spheres, and the deductions consequent thereupon, in
regard to the progressive stages through which the earth in its
developments has passed, was pernicious in its influence in diverting
the minds of investigators from other and truer channels. To the blind
confidence with which that hypothesis has been universally accepted and
perpetuated, and to the fallacious theories thus directly and indirectly
engendered, we owe our false position at the present day.

The present theories of the transmission of light and sound; of the
production of winds, and sun-spots, and of the method of development and
dissemination of heat, are in point of fact, unphilosophical and
incomprehensible.

It is quite remarkable that in the present century, excelling as it does
any period in the world's history in exact and reliable scientific
knowledge, such unsatisfactory opinions should obtain. The failure is
still more inexplicable when we reflect that these subjects are in
importance the highest which can engage our attention as scientists.

We have at the present time sufficient reliable data whereon to found
satisfactory hypotheses. We have but to utilize the means which the true
scientists of the century have so wonderfully developed, and with which
they have so prodigally surrounded us, in order to complete the
consummation of the great and crowning achievement in physical science.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Appendix, p. 97.

CHAPTER III.

THE GREAT FORCES, THEIR CHARACTER AND OPERATIONS.

I now ask, What is the intimate and inherent nature of those forces? Do
they, or either of them, belong to the domain of the supernatural? Are
they the products of some supreme force, or forces, heretofore
unappreciated? The reply is clear and unquestionable. The supernatural
must necessarily be a part of the Divine Essence, and consequently
intangible. Not so the subjects of our inquiry. They are _natural
products_, therefore, and _the result of the operation of some power
commensurate with the stupendousness of their manifestations_.

_Sunlight and Sun-heat._

In the forces, light, and heat, what immensity of power is represented!
Strangely enough we have ever imagined these forces to be the unaided
work of the sun, as though that luminary could be capable of sending
forth in undiminished exuberance, such marvels of force, during all the
ages, and remain itself unexhausted!