The Story of the Earth and Man.
By J. W. DAWSON
DIAGRAM OF THE EARTH'S HISTORY.
--------------------------------------------------------
ANIMALS ROCK FORMATIONS PLANTS
--------------------------------------------------------
Age N Modern Age
of E T Post-pliocene of
Man O i Pliocene Angiosperms
(Upper Z m Pliocene and
Strata) O e Miocene Plants
and I Eocene
Mammals C
--------------------------------------------------------
M
Age E Cretaceous Age
S T of
of O i Jurassic Cycads
Z m and
Reptiles O e Triassic Pines
I
C
--------------------------------------------------------
Permian Age of
Age of P
Amphibians A Carboniferous Acrogens
and Fishes L T
Æ i Erian or and
------ O m
Z e Devonian Gymnosperms
Age of O
Mollusks I Silurian ------
Corals C
and Siluro- Age
Crustaceans Cambrian
of
Cambrian
Algæ
Huronian?
------------------------------------------------------
Age of E Laurentian Plants
Protozoa O T
Z i not
O m
I e determinable
C
Harper & Brothers New York.
THE STORY
OF
THE EARTH AND MAN,
BY
J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.K.S., F.G.S.,
PRINCIPAL AND VICE-CHANCELLOR OF McGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL, AUTHOR
OF "ARCHAIA," "ACADIAN GEOLOGY," ETC.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE
PREFACE
The science of the earth as illustrated by geological research, is one
of the noblest outgrowths of our modern intellectual life.
Constituting the sum of all the natural sciences in their application
to the history of our world, it affords a very wide and varied scope
for mental activity, and deals with some of the grandest problems of
space and time and of organic existence. It invites us to be present
at the origin of things, and to enter into the very workshop of the
Creator. It has, besides, most important and intimate connection with
the industrial arts and with the material resources at the disposal of
man. Its educational value, as a means of cultivating the powers of
observing and reasoning, and of accustoming the mind to deal with
large and intricate questions, can scarcely be overrated.
But fully to serve these high ends, the study of geology must be based
on a thorough knowledge of the subjects which constitute its
elementary data. It must be divested as far as possible of merely
local colouring, and of the prejudices of specialists. It must be
emancipated from the control of the bald metaphysical speculations so
rife in our time, and above all it must be delivered from that
materialistic infidelity, which, by robbing nature of the spiritual
element, and of its presiding Divinity, makes science dry, barren, and
repulsive, diminishes its educational value, and even renders it less
efficient for purposes of practical research.
That the want of these preliminary conditions mars much of the popular
science of our day is too evident; and I confess that the wish to
attempt something better, and thereby to revive the interest in
geological study, to attract attention to its educational value, and
to remove the misapprehensions which exist in some quarters respecting
it, were principal reasons which induced me to undertake the series of
papers for the _Leisure Hour_, which are reproduced, with some
amendments and extension, in the present work. How far I have
succeeded, I must leave to the intelligent and, I trust, indulgent
reader to decide. In any case I have presented this many-sided subject
in the aspect in which it appears to a geologist whose studies have
led him to compare with each other the two great continental areas
which are the classic ground of the science, and who retains his faith
in those unseen realities of which the history of the earth itself is
but one of the shadows projected on the field of time.
To geologists who may glance at the following pages, I would say
that, amidst much that is familiar, they will find here and there some
facts which may be new to them, as well as some original suggestions
and conclusions as to the relations of things, which though stated in
familiar terms, I have not advanced without due consideration of a
wide range of facts, To the general reader I have endeavoured to
present the more important results of geological investigation
divested of technical difficulties, yet with a careful regard to
accuracy of statement, and in such a manner as to invite to the
farther and more precise study of the subject in nature, and in works
which enter into technical details. I have endeavoured as far as
possible to mention the authors of important discoveries; but it is
impossible in a work of this kind to quote authority for every
statement, while the omission of much important matter relating to the
topics discussed is also unavoidable. Shortcomings in these respects
must be remedied by the reader himself, with the aid of systematic
text-books. Those who may desire any farther explanation of the
occasional allusions to the record of creation in Genesis, will find
this in my previously published volume entitled "Archaia."
