diminishing, at 2,450,000 years ago, it was 250. These two maxima, separated by a minimum and a period of 200,000 years form the first great period of eccentricity. Passing on more than a million and a-half years, there is the second great period of three maxima, separated by two minima. The first maximum 950,000 years ago, the second at 850,000 years ago, the third at 750,000 years ago-the whole occupying nearly 300,000 years. Passing on another million and a-half years, that is, to a time about 800,000 years in the future, we come to the third great period of three maxima, at periods of 800,000, at 900,000, and 1,000,000 years to come, which are separated also by two minima. These three great periods, two past and one future, are separated from one another by about 1,700,000 years; and seven times in the whole period the earth's orbit is nearly circular, four in the past and three in the future.

Unless the physical principles on which these eccentricities were calculated are erroneous, climate must have been greatly affected. For example, 850,000 years ago the heat of the sun at midwinter was 837 instead of 1000 as at present. Whether this value be a little too high or too low the effect on temperature must have been considerable. The glacial epoch, which so greatly troubles geologists, is not that extending from about 980,000 to about 720,000 years ago; but the one beginning about 240,000 ago, and extending to about 80,000 years ago. The whole question is well argued in Mr Croll's book, "Climate and Time," p. 311-328; and he considers the facts of geology to be consistent with the glacial epoch not dating back beyond 80,000 years. Reasoning after his manner, it may be inferred that the mean thickness of stratified rocks has been greatly over-stated. Their maximum thickness of 72,000 feet in Great Britain must not be taken for their mean thickness. "Had the materials been spread over the entire ocean bed, the formation would have had a mean thickness of little more than 200 feet; and spread over the entire surface of the globe would form a stratum of scarcely 150 feet in thickness."1

A change in the obliquity of the ecliptic would alter the level of the sea. As to the last elevation, it seems

1 "Climate and Time," p. 366: James Croll.

almost certain that 11,700 years ago the general sea level on the northern hemisphere was higher than at present, that was the period of the 25 foot beach; and 60,000 years, the age of the 40-foot beach.1

The alternate warm and cold periods, in north and south, during the glacial epoch, explain the distribution of plants and animals. As the cold became intense, they would invade the equatorial lowlands; and the inhabitants of these would migrate to the tropical and subtropical regions of the south, the southern hemisphere being at this period warmer. On the decline of the glacial epoch, as both hemispheres regained their former temperature, they again changed places-those not able to do so would die. Warm zones, whether of land or sea, being almost equivalent to life, it is evident that the growth and distribution of plant and animal life are due not to evolution, but rather to climatic agents. Every planet for a certain long period presents more of its northern than of the southern hemisphere to the sun at the time of nearest approach, and then, during a like period, presents more of its southern than of the northern hemisphere. As to the earth the slow rhythm of temperate and intemperate climates is completed in 21,000 years. The earth's orbit slowly alters in form, now approximating to a circle, and now becoming more eccentric. Nor is this all; summers and winters are more or less contrasted as the eccentricity of our orbit increases and decreases, having their least and greatest eccentricity one or two millions of years apart. To all this there is a response in the changed functions of living creatures, and perpetual ebbings and flowings of species over the earth's surface. Further, by slow yet inevitable change, by elevation and subsidence of land, every climate is altered, and every habitat of life is, in turn, destroyed and made new again. Parts of the earth, at one time thickly peopled, at another, are deserted. The result is, every extensive region has its own meteorologic conditions, and every locality in these regions differs more or less in its structure, in its contour, and in its soil. In our own land southern animals lived during the warm periods of the glacial epoch, and northern animals 1 "Climate and Time,” p. 407-409: James Croll.

F

during the cold. The alternate successions of warm and cold periods bringing about the successive deposits, and leaving in those sediments relics of varying organisms. A surface would remain without seed or germ for many ages, then life would abound; and when the ice sheet again was spread, every thing animate and inanimate would be ground to powder.

Notwithstanding these statements by physicists, it is doubtful whether there were any other than mountain glaciers previous to the great glacial epoch; many geological facts evidence a former warm climate. In whichever way the question may be settled, the history of our earth shews the work of a "consummate strategist, who, from his mount of observation, directs the movements of a great army, nowhere setting at nought the laws of energy, but exhibiting and enforcing those laws in delicate, beautiful, marvellous, victorious operations." "The early genesis of things,

To the open ear it sings

Of tendency through endless ages,

Of star-dust and star pilgrimages,

Of rounded worlds of space and time."

EMERSON.

