The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-19

hrsvx, q
.; uiilah intellect. comprehension, ho.h
int t aiid space, is able TO see worlds come
ny. ny. pelng! We see them sb,nin@, =. So.
s MI feeble glimmer. then becominc re-
aP.siioeht Ike the sun. then cooling he.
soi;l covered with spots and with a
ana lust a.uss, undergoing terrible confusions
a a,iu cataciysms as the crust freonan,I,,
ppaeahs away and fails into the fnrnscg,
~ ati, marked with numberless scars
hardening as they cool and hence
20. IN receiving external heat and Iiobt
ION the sun: we see them neanlad u,;,b
t.l n;iis oelngs and becoming the seat Of
t.o,ins human races, who in their turn
; IN. sns the surface, and after hav-
-is served as habItation for higher Efa
anu tnought, we see them SLOWLY losing
,neir FERTILITY, insensibiy wearing ont I;L-a
living beings, becoming old and dacrenit
i anu nnaily dying and henceforth roIlinS
hhc moving tombs through the silent dase
yrs OF eternal night Such is the pernet-
uai evolution that all things UNDERGO the
secular metamorphosis OF worlds and liv.
ing beings, GU" NV
now many times has the face of the
eartn been renewed since the distant
epocn OF Its burning genesis on the coma
.oIIai frontiers or the solar nebula? How
MANY centuries has ii been revolving
a.ouno the sun? How many centuries
mas the sun Itself been shining? On the
hypothesis that nebulous matter was ex.
'ieheiy tenuous at the beginning. the
quantity OF heat has been calculate which
would be engendered by the fail of ali
tiiese molecules toward the center IN the
CONDENSATION to which the formation
o. the solar system is due Suppos-
ing .he speclhc heat of the condensing
mass 10 have been that of water. the heat
OF condensation would have sufficed to
raise the temperature %. 600 600 degrees
centlgrade fHeimholtz and TyndalD. If
mas long been known that heat is mt a
form OF motion; 1t Is an infinitesmal vi
oralory movement of atoms Today all
motion can be changed into heat and all
neat INTO motion. The movement caused
by condensation has been enough. and
more than enough, to produce the present
temperature OF the sun and the original
temperature of all the planets. If this
brilliant center of our planetary system
continues to condense. as it probably will.
condensation which would shorten its
diameter by ID 000th part of its present
length would engender a quantity of heat
suincient 10 make up for that lost by ennis
sion during 1900 years. At the present
rate OF emission the solar heat pro-
duced by the past condensation of
It's mass will last twenty million
years longer. The length Of time neces-
sary Tor the condensation which the primi-
ave nebuia must have undergone in order
that our planetary system might be consti-
tnted, entirely deies our imagination;
there would be no exacgeratIon in count
ing 1t by billions of ages The experiments
OF Bischof upon basalt seems to prove that
our globe required 800 000. 900 years to pass
from a LIQUID to a solid state, and TO cool
from 1000 degrees to 200 degrees. The sun
must have existed many million ages be-
torel What is all human history compared
with such periods? 1t is but ripple on
the ocean.
The terrestrial globe revolved in space
Tor thousands of centuries, in the state of
an immense chemical laboratory. A con-
tinual dcluge of boiling water fell from the
clouds upon the burning ground and rose
again into the atmosphere in the form of
vapor, only to be again precipitated. When
the temperature of the earth's surface be-
came lower than that of boiling water the
steam liquefied and water was precipitated
In the midst of these terrible tempests the
earth's crust, broken thousand times by
the ilery commissions at Its center vomited
forth flames which reunited the broken
fragments. The first lands emerging from
the universal ocean were sterile and barren
islands of granite. Afterwards, on the
bosom of the floods, the first semi-auid
combinations Of carbon formed protoplasm,
the rudimentary element oflife. q substance
which scarcely merits the name organic,
and which is neither a simple mineral nor
is it vegetable or animal. Alge, primitive
plants that inertly float in the midst of
oceans, and primitive animals zoophytes,
elementary moluscs, corals and meduse,
were all steps in the path of progress.
From century TO century the planet insen-
sibly lost its rudeness, the conditions of
life improved, living things multiplied,
and, at the same time, were differentiated
from the primitive stock. and became pos
sessed of organs at first obscure aud rudi-
mentary, but finally developed and per-
fected.
The primordial age, during which incipi-
ent life was represented by algR. crusta-
ceans and yertebrateS without head,
seems to have occupied alone $500 of the
time that has elapsed since the epoch when
the earth became habitable.
The primary period, which follows. has
for its type the establishment of coal-bear-
ing vegetation and of the kingdom of
fishes, and seems to have occupied the next
3i-l00 of time
The secondary period, during which
splendid conilera took the lead in the
vegetable world, and enormous saurian
reptiles in the animal kingdom. lasted the
next 12-l00 of time. The earth was at that
time peopled with fantastic creatures that
gave themselves to persistent combats IN
the midst of the unsubdued elements.
Thus. according to the comparative
thickness of the rocks formed in successive
periods, We see that, during 96-l00 OF the
time elapsed, our globe has been covered
with a living nature entirely different from
that which now adorns it, nature rela-
lively terrible and uncouth, and as dis
tinct from the one We know as that OF
another world Who at that time would
have yentured to raise the mysterious vail
of the future and divine the unknown
epoch when man was to appear on the
planet, once more transformed?
The tertiary period. whose sole accession
of life was mammals and amman species
more or less resembling the human race,
next came 10 receive the heritage of pr!m-
tive ages and take the place OF the pre-
cedinc period. Its duration was not more
than 3-l00 of the whole time.
Finally the quarternary age arrived,
bringing the human race ana cultivated
trees IL does not represent more IMAM
LOO part of the scale of time, probably
only 1900 part.
How our ordinary ideas of nature are
ENLARGED and magnitied by such rellec-
lions! We seem to go Tar into the past
when we gaze upOn the old pyramids
still standing in the plains of Egypt, on
the obeiisks covered with mysterious nero
clvnhics. on the silent temples OF Assyrla.
;he ancient pagoias OF India, the iGoIs OF
Meyico and Peru, or contemplate the ven
cradle traditions of Asia and OF the Aryan
rece ollr ancestors. or look upon the mn
,iemeuts OF the stone age. arms. arrows,
fances knives and scrapeTs OF cut Htlt, a'd
the stones used in sliEgs IN the times 81
our primitive barbarity-and We scAfCe!y
dare sneak OF ten or twenty Thousand
wears. But even when We grant lhat our
-.cr which progresses so slowly. mas !tVea
100 90 wears. what is that compared with
the fabulous number OF ages that nave
,>raras}a1 H. in the history oil our planet