The Holy Spirit, by his vital influence, infused that efficient power into the great mass of matter, which was necessary for the assumption of different forms, and the discharge of the assigned functions of selecting and arranging the materials out of which the world is formed. By brooding over the mingled earth and water, says Dr. Owen, “he communicated a prolific virtue; and inlaid them with the seeds of animal life; and therefore the earth and the water brought forth all sorts of creatures in abundance, according to the seeds and principles communicated to them by the cherishing motion of the Spirit of God.”

As several of the ancients have described the elementary principles of all things to be a gloomy chaos, consisting of darkness and water, we may easily infer from what source they derived this notion. Aristotle observes, the theologists and natural philosophers agreed, that all things were produced, as the former said, “out of night;” or, as the latter, “out of a confused mixture.” Whatever knowledge the inhabitants of Chaldea had of the creation of the world, they ascribe to the teaching of an amphibious monster denominated Oannes. He taught his auditors, that there was a time when all things were darkness and water, in the midst of which various monsters of horrible forms received life and light. Over this chaotic mass presided the demon Omoroca, a mythological personification of the ocean. At length arrived the destined hour of the creation. The monster Omoroca fell subdued beneath the victorious arm of Belus; the animals which composed her empire were annihilated; and the world was formed out of her substance. Oannes, however, taught, that this physiological description was to be taken merely in an allegorical sense, and that the whole fable alluded to the aqueous origin of the universe. Matter having been thus created, Belus divided the darkness from the light, separated the earth from the heavens, disposed the world in order, and called the starry host into existence.

According to the Phœnician system, the principle of the universe was a dark air, and a turbulent evening chaos; an opinion not very dissimilar to that given by Moses. Sanchoniathon afterward ascribes to material operation the origin of that which may be denominated the will or desire of God, when in his great wisdom he thought fit to create the world out of nothing. From this personification of Divine love, a chaotic mixture was produced, and within it were comprehended the rudiments of all things.

The cosmogony of the ancient Egyptians, though more obscure, is given by Diodorus Siculus. “Damascius having inquired about what was the first principle in the world, gives this as an ancient Egyptian doctrine. The Egyptians have chosen to celebrate the first cause as unspeakable. They accordingly style it darkness unknown and mention it with a three-fold acclamation. Again. In this manner the Egyptians styled the first principle an inconceivable darkness; night and darkness past all imagination.” This is perfectly consonant to passages from the same author, quoted by Dr. Cudworth. “There is one origin of all things, celebrated by the name of unknown (incomprehensible) darkness.” Again. “They hold, that the first beginning or cause of things was darkness beyond all conception; an unknown darkness.”

Hesiod mentions, “A chaos as first existing. Next was produced the spacious earth, the seat of the immortals; Tartarus hid within the recesses of the ample globe; and divine love, the most beautiful of the deities. From chaos sprung Erebus, and black night; and from the union of night and Erebus were born ether and the day.”26 Zeno, of Cittium, the founder of the Stoics, said, Hesiod meant by the chaos, “Water, out of which all things were formed, which by concretion became firm earth.”

In the work of Aristophanes, we meet with a similar passage. “Chaos, and night, and black Erebus, and wide Tartarus, first existed; at that time, there was neither earth, air, nor heaven. But in the bosom of Erebus, black-winged night produced an aërial egg; from which, in due season, beautiful Love, decked with golden wings, was born. Out of dark chaos, in the midst of wide-spreading Tartarus, he begot our race, and called us forth into the light.”27

It is unnecessary to multiply quotations to prove, that the ancients were not only acquainted with the cosmogony of Moses, but received it as true; to which they added their own coloring.

[It is now generally agreed by cosmogonists, commentators, biblical critics, and natural philosophers, that the substance of the earth certainly, and probably the materials of the Solar System, was first created in a chaotic state, and subsequently arranged in order. This opinion is very ancient and almost universal, found in all nations. Ovid, an ancient heathen poet, has well described this chaos:

Ante mare et terras, et, quod teget omnia, Cœlum,

Unus erat toto naturæ vultus in orbe,

Quem dixére Chaos; rudis indigestaque moles,

Nec quicquam nisi pondus iners; congestaque eodem.

Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum.

Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,

And heaven’s high canopy that covers all:

One was the face of nature if a face:

Rather a rude and indigested mass:

A lifeless lump, unfashioned and unframed,

Of jarring seeds, and justly Chaos named.—Dryden.

Notwithstanding the general prevalence of this opinion, and the high authorities which support it, the reader must not imagine it is absolutely universal. Some eminent men have suggested, that the earth, and matter generally, was created in a solid state at first. This is the view taken by Mr. Ure, of the Andersonian University. He supposes the earth was created a solid ball, or spheroid, regular on its surface, without hills and vallies, and immersed in a crust of ice, which completely and uniformly surrounded it: that it was a cold lifeless lump; heat not yet having pervaded it. The first, and all quickening operation of heat he supposes to be indicated by these words of Moses: “And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.” He supposes, all the matter of our earth is in the same relative position, in which it was when it first existed at the command of God; except such cases in which some subsequent force has disarranged it. These cases he supposes to have been many, and to have operated to the upheaving the mountains, and hollowing out the beds of the sea, &c. He says of the earth: “The central mass composed, most probably, of the metallic bases of the earths and alkalies, as volcanic phenomena seem to attest, would fuse, when first the calorific energy was made to actuate the body of the earth, and the exterior parts would oxydize into the crust of mineral strata, and the outermost coat of all, the fixed ice, would melt into the moveable waters.” New Syst. of Geol. B. 1. chap. 1. p. 7.

Perhaps Mr. Ure’s view might be improved, and made to approximate much nearer the common opinion, possibly identified with it, by supposing the mass of matter composing our earth, was confusedly mixed,—and of course chaotic—but was in a frozen, hard, inactive state: that the quickening energy, which softened and fused it, was simultaneous with its revolution on its axis. The consequence then would be precisely what we find it to be; viz: an enlargement of the equatorial diameter, and a flattening of the poles. This I conceive to be the true theory in this case.

Mr. Ure confirms his view by a quotation from Sir Isaac Newton; Optics, Book 3. towards the conclusion. “It seems probable to me that God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, and in such proportions to space, as most conduced to the end for which he formed them. All material things seem to have been composed of the hard and solid particles above mentioned, variously associated in the first creation by the counsels of an intelligent agent. For it became him who created them to set them in order; and if he did so, it is unphilosophical to seek for any other origin of this world, or to pretend that it might rise out of chaos by the mere laws of Nature; though being once formed, it may continue by those laws for many ages.”

I have given this quotation precisely as I found it in Mr. Ure’s New System of Geology, B. 1. chap. 1. p. 10. Considering the well founded reputation of Newton, it adds very much to the probability of the above theory: yet it seems to me to be at variance with the commonly received impression of Newton’s opinion on this subject. I have not his work at hand to examine it.

The Encyclopedia Britannica, Article Earth, seems to favor this view. It says, “The common notion of the earth’s being originally a chaos, seems neither to have a foundation in reason, nor in the Mosaic account of the creation.”

The reader will here perceive high authorities on both sides, and all claiming to agree with Moses. The weight of evidence seems to be in favor of a chaotic creation, which does not necessarily imply that the mass was created in a soft state. But the configuration, and internal structure of the earth abundantly prove it was in a soft, or compressible state when it was assuming its present form and structure. This condition was the effect of the quickening energy of the Spirit of God. The difference between the equatorial and polar diameters of the earth, which is now well established, and is about twenty-seven miles, can scarcely be accounted for, without supposing the substance of the earth, at least to a great depth, to have been partially or wholly fluid; in which case, by turning round rapidly on its own axis, it would assume the shape it is known to possess. It may, indeed, be said, the Almighty could give it any shape and qualities he pleased, and we cannot well object to it.

As it regards the interior, or central parts of our planet, our author has said nothing, and possibly he would give this very good reason for his silence—we can know nothing certainly. Still, however, we may subjoin the conjectures of some eminent philosophers.

Some suppose the central parts of our globe to be cavernous or hollow. The principal argument for this theory is the transmission of sound and motion through vast extents of country, in case of volcanoes and earthquakes. It is supposed this could not be done so perfectly and extensively, unless we suppose some aëriform, or gaseous body within the earth, by means of which it might be transmitted: which would be to suppose it cavernous or hollow.

Dr. Halley supposes the earth is a hollow sphere, in which there is inclosed a central magnetic globe, and by the motions of this globe the variations of the magnetic needle are produced.

Our own ingenious, but unfortunate countryman, Symms, supposed the earth to be hollow, and inhabited within, and its interior accessible to us. He argues, there is no necessity, for the purposes of gravitation, or for any other purposes, to suppose the earth solid to the centre: And it is inconsistent with the divine beneficence to suppose such an amount of matter as this globe would be, if solid, should have been created to afford so small a portion, scarcely one-fourth, fit for the actual habitation of man, for whom principally it was created. He, therefore, supported, that the interior of the earth was an immense cavern blessed with changes of season, succession of day and night, cold and heat, and inhabited by human beings, and other animals. He supposed the poles of the earth were hollow, and this hollow entrance gradually verged round towards the equator; and ships have, without knowing it, been within the verge, from whence they found no difficulty of returning.

Others have supposed the central parts of our globe are solid. This is the common supposition, and is principally supported by these two arguments:—As the attraction of gravitation depends on the quantity of matter, as well as the distance; unless we suppose the earth a solid body it will not be able to exert a sufficient attractive influence on the moon to keep her in her orbit. Again: it is ascertained by actual experiment, that the mean density of the earth is about five times that of water: from which it is infered it is solid, and must increase in density from the surface to the centre, in order to give this high mean proportion over the bodies at its surface.

The increasing density of the earth, from the surface to the centre is owing to compression in part, and partly to the supposed fact, that the heavier substances are placed nearer the centre. Thus we find the different strata of rocks indicate the same. Granite is the heaviest and lowest rock in situ.

Some have supposed that iron, probably nearly in a metallic state, constitutes the nucleus of our earth. This idea seems to have been suggested to account for the influence of the earth on a magnetic needle.

But the most splendid, and very probable conjecture is founded on the experiments of Berzelius, and Sir H. Davy, on the earths, which experiments prove them to have metallic bases universally: hence all our earths are metallic oxides. From these circumstances it is conjectured, that the nucleus of our globe is constituted of the metals in a pure, or nearly pure state, which are the bases of our earths, alkalis, and alkaline earths.

It would almost seem a legitimate conjecture to suppose the substances of our globe were, at first, metals and gases: that the oxygen, combining with the metals formed earths, and alkalis; and the gases combining among themselves formed air, water, &c. This would be a chemical process, and necessarily fuse and soften the earth, and introduce the process of cooling, which would proceed from the surface towards the centre. Hence some eminent philosophers have conjectured that there is a great degree of heat in the interior of the earth yet: probably the central parts are in a state of igneous fusion. Some recent researches of Cordier tend to establish this opinion. The amount of evidence in favor of this conjecture is increasing annually, and probably will prevail. See the additional paper on volcanos in this volume.]

Section II.—Fire.

Omnific word — Moving principles in Nature — Criticism on the original word אור aur — Creation of fire — Its nature — Friction exciting the action of fire — Fire attracted by bodies — Fire conducted — Fire in a state of combination — Fire elastic — Expansive force of fire — Subterraneous fires — Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions — Air a storehouse of fire — General and final Dissolution of Nature by fire — Fire a symbol of the Deity, in his gracious presence, vital influence, transforming energy, and destructive operation.

