THEORY OF THE EARTH |
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Theory of the Earth: Or, the Periodically Recurring Superficial Changes, Or ... James Bradford Babbitt No preview available - 2018 |
Theory of the Earth: Or, the Periodically Recurring Superficial Changes, Or ... James Bradford Babbitt No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
agency analogy ancient animals annual amount aphelion arctic assumed astronomical Carboniferous cause celestial pole climatal changes climatal conditions cold consequent continue cosmic winter Cretaceous cycle decrease degree deposits difference diurnal rotation drift earth with regard earth's axis earth's surface eccentricity ecliptic effect Eocene equal equator equatorial erratic Europe evidence excess exhibit existence extinct fact flora flysch former forms fossil Geol geological period geological record geologist Glacial epoch glacial interval Glacial period glaciers hypothesis inclination increase indicate inhabitants latitudes less light and heat Lyell masses millions Miocene moraine motion northern hemisphere obliquity observed orbit organic peculiar perihelion Permian planets Plio Pliocene polar polar circles poles portion position prevailing produce regions remains result rocks seasons solar heat solar influence solar system species strata summer supposed temperature terrestrial axis theory tion traces transverse revolution transverse rotation Triassic tropical variation vegetation warmth whole
Popular passages
Page 10 - Not as adventitious, therefore, will the wise man regard the faith which is in him. The highest truth he sees he will fearlessly utter ; knowing that, let what may come of it, he is thus playing his right part in the world, — knowing that, if he can effect the change he aims at, well : if not, well also, though not so well.
Page 215 - ... while the Earth remaineth seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Page 12 - She is teaching the world that the ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not authority ; she is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence ; she is creating a firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and physical laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of an intelligent being.
Page 10 - Whoever hesitates to utter that which he thinks the highest truth, lest it should be too much in advance of the time, may reassure himself by looking at his acts from an impersonal point of view.
Page 10 - It is not for nothing that he has in him these sympathies with some principles and repugnance to others. He, with all his capacities, and aspirations, and beliefs, is not an accident, but a product of his time.
Page 42 - ... of the food of the Elk, might be likely to have suspected cryptogamic vegetation to have entered more largely into the food of a still more northern species of the deer tribe. And I can by no means subscribe to another proposition by the same eminent...
Page 10 - He must remember that, while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future ; and that his thoughts are as children born to him, which he may not carelessly let die. He, like every other man, may properly consider himself as one of the myriad agencies through whom works the Unknown Cause ; and when the Unknown Cause produces in him a certain belief, he is thereby authorized to profess and act out that belief.
Page 17 - ... from capricious exertions of creative power; but that they have taken place in a definite order, the statement of which order is what men of science term a natural law. Whether such a law is to be regarded as an expression of the mode of operation of natural forces, or whether it is simply a statement of the manner in which a supernatural power has thought fit to act, is a secondary question, so long as the existence of the law and the possibility of its discover}' by the human intellect are...
Page 192 - Tait seeks to deduce results from them, we are fully justified in following Sir William Thomson, who says that " the existing state of things on the earth, life on the earth, all geological history showing continuity of life, must be limited within some such period of past time as 100,000,000 years.
Page 173 - Light travels through space with a uniform velocity of about 192,000 miles a second. This number has been found by observing the eclipses of one of the moons of Jupiter. The time when the eclipse should begin can be calculated by an astronomer with great accuracy. But it is found that when the earth is in that part of its orbit nearest to Jupiter, the eclipse begins 16 minutes and 36 seconds sooner than it appears to when the earth is in the opposite part of its orbit. It must, therefore, take light...