At this excessive temperature the gaseous mass, which we have described, would shine in space as the sun does at the present day; and with the same brilliancy as that with which, to our eyes, the fixed stars and planets shine in the serenity of night, as represented on the opposite page (PLATE VI.). Circulating round the sun in obedience to the laws of universal gravitation, this incandescent gaseous mass was necessarily regulated by the laws which govern other material substances. As it got cooler it gradually transferred part of its warmth to the glacial regions of the inter-planetary spaces, in the midst of which it traced the line of its flaming orbit. Consequent on its continual cooling (but at the end of a period of time of which it would be impossible, even approximately, to fix the duration), the star, originally gaseous, would attain a liquid state. It would then be considerably diminished in volume. The laws of mechanics teach us that liquid bodies, when in a state of rotation, assume a spherical form; it is one of the laws of their being, emanating from the Creator, and is due to the force of attraction. Thus the Earth takes the spheroidal form, belonging to it, in common with the greater number of the celestial bodies. The Earth is subject to two distinct movements; namely, a movement of translation round the sun, and a movement of rotation on its own axis--the latter a uniform movement, which produces the regular alternations of days and nights. Mechanics have also established the fact, which is confirmed by experiment, that a fluid mass in motion produces (as the result of the variation of the centrifugal force on its different diameters), a swelling towards the equatorial diameter of the sphere, and a flattening at the poles or extremities of its axis. It is in consequence of this law, that the Earth, when it was in a liquid state, became swollen at the equator, and depressed at its two poles; and that it has passed from its primitive spherical form to the spheroidal--that is, has become flattened at each of its polar extremities, and has assumed its present shape of an oblate spheroid.