Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) by Herbert Spencer (best fiction novels to read TXT) 📕

Gases Generated; There Are Currents Established In The   Surrounding Air.

Moreover The   Decomposition Of    One Force Into Many Forces Does Not End

Here: Each Of    The   Several Changes Produced Becomes The   Parent Of    Further

Changes. The   Carbonic Acid Given Off Will By And By Combine With Some

Base; Or Under The   Influence Of    Sunshine Give Up Its Carbon To The   Leaf

Of A Plant. The   Water Will Modify The   Hygrometric State Of    The   Air

Around; Or, If The   Current Of    Hot Gases Containing It Come Against A

Cold Body, Will Be Condensed: Altering The   Temperature, And Perhaps The

Chemical State, Of    The   Surface It Covers. The   Heat Given Out Melts The

Subjacent Tallow, And Expands Whatever It Warms. The   Light, Falling On

Various Substances, Calls Forth From Them Reactions By Which It Is

Modified; And So Divers Colours Are Produced. Similarly Even With These

Secondary Actions, Which May Be Traced Out Into Ever-Multiplying

Ramifications, Until They Become Too Minute To Be Appreciated. And Thus

It Is With All Changes Whatever. No Case Can Be Named In Which An Active

Force Does Not Evolve Forces Of    Several Kinds, And Each Of    These, Other

Groups Of    Forces. Universally The   Effect Is More Complex Than The   Cause.

Doubtless The   Reader Already Foresees The   Course Of    Our Argument. This

Multiplication Of    Results, Which Is Displayed In Every Event Of    To-Day,

Has Been Going On From The   Beginning; And Is True Of    The   Grandest

Phenomena Of    The   Universe As Of    The   Most Insignificant. From The   Law

That Every Active Force Produces More Than One Change, It Is An

Inevitable Corollary That Through All Time There Has Been An

Ever-Growing Complication Of    Things. Starting With The   Ultimate Fact

That Every Cause Produces More Than One Effect, We May Readily See That

Throughout Creation There Must Have Gone On, And Must Still Go On, A

Never-Ceasing Transformation Of    The   Homogeneous Into The   Heterogeneous.

But Let Us Trace Out This Truth In Detail.

Without Committing Ourselves To It As More Than A Speculation, Though A

Highly Probable One, Let Us Again Commence With The   Evolution Of    The

Solar System Out Of    A Nebulous Medium.[3] From The   Mutual Attraction Of

The Atoms Of    A Diffused Mass Whose Form Is Unsymmetrical, There Results

Not Only Condensation But Rotation: Gravitation Simultaneously Generates

Both The   Centripetal And The   Centrifugal Forces. While The   Condensation

And The   Rate Of    Rotation Are Progressively Increasing, The   Approach Of

The Atoms Necessarily Generates A Progressively Increasing Temperature.

As This Temperature Rises, Light Begins To Be Evolved; And Ultimately

There Results A Revolving Sphere Of    Fluid Matter Radiating Intense Heat

And Light--A Sun.

There Are Good Reasons For Believing That, In Consequence Of    The   High

Tangential Velocity, And Consequent Centrifugal Force, Acquired By The

Outer Parts Of    The   Condensing Nebulous Mass, There Must Be A Periodical

Detachment Of    Rotating Rings; And That, From The   Breaking Up Of    These

Nebulous Rings, There Must Arise Masses Which In The   Course Of    Their

Condensation Repeat The   Actions Of    The   Parent Mass, And So Produce

Planets And Their Satellites--An Inference Strongly Supported By The

Still Extant Rings Of    Saturn.

Should It Hereafter Be Satisfactorily Shown That Planets And Satellites

Were Thus Generated, A Striking Illustration Will Be Afforded Of    The

Highly Heterogeneous Effects Produced By The   Primary Homogeneous Cause;

But It Will Serve Our Present Purpose To Point To The   Fact That From The

Mutual Attraction Of    The   Particles Of    An Irregular Nebulous Mass There

Result Condensation, Rotation, Heat, And Light.

It Follows As A Corollary From The   Nebular Hypothesis, That The   Earth

Must At First Have Been Incandescent; And Whether The   Nebular Hypothesis

Be True Or Not, This Original Incandescence Of    The   Earth Is Now

Inductively Established--Or, If Not Established, At Least Rendered So

Highly Probable That It Is A Generally Admitted Geological Doctrine. Let

Us Look First At The   Astronomical Attributes Of    This Once Molten Globe.

From Its Rotation There Result The   Oblateness Of    Its Form, The

Alternations Of    Day And Night, And (Under The   Influence Of    The   Moon) The

Tides, Aqueous And Atmospheric. From The   Inclination Of    Its Axis, There

Result The   Precession Of    The   Equinoxes And The   Many Differences Of    The

Seasons, Both Simultaneous And Successive, That Pervade Its Surface.

