Terrestrial body

“ He holds that all terrestrial bodies are composed of four elements,—earth, water, air, and fire. Earth and water are heavy, because they tend towards the earth's centre; while air and fire, which tend upwards, are light. ”

“ Astronomy had been unable to establish the plurality of habitable worlds throughout space, however favourite a subject of conjecture and speculation; but geology, although it cannot prove that other planets are peopled with appropriate races of living beings, has demonstrated the truth of conclusions scarcely less wonderful,—the existence on our own planet of so many habitable surfaces, or worlds as they have been called, each distinct in time, and peopled with its peculiar races of aquatic and terrestrial beings. ”

“ For while it revolves in a space void of bodies, or in the incorporeal æther, all the air, the exhalations of land and water, the clouds and pendent meteors, are impelled along with the globe circularly: that which is above the exhalations is void of bodies: the finest bodies and those which are least cohærent almost void are not impeded, are not dissolved, while passing through it. Wherefore also the whole terrestrial globe, with all its adjuncts, moves bodily along, calmly, meeting no resistance. ”

“ On the earth we discover four partially differentiated bodies: air, water, rocks, and the great central body. Geologists have established the theory that this great central body is in a trans-fluid condition, due to pressure, and that thus its heat cannot be transmuted into structural motion. ”

“ The mechanical power of nature, not confined to small bodies, reacheth equally those of the greatest size; witness the bodies that compose the solar system, which, however large, are weighed, measured, and subjected to certain laws, with the utmost accuracy. Their places around the sun, with their distances, are determined by a precise rule, corresponding to their quantities of matter. The superior dignity of the central body, in respect of its bulk and lucid appearance, is suited to the place it occupies. ”

“ You have said that atmospheres or spheres surround and pervade all bodies, unless, indeed, they be dead bodies—attributing, as I understand you, a kind of cosmic life to plants, and a mineral life to minerals, as well as a vegetable and animal life respectively to vegetables and animals; do you mean by that to intimate that the sphere is the effect or the cause of the living body? ”

“ The second he distinguishes into consequences from qualities of bodies transient, or meteorology, and from those of bodies permanent, such as the stars, the atmosphere, or terrestrial bodies. The last are divided again into those without sense, and those with sense; and these into animals and men. ”

“ There is another view which may be taken of the forces which operate on the earth to produce permanency or change. Some parts of the terrestrial system are under the dominion of powers which act energetically to prevent all motion, as the crystalline forces by which the parts of rocks are bound together; other parts are influenced by powers which produce a perpetual movement and change in the matter of which they consist; thus plants and animals are in a constant state of internal movement, by the agency of the vital forces. ”

“ On the oak-tree yonder, how many leaves are doing the same? Just now we felt the vastness of the earth—its extended majesty, bearing mountain, forest, and sea. Not a blade of grass but has its insect, not a leaf; the very air as it softly woos the cheek bears with it living germs, and upon all those mountains, within those forests, and in every drop of those oceans, life in some shape moves and stirs. Nay, the very solid earth itself, the very chalk and clay and stone and rock has been built up by once living organisms. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Proofs of varied Physical Conditions.—Organic remains are either of terrestrial, fresh-water, or marine origin, and they are therefore of the utmost value to the geologist in deciphering the history of those great changes which have culminated in the present. But we can go a step further than this. We know that at the present day the distribution of animal and vegetable life is due to a variety of causes—to climatic and physical conditions. The creatures inhabiting arctic and temperate regions contrast strongly with those that tenant the tropics. ”

“ Therefore, in considering the general laws which govern the physical agents of the universe, and regulate them in the due performance of their offices, I have felt myself constrained to set out with the assumption that, if the atmosphere had had a greater or less capacity for moisture, or if the proportion of land and water had been different — if the earth, air, and water had not been in exact counterpoise — the whole arrangement of the animal and vegetable kingdoms would have varied from their present state. ”

“ Highest above all is the empyrean, entirely separated from the storms of the lower air, and moving round with its stars by its own impetus. The earth is at rest in the centre of our system, supported by the air, as our body is by the vital principle. The movements of the stars and of the sun and moon through the heavens are next explained; then the origin of vegetable and animal [page 320] life on the earth, and the beginning and progress of human society. ”

“ Father, the Terrans call me a wise doctor, a man of healing. Among the Terrans I can see that my people, if they will come to us and help us, have air they can breathe and food which will suit them and that they are guarded from the light. ”

“ In the first place, then, we see that the return of the heavenly bodies to the same place takes place in regular times, as does the flood and ebb of the sea. The descent of heavy bodies toward the earth, and the ascent of light bodies toward the heavenly sphere, take place in definite times," according to the nature of the body, and of the medium through which it moves. ”

“ The amount of that area available for terrestrial life, the proportion of land and water, the reduction or enlargement of the available surface by the operation of great cosmic forces, all enter into this problem, which changes from one geologic period to another. ”

“ However, the influence which sun, moon, and the planets exercised upon the human body gradually became more intricate. It was no longer satisfactory to enumerate relations between the bodies of heaven and the human organs of such a general nature as given by the above table of Hermes. All parts and functions of the body were to be brought into the closest relations with the planets. ”

“ The vital organs are under the skin and far more complicated, I suspect, than anatomy would lead us to imagine: the case is somewhat as if some giant in remote space should examine the surface of our earth with a glass, measuring its motion round the sun and perhaps round its own axis, but regarding as perfectly inexplicable and unmeaning the coursing of ships, the march of armies and migrations, the change of forests into cornfields, and of cornfields into deserts. ”

“ Each little particle after taking leave of the earth to commence its voyage through space, will be acted upon by the attraction of the sun. To a certain extent, of course, the attraction of the earth must also affect the movement of the body, but after a time it will generally happen that the attraction of the sun will become of paramount importance in the control of the movement. ”

“ In this area are forests and cultivated fields, and vegetation of all sorts starts forth in the greatest profusion, making upon the surface of the planet a dark belt which is visible to us even forty million miles away when the planet is at its nearest and favourably situated. ”

“ We have through the wide extent of space inconceivable myriads of worlds, presenting, no doubt, every variety of size and climate, of atmosphere and soil. It seems quite preposterous to imagine that among all these globes ours alone should be the abode of life. The most reasonable conclusion for us to come to is that these bodies may be endowed with life of types which are just as appropriate to the physical conditions around them as is the life, both animal and vegetable, on this globe to the special circumstances in which it is placed. ”

“ Could we suppose produced on the present globe some general change of conditions in the sea, on the land, and in the atmosphere—either simultaneously, or by communication from a central area of disturbance —the effects upon organic life might be everywhere manifested, though unequally and variously. ”

“ This substantial production of alternating poles upon the planet takes place through the diversity of its surface as water and land, through the oblique position of its axis, whereby summer and winter are produced, through the processes, or through the life that is upon it, through the processes of decomposition and combination effected by water, through the revival and death of vegetation, and even the white colour of snow. The planet discharges its pole in the neighbourhood of the sun, like a cork pellet, and reloads of itself at a distance from the sun ”

“ And, as the study of the activities of the living being is called its physiology, so are these phenomena the subject-matter of an analogous telluric physiology, to which we sometimes give the name of meteorology, sometimes that of physical geography, sometimes that of geology. Again, the earth has a place in space and in time, and relations to other bodies in both these respects, which constitute its distribution. ”

“ In terrestrial organisms, the contrast becomes extremely marked. Trees and plants, in common with insects, reptiles, mammals, birds, are all of a specific gravity considerably less than the earth and immensely greater than the air. ”

“ Through the vast domain of nature, every plant and tree and reptile and bird and mammal has organs and functions fitted to the climate and atmosphere of its habitat. If a sudden change occur in climate, from torrid to temperate, or from temperate to arctic; if the atmosphere change from dry to humid, or from carbonic vapors to pure oxygen, sudden death is certain to overtake the entire fauna and flora of the region affected, unless plastic nature changes the organism to conform to the new environment. ”

“ The more dense the body, the nearer it is found to the center of the earth. The lightest of all floats over the entire periphery of the globe like a graceful mantle of cloud. Man, and in fact all organisms, live by contact with all three of these forms. The investigation of the elements, and phenomena of the air, regarded in themselves, is the province of meteorology. ”

“ Following this was a long, detailed and exceedingly dull description of the step-by-step procedure followed by a Confederation exploratory ship making a first landing on a barren planet. There was a description of the atmosphere, the soil surface, the land masses and major water bodies. Physically, the planet was a desert, hot and dry, and barren of vegetation excepting in two or three areas of jungle along the equator. "The planet is inhabited by numerous small unintelligent animal species which seem well-adapted to the semi-arid conditions. ”

“ The gaseous emanations, the vehicles of this aroma, appear to be disengaged in proportion as the soil, which contains the remains of an innumerable multitude of reptiles, worms, and insects, begins to be impregnated with water. Wherever we stir the earth, we are struck with the mass of organic substances which in turn are developed and become transformed or decomposed. Nature in these climes seems more active, more prolific, and, so to speak, more prodigal of life. ”

“ We find it is a difficult task to separate these kindred sciences from the great tree. We may have therefore to refer to earth, air, and water, and their various forms in hills and mountains, wind, vapour, rain, glaciers, and sea. We must learn how this earth has been gradually cooled, and what the various stages of its growth have done. We must consider plant and animal life upon our planet, and how the atmosphere affects them. All this is Physical Geography, and its satellite sciences of Geology, Meteorology, “Climatology,” Botany, and Physiology. ”

“ The conflicting movements would be adjusted by collisions and gravitation, the smaller bodies would be absorbed in the larger or enslaved as their satellites, and the last state would be a family of smaller suns circling at vast distances round the parent body. ”

“ The larger the body the more abundant the atmosphere by which that body is surrounded. Of course this rule has to be understood with certain qualifications, and perhaps some exceptions to it might be suggested, but as a broad general fact it will hardly be questioned. Thus, to take at once the largest body of our system and one of the smallest—the sun and the moon—they both provide striking exemplifications of the principle in question. It is well known that the sun is enveloped by an atmosphere remarkable for the prodigious extent that it occupies. ”

“ But, taking into account the internal forces of the earth, which, upheaving the sea bottom, give rise to new land, he thought that these operations of degradation and elevation might compensate each other; and that thus, for any assignable time, the general features of our planet might remain what they are. ”

“ Every fact stated in the above quotation, always keeping in mind the physical conditions of the planet—its very tenuous atmosphere and rainless desert-surface—seem wholly in favour of a purely natural as opposed to an artificial origin ”