J. W. D,
McGill College, Montreal,
_January, 1873_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Chapter I.--The Genesis Of The Earth.
Uniformity and Progress.--Internal Heat.--Nebular
Theory.--Probable Condition of the Primitive World 1
Chapter II.--The Eozoic Ages.
The Laurentian Rocks.--Their Character and
Distribution.--The Conditions of their Deposition.--Their
Metamorphism.--Eozoon Canadense.--Laurentian Vegetation 17
Chapter III.--The Primordial or Cambrian Age.
Connection of the Laurentian and Primordial.--Animals
of the Primordial Seas.--Lingula, Trilobites, Oldhamia,
etc.--The terms Cambrian and Silurian.--Statistics of
Primordial Life 36
Chapter IV.--The Silurian Ages.
Geography of the Continental Plateaus.--Life of the
Silurian.--Reign of Invertebrates.--Corals, Crinoids,
Mollusks, Crustaceans.--The First Vertebrates.
Silurian Fishes.--Land Plants 56
Chapter V.--The Devonian or Erian Age.
Physical Character of the Age.--Difference of Deposits in
Marginal and Continental Areas.--Specialisation of
Physical Geography.--Corals, Crustaceans, Fishes,
Insects, Plants 81
Chapter VI.--The Carboniferous Age.
Perfection of Palæozoic Life.--Carboniferous
Geography.--Colours of Sediments.--Vegetation.--Origin
of Coal.--Land Life.--Reptiles, Land Snails, Millipedes,
etc.--Oceanic Life 109
Chapter VII.--The Permian Age.
Movements of the Land.--Plication of the Crust.--Chemical
Conditions of Dolomite, etc.--Geographical
Results of Permian Movements.--Life of the Period.
Summary of Palæozoic History 160
Chapter VIII.--The Mesozoic Ages.
Characters of the Trias.--Summary of Changes in the
Triassic and Cretaceous Periods.--Changes of the
Continental Plateaus.--Relative Duration of the
Palæozoic and Mesozoic.--Mesozoic Forests.--Land
Animals.--The reign of Reptiles.--Early Mammals
and Birds 188
Chapter IX.--The Mesozoic Ages (continued).
Animals of the Sea.--Great Sea Lizards, Fishes,
Cephalopods, etc.--Chalk and its History.--Tabular
View of the Mesozoic Ages 211
Chapter X.--The Neozoic Ages.
Physical Changes at the end of Mesozoic.--Subdivisions
of the Neozoic.--Great Eocene Seas.--Land Animals
and Plants. Life of the Miocene.--Reign of Mammals 235
Chapter XI.--The Neozoic Ages (_continued_).
Later Vegetation.--The Animals of the Pliocene Period.
Approach of the Glacial Period.--Character of the
Post-pliocene or Glacial 258
Chapter XII.--Close of the Post-pliocene, and Advent or Man.
Connection of Geological and Human History.--The Post-glacial
Period.--Its Relations to the Pre-Historic Human
Period.--Elevation of Post-Pliocene Land.--Introduction of
Man.--Subsidence and Re-elevation.--Calculations as to
Time.--Tabular View of the Neozoic Ages 282
Chapter XIII.--Advent Of Man (_continued_).
Relations of Post-pliocene and Modern Animals.--Cavern
Deposits.--Kent's Cave.--General Remarks. 299
Chapter XIV.--Primitive Man.
Theory of Evolution as applied to Man.--Its Demands.--Its
Deficiencies.--Fallacious Character of Arguments of
Derivationists. Hypothesis of Creation.--Its Demands
and Advantages 316
Chapter XV.--Primitive Man (_continued_).
Geological Conditions of Man's Introduction.--His Modern
Date.--His Isolated Position.--His Higher
Powers.--Pictures of Primitive Man according to Evolution
and Creation.--General Conclusion 350
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Ideal Sections Illustrating the Genesis or the Earth 8
America In The Laurentian Period 18
Eozoon Canadense 24
Life in the Primordial Age 40
Organic Limestone of the Silurian 63
Life in the Silurian 66
Life in the Devonian 88
Vegetation of the Devonian 103
Carboniferous Plants 126
Oldest Land Snails 139
Carboniferous Reptiles 146
Foldings of the Crust in the Permian Period 162
Curves of Elevation and Depression 179
Culmination of Types of Palæozoic Animals 183
Land Animals of the Mesozoic 194
Aquatic Animals of the Mesozoic 219
Foraminiferal Rock-builders 243
Miocene Mammals 253
Britain in the Post-pliocene 301
THE STORY OF THE EARTH AND MAN.
CHAPTER I.
THE GENESIS OF THE EARTH.
The title of this work is intended to indicate precisely its nature.
It consists of rough, broad sketches of the aspects of successive
stages in the earth's history, as disclosed by geology, and as they
present themselves to observers at the present time. The last
qualification is absolutely necessary, when dealing with a science
whose goal to-day will be its starting point to-morrow, and in whose
view every geological picture must have its light and shaded portions,
its clear foreground and its dim distance, varying according to the
lights cast on them by the progress of investigation, and according to
the standpoint of the observer. In such pictures results only can be
given, not the processes by which they have been obtained; and with
all possible gradations of light and distance, it may be that the
artist will bring into too distinct outline facts still only dimly
perceived, or will give too little prominence to others which, should
appear in bold relief. He must in this judge for himself; and if the
writer's impressions do not precisely correspond with those of others,
he trusts that they will allow something for difference of vision and
point of view.
The difficulty above referred to perhaps rises to its maximum in the
present chapter. For how can any one paint chaos, or give form and
filling to the formless void? Perhaps no word-picture of this period
of the first phase of mundane history can ever equal the two negative
touches of the inspired penman--"without form and void"--a world
destitute of all its present order, and destitute of all that gives it
life and animation. This it was, and not a complete and finished
earth, that sprang at first from its Creator's hand; and we must
inquire in this first chapter what information science gives as to any
such condition of the earth.
In the first place, the geological history of the earth plainly
intimates a beginning, by utterly negativing the idea that "all things
continue as they were from the creation of the world." It traces back
to their origin not only the animals and plants which at present live,
but also their predecessors, through successive dynasties emerging in
long procession from the depths of a primitive antiquity. Not only so;
it assigns to their relative ages all the rocks of the earth's crust,
and all the plains and mountains built up of them. Thus, as we go back
in geological time, we leave behind us, one by one, all the things
with which we are familiar, and the inevitable conclusion gains on us
that we must be approaching a beginning, though this may be veiled
from us in clouds and thick darkness. How is it, then, that there are
"Uniformitarians" in geology, and that it has been said that our
science shows no traces of a beginning, no indications of an end? The
question deserves consideration; but the answer is not difficult. In
all the lapse of geological time there has been an absolute uniformity
of natural law. The same grand machinery of force and matter has been
in use throughout all the ages, working out the great plan. Yet the
plan has been progressive and advancing, nevertheless. The uniformity
has been in the methods, the results have presented a wondrous
diversity and development. Again, geology, in its oldest periods,
fails to reach the beginning of things. It shows us how course after
course of the building has been laid, and how it has grown to
completeness, but it contains as yet no record of the laying of the
foundation-stones, still less of the quarry whence they were dug.
Still the constant progress which we have seen points to a beginning
which we have not seen; and the very uniformity of the process by
which the edifice has been erected, implies a time when it had not
been begun, and when its stones were still reposing in their native
quarry.
