far devoted to this branch of knowledge. And it is not wonderful that
the popular mind should expect a result which is so much in accordance
with the wants of mankind. Who is there whose happiness, and health, and
comfort, _and_ safety, and prosperity, may not be more or less affected
by reducing to law, the apparently irregular fluctuations of the
weather, and the predetermination of the storm? To do this would be the
crowning triumph of the age; and the present theory has pioneered the
way for its speedy accomplishment.


ORIGINAL CONDITION OF THE EARTH.

That the present order of things had a beginning, is taught by every
analogy around us, and as we have the glaring fact forced upon us, that
our globe has experienced a far higher temperature on its surface than
obtains at present, and moreover, as it is demonstrated beyond a cavil,
that the interior is now of far higher temperature than is due to solar
radiation, we are justified in concluding, not only that the condition
of the interior of our globe is that of fusion, but that its original
temperature was far higher than at present; so that the inference is
allowable that there has been a time when the whole globe was _perhaps_
in this state. But why should we stop here? There are three states of
matter, the solid, the fluid, and the gaseous; and with this passing
glance at the question, we will jump at once to the theory of La
Place,--that not only our own globe, but the whole solar system, has
been once in the nebulous state.

In justice to himself, the author ought to remark, that he had reasoned
his way up to this starting point, before even the name of La Place had
reached his ears. He makes the remark in order to disclaim any desire to