Explanations: A Sequel to "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation"

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Wiley & Putnam, 1846 - Creation - 142 pages
 

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Page 150 - ... in nature the law of the tendency of fluids to distribute themselves so as to equalize the pressure on every side of each of their particles ; as in the case of the trade winds, and the monsoons. Lightning might once have been supposed to obey no laws; but since it has been ascertained to be identical with electricity, we know that the very same phenomenon in some of its manifestations is implicitly obedient to the action of fixed causes. I do not believe that there is now one object or event...
Page 181 - The process of tracing regularity in any complicated and at first sight confused set of appearances, is necessarily tentative : we begin by making any supposition, even a false one, to see what consequences will follow from it ; and by observing how these differ from the real phenomena, we learn what corrections to make in our assumption.
Page 18 - almost always seen to assume, at the instant of their formation, a movement of rotation upon themselves— s, movement which constantly takes place in the same direction as that of the ring. Moreover, as the ring, at the instant of its rupture, had still a remainder of velocity, the spheres to which it has given birth tend to fly off at a tangent ; but as, on the other side, the...
Page 47 - There were seas supporting crustacean and molluscan life, but utterly devoid of a class of tenants who seem able to live in every example of that element which supports meaner creatures. This single fact, that only invertebrated animals now lived, is surely in itself a strong proof that, in the course of nature, time was necessary for the creation of the superior creatures.

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