The manifold facts, thus studied in rudiments of the world, are a manifestation of energy underlying all the phenomena, and extending to an infinity of worlds in variety of operation and mystery of life. Everything which strikes our senses is rooted in the transcendental. There is a continual passing from movement to repose, which is not final rest, a ceaseless oscillation from life to death, from death to life; the order of physical phenomena, like the order of mental phenomena is inscrutable, and flowing as an immense river from a past eternity into a future eternity. Is this vastness or incomprehensibleness of nature, a reason for relinquishing the study? Certainly not. "What can be a stronger stimulus to the zealous exercise of our best powers, than the conviction that though we may never be able to attain to 'absolute' truth, yet we can be for ever approaching to it, ever striving upwards so as either ourselves to reach, or to help our successors to reach, a still loftier elevation whence a yet more comprehensive view may be obtained. Tendre a la perfection sans jamais y pretendre' will ever be the animat

Creation Represents God's Majesty.

83

ing spirit of the genuine philosopher, as the 'forgetting of things behind, and reaching forth unto the things before,' of the greatest of Christian apostles, will continue to the end of time to nerve the efforts of every true aspirant after moral excellence." 1 The continual effort of the creature to know the, at present, unknowable reality, is a conscious seeking after fulness of life.

An All-sustaining Power is everywhere manifested in the existence and phenomenal activity of the universe, who is alike the cause of all and essence of all, without whom the world would not be even the shadow of a vision, for thought itself would vanish. Beyond His infinitude can nothing extend, before or after His eternity can nothing be conceived. The knowledge of His essential existence is that to which the nature of things and the course of time conduct us. How we, the imperfect, are united to the Perfect, and things temporal to the Eternal, human eye cannot see. It is a mystery hidden within the depths of Divine essence, as is the union of mind and matter; but we know that imperfect beings, and therefore dependent, cannot be the authors of their own existence. The only possible origin of imperfect and dependent creatures is to be found in the will and power of the Independent and Perfect; therefore, the universe cannot be regarded as an enclosure, nor infinitude as an extension, nor time as a limitation of the Eternal. It is true that the repetition of organisms in time and space, the course of ages and series of expanse, the number of metamorphoses and progress of evolution, become practically infinite and eternal, but only to reflect the perfection of their author. This infinite series of advancing conditions is expressed by Leibnitz in a mathematical symbol, the hypothesis of the hyperbole. We have only to conceive for every given state of the universe a preceding less perfect state. Nothing hinders the supposition, and we may give it endless extension, yet all will be contained within the infinity and eternity of God, and such a world is the fittest representation of Divine Majesty. When, with the telescope, we contemplate the magnitude and numberlessness of worlds, and, with the micro

1 "Mental Physiology," p. 412: Dr W. Carpenter.

scope, discover life extending beyond life, surpassing all imagination, we confess that herein God is glorified. All sciences declare infinitude in the multitude and delicacy of principles, in the grandeur and in the number of existences; time will never fail to conquerors in knowledge, and the regret of Alexander, that there were no more worlds, will never grieve us who march to new discoveries, ever and ever, of intelligence and power;

As lamps from off the everlasting Throne,

As stars of mercy, hung in night of Time,

To cast on men her light, and guide them Home.

Now, Picture Astronomic Realities.

The mighty mass of the sun rules from the centre a wonderful variety of planets; and a yet more wonderful variety of life. As fuel for his fires, he gathers from out of space, cosmical bodies with all the vital forces represented by their velocity. These chips in the great workshop of nature, this dust blown from the mighty grindstone of the universe, which the artificers, Attraction and Repulsion, have cast aside; are passed through fire that they may quicken and sustain worlds of life. Close round the Sun, Mercury, in dazzling splendour, flies with unmatched velocity; Venus, in her beauty, alone; Earth, with her one satellite; ruddy Mars, with two satellites; then, beyond his domain, hundreds of tiny orbs, every one in his own path careering round the Sun: many coming almost within hail of their fellow orbs. Then that wonderful outer family of planets, the least of which exceeds many times in bulk the volume of all the minor planets and asteroids combined. The vast globe of Jupiter, and symmetrical family of satellites; giant Saturn, of ring-system, as a shield, and eight primary attendants, the outermost of which has range of four and a-half millions of miles. Uranus and Neptune, brother orbs, nevertheless wide apart, and both so distant from Saturn, that the full span of Jupiter's orbit scarcely brings them together. Uranus, and possibly Neptune, rotating from east to westunlike all other planets-their moons revolving in the same retrograde direction.