The sacred historian here informs us of the first regular production reduced from the chaotic mass. With an astonishing majesty of expression, God said, יהי אור ויהי אור yehi aur, vayehi aur, Let there be light: and there was light. Or, more literally, Be light: and light was. Pagninus translates the words יהי אור yehi aur, literally, Sit lux, Be light. In the Greek it is γενεθητω φῶς, Be light made, or generated. In the Vulgate, Fiat lux, which is much the same as the Greek. The celebrated Dionysius Longinus, meeting with this passage in the Septuagint, considered it as a specimen of the true sublime. Though a heathen, he thus expresses himself: “So likewise the Jewish lawgiver, (who was no ordinary man) having conceived a just idea of the divine power, he expressed it in a dignified manner; for at the beginning of his laws he thus speaks: God said—What? Let there be light! and there was light. Let there be earth! and there was earth.”28

Here we may inquire, Whether this was a word uttered with a sound, like that which God spake from mount Sinai in giving the Law; or only the exercise of the inward faculty of reason or understanding? It could not be a word spoken with a sound, for that requires air as its medium, and none as yet existed; neither was there any ear to hear, nor any use of such words. Nor could it be any exercise of the Divine Mind, now beginning to think of the creation and formation of things; for this purpose was in his thoughts from eternity. The meaning therefore is, that God did, without any instruments, toil, labor, alteration, or delay, for the manifestation of his own infinite goodness, wisdom, power, and will, actually working like a powerful word or command, instantaneously produce light.29 Thus

The Psalmist, touching on the subject of creation, says, “He spake, and it was done: he commanded, and it stood fast”—יעמד jagnamad, it stood forth, as a servant at his master’s command, prepared to do his will, and to execute his pleasure.30

The divine commandment which produced light, says an intelligent writer, must be considered as operating on the properties of matter already created; and as light is found to proceed from the motion of luminous particles, we must conceive some central force, or attracting power, to be the instrument of producing this phenomenon of light, by its attractive or propelling properties. There seem to be moving principles in all nature, which, when put in action by the first Cause, produce natural effects according to established laws, which cannot be altered unless by the first Mover. As the Hebrew word תהומ tehom, abyss, translated deep, signifies also to move with a sort of confused motion; we may justly conclude that the chaotic mass had some gravitating powers in it, before the forming of the system; and that attracting and repelling force was naturally and originally in the universe; and that the first Mover gave them in a regular course, the specifical direction, and systematical attractions. What our distinguished philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, has suggested concerning attraction and gravitation, even in point of philosophy, appears to agree with the Principia of Moses.

Another author writes, Whether Moses intended a philosophical account of light in this place, I will not pretend to say; but one thing is certain, that he makes use of a word which points out some of the principal properties of light. The original word אור aur signifies that body which renders objects visible, which we call light; it also signifies fire, and perhaps Moses intended to point out in one word, what in our language requires two, light and fire. When we consider the words of Moses, it appears evident that what is in our version called light, is in the Hebrew rather something that sends forth light. The original word אור aur may signify any thing that makes things visible by emitting particles of light. When the Almighty said, “Let there be אור aur, light,” it is not certain that he meant elementary fire, or original unpropagated light. It is more probable that he intended by that word, a body that sent forth light by means of the motion of similar particles of luminous and igneous matter.

Whatever may be the philosophic differences between these two, light and fire, continues the same author, we are certain that they are seldom separated. The origin of that light which now renders bodies visible to us, seems chiefly to be fire, though light and fire are not inseparably connected; for light may be propagated where there is no fire, as from putrid bodies, &c., and fire may be where there is no light, as in iron, sulphur, &c.

The Hebrew word אור aur, signifies not only light, but fire. God created this powerful agent on the first day, and diffused it through every part of nature; because without it no operation could be carried on and perfected. T. Bartholine quotes Aristotle as saying, “That fire is the efficient cause of all things.” Robison says, “Heat is susceptible of fixation—of being accumulated in bodies, and, as it were, laid up till we have occasion for it; and we are as certain of getting the stored-up heat, as we are sure of obtaining from our drawers the things we put in them.”31 It pervades all bodies: this is not the case with any other substance we know of—not even light. It lies hid in every thing around us. It is a substance which we are ever in want of; it is therefore deposited on every side, and is ready for every exigency.

