CHAPTER II - THE ORGANIC HISTORY

Summary

The Formative Period of the Earth.— “No one can find out the work which God doeth from the beginning unto the end.” Science does not know what was the beginning, nor whether there has been a beginning in God's doings; nor does it know the end, for there will be no end. But we know that our mundane system, especially our earth, has had a beginning, and we can so far trace its history. According to the well-known theory of Kant and Laplace, started by each independently of the other, there is a mass of matter with an impulse given to it rotating from west to east, and throwing off the earth as a fiery liquid, to move in the same direction. As the earth rotates it is formed into an oblate spheroid. As it cools it has a solid crust with thick, gaseous substances surrounding it, which, in the process of time, are condensed into water. As it then presents itself, it is composed of seventy elements, less or more, and in it are mechanical, chemical, gravitating forces, probably also magnetic and electric—whatever these may be. As they operate, divisions and combinations take place—what are called differentiations and concentrations. The atmosphere is separated from the land, and, as the oscillations of the crackling earth go on, portions of land rise above the waters.