Mr. James Nasmyth observes, that “the floods of molten lava which
volcanoes eject are nothing less than remaining portions of what
was once the condition of the entire globe when in the igneous
state of its early physical history,--no one knows how many years
ago!
“When we behold the glow and feel the heat of molten lava, how
vastly does it add to the interest of the sight when we consider
that the heat we feel and the light we see are the residue of the
once universal condition of our entire globe, on whose _cooled
surface_ we _now_ live and have our being! But so it is; for if
there be one great fact which geological research has established
beyond all doubt, it is that we reside on the cooled surface of
what was once a molten globe, and that all the phenomena which
geology has brought to light can be most satisfactorily traced
to the successive changes incidental to its gradual cooling and
contraction.
“That the influx of the sea into the yet hot and molten interior of
the globe may occasionally occur, and enhance and vary the violence
of the phenomenon of volcanic action, there can be little doubt;
but the action of water in such cases is only _secondary_. But for
the pre-existing high temperature of the interior of the earth, the
influx of water would produce no such discharges of molten lava as
generally characterise volcanic eruptions. Molten lava is therefore
a true vestige of the Natural History of the Creation.”