The present condition of our earth is directly dependent upon the amount of heat we receive from the sun. It has frequently been said, that if it were possible to move this planet so much nearer that orb that the quantity of heat would be increased, the circumstances of life would necessarily be so far changed, that all the present races of animals must perish; and that the same result would happen from any alteration which threw us yet further from our central luminary, when, owing to the extremity of cold and the wretchedness of gloom, all living creatures would equally fail to support their organization. To move the earth nearer to, or more distant from the sun, is an impossibility; but it has been argued that those planets which are near to the sun must possess a temperature which would melt our solid rocks, and vaporize the ocean,--while Uranus and Neptune must, from their distance from the source of heat, have so small an amount, that water must become solid as the rock, and such an atmosphere as that of the earth exist as a dense liquid. It will be shown that according to the physical condition of the material substances, so are their powers regulated of absorbing and retaining the heat which falls as a radiant power upon their surfaces. Heat rays, in passing through the attenuated medium of planetary space, lose none of their power--this we know from the fact that even the less dense upper region of the earth’s atmosphere takes from the solar rays but an exceedingly small quantity of heat. Therefore, whether a solar heat ray traverses through one million, or one hundred million miles of space, it still retains its power equally of imparting warmth to the solid matter by which it is intercepted. There is no law of variation as the inverse square of the distance of those radiating powers. Consequently, there is no reason why the physical conditions, alike of the nearest and the most remote planetary bodies, should not be so adjusted that they all enjoy that life promoting temperature which belongs to the earth. All the objects around us are adapted to the circumstances of the earth’s position in relation to the sun, to which we are bound by the principle of gravitation; opposed to that centrifugal force which tends constantly to drive the moving planetary mass off from the centre of power. The balance maintains its perfect equilibrium, although we have one power constantly drawing the earth towards the sun, and the other as constantly exerting itself to move it off into space at a tangent to the orbit in which the planet moves. In our examination it will be found that one common system of harmony runs through all the cosmical phenomena, by which everything is produced that is so beautiful and joyous in this world.