Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-03-25
NATTER.
or the Origin and Duration Of material
Things.

The disposition in mankind 10 reason back
ward from effect, to cause TO the beginning OF
things, is we'll nigh universal, and is seldom
entirely wanting in the lowest tribes grovel-
ling in ignorance and vice. But the chain Of
inquiry is composed of many or few links as
the reasoner is learned or ignorant. Men in
every age of an inquisitive turn Of mind,
leaders OF the people in the realm Of thought
have essayed to account for the cosmical
form of matter-ancienily, before the light
of science had dawned upon the mind, by
supposing that a deity had shaped the earth
and armament Of stars by the fat of his
omnipotence, clothed the earth with verdure
and peopled it with living beings whom he
upholds by the same omnipotent power
modernly, as the aids of scientific discovery
are marshalled into order, by supposing that
tho cosmical form Of matter is the result of
its inherent laws, whether these laws were or
were not enacted by an overruling, prescient
lawgiver.
Concerning the present system of nature,
there are and have been three principal hy
potheses First The earth with its para
phernalia Of organic beings and inorganic
substances always existed very much as now
the destructive and conservative agencies
being equal Aristotle, the profoundest
thinker of any age, embraced this hypothe-
sis. Second Or it was brought into being
at some period not very remote, in nearly its
present form, by supernatural power, as be-
| fore alluded to. Third Or the present or
der of material things was evolved from an
/ 80 oil v,la etthu aud
simpler forms of life and this antecedent
order from one simpler still, and so on back
ward to the beginning, when matter existed
in its simplest form of rarehed substances,
containing the germs that were in the distant
future to be developed into q world fitted for
the dwelling place Of organic beings. Far
ther back than this it is impossible to go, nor
is it necessary; for it is generally conceded
that matter is without beginning and hence
will never cease to exist The third hypoth-
esis is supported by the ripest scholars of the
present age, and includes such names as Oar
win, Spencer, Huxley and Haeckel Had
Aristotle lived under the new lights Of geolo-
gy, chemistry, pal@ontology, gravitation and
biogeny, there can be no doubt but his quick
perception and great constructive power
would lead him to embrace the third hypoth-
esis.
'It has been inferred from a variety of
facts that the present form and order Of our
planetary system are the result of progress
sive development in accordance with the laws
of gravitation, cohesion and chemical fini-
ty The planets all move in the same direc-
ton and the planes of their orbits are nearly
coincident" 1t might be added that their
axial motion is also in the same direction.
Whatever may be the details of the hypothe-
sis, it is well settled by leading minds that
our planetary system, and hence all systems,
have been formed by natural causes coeval
with matter itself. Geology, pal@ontology,
chemistry and biogeny all testify to the same
fact, viz, development into higher forms.
Chemistry has thrown a food of light upon
the development Of terrestrial substances, OF
their destruction and reunion Of the released
elements into new bodies. Indeed, ever
since Geber in the eighth century announced
upon the plains of Arabia his theory that diff.
ference in composition is the cause of differ.
ence in properties, chemistry has been a will.
ing teacher but her language has been, un-
til recently, uttered in an unknown tongue.
Harmonizing perfectly in the point under
consideration with the branches named, il
discovers that change is the rule among al
material substances. Animals and plants are
either approaching maturity by constant ac
cretion. or, having reached that point, they
are approaching dissolution, and in due time
will become food for other organic beings
similar law obtains throughout inorganic
matter. In one locality it is being reduced
iu another reformed. Hence the deduction
that the earth itself, being the theatre and
parent of changeful forms, every one Of
which must sooner or later pass into othei
forms and combinations, is subject to tn,
same law Of reduction and reformation. How
can it be otherwise Does the offspring in
herit nature not possessed by the parent
The deduction is strengthened in that the
chemist can reduce material substancest to sim
pier forms, and that under a sufficient degre,
of heat all bodies are probably reducible t.
gaseous matter. What does this imply? L
it implies anything, it implies that there wa
time far back in eternity when the matte
that composes the earth existed in an ele
| mtnlhIy blhtt, NlluOut lOIAu huu NOiuf Jc
containing germs that were to be developed
in the great future into world of beauty ant
order, and crowned with races Of beings will
constitutions adapted to their terrestrial hab
tation.
Adopting this hypothesis we are led to al
interesting and startling cohelusion-nothinI
less than an endless chain of growth and de
struction of worlds. Suppose our planet l.
be 500 600, 600 years old, as some geologist
believe; no reason can be given why tn
chaotic mass should not have yielded to ii
co-eternal laws and formed a world SOC, 600,
900 years prior to the geological date. Thu
we may reason backward to the remotest con
ceivable date until figures fail and the min
is lost in the mighty problem and returns Il
the place of beginning. Hence the conclu
sion that the earth, and all the planets an
suns have not only a beginning, but the
have also an ending, and will at some tim
and in some manner, one by one, (reckone
by systems) be reduced to primitive matter
to be again remoulded into worlds, clothe
with verdure and peopled with beings adapt
ed to such external conditions as may envi
ron them in their new dwelling place.
1t may not be Improbable to speculate VI
on the causes and the manner through whic
the final dissolution of the solar system ma
be effected. OF one thing, however, we ca
be assured if it came into being throug
natural causes, it will go out of being in tn
same manner. Analogically it might be SUI
posed that the destructive process will b
slow yet there are reasons for supposing
may be rapid. The planets revolve in elliI
tioal orbits with the sun in one of the foei
and if they are controlled only by centripetl
and centrifugal forces, it is difficult to Sc
why they must not slowly approach the SUI
no matter how evenly these forces are ba
Aneed. The velocity gained in approachiu
their periheliA would be lost before reachin
their aphelia, like the velocity of a pendulum