The Nevada Democrat., 1859-02-09
Age and Destiny OF the Earth.

| The following is the conclusion of remark
able paper by Prof. Helmholtz, of Bonn, trans
lated by Prof. Tyndall, and published in the
London Philosophical Magazine. The subject
is-"The Natural Action Of Natural Forces"
This extract on great and narrowly under
stood subject, will prove interesting to the
reader:
'Men are 10 the habit of measuring the great
ness and the wisdom OF the universe by the du-
ration and the profit which it promises to their
own race but the past history OF the earth al
ready shows what an Insignificant moment the
duration of the eXistance Of our race upon it
constitutes. A Ninevah vessel Roman sword,
awakes in US the conce ption of gray anti
guilty. What the museums of Europe show us
of the remains Of Egypt aud Assyra we gaze
on with silent astonishment, aud despair of
being able to carry our thoughts back to a
period go remote. Still must the human race
have existed for ages, aud multiplied itself.
before the pyramid of Ninevah could have been
erected. We estimate the duration. of human
history at six thousand years. but. immeasura-
BILE ~ this may appear TO us, what is it H. COM
parisOn with the time during which the earth
carried successive series OF rank plants aud
mighty animals aud no men; during which, in
our neghborhoed, Germany the amber-trce
bloOBed aud dropped its cosby gum on the
earth and in the sea when in Siberia, Europe
and North America, groves Of tropical palms
fourished where gigantic lizards, and after
them elephants, whose mighty remains we still
fnd buried in the earth, found home?
different geologists, proceeding from diff
ferent premises have sought TO estimate the
duration of the above created period, and vary
from u million to nine millions Of years. Aud
the time during which the earth generated or
ganc beings is again small, when we compare
it with the ages during which the world was
ball of fused rocks. For the duration of its
cooling from 1000 degrees to 200 degrees cen
| tigrade, the experimen t. of Bishop upon basalt
show that about three hundred and fifty mil.
lions of years would be necessary And with
regard to the time during which the first nebu.
lous mass condenced into our planetary system
our most daring coujectures must cease. The
histOry of man. therefore, is but a short ripple
in the ocean Of time. For much longer se-
ries of years than that during which man has
already occupied this world. the existance OF
the present state OF organic nature favorable
! to the duration of man seems TO be secured so
that for ourselves and for long generations af-
ter us we have nothing TO fear. But the same
forces OF air and water and of the volcanic
interior. which produced former geological
rev olutiOns and buried one series of living
'o' ms a'tet ""o'"e'' "c. e'ih upon 'ne ea.'"
crust. They more probably will bring about
the last day Of the human race than those dis
iant cosmical alterations Of which we have
spoken. aud perhaps force us to make way for
new and more complete living forms. as the
lizard and the mammoth have given place TO us
and our follower eatures which now exist
Thus the thread which has conducted us to q
universal law of nature, 10 our own race per-
mits long but not an endess existance it
threatens it with day of Judgment, the dawn
Of which is still happily obscured As each of
us must sngly endure the thought of his death.
the race must endure the same. But, above
the forms of life gone by, the human race has
higher moral problems before It. the bearer of
which il is. aud in the completion Of which it
ful6lls its destiny"