What, then, is the oldest condition of the earth actually shown to us
by geology,--that which prevailed in the Eozoic or Laurentian period,
when the oldest rocks known, those constituting the foundation-stones
of our present continents, were formed and laid in their places? With
regard to physical conditions, it was a time when our existing
continents were yet in the bosom of the waters, when the ocean was
almost universal, yet when sediments were being deposited in it as at
present, while there were also volcanic foci, vomiting forth molten
matter from the earth's hidden interior. Then, as now, the great
physical agencies of water and fire were contending with one another
for the mastery, doing and undoing, building up and breaking down. But
is this all? Has the earth no earlier history? that it must have had,
we may infer from many indications; but as to the nature of these
earlier states, we can learn from conjecture and inference merely, and
must have recourse to other witnesses then those rocky monuments which
are the sure guides of the geologist.
One fact bearing on these questions which has long excited attention,
is the observed increase in temperature in descending into deep mines,
and in the water of deep artesian wells--an increase which may be
stated in round numbers at one degree of heat of the centigrade
thermometer for every 100 feet of depth from the surface. These
observations apply of course to a very inconsiderable depth, and we
have no certainty that this rate continues for any great distance
towards the centre of the earth. If, however, We regard it as
indicating the actual law of increase of temperature, it would result
that the whole crust of the earth is a mere shell covering a molten
mass of rocky matter. Thus a very slight step of imagination would
carry us back to a time when this slender crust had not yet formed,
and the earth rolled through space an incandescent globe, with all its
water and other vaporisable matters in a gaseous state. Astronomical
calculation has, however, shown that the earth, in its relation to the
other heavenly bodies, obeys the laws of a rigid ball, and not of a
fluid globe. Hence it has been inferred that its actual crust must be
very thick, perhaps not less then 2,500 miles, and that its fluid
portion must therefore be of smaller dimensions then has been inferred
from the observed increase of temperature. Further, it seems to have
been rendered probable, from the density of rocky matter in the solid
and liquid states, that a molten globe would solidify at the centre as
well as at the surface, and consequently that the earth must not only
have a solid crust of great thickness, but also a solid nucleus, and
that any liquid portions must be of the nature of a sheet or of
detached masses intervening between these. On the other hand, it has
recently been maintained that the calculations which are supposed to
have established the great thickness of the crust, on the ground that
the earth does not change its form in obedience to the attraction of
the sun and moon, are based on a misconception, and that a molten
globe with a thin crust would attain to such a state of equilibrium in
this respect as not to be distinguishable from a solid planet. This
view has been maintained by the French physicist, Delaunay, and for
some time it made geologists suppose that, after all, the earth's
crust may be very thin. Sir William Thomson, however, and Archdeacon
Pratt, have ably maintained the previous opinion, based on Hopkins'
calculations; and it is now believed that we may rest upon this as
representing the most probable condition of the interior of the earth
at present. Another fact bearing on this point is the form of the
earth, which is now actually a spheroid of rotation; that is, of such
a shape as would result from the action of gravity and centrifugal
force in the motion of a huge liquid drop rotating in the manner in
which the earth rotates. Of course it may be said that the earth may
have been made in that shape to fit it for its rotation; but science
prefers to suppose that the form is the result of the forces acting on
it. This consideration would of course corroborate the deductions from
that just mentioned. Again, if we examine a map showing the
distribution of volcanoes upon the earth, and trace these along the
volcanic belt of Western America and Eastern Asia, and in the Pacific
Islands, and in the isolated volcanic regions in other parts of the
world; and if we add to these the multitude of volcanoes now extinct,
we shall be convinced that the sources of internal heat, of which
these are the vents, must be present almost everywhere under the
earth's crust. Lastly, if we consider the elevations and depressions
which large portions of the crust of the earth have undergone in
geological time, and the actual crumpling and folding of the crust
visible in great mountain chains, we arrive at a similar conclusion,
and also become convinced that the crust has been not too thick to
admit of extensive fractures, flexures, and foldings. There are,
however, it must be admitted, theories of volcanic action, strongly
supported by the chemical nature of the materials ejected by modern
volcanoes, which would refer all their phenomena to the softening,
under the continued influence of heat and water, of materials within
the crust of the earth rather then under it.[A] Still, the phenomena
of volcanic action, and of elevation and subsidence, would, under any
explanation, suppose intense heat, and therefore probably an original
incandescent condition.
