with or impinge upon each other. Not by assigning to them any supernatural law of the attraction of gravitation; but by laws consimilar to those which prevent the sea from encroaching on the dry land of the earth. The same rule of being, therefore, which applies to the earth as a body, applies to the universe. Fluidity and solidity constitute the two opposing elements, which it is our especial object to consider and expound in connexion with each other. Placed in a constant state of action and re-action, solids are either driven more compactly into aggregates, or dispersed by antagonist forces for a season, and again recollected together on physical laws.

But this is not enough. There is a God. Harmony and organic action are the decrees of heaven. This admitted, Geology acquires an appropriate starting place, which is undeniably authenticated; and from whence cause and effect have worked out the ends originally designed by infinite wisdom.

In the beginning the earth was without form and void. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Here Geology, as a science, commences; and the series of changes it has gone through conformable to the sequence of creation, give its proper alphabet. Fluidity is an obvious law of nature, which, if we include volatility in this term, is ever actively at work above us, around us, and even beneath our feet. Chemical agency and

action are equally apparent, and continually give rise to progressive changes.

It is an admitted fact, that the temperature of the earth is higher, as far as it has been penetrated, proportionally from its surface downwards. It may be justly inferred, that this augmentation of heat increases on some law of progression towards its centre. If the most active and divisible particles of matter, or atoms of a spherical form, be engaged in driving dense and mishapen atoms, which are less readily divisible, into inert masses, the internal action which these masses generate within themselves, naturally occasions their dislocation, change of position, and eventual recomposition. To these conclusions the atomic theory necessarily proceeds. A high tendency to divisibility in some atoms, and the reverse in others, would lead to an opinion that active atoms are prone to insinuate themselves into the cavities of less compact ones.

As restlessness and activity are a common law of matter, in conformity to that regulated action for which eternal wisdom has provided,-if the earth were a solid ball, and acquiring internal heat progressively to its centre, assuming a ratio which facts sanction, it would finally burst asunder to and from that centre. Being seems a paradox indeed, according to which the contending powers of rest and activity reciprocally contribute to their regulation and control. Though the laws of weight and pres

sure in bodies be determined by their density or solid materials when at rest, those powers are also multiplied by the impetus given them and the projectile velocity acquired. Hence the pressure of a single ounce in a state of activity, or elastic fluidity, may be adequate to displace a ton weight at rest, and propel it forwards. In conformity to this common law of being and physical forces, sparks fly upwards, rain descends from the heavens, a pellucid ocean rolls beds of shingle and sand on shore, and leaves them in a state of repose. There is no law of the attraction of gravitation required in these instances, distinct from the ordinary forces of matter; but the velocity or rest of atoms more or less divided surpassing the forces of one another. Nor is it less an ordinary law of gravitation that dense clusters of atoms should repulse active ones conformable to the square of their surface; and active atoms drive sluggish ones into masses. It is so far a great law in physics that fluids and solids should not agree; that they have a mutual tendency to displace and separate from each other, and occupy distinct spaces in the universe, as divisibility must be the freest in open space, and the least so when atoms come to rest upon each other.

When we speak of water and the atmosphere, fire and electricity, and of the sun as a generator of heat, we cannot strain our conceptions beyond atoms in a state of greater or less divisibility and activity. When we observe electricity cut its awful

path through resisting elements, and descend on earth with force prodigious and speed indescribable, we catch a glance of that regulated action, over which an omnipotent God rules. Neither chance nor necessity could ever bridle powers so mighty. Supreme wisdom and design have. A truth so unanswerable is verified by the most palpable evidences. The various masses of matter, therefore, which compose the solid parts of the planetary system, have been driven from their wandering courses through the regions of infinite space, and brought into perfect order and harmony by an Omniscient designer. Disturbing forces have been converted into the instruments of regulated action, resting upon those repulsive masses to which divisibility impels them.

In the beginning of the earth, solidity and fluidity had a necessary tendency to separate of themselves. The great deeps covered the face of the whole earth accordingly. This is an obvious and ordinary law in physics. It is not less plain that the earth holds its diurnal course from west to east. Would the waters which then covered the face of the earth move at the same pace? Certainly not. It would have been at variance with gravitation. If a loose rim be placed upon a spindle put in motion, the rim moves in an opposite direction to the spindle on which it is placed. The ordinary contact of bodies in motion determines this physical law. A tidal current which over

spread the earth, with a tendency to accumulate on the equator, would therefore flow from east to west. We may fairly infer that the line of separation between these opposite motions, would not be exactly preserved. A large mass of loose and semifluid materials, composed of the different earths, would be in a state of constant agitation, and subjected to attrition, placed as they were between the opposite motions of two antagonist forces,-solids driven together, and fluids necessarily falling asunder. Hence the outer rim of the earth, that on which the great deeps rested and turned, would be chiefly compounded of loose materials in a finely divided state, extending to a considerable depth, and resting upon a base comparatively solid and at rest. In the primeval state of the earth, and previous to induration having been perfected, the effect of internal force lifting up the lower parts of its body, would by no means alter the configuration of the earth. In truth, it would be figureless, and remain a rounded watery waste, as the materials so elevated would speedily be swept away, and submerged again. At the same time, the lower parts of the earth's body would have a tendency,―agreeable to chemical and mechanical forces, and viewed as a complete electro-chemical apparatus,—to take a crystalline form according to their kindred properties, and assume true order accordingly.

Time working out such processes in nature as