We have, at the same time, to direct the attention to the fact, that, until the atmosphere had been formed, no animal existences possessing the full power of locomotion could have been willed into being; because, as we have just seen, this animal movement depends upon the circulation of the blood; and this, in turn, on its due oxygenation by means of atmospheric elements. Here, then, we have the special conditions of the problem-free oxygen, azote, expansion, and violent agitation to constitute the atmosphere; and the record immediately thereafter, as to time, of the creation of innumerable tribes of animals possessing the power of locomotion.

rotation.

If the four principal elements which we have just enumerated could, agreeably to the impressed laws of materialism, have been introduced into the universe, and brought into operation simultaneously, or, if rotation, and consequently centrifugal impetus, had not been inseparable from light, then we should have been unable to have availed ourselves of the recorded fact of the subsequent formation of the higher classes of the animal kingdom, as concurring testimony in favour of our fundamental assumption of a protracted period of nonBut as we have already shown, at great length and with elaborate proof, that with respect to TIME, and according to the laws which it pleased the Creator progressively to impress on matter, those elements could not have been, with the same results, willed into existence coevally, we have by this means a fulcrum on which to rest the chief lever of our present argument; for there are elements in the constitution of the atmosphere (the atmosphere itself being indispensable to the higher tribes of animals) which indubitably required ages of darkness and of non-rotation to prepare, and render fit to be employed in the formation of the essential firmament.

The gaseous bases arising from the slow, successive generation of animal and vegetable existences, from their death, decomposition, and the exhalation of their component elements and peculiar secretions, required protracted ages of tranquil submersion and consequent non-rotation, before the primeval waters were in such a condition of saturation with them as, when thrown into sudden and violent agitation, they should produce results commensurate to the object required-before

an atmosphere capable of sustaining creatures with powers of locomotion, could have been so formed. But we have seen, that the ponderable bases of these gases constitute part only of the atmosphere. Of themselves, unassociated with the expansive principle of light, they could not have constituted the atmosphere as we now beneficially experience it to be. The introduction of light, however, was, agreeably to the laws established, associated with rotatory motion; and rotatory motion was inseparable from the violent agitation of the waters, and disruption of the strata, which in turn was inimical to the generation, extinction, and exhalation of animal and vegetable substances, in the manner and to the extent to which they were so necessarily required; consequently, although the buoyant principle of light was requisite for the completion of the atmosphere, yet, being as evidently prejudicial to the creation. of its two chief elementary materials, free oxygen and azote, it could not, according to divine wisdom, have been introduced into the universe until darkness, tranquillity, and non-rotation had wrought out the designs for which they were, for ages, allowed to predominate over the surface of the shoreless

waters.

It is from the fact of the indispensable concurrent and simultaneous presence of those elements for the construction of the atmosphere, contrasted with their no less certain incompatibility of co-existence in time; and shut in, on the other hand, by the evident necessity of the formation of an atmosphere, such as we and the more perfect tribes of animals now enjoy in common-before they or we could have been willed into existence, together with the announcement in Scripture, at the very juncture when all these elements were at onethat we deduce, from this source, the most convincing argument in favour of a non-rotatory period.

This incompatibility of co-existence as to time, and the necessity of being eventually brought into compatible union, so as to produce the end for which several of the elements had been so long preparing, constitute the bases of our argument, and enable us to conclude-that the period of duration which intervened may be measured, by what was required to be done before the two converging lines could meet and be at one, in

the formation of the atmosphere. A consummation, which, by the line of argument we have adopted, namely, proving the necessity of aerated blood for the motions of animals, is shown to be absolutely indispensable before the higher tribes of animals could, according to our ideas of divine wisdom and goodness, have been willed into existence; and such being so clearly the case, it seems evident, that the announcement on the part of the inspired historian, of those races having been willed into existence at the period recorded by him, implies that he was fully acquainted with all the previous phases through which the earth, in its creation, had passed; and amongst the rest, the protracted stage of non-rotation so indispensable for the generation and exhalation of the elements of the ethereal fluid, and also for that of the principal ponderable bases of the atmosphere.

We scarcely know whether this be a proper time to press upon the reader's attention an abiding conception which has been generated in our own mind, from the studies requisite to elicit the foregoing evidences; we shall, therefore, merely allude to it at present, in the hope that the future advancement of scientific research may either confirm or entirely disprove its reality; we mean, that according to the laws which it pleased the Creator to impress upon the works of his own hand, it became necessary, before any beings, possessing the power of locomotion by atmospheric air, could be willed into existence, the pervading but opposing forces of attraction and expansion should travel in parallel lines, passing through and coming from the same central orb of each planetary system; that previous thereto, or so long as those forces travelled in directions oblique to each other, there could have been no aeriation of the blood by respiration, no motion of the heart, no play of the respiratory organs, and consequently no voluntary motion. We do not mean to attempt any proof on so hypothetical an assumption as this at present is, but we do consider it to be a presumptive corroboration, that the concentration of the expansive principle, light, should have taken place around the central orb, the original centre of attraction of our system, before any beings dependant on respiration for

the aeriation of their blood and the animal force necessary to produce locomotion, were willed into existence.

We have premised that this is a mere fore-stretch of thought; but reverting to points thoroughly wrought out and elaborately established during the course of our work, we may terminate this closing part of our discourse with the following assertions:

That before the material light could overcome the inertia of the world, and cause the rotation of the earth around its axis, it was necessary that it should have been girded round, as it were, by layer after layer of stratified masses of mineral material, arranged according to a preconcerted order of superposition; and, that although, during innumerable ages, the submarine surface of this non-rotating sphere was extensively encrusted, not only by widely spreading masses of vegetation, but also by groups of living beings, diligently and submissively working out the designs of the omnipotent Creator, "God over all blessed for ever;" yet not one of the latter of these was possessed of either perfect gills or perfect lungs-in fine, that there was not a single material being endowed with the faculty of free and full locomotion within the whole range of the solar economy, until after the spheres had been caused to revolve around their axes, the atmosphere had been formed, and the light had been concentrated around the sun in the centre of the planetary system.

CONCLUSION.

66

PART I.

FROM THE BEGINNING" TO THE TERMINATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL

EVIDENCES.

The nature of the investigations which have so long engaged our attention confers peculiar importance on the concluding portion of this work, in which we shall endeavour to give a clear, concise, and continuous summary of what has been written: the more needful, as from the peculiarity of the subject, we have frequently been obliged to assume positions until, by undeniable evidences, others had been established which, in turn, should prove the soundness of those assumptions upon which we had been constrained, temporarily, to depend. The adoption of this method of procedure-in itself by no means desirable-having been rendered unavoidable, not only from there being no individual point standing out in relief, and thereby denoting itself to be the first link in the almost interminable chain, which might have been taken up separately and proved by itself, but because it likewise fell to our lot, to prove to the inhabitants of a world, accustomed to its diurnal rotation, that there was a long but indefinite period during which the revolving pedestal they tread on, though wheeled, as now, through space, had no movement around its axis; and that its protorotation caused the variety of hills and dales, continents and oceans, which now diversify its surface.

In the midst of doubt, as to the order of sequence which might enable us most effectually to explain these startling truths, we determined to follow, as closely as possible, that