[A] Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, in Silliman'a Journal, 1870.
La Place long ago based a theory of the originally gaseous condition
of the solar system on the relation of the planets to each other, and
to the sun, on their planes of revolution, the direction of their
revolution, and that of their satellites. On these grounds he inferred
that the solar system had been formed out of a nebulous mass by the
mutual attraction of its parts. This view was further strengthened by
the discovery of nebulae, which it might be supposed were undergoing
the same processes by which the solar system was produced. This
nebular theory, as it was called, was long very popular. It was
subsequently supposed to be damaged by the fact that some of the
nebulæ which had been regarded as systems in progress of formation
were found by improved telescopes to be really clusters of stars, and
it was inferred that the others might be of like character. The
spectroscope has, however, more recently shown that some nebulæ are
actually gaseous; and it has even been attempted to demonstrate that
they are probably undergoing change fitting them to become systems.
This has served to revive the nebular hypothesis, which has been
further strengthened by the known fact that the sun is still an
incandescent globe surrounded by an immense luminous envelope of
vapours rising from its nucleus and condensing at its surface. On the
other hand, while the sun may be supposed, from its great magnitude,
to remain intensely heated, and while it will not be appreciably less
powerful for myriads of years, the moon seems to be a body which has
had time to complete the whole history of geological change, and to
become a dry, dead, and withered world, a type of what our earth would
in process of time actually become.
[Illustration: _Figs. 1 to 5._--_Ideal sections illustrating the
Genesis of the Earth._
Fig. 1. A vaporous world.
Fig. 2. A world with a central fluid nucleus (_b_) and a photosphere
(_a_).
Fig. 3. The photosphere darkened, and a solid crust (_c_) and solid
nucleus (_d_) formed.
Fig. 4. Water (_e_) deposited on the crust, forming a universal ocean.
Fig. 5. The crust crumpled by shrinkage, land elevated, and the water
occupying the intervening depressions.
The figures are all of uniform size; but the circle (A) shows th
diameter of the globe when in the state of fig. 1, and that marked (B)
its diameter when in the state of fig. 5. In all the figures (_a_)
represents vapour or air; (_b_) liquid rock; (_c_) solid rock as a
crust; (_d_) solid nucleus; (_e_) water.]
Such considerations lead to the conclusion that the former watery
condition of our planet was not its first state, and that we must
trace it back to a previous reign of fire. The reasons which can be
adduced in support of this are no doubt somewhat vague, and may in
their details be variously interpreted; but at present we have no
other interpretation to give of that chaos, formless and void, that
state in which "nor aught nor nought existed," which the sacred
writings and the traditions and poetry of ancient nations concur with
modern science in indicating as the primitive state of the earth.