Caloric is the name given by modern chemists, to that substance by whose influence the phenomena of heat are produced, and which had before been distinguished by the terms igneous fluid, matter of heat, and other analogous denominations. In order to give precision to chemical language, it was necessary to adopt a word by which to distinguish between the substance which produces the sensation we call heat, and the sensation itself; these being connected as cause and effect; for whenever caloric becomes fixed in a body, it loses its property of affording heat. Whatever is the nature of that quality in bodies called heat, we are assured it does resemble the sensation of heat. A man whose mind is destitute of the cultivation of science, if endued with common sense, never imagines the sensation of heat to be in the fire; he only imagines that there is something in fire which occasions this sensation.

Though we are well acquainted with the effects of fire, we know but little of its nature. It is so active, as well as powerful a principle, that it eludes all our researches. We may, however, define it to be the phlogiston or inflammable principle, which pervades in a greater or less degree all substances. Boerhaave thinks it is a fluid of a nature peculiar to itself; that it was created such as it is, and cannot be altered in its nature or its properties; that it naturally exists in equal quantities in all places; and that it is wholly imperceptible to our senses, being only discoverable by such effects as in its operation it produces.32

That fire is really a substance, and not a quality, appears from its acting upon other substances, the reality of which has never been doubted. Charcoal, in its natural state, contains within its pores a large quantity of air; but if charcoal is heated, this air is expelled by the fire, which assumes its place, and occupies the pores of the charcoal. The burning of lime also, which deprives it of a great part of its weight by expelling the fixable air, demonstrates that fire, as a substance, enters into the pores of the lime, and forces out those other substances which are least intimately combined with it.

Collision or friction of solid bodies, is the means most generally used for exciting the action of fire. The vacuities of all solid bodies are replete with fire, so that it is impossible to agitate or separate their parts swiftly, without giving the same rapid motion to the element contained within them. When a piece of hardened steel is struck with a flint, some particles of the metal are scraped away from the mass, and so violent is the fire which follows the stroke, that it melts and vitrifies them. If the fragments of steel are catched upon paper, and viewed with a microscope, you will find most of them perfect spherules, and very highly polished. Their sphericity demonstrates that they have been in a fluid state, and the polish upon their surface shows them to be vitrified; the fire being disengaged with violence, disposes the particles of the substance to combine with the vital air, while this air accelerates the combustion. The whole of the heat produced is not afforded by the body itself, because in proportion as the interior fire is disengaged, the external air acts upon the body and gives out fire.

If the irons at the axis of a coach-wheel are applied to each other, without the interposition of some unctuous matter to keep them from immediate contact, they will become so hot when the carriage runs swiftly along, as to set the wood on fire; and the fore wheels being smallest, and making more revolutions, will be most in danger. The same will happen to mill-work, or any other machinery, if the necessary precautions are neglected. It is no uncommon practice with a blacksmith to use a plate of iron as an extemporaneous tinder-box; for it may be hammered on an anvil till it becomes red hot, and will fire a match of brimstone. A strong man who strikes quick, and keeps turning the iron, so that both sides may be equally exposed to the force of the hammer, will perform this in less time than would be expected. If in the coldest season you lay one dense iron plate upon another, and press the upper one, by a weight, on the lower one, and then rub the one over the other; by reciprocal motions, they will first grow warm, and at length so hot, as in a short time to emit sparks, and at last grow red hot, as if taken out of a vehement fire.

It is not necessary that the substance should be very hard; a cord rubbed backwards and forwards swiftly against a post or a tree will take fire; a stick of wood pressed against another which is turned swiftly about in a lathe, will soon make it turn black and emit smoke. Even the palms of your hands, if you rub them briskly together, when they are dry, will smell as if they were scorched. The method of exciting fire by rubbing two sticks of wood together, was anciently practised by country people, and is still retained in some parts of the world. The manner is exactly described in Captain Cook’s voyage. The inhabitants of New-Holland are there said to produce fire with great facility, and spread it in a wonderful manner. To produce it, they take two pieces of soft dry wood; one is a stick about eight or nine inches long, the other piece is flat. The stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end, and pressing it upon the other, turn it nimbly by holding it between both their hands, as we do a chocolate mill, often shifting their hands up and down, and then moving them down upon it to increase the pressure as much as possible. By this method they get fire in less than two minutes, and from the smallest spark they increase it with speed and dexterity.

The matter of fire is attracted more or less by all bodies. When any heated body comes in contact with a cold one, the former loses a part of its heat, and both of them become equally warm. If heated iron is laid upon a stone, its heat will flow into the stone; if thrown into the water, the heat will be diffused through the water. If a number of different substances, as metals, wood, wool, &c., are brought together into a place where there is not a fire, if they are of different temperatures, that is of different degrees of heat, the fire will be attracted from the hottest to those that are colder, till a perfect equilibrium is produced, or till they have all acquired the same temperature, as may be proved by applying the thermometer successively to each of them.

It does not appear, however, that all bodies have an equal attraction for the matter of fire. If a rod of iron is put into the fire for a short time, the end which is at a moderate distance from the fire will almost burn the hand; but a rod of wood, of the same length will be consumed to ashes at the end which is in the fire, before the other end is sufficiently heated to burn the hand. A ball of lead, and a ball of wool, may be of exactly the same temperature by the thermometer, but they will not appear of the same degree of heat on applying the hand. If they are of a temperature below that of our bodies, the lead will appear much colder than the wool, because it attracts the heat more rapidly from the hand; if they are of a higher temperature, the lead will appear much hotter, from the facility with which it parts with its heat. This property in bodies is called their conducting power; and those bodies through which the element of fire most rapidly circulates, are called good conductors.

The power of conducting the matter of fire seems to depend upon the texture of bodies, that is, upon the contact of their parts; hence the excessive slowness with which heat is communicated to bodies of a rare and spongy texture. Thus flannel, wool, and feathers, are considered as warm coverings, not because they possess more heat in themselves—for they serve to preserve any cold body in a cool state better than other substances—but because they prevent the escape of the animal heat from our bodies.

The matter of fire will exist in a state of combination, in a latent state, so as not to be perceptible to our senses. It will be found by observation, that every body which exists contains a quantity of the matter of fire in a fixed or neutralized state, disarmed of all its active, penetrating, and destructive qualities, like an acid and an alkali in combination.

Fluids, from their very nature and constitution, contain a greater quantity of caloric in a latent state than solid bodies: indeed it is now universally admitted, and may be easily proved, that the fluidity of all bodies is altogether owing to the quantity of fire which they retain in this latent or combined state, the elasticity of which keeps their particles remote from each other, and prevents their fixing into a solid mass. All bodies, therefore, in passing from a fluid to a solid state, emit a quantity of fire or heat. When water is thrown upon quick lime, it is absorbed by the lime, and in this state it is capable of retaining a much smaller quantity of caloric than in its natural state; on the slacking of lime, therefore, a very intense heat is produced, the matter of fire which preserved the water fluid being disengaged and detached. If spirit of vitriol is added to strong oil of turpentine, they will condense into a solid mass, and a great quantity of heat will be sensibly emitted. Upon the same principle it will be found, on the other hand, that when any body passes from a solid to a fluid state, the adjacent bodies will be deprived of a quantity of their natural heat.

[This theory of what is called burning lime, is not sufficiently clear. Fire does not enter into the pores of the lime by burning. The mineral commonly used for procuring quick lime is the carbonate of lime, or common limestone, which is composed of carbonic acid with a small quantity of water, 43, and lime 57, in 100 parts. By submiting it to a strong heat, the carbonic acid is driven off, and the quick or pure lime remains, which is an oxide of calcium. The loss in weight is owing to the expulsion of the carbonic acid, with the small portion of water. By adding water to the quick lime, it is dissolved, and falls into a powder. This process is called slacking lime, and the product, slack-lime. During the process a large quantity of heat is disengaged; and if the slacking be done in the dark, light is also observed to be thrown out. This heat is given out by the water, not the lime. The lime having a greater affinity for the hydrogen of the water than exists between the hydrogen and oxygen in water, seizes upon it, and the oxygen passes off, together with the latent caloric of the water, and thus the heat is produced which is observed in slacking lime. The hydrogen of the water combines with the lime and becomes solid, forming an hydrate of lime, which is the common slacked lime used in mortar.]

