Theory of the Earth

“ We have now seen, that in every quarter of the globe, and in every climate of the earth, there is formed, by means of the decay of solid rocks, and by the transportation of those moveable materials, that beautiful system of mountains and valleys, of hills and plains, covered with growing plants, and inhabited by animals. ”

“ The general view of these and other phenomena, manifested at one epoch, or during one period, and the survey of the condition of the globe at several such periods, are the proper objects of geological observation; and the successive states of the globe being thus ascertained, it is the business of inductive philosophy to discover the general antecedent condition or proximate cause upon which these successive states depend. If the research be successful, the result is a general theory of the earth ”

“ We have but to consider the surface of this earth as having been upon a higher level; as having been every where the beds of rivers, which had moved the matter of strata and fragments of rocks, now no more existing; and as thus disposed upon different planes, which are, like the haughs of rivers, changing in a continual succession, but changing upon a scale too slow to be perceived. ”

“ We find this earth composed of known things; it is therefore the operations, required in these compositions, which form the natural philosophy of this earth, considered as a body of solid land. But, the solid land is only one part of the globe; therefore, the philosophy of the globe proceeds still farther by knowing the constitution of this planetary body, as consisting of different parts united for a purpose, which is that of a world. ”

“ Few persons realize the paucity of data at the command of workers in science. Theories concerning the earth are formulated from so little real knowledge of that body, that our science may be said to be all theory, with scarcely a trace of actual evidence to support it. If a globe ten inches in diameter be covered with a sheet of paper, such as I hold in my hand, the thickness of that sheet will be greater in proportion to that of such a globe than the depth men have explored within the earth is compared with the thickness of the crust of the earth. ”

“ If this consolidating operation be performed at the bottom of the ocean, or under great depths of the earth, of which our continents are composed, we cannot be witnesses to this mineral process, or acquire the knowledge of natural causes, by immediately observing the changes which they produce; but though we have not this immediate observation of those changes of bodies, we have, in science, the means of reasoning from distant events; consequently, of discovering, in the general powers of nature, causes for those events of which we see the effects. ”

“ Besides these imaginary great operations in the natural history of this earth, we have also certain suppositions of geologists and mineralists with regard to the effect of water, for explaining to us the consolidation of the loose materials of which the strata of the earth had been composed, and also for producing every other appearance, or any which shall happen to occur in the examination of the earth, and require to be explained. ”

“ The general theory of this earth as a world, will thus appear to be a complex thing, which however founded upon simple principles, contains many subjects of discussion, and requires attention to a variety of particulars. For, not only the great features of this earth are to be explained by the theory, but also the most minute appearance, such as are to be found, even with microscopic observation, in every particular part. ”

“ Thus both in what is called the Old World and the New, we shall be astonished in looking into the operations of time employing water to move the solid masses from their places, and to change the face of nature, on the earth, without defacing nature. At all times there is a terraqueous globe, for the use of plants and animals; at all times there is upon the surface of the earth dry land and moving water, although the particular shape and situation of those things fluctuate, and are not permanent as are the laws of nature. ”

“ To have an idea of this operation of running water changing the surface of the earth, one should travel in the Alps; it is there that are to be seen all the steps of this progression of things, and so closely connected in the scene which lies before one, that there is not required any chain of argument, or distant reasoning from effect to cause, in order to understand the natural operations of the globe, in the state of things which now appears. ”

“ Thus all the surface of this earth is formed according to a regular system of heights and hollows, hills and valleys, rivulets and rivers, and these rivers return the waters of the atmosphere into the general mass, in like manner as the blood, returning to the heart, is conducted in the veins. ”

“ The diversity of heights upon the surface of the earth, and of hardness and solidity in the masses of which the land is formed, is doubtless governed by causes proper to the mineral kingdom, and independent either of the atmosphere or sea ”

“ To acquire a general or comprehensive view of this mechanism of the globe, by which it is adapted to the purpose of being a habitable world, it is necessary to distinguish three different bodies which compose the whole. ”

“ If, then, this nebular theory be true, the universe has been developed from a primal unit, and the earth is one of the individual orbs produced in the course of its evolution. Its history is in kind like that which has been deciphered with regard to the earth: it only carries the action of physical forces, under a sustaining and directing hand, further back in time. ”

“ Hence I have given this theory an impartial hearing and justice compels me to admit that the arguments in its favor are well worthy of careful consideration. Scientists have all agreed that the earth is not a cold, solid body, and to account for its lack of density they assume that the center is expanded and diffused by heat. ”

“ In 1818 he promulgated his theory that the earth is a hollow sphere, habitable within, and open at the poles for the admission of light, and containing within it six or seven concentric hollow spheres, also open at the poles. ”

“ In the theory now given, the earth has been represented as a composition of different materials, which had existed in another form, and as the effect of natural operations; therefore, however various may be found the structure of our earth, and however dissimilar some parts of its composition may be in comparison with others, no part should be considered as original, in relation to the globe, or as primitive, in relation to second causes, i.e. ”

“ The form and constitution of the mass are not more evidently calculated for the purpose of this earth as a habitable world, than are the various substances of which that complicated body is composed. Soft and hard parts variously combine to form a medium consistence, adapted to the use of plants and animals ”

“ They refuse to believe that the interpretation of the earth's surface, like that of its planetary motion, is a physical question which cannot be guessed at or decided a priori, but must be answered by an appeal to the evidence furnished by Nature herself. ”

“ The geologists tell us that such natural forces have remodeled and recast the various areas of the earth and that they account for the present structure of its surface. These men of science and the astronomers and the physicists tell us that in some early age the world was not a solid globe, with continents and oceans on its surface, as now ”

“ By laws, the origin of which we have not yet traced, the condition of the diffused heat was changed, and the particles of the gaseous matter, condensed and agglomerated by attraction, into a series of planets, of which our earth is the third in point of size. That the earth has undergone vast changes, is evident to the most superficial geological student. ”

“ But the most common and serious source of confusion arose from the notion, that it was the business of geology to discover the mode in which the earth originated, or, as some imagined, to study the effects of those cosmological causes which were employed by the Author of Nature to bring this planet out of a nascent and chaotic state into a more perfect and habitable condition. ”

“ Abstracting them from the investigations before us, we arrive at the idea of the earth in its first condition as a globe of its present size—namely, as a mass, externally at least, consisting of the crystalline kind of rock, with the waters of the present seas and the present atmosphere around it, though these were probably in considerably different conditions, both as to temperature and their constituent materials, from what they now are. ”

“ Thus we draw the important inference that if, the oceans having been removed, we were then to remove from the earth’s surface a rind two miles thick—a thickness which, it is to be observed, is only the two-thousandth part of the earth’s radius—we should transform the earth into a globe which, while it still retained appreciably the same size, would have such a temperature that even the coolest spot would be as hot as boiling water. ”

“ While, therefore, the geological doctrine that the present order of Nature must be our guide to the interpretation of the past remained as true and fruitful as ever, it had now to be widened by the reception of evidence furnished by a study of the earth as a planetary body. ”

“ We now alight upon that solid mass, Earth, the most fixed and substantial of all{xiii} the elements. The surface of our planet is composed of dry land and water; of which the ocean, without including lakes and rivers, occupies by much the largest extent. ”

“ But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed on the earth, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record. ”

“ And since all this speculation and absurdity is caused by the primary assumption that Earth is a wandering, heavenly body, and is all swept away by a knowledge of the fact that Earth is a plane, it is a clear proof that Earth is not a globe. ”

“ Lifting our searching gaze into the measureless space beyond our earth, we find planet bound to planet, and system chained to system, all impelled by a universal force to roll in regularity and order around a common centre. The pendulations of the remotest star are communicated through the unseen bond; and our rocking world obeys the mysterious impulse throughout all those forces which regulate the inorganic combinations of this earth, and unto which its organic creation is irresistibly compelled to bow. ”

“ In like manner, the student of physical geology, who fully believes in the uniformity of the general condition of the earth through geologic time, may feel compelled by what he knows of causation, and by the general analogy of nature, to suppose that our solar system was once a nebulous mass ”

“ But it only takes a little common sense to show us that it is the clouds that move just as they appear to do, and that, therefore, the Earth is motionless. We have, then, a proof that the Earth is not a globe. ”

“ In tracing the history of these natural phenomena we enter at once into the consideration of Geological Dynamics, including the nature and mode of operation of all kinds of physical agents, that have at any time, and in any manner, affected the surface and interior of the earth. ”

“ There being no difficulty in admitting, then, the mobility of the earth, let us proceed to see whether it has one or a number of movements, and whether, therefore, our earth is a simple planet like the other planets. ”

“ The insignificant little globe called the Earth furnishes the only assurance of the higher forms of life, and, with the one exception of a globe even less than ours, of life in any stage of evolution. The Earth is not the millionth part of the known matter of our system, and, compared with the space occupied by that system, is far more insignificant than the smallest fleck of foam in the ocean. ”

“ They still regulate alike the terrestrial, the oceanic, and the aerial circulation, and preside over the constant change and decay by which the surface of the earth is incessantly renewed and the conditions necessary to organic life are maintained." [3] Thus the physiological study of the inorganic world, or in other words its natural philosophy, includes in its scope at once theoretical astronomy and theoretical geology or geogeny. ”

“ Now, the earth as a planet is in process of evolution. Not many things are more certain than this. The earth has come out of fire. It has grown to be what it is. Its mountains, valleys, plains, seas, shores, islands, lakes, rivers, and continents—these were not always here. They have been evolved. Not only the earth, but the entire family of spheres of which the earth is a member—the solar system—are all evolving. ”

“ We read in the inspired book, or collection of books, called The Bible, nothing at all about the Earth being a globe or a planet, from beginning to end, but hundreds of allusions there are in its pages which could not be made if the Earth were a globe, and which are, therefore, said by the astronomer to be absurd and contrary to what he knows to be true! ”

“ As a geologist I venture to entertain the belief that exhaustive inquiry on such regenerative lines would bring forth results in harmony with geological evidences, with which the well-known conclusions heretofore reached seem to be at fatal variance.
The earth-sciences are not purely physical sciences. They concern themselves with life and with mentality, as well as with rocks, ocean and atmosphere. ”