Let our first picture, then, be that of a vaporous mass, representing
our now solid planet spread out over a space nearly two thousand times
greater in diameter then that which it now occupies, and whirling in
its annual round about the still vaporous centre of our system, in
which at an earlier period the earth had been but an exterior layer,
or ring of vapour. The atoms that now constitute the most solid rocks
are in this state as tenuous as air, kept apart by the expansive force
of heat, which prevents not only their mechanical union, but also
their chemical combination. But within the mass, slowly and silently,
the force of gravitation is compressing the particles in its giant
hand, and gathering the denser toward the centre, while heat is given
forth on all sides from the condensing mass into the voids of space
without. Little by little the denser and less volatile matters collect
in the centre as a fluid molten globe, the nucleus of the future
planet; and in this nucleus the elements, obeying their chemical
affinities hitherto latent, are arranging themselves in compounds
which are to constitute the future rocks. At the same time, in the
exterior of the vaporous envelope, matters cooled by radiation into
the space without, are combining with each other, and are being
precipitated in earthy rain or snow into the seething mass within,
where they are either again vaporised and sent to the surface or
absorbed in the increasing nucleus. As this process advances, a new
brilliancy is given to the faint shining of the nebulous matter by the
incandescence of these solid particles in the upper layers of its
atmosphere, a condition which at this moment, on a greater scale, is
that of the sun; in the case of the earth, so much smaller in volume,
and farther from the centre of the system, it came on earlier, and has
long since passed away. This was the glorious starlike condition of
our globe: in a physical point of view, its most perfect and beautiful
state, when, if there were astronomers with telescopes in the stars,
they might have seen our now dull earth flash forth--a brilliant white
star secondary to the sun.
But in process of time this passes away. All the more solid and less
volatile substances are condensed and precipitated; and now the
atmosphere, still vast in bulk, and dark and misty in texture,
contains only the water, chlorine, carbonic acid, sulphuric acid, and
other more volatile substances; and as these gather in dense clouds at
the outer surface, and pour in fierce corrosive rains upon the heated
nucleus, combining with its materials, or flashing again into vapour,
darkness dense and gross settles upon the vaporous deep, and continues
for long ages, until the atmosphere is finally cleared of its acid
vapours and its superfluous waters.[B] In the meantime, radiation, and
the heat abstracted from the liquid nucleus by the showers of
condensing material from the atmosphere, have so far cooled its
surface that a crust of slag or cinder forms upon it. Broken again and
again by the heavings of the ocean of fire, it at length sets
permanently, and receives upon its bare and blistered surface the
ever-increasing aqueous and acid rain thrown down from the
atmosphere, at first sending it all hissing and steaming back, but at
length allowing it to remain a universal boiling ocean. Then began the
reign of the waters, and the dominion of fire was confined to the
abysses within the solid crust. Under the primeval ocean were formed
the first stratified rocks, from the substances precipitated from its
waters, which must have been loaded with solid matter. We must not
imagine this primeval ocean like our own blue sea, clear and
transparent, but filled with earthy and saline matters, thick and
turbid, until these were permitted to settle to the bottom and form
the first sediments. The several changes above referred to are
represented in diagrammatic form in figs. 1 to 4.
[B] Hunt, "Chemistry of the Primeval Earth," _Silliman's Journal_, 1858.
In the meantime all is not at rest in the interior of the new-formed
earth. Under the crust vast oceans of molten rock may still remain,
but a solid interior nucleus is being crystallised in the centre, and
the whole interior globe is gradually shrinking. At length this
process advances so far that the exterior crust, like a sheet of ice
from below which the water has subsided, is left unsupported; and with
terrible earthquake-throes it sinks downward, wrinkling up into huge
folds, between which are vast sunken areas into which the waters
subside, while from the intervening ridges the earth's pent-up fires
belch forth ashes and molten rocks. (Fig. 5.) So arose the first dry
land:--
"The mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky,
So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters."
The cloud was its garment, it was swathed in thick darkness, and
presented but a rugged pile of rocky precipices; yet well might the
"morning stars sing together, and all the sons of God shout with joy,"
when its foundations were settled and its corner-stone laid, for then
were inaugurated the changes which were to lead to the introduction of
life on the earth, and to all the future development of the
continents.