The matter of fire is elastic, as is proved evidently from all its effects. There is indeed reason to believe, that caloric is the only fluid in nature which is permanently elastic, and that it is the cause of the elasticity of all fluids which are esteemed so. From the elasticity of this element it results, that all natural bodies can only retain a certain quantity of it, without undergoing an alteration in their state and form. Thus a moderate quantity of fire admitted into a solid body expands it; a still larger quantity renders it fluid; and if the quantity is still increased, it will be converted into vapor.

Caloric expands all bodies which it penetrates, more or less, in proportion to its quantity, and to the nature of those bodies. The expansion of water, even previous to its assuming the form of vapor, may be seen in an easy experiment. If a quantity of cold water, contained in a clear flask, is immersed in a vessel of boiling water; as the heat enters, the water in the flask will be seen to rise in the neck till it overflows.

An iron rod a foot long being heated red hot, became 1-60 longer than before; and a glass cylinder, a fathom long, under the same circumstances, gained 1-50 in length. A metalline ring thus heated was increased 9-100 in its diameter; and a glass globe became extended 1-100 part by the heat of the hand only applied to its surface.33

The general effects of caloric are to increase the bulk of the substances with which it unites, and to render them specifically lighter than they were before; but in whatever quantity it is accumulated in bodies, it never adds to their absolute weight. Caloric favors the solution of salts, and promotes the union of many substances. In other cases it serves to separate bodies already united; so that in the hands of chemists it is the most useful and powerful agent with which they are acquainted. It is the cause of fluidity in all substances which are capable of becoming fluid, from the heaviest metal to the lightest gas. Let it be remembered that all fluids are formed from solids by an addition of caloric; and that, by abstracting this caloric, solids would be reproduced. It insinuates itself among their particles, and invariably separates them in some measure from each other. We have reason to believe that every solid substance on the face of the earth might be converted to a fluid, or even a gas, were it submitted to the action of a very high temperature in peculiar circumstances.34

[The general and aggregate bearing of the facts and experiments which are now known, render the statement here made by Mr. Wood extremely probable, viz; That caloric is a very subtle fluid which pervades in large quantities every particle of matter in the universe—that it is the agent which regulates the densities of all bodies, and by consequence, regulates in some measure their weight and dimensions. It is considered as an almost settled question, that a stratum of caloric surrounds each ultimate particle of every body, so that the ultimate particles of bodies do not, and cannot be made to touch each other. Their inherent inclination to come into actual contact is called their attraction of cohesion: the power of this attraction is in proportion to the distance at which they are kept from each other by the atmosphere of caloric which intervenes between them. This atmosphere of caloric is idio-repulsive: of course the particles of caloric have an inherent repulsion among themselves, and are ever struggling to get further asunder.

This idio-repulsive nature of caloric is the great, and constant antagonist power to the attraction of cohesion. Caloric has a tendency to drive the particles of matter further from each other, and these particles have a mutual tendency to approach. Hence these two principles are ever in conflict. As a general rule we may say, when the attraction of cohesion prevails greatly, the body becomes solid: when the two forces are pretty nearly balanced, the body becomes liquid: when the caloric prevails greatly, the body becomes gaseous.

There is sufficient reason to believe, that every body in nature might be raised to a gaseous state by the addition or action of a sufficient quantity of caloric: and there is, probably, a sufficient quantity in nature, to render the whole universe gaseous, were it sufficiently excited to a state of freedom. It is a well known fact, that all the metals are fusible by heat, and many of them have been volatalized, and it is extremely probable all of them may be.

As caloric regulates the density of bodies, by resisting and modifying the influence of the attraction of cohesion: if it were entirely withdrawn from nature, or the whole of it rendered perfectly latent, all matter would become perfectly solid and fixed: even water and air would assume the solidity of the diamond.

