_8. New Theory of Earth Structure:_--"In recent years theories of mountain formation have changed like everything else scientific. * * * The new theories hark back to the original formation of the earth. The conception of a hot drop of a world swinging in space, gradually cooling and forming a shell as smooth as a billiard ball, has been partly abandoned. The nebular hypothesis has been modified, the so-called meteoritic hypothesis has been found inadequate; and the more plausible planetesimal theory of Professors Chamberlin and Salisbury has been put forth. "The latest theory argues the formation of the world by gradual accretions from planetary bodies. It assumes the origin of our solar system in a common spiral nebula--the nebula being in a thin solid or liquid state, as suggested by the spectrum analysis of it. The knots or portions of the nebula showing the most concentration, are the nuclei of future planets, and the thinner haze the portions from which the knots are formed. All these knots move about the central mass (the sun) in elliptical orbits of considerable eccentricity. The planetesimals are gathered in, and through accretions from such a world as ours, by the crossing of the elliptical orbits in the course of their inevitable shiftings." ("The High Alps," by John C. Van Dyke, Scribner's Magazine, June, 1908.) _9. Worlds Organized on Pre-Arranged Plan:_ "The organization of the spiritual and heavenly worlds, and of spiritual and heavenly beings, was agreeable to the most perfect order and harmony: their limits and bounds were fixed irrevocably, and involuntarily subscribed to in their heavenly estate by themselves, and were by our first parents subscribed to upon the earth. Hence the importance of embracing and subscribing to principles of eternal truth by all men upon the earth that expect eternal life." (Joseph Smith, Conference at Nauvoo, Oct. 8, 1843, Millennial Star, vol. XXII, p. 231.)