Thus The   Multiplication Of    Effects Is Obvious. Several Of    The

Differentiations Due To The   Gradual Cooling Of    The   Earth Have Been

Already Noticed--As The   Formation Of    A Crust, The   Solidification Of

Sublimed Elements, The   Precipitation Of    Water, Etc.,--And We Here Again

Refer To Them Merely To Point Out That They Are Simultaneous Effects Of

The One Cause, Diminishing Heat.

Let Us Now, However, Observe The   Multiplied Changes Afterwards Arising

From The   Continuance Of    This One Cause. The   Cooling Of    The   Earth

Involves Its Contraction. Hence The   Solid Crust First Formed Is

Presently Too Large For The   Shrinking Nucleus; And As It Cannot Support

Itself, Inevitably Follows The   Nucleus. But A Spheroidal Envelope Cannot

Sink Down Into Contact With A Smaller Internal Spheroid, Without

Disruption; It Must Run Into Wrinkles As The   Rind Of    An Apple Does When

The Bulk Of    Its Interior Decreases From Evaporation. As The   Cooling

Progresses And The   Envelope Thickens, The   Ridges Consequent On These

Contractions Must Become Greater, Rising Ultimately Into Hills And

Mountains; And The   Later Systems Of    Mountains Thus Produced Must Not

Only Be Higher, As We Find Them To Be, But They Must Be Longer, As We

Also Find Them To Be. Thus, Leaving Out Of    View Other Modifying Forces,

We See What Immense Heterogeneity Of    Surface Has Arisen From The   One

Cause, Loss Of    Heat--A Heterogeneity Which The   Telescope Shows Us To Be

Paralleled On The   Face Of    The   Moon, Where Aqueous And Atmospheric

Agencies Have Been Absent.

But We Have Yet To Notice Another Kind Of    Heterogeneity Of    Surface

Similarly And Simultaneously Caused. While The   Earth's Crust Was Still

Thin, The   Ridges Produced By Its Contraction Must Not Only Have Been

Small, But The   Spaces Between These Ridges Must Have Rested With Great

Evenness Upon The   Subjacent Liquid Spheroid; And The   Water In Those

Arctic And Antarctic Regions In Which It First Condensed, Must Have Been

Evenly Distributed. But As Fast As The   Crust Grew Thicker And Gained

Corresponding Strength, The   Lines Of    Fracture From Time To Time Caused

In It, Must Have Occurred At Greater Distances Apart; The   Intermediate

Surfaces Must Have Followed The   Contracting Nucleus With Less

Uniformity; And There Must Have Resulted Larger Areas Of    Land And Water.

If Any One, After Wrapping Up An Orange In Wet Tissue Paper, And

Observing Not Only How Small Are The   Wrinkles, But How Evenly The

Intervening Spaces Lie Upon The   Surface Of    The   Orange, Will Then Wrap It

Up In Thick Cartridge-Paper, And Note Both The   Greater Height Of    The

Ridges And The   Much Larger Spaces Throughout Which The   Paper Does Not

Touch The   Orange, He Will Realise The   Fact, That As The   Earth's Solid

Envelope Grew Thicker, The   Areas Of    Elevation And Depression Must Have

Become Greater. In Place Of    Islands More Or Less Homogeneously Scattered

Over An All-Embracing Sea, There Must Have Gradually Arisen

Heterogeneous Arrangements Of    Continent And Ocean, Such As We Now Know.

Once More, This Double Change In The   Extent And In The   Elevation Of    The

Lands, Involved Yet Another Species Of    Heterogeneity, That Of

Coast-Line. A Tolerably Even Surface Raised Out Of    The   Ocean, Must Have

A Simple, Regular Sea-Margin; But A Surface Varied By Table-Lands And

Intersected By Mountain-Chains Must, When Raised Out Of    The   Ocean, Have

An Outline Extremely Irregular Both In Its Leading Features And In Its

Details. Thus Endless Is The   Accumulation Of    Geological And Geographical

Results Slowly Brought About By This One Cause--The Contraction Of    The

Earth.

When We Pass From The   Agency Which Geologists Term Igneous, To Aqueous

And Atmospheric Agencies, We See The   Like Ever Growing Complications Of

Effects. The   Denuding Actions Of    Air And Water Have, From The   Beginning,

Been Modifying Every Exposed Surface; Everywhere Causing Many Different

Changes. Oxidation, Heat, Wind, Frost, Rain, Glaciers, Rivers, Tides,

Waves, Have Been Unceasingly Producing Disintegration; Varying In Kind

And Amount According To Local Circumstances. Acting Upon A Tract Of

Granite, They Here Work Scarcely An Appