Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation | Page 8

gases, the metals, the earths,
and other simple substances, (besides whatever more of which we have
no acquaintance,) exist or are liable to come into existence under
proper conditions, as well in the astral system, which is thirty-five
thousand times more distant than Sirius, as within the bounds of our
own solar system or our own globe.
Matter, whether it consist of about fifty-five ingredients, or only one, is
liable to infinite varieties of condition under different circumstances, or,

to speak more philosophically, under different laws. As a familiar
illustration, water, when subjected to a temperature under 32 degrees
Fahrenheit, becomes ice; raise the temperature to 212 degrees, and it
becomes steam, occupying a vast deal more space than it formerly did.
The gases, when subjected to pressure, become liquids; for example,
carbonic acid gas, when subjected to a weight equal to a column of
water 1230 feet high, at a temperature of 32 degrees, takes this form:
the other gases require various amounts of pressure for this
transformation, but all appear to be liable to it when the pressure proper
in each case is administered. Heat is a power greatly concerned in
regulating the volume and other conditions of matter. A chemist can
reckon with considerable precision what additional amount of heat
would be required to vaporise all the water of our globe; how much
more to disengage the oxygen which is diffused in nearly a proportion
of one- half throughout its solids; and, finally, how much more would
be required to cause the whole to become vaporiform, which we may
consider as equivalent to its being restored to its original nebulous state.
He can calculate with equal certainty what would be the effect of a
considerable diminution of the earth's temperature--what changes
would take place in each of its component substances, and how much
the whole would shrink in bulk.
The earth and all its various substances have at present a certain
volume in consequence of the temperature which actually exists. When,
then, we find that its matter and that of the associate planets was at one
time diffused throughout the whole space, now circumscribed by the
orbit of Uranus, we cannot doubt, after what we know of the power of
heat, that the nebulous form of matter was attended by the condition of
a very high temperature. The nebulous matter of space, previously to
the formation of stellar and planetary bodies, must have been a
universal Fire Mist, an idea which we can scarcely comprehend, though
the reasons for arriving at it seem irresistible. The formation of systems
out of this matter implies a change of some kind with regard to the
condition of the heat. Had this power continued to act with its full
original repulsive energy, the process of agglomeration by attraction
could not have gone on. We do not know enough of the laws of heat to
enable us to surmise how the necessary change in this respect was

brought about, but we can trace some of the steps and consequences of
the process. Uranus would be formed at the time when the heat of our
system's matter was at the greatest, Saturn at the next, and so on. Now
this tallies perfectly with the exceeding diffuseness of the matter of
those elder planets, Saturn being not more dense or heavy than the
substance cork. It may be that a sufficiency of heat still remains in
those planets to make up for their distance from the sun, and the
consequent smallness of the heat which they derive from his rays. And
it may equally be, since Mercury is twice the density of the earth, that
its matter exists under a degree of cold for which that planet's large
enjoyment of the sun's rays is no more than a compensation. Thus there
may be upon the whole a nearly equal experience of heat amongst all
these children of the sun. Where, meanwhile, is the heat once diffused
through the system over and above what remains in the planets? May
we not rationally presume it to have gone to constitute that luminous
envelope of the sun, in which his warmth-giving power is now held to
reside? It could not be destroyed--it cannot be supposed to have gone
off into space--it must have simply been reserved to constitute, at the
last, a means of sustaining the many operations of which the planets
were destined to be the theatre.
The tendency of the whole of the preceding considerations is to bring
the conviction that our globe is a specimen of all the similarly- placed
bodies of space, as respects its constituent matter and the physical and
chemical laws governing it, with only this qualification, that there are
POSSIBLY shades of variation with respect to the component materials,
and UNDOUBTEDLY with