Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation | Page 7

set into a coupled revolution in
ellipses. Next centrifugal force comes into play, flinging off portions of
the rotating masses, which become spheres by virtue of the same law of
attraction, and are held in orbits of revolution round the central body by
means of a composition between the centrifugal and gravitating forces.
All, we see, is done by certain laws of matter, so that it becomes a
question of extreme interest, what are such laws? All that can yet be
said, in answer, is, that we see certain natural events proceeding in an
invariable order under certain conditions, and thence infer the existence

of some fundamental arrangement which, for the bringing about of
these events, has a force and certainty of action similar to, but more
precise and unerring than those arrangements which human society
makes for its own benefit, and calls laws. It is remarkable of physical
laws, that we see them operating on every kind of scale as to magnitude,
with the same regularity and perseverance. The tear that falls from
childhood's cheek is globular, through the efficacy of that same law of
mutual attraction of particles which made the sun and planets round.
The rapidity of Mercury is quicker than that of Saturn, for the same
reason that, when we wheel a ball round by a string and make the string
wind up round our fingers, the ball always flies quicker and quicker as
the string is shortened. Two eddies in a stream, as has been stated, fall
into a mutual revolution at the distance of a couple of inches, through
the same cause which makes a pair of suns link in mutual revolution at
the distance of millions of miles. There is, we might say, a sublime
simplicity in this indifference of the grand regulations to the vastness or
minuteness of the field of their operation. Their being uniform, too,
throughout space, as far as we can scan it, and their being so unfailing
in their tendency to operate, so that only the proper conditions are
presented, afford to our minds matter for the gravest consideration. Nor
should it escape our careful notice that the regulations on which all the
laws of matter operate, are established on a rigidly accurate
mathematical basis. Proportions of numbers and geometrical figures
rest at the bottom of the whole. All these considerations, when the mind
is thoroughly prepared for them, tend to raise our ideas with respect to
the character of physical laws, even though we do not go a single step
further in the investigation. But it is impossible for an intelligent mind
to stop there. We advance from law to the cause of law, and ask, What
is that? Whence have come all these beautiful regulations? Here
science leaves us, but only to conclude, from other grounds, that there
is a First Cause to which all others are secondary and ministrative, a
primitive almighty will, of which these laws are merely the mandates.
That great Being, who shall say where is his dwelling-place, or what
his history! Man pauses breathless at the contemplation of a subject so
much above his finite faculties, and only can wonder and adore!

CONSTITUENT MATERIALS OF THE EARTH AND OF THE
OTHER BODIES OF SPACE.

The nebular hypothesis almost necessarily supposes matter to have
originally formed one mass. We have seen that the same physical laws
preside over the whole. Are we also to presume that the constitution of
the whole was uniform?--that is to say, that the whole consisted of
similar elements. It seems difficult to avoid coming to this conclusion,
at least under the qualification that, possibly, various bodies, under
peculiar circumstances attending their formation, may contain elements
which are wanting, and lack some which are present in others, or that
some may entirely consist of elements in which others are entirely
deficient.
What are elements? This is a term applied by the chemist to a certain
limited number of substances, (fifty-four or fifty-five are ascertained,)
which, in their combinations, form all the matters of every kind present
in and about our globe. They are called elements, or simple substances,
because it has hitherto been found impossible to reduce them into
others, wherefore they are presumed to be the primary bases of all
matters. It has, indeed, been surmised that these so-called elements are
only modifications of a primordial form of matter, brought about under
certain conditions; but if this should prove to be the case, it would little
affect the view which we are taking of cosmical arrangements. Analogy
would lead us to conclude that the combinations of the primordial
matter, forming our so-called elements, are as universal or as liable to
take place everywhere as are the laws of gravitation and centrifugal
force. We must therefore presume that the