equator, without diurnal motion, there is involved, as a direct consequence, the destruction of the obliquity of the plane of the equator, to that of the ecliptic, as has just been learned from Professor Playfair's writings. And,

3. By conceiving the earth to have revolved diurnally round its axis before the formation of the light,—which, besides, serving no purpose whatever, the only adequate. effect which the formation of the light was calculated to produce is done away with, and a power of such magnitude as the introduction of the principle of expansion into the material universe is left, without having produced a corresponding effect, or without any effect at all.

On the other hand, by adopting the conclusion come to by this system, and admitting-what indeed can scarcely be denied that the formation of the light and its division from the darkness caused the diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis; that this, in turn, occasioned the terraqueous protuberance of the equatorial regions; and that the action, upon this, of the sun and moon gave rise to the precession of the equinoxes-the latter phenomena will be found to have commenced at the same moment as the formation of the light, the point in space coinciding with the epoch in time; while a counteracting influence against the destruction of the obliquity of the two planes will be found to consist in that which produced the secular disturbance ;-the whole manifesting the * Playfair's Works, vol. ii. p. 412.

C C

most perfect harmony between the announcements of Scripture, the laws of mechanics, the discoveries and calculations of astronomy, and the researches of geology; whereby it is clearly shown, that the equatorial protuberance of form, the preservation of the obliquity of the poles to the ecliptic, and the precession of the equinoxes have a common affinity to proto-diurnal rotation; and that what are thus related, physically and uranographically, date their origin from the same memorable period of time.

It appears, then, from all that has been said in these sections, that the primary amorphous rocks arose from beneath and perforated the superincumbent stratified masses, or elevated these along with themselves, by means of the centrifugal impetus generated in them by the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis. But as the earth could only have once commenced to revolve, and thereby have caused centrifugal impetus, all the rocks found thrust through, or elevating the strata, must have been moved simultaneously. Such being the case, there would be a period when the strata over the whole surface of the globe were horizontal, and parallel to each other; and a considerable lapse of time must have been required to have deposited them in successive layers in the order of superposition in which they are generally found.

If, therefore, we keep the fact steadily in mind, that the earth must have been for a long period without diurnal rotation, and blend it with the statement in the first part of the sixty-seventh Theorem, which is equally well authenticated, their dexterous combination will enable us to arrive at another very important deduction; namely—

That the earth at one period, not having had diurnal rotation, and consisting of inert matter, incapable of generating motion in itself, a force sufficient to have overcome the resistance must have been brought to bear upon it from SOME SOURCE EXTERNAL TO AND INDEPENDENT OF ITSELF, before it could have revolved diurnally, as it now does, around its axis. The inertia of the whole mass must have been overcome, before it could possibly have moved; before the geological phenomena, now displayed upon its surface, could have been produced!

This important conclusion reduces us to one of the greatest

difficulties ever encountered by men who depend solely on their own resources to assign the adequate cause which overcame the inertia of the world and made it revolve diurnally around its axis. Science knows no such power. It is only

in the Sacred Volume that any allusion is made to the first rotation of the earth, "the evening and the morning were the first day" an announcement which must not be looked upon as figurative, but understood in its plain, literal sensea whole revolution of the earth around its axis in the space of twenty-four hours, or, what is the same, with an angular velocity of 15° each hour; for, unless this be admitted, and, likewise, that it was its first rotation, the necessary centrifugal force would not have been generated; the geological phenomena arising from that impetus would never have existed. So long, therefore, as a peak of granite is visible to and tangible by the senses, may the finger be pointed to those monuments of Infinite power, and then to the emphatic announcement "the evening and the morning were the first day!"

SECTION VI.

METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE LIGHT, AND FROM THE EARTH'S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION.

AT

CHAPTER XXIX.

T the close of the third section, the earth was considered to be revolving around the unillumined sun, but without diurnal motion, while its recumbent rocky crust sustained an equally diffused and universally spread mass of water; which, having undergone a purifying process through many ages, had been deprived of nearly the whole of its earthy and acidulous ingredients, and, at the period to which I now allude, contained only saline materials, free oxygen and ammonia, which latter arose from the decomposition of animal substances, whose living possessors once inhabited infinite numbers of calcareous coverings discovered in the strata, and that the ammonia had assumed a supernatent position. It will, likewise, be recollected that this was the state in which, in the subsequent section, it was supposed to have been, when it pleased the Creator to cause the earth to rotate diurnally around its axis; while I endeavoured, in that which followed, to unfold in succession the important results produced by that memorable and stupendous event upon its rocky

masses.

In describing the effects which resulted from the movement of its aqueous portion, I confined myself almost exclusively to those which it exercised upon the broken fragments of the mineral crust, merely investigating the results which occurred underneath, and were there occasioned by that singular

movement of the water of the world. But equally important consequences took place in the upper regions of that watery mass, and in its lighter and more gaseous associates, which the comminution and agitation of the water permitted to escape, and, under the influence of the centrifugal impetus, to ascend, in vaporous expansion, into those vacant regions, whose full extent they were afterwards destined to occupy; and from whence, on this occasion, they did not return; but, being there suspended by the wonder-working power of the Creator, were caused, by his immediate agency, to expand into the life-sustaining atmosphere; while their partial elevation, for that purpose, into space by a force so general, and so evidently destined for many other important purposes, as the centrifugal impetus occasioned by the earth's first diurnal rotation around its axis, affords another confirmation of the truth, that nothing is done in vain by the Omnipotent, but that every step in the process of this great work was previously designed by a plan of exceeding wisdom, and executed by infinite power.

Before endeavouring, by closer inspection into each successive step, to form a juster conception of this magnificent transformation, it will perhaps greatly aid our convictions were we to pause a moment, and imagine, if we can, the grandeur and sublimity of a world of atmosphereless water thrown into violent and universal agitation, silent and unattended by the slightest noise, in the absence of the vehicle of sound, but greatly augmented in motion by the successive elevation and depression of continental ridges and oceanic hollows, when "at his rebuke they fled, at the voice of his thunders they hasted away;" when they "went up by the mountains, and down by the valleys," or perhaps more correctly still, “when the mountains ascended, and the valleys descended."

This may, perhaps, be the most opportune juncture for entering into some inquiries with a view to determine the relative levels maintained by the primitive water when the entire mass was thrown into motion by the first rotation of the earth around its axis, and before this was circumbounded by an atmosphere; and afterwards to endeavour to trace the

* Psalm civ. 7, 8, and marginal reading.