telligible to us,
in which an undoubted physical law is spoken of as only an _abstract
truth_ (p. 20). He obviously still clings to his first mistaken
inference, and calls to his aid Professor NICHOL, whom he has also
pressed into his service to help him over the last-mentioned difficulty
by the Professor's affirmation of a diversity of nebulous clusters. But
the Professor does not commit himself to the extent of the author; his
aqueous whirlpool is cited from HERSCHEL, only in illustration, and
correctly said to be produced by the unequal force of convergence of a
fluid to a common centre. But the author's nuclei, disposed in his
notable "fire-mist," did not act with unequal force on the ambient
vapour, and whose central convergence in consequence, would not produce
rotation or motion of any kind. This was the real matter in question,
the author was taken up on his own premises, and the results he assumed
to follow from them proved to be inconsistent with the unquestionable
laws of gravitating matter.

He has gone over the geological portion of his subject with much care,
but if competent, it would be impossible within our narrow limits to
accompany him; nor could the discussion be made either interesting or
intelligible except to the scientific, who have devoted attention to an
extremely curious, but still obscure and unsettled field of
investigation. He has elaborately cleared up many points, and
successfully, we think, answered some weighty objections, but we are not
yet converts to his theory of organic development. One passage we shall
extract; after adverting to the facts established by powerful evidence,
that during the long term of the earth's existence, strata of various
thickness were deposited in seas composed of matter worn away from the
previous rocks; that these strata by volcanic agency were raised into
continents, or projected into mountain chains, and that sea and land
have been constantly interchanging conditions. He continues:--

"The remains and traces of plants and animals found in the
succession of strata show that, while these operations were going
on, the earth gradually became the theatre of organic being, simple
forms appearing first, and more complicated afterwards. _A time
when there was no life_ is first seen. We then _see life begin, and
go on_; but whole ages elapsed before man came to crown the work of
nature. This is a wonderful revelation to have com