The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
This answers for the department of physics and physiology. We will let
Guizot, the historian, speak for the political and social realm: 'All
things, at their origin, are nearly confounded in one and the same
physiognomy; it is only in their aftergrowth that their variety shows
itself. Then begins a new development which urges forward societies
toward that free and lofty unity, the glorious object of the efforts and
wishes of mankind.'
We find an illustration of this law in the simplest of the sciences, if
the nebular hypothesis be true, as most astronomers believe. We have
first the chaotic, nebulous matter, then the formation of worlds
therefrom, by a continuous process of unfolding. Each world is a unit
within itself, but part of a still greater unit composed of a system of
worlds revolving around the same sun; and this greater unit, part of one
which is still greater--a star cluster, composed of many planetary
systems, and subject to the same great cosmical laws. If the theory be
correct, we find, in this example, the heterogeneous derived from the
simple, and far more completely an organized unit, with all its
complexity, than was the chaotic mass from which development originally
proceeded.
We find additional illustration in coming to our own world. Its primeval
geography was simple and uniform; there was little diversity of coast
line, soil, or surface. But the cooling process of the earth went on,
the surface contracted and ridged up, the exposed rocks were
disintegrated by the action of the atmosphere and the waters; the
sediment deposited in the bottom of the seas was thrown to the surface;
continents were enlarged, higher mountain ranges upheaved, the coasts
worn into greater irregularity of outline; and everywhere the soil
became more composite, the surface more uneven, the landscape more
variegated.
Corresponding changes have taken place in the climate. At first the
temperature of the earth was much warmer than now, and uniform in all
parallels of latitude, as is shown by the fossil remains. Now we have a
great diversity of climate, whether we contrast the polar with the
torrid regions, or the different seasons of the temperate zone with each
other.
The same law of increasing diversity obtains in the fauna and flora of
the various periods of geological history. The earliest fossil record of
animal life is witness to the simplicity of organic structure. Among
vertebrated animals, fishes first appear, next reptiles, then birds;
still higher, the lower type of animals which suckle their young; and as
the strata become more recent, still higher forms of mammalia, till we
reach the upper tertiary, in which geologists have discovered the
remains of many animals of complex structure nearly allied to those
which are now in existence. In the historic period appear many organic
forms of still greater complexity, with man at the head of the
zoological series.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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