The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1869-02-17
what the World is Coming To.
BY JAMES E. wHELP1EY.

Let US suppose that the sOial system
moves into the influence of an enor-
mously extended dark nebula. This
extended dust cloud is cold beyond
conception,-a fathomless abyss Of
cold. It would strike chill into the
system. The earth would be covered
with blankets of snow, generating
glaciers and these would remain un-
I'll the exhaustive influence had gone
by, as protection against it. This
idea, although conjectural, is not in
discord with any known conditions
We know of no reason why dark
matter may not be accumulated in
certain parts of space. That such UO7'-
tar and solar SVStenlS haze been formed
By them, and it is not certain that 9TH
ers may not be in progress. Causes
of variation of another kind must be
invoked to account for the existence
of tropical climate in arctic regions,
at an epoch preceding the ice period /;
unless we try to account for them by
the passage of the solar system thro'
or near nebulous masses of mild tenn
perature. Suppositions like these ap-
pear crude and hastY though in time
they may become rational, when
strengthened by sound analogies.
A complete interchange of matter
has been many times made between
the interior and surface of the globe.
Earthly substance, taken from arctic
regions by oceanic currents, has con-
tinualiy raised belt of land on either
side of the equator. This deposit, be-
ing always in excess OF what is need
of the plastic globe, will constantly
depress the equatorial belt and thrust
out the arctic regions as they are abra-
ded. BY this process, in certain re-
gions of deep sea is produced a reVo-
luton of matter downward and out
ward from the equator toward each
of the poles. But the movement, Wor-
king from age to age over successive
meridians, must be subject to large
inequalities.
There must have been time with
out liQuidity and the present atmos-
pheric pressure. There was q time
when vegetation on the vast scale Of
the tropics, as we now observe it, was
not so active in its work, The appear
ance of an excess of vegetation marks
the close of the larger systems of STRAIT
itcatiOn but the rules of deduction
indicated lead US to conclude, that,
during the more recent ages, be it the
last million of years, organic life has
been more active than at any previ-
Gus epoch. Allthe natural movements
haYe become more active; because
the mass and force of the earth, to-
gether with its temperature, have
been augmented; and 1t leiLI not be de-
MED 6y DhySiolOqiSts that these causes
tOiH haze refined and intensified the pro
ducts OF Uit0Lity. The fulcrum of trans
ition from the grosser to the more
concentrated forms of life exists in
fact, and may be found in the method
of formation of the earth itself.
The earth is progressing by excess
lively slow changes toward the solar
and nebulOus condition. Its history
is repetition OF the solar, and time
must arrive when the surface, bec0ni-
ing incandeScent, will be obscured by
casual dark pits in brilliant atmOs-
phere, = souvenir of the present dark
n9ss of the crust; yet during certain
period, within fixed limits of graVita-
ting force and heat of mass, the hu-
man race may continue to exist; pro.
crossing, we may suppose, in force
and fneneSS of organization. The
race will perish, perhaps, in the order
of nature, by failure or insufficient
number of offspring, principal cause
of extinction of superior races The
earth must become lone and voiceless
long before the incandescence of the
crust. Science may follow it into the
ojndition of an attendant star, and
then of an expanding nebula.
In the cosmos all movements are
cyclical, and recurlent without
change save interchange among forms
of motion. A universe which is, in
its total, the same to day as yesterday
and always, would appear idle and
dull if it were not the footstool of Di-
vine force, upon which the creative
VIII maintains certain equipoise,
necessary to the continued production
Of spiritual forms.-Atlantic Monthly
for February.