Physical geographers have taught us that the great continents, whether
we regard their coasts or their mountain chains, are built up on lines
which run north-east and south-west, and north-west and south-east;
and it is also observed that these lines are great circles of the
earth tangent to the polar circle. Further, we find, as a result of
geological investigation, that these lines determined the deposition
and the elevation of the oldest rocks known to us. Hence it is fair to
infer that these were the original directions of the first lines of
fracture and upheaval. Whether these lines were originally drawn by
the influence of of the seasons on the cooling globe, or by the
currents of its molten interior, or of the superficial ocean, they
bespeak a most uniform and equable texture for the crust, and a
definite law of fracture and upheaval; and they have modified all the
subsequent action of the ocean as a depositor of sediment, and of the
internal heat as a cause of alteration and movement of rocks. Against
these earliest belts of land the ocean first chafed and foamed. Along
their margins marine denudation first commenced, and the oceanic
currents first deposited banks of sediment; and along these first
lines have the volcanic orifices of all periods been most plentiful,
and elevatory movements most powerfully felt.
We must not suppose that the changes thus shortly sketched were rapid
and convulsive. They must have required periods of enormous duration,
all of which had elapsed before the beginning of geological time,
properly so called. From Sir William Thomson's calculations, it would
appear that the time which has elapsed from the first formation of a
solid crust on the earth to the modern period may have been from
seventy to one hundred millions of years, and the whole time from the
vaporous condition of the solar system to the present, must of course
have been still greater then even this enormous series of ages. Such a
lapse of time is truly almost inconceivable, but it is only a few days
to Him with whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years
as one day. How many and strange pictures does this series of
processes call up! First, the uniform vaporous nebula. Then the
formation of a liquid nucleus, and a brilliant photosphere without.
Then the congealing of a solid crust under dark atmospheric vapours,
and the raining down of acid and watery showers. Then the universal
ocean, its waves rolling unobstructed around the globe, and its
currents following without hindrance the leading of heat and of the
earth's rotation. Then the rupture of the crust and the emergence of
the nuclei of continents.
Some persons seem to think that by these long processes of creative
work we exclude the Creator, and would reduce the universe into a mere
fortuitous concourse of atoms. To put it in more modern phrase, "given
a quantity of detached fragments cast into space, then mutual
gravitation and the collision of the fragments would give us the
spangled heavens." But we have still to ask the old question, "Whence
the atoms?" and we have to ask it with all the added weight of our
modern chemistry, so marvellous in its revelations of the original
differences of matter and their varied powers of combination. We have
to ask, What is gravitation itself, unless a mode of action of
Almighty power? We have to ask for the origin of of thousands of
correlations, binding together the past and the future in that orderly
chain of causes and effects which constitutes the plan of the
creation. If it pleased God to create in the beginning an earth
"formless and void" and to elaborate from this all that has since
existed, who are we, to say that the plan was not the best? Nor would
it detract from our view of the creative wisdom and power if we were
to hold that in ages to come the sun may experience the same change
that has befallen the earth, and may become "black as sackcloth of
hair," preparatory perhaps, to changes which may make him also the
abode of life; or if the earth, cooling still further, should, like
our satellite the moon, absorb all its waters and gases into its
bosom, and become bare, dry, and parched, until there shall be "no
more sea" how do we know but that then there shall be no more need of
the sun, because a better light may be provided? Or that there may not
be a new baptism of fire in store for the earth, whereby, being melted
with fervent heat, it may renew its youth in the fresh and heavenly
loveliness of a new heaven and a new earth, free from all the evils
and imperfections of the present? God is not slack in these things, as
some men count slackness; but His ways are not like our ways. He has
eternity wherein to do His work, and takes His own time for each of
His operations. The Divine wisdom, personified by a sacred writer, may
well in this exalt his own office:--
"Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of His way,
Before His work of old.
I was set up from everlasting,
From the beginning, or ever the earth was.
When there were no deeps, T was brought forth;
When there were no fountains abounding in water.
Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills, was I brought forth:
While as yet He had not made the earth,
Nor the plains, nor the higher part of the habitable world,
When He gave the sea His decree,
that her waters should not pass His limits;
When He determined the foundations of the earth."