We must, therefore, regard caloric as the great conservative principle of the Universe, and yet capable, if called into action, of destroying it instantly.

These views strongly corroborate our paper on chaos.]

From the experiments of General Roy, in the 75th volume of the Philosophical Transactions, it appears that the expansion of a steel pendulum of a clock is such, that every four degrees of the thermometer will cause a variation of a second per day; and that the difference between the going of a clock in summer and winter will be about six seconds per day, or one minute in ten days, owing to the metallic pendulum varying in length with every change of temperature. A knowledge of this circumstance gave rise to Harrison’s self-regulating time-piece, which, by the different expansion of different metals, accommodates its movements to every change of seasons or climate.

The fire deposited below the surface of the earth is peculiarly important, having produced earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Dr. Watson, late Bishop of Llandaff, in his Chemical Essays, says, The most remarkable changes which have taken place in the form and constitution of the earth, since the deluge, have probably been produced by subterraneous fires; for it is to their agency that philosophers ascribe volcanos and earthquakes; those tremendous instruments of nature, by which she converts plains into mountains, the ocean into islands, and dry land into stagnant pools. Mr. Lemery, as far as I have been able to learn, adds the learned Bishop, was the first person who illustrated, by actual experiment, the origin of subterraneous fires. He mixed twenty-five pounds of powdered sulphur with an equal weight of iron filings; and having kneaded the mixture together, by means of a little water, into the consistency of a paste, he put it into an iron pot, covered it with a cloth, and buried the whole a foot under ground. In about eight or nine hours time the earth swelled, grew warm, and cracked: hot sulphureous vapors were perceived: a flame which dilated the cracks was observed; the superincumbent earth was covered with a yellow and black powder: in short, a subterraneous fire, producing a volcano in miniature, was spontaneously lighted up from the reciprocal actions of sulphur, iron, and water.

Volcanic eruptions are awfully terrific, and sometimes extensively destructive. The violent eruption of Vesuvius, in 1767, is reckoned the 27th since that which destroyed the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, in the reign of the Emperor Titus; and this eruption of 1767, has been succeeded by several others. Of the eruptions of Ætna, Mr. Oldenburg has given a historical account in the Philosophical Transactions, No. xlviii. p. 967. A very great eruption of this mountain was in the year 1669. The progress of the lava, or fiery deluge, was at the rate of a furlong a day. It advanced into the sea 600 yards, and was then a mile in breadth. It had destroyed, in forty days, the habitations of 27,000 persons; and of 20,000 inhabitants of the city of Catanea, only 3,000 escaped. This inundation of liquid fire, in its progress, met with a lake four miles in compass, and not only filled it up, although it was four fathoms deep, but raised it into a mountain. Borelli, an ingenious Neapolitan, has calculated, that the matter discharged at this eruption was sufficient to fill a space of 93,838,750 cubic spaces. The lava which ran from it is fourteen miles in length, and, in many parts, six in breadth. There have been no such eruptions since, although there have been signs of many, more terrible, that preceded it.35

The principal volcanos in Europe are Mount Vesuvius, near Naples, in Italy; Mount Ætna, in Sicily; Mount Hecla, in Iceland; and Stromboli, the most northern of the Lipari islands, north of Sicily. Of all the volcanos recorded in history, Stromboli seems to be the only one that burns incessantly. Ætna and Vesuvius are sometimes many months, and even years, without the least emission of fire; but this is ever at work, and, for ages past, has been considered as the light-house of the Mediterranean Sea. It is very probable, that Mount Vesuvius and Mount Ætna form but different portions of one chain of mountains that passes under the sea, and the isle of Lipari; for whenever one of the volcanos has a great eruption, it is observed that the other, and the volcano in the isle of Lipari, throw out more flames than ordinary. This remark was made by Huet, Bishop of Avranches, in France, a celebrated philosophical, historical, and commercial writer. The force of volcanos is supposed to be the greatest of any thing yet known in nature. In the great eruption of Vesuvius, in 1779, a stream of lava, of an immense magnitude, is said to have been projected to the height of at least 10,000 feet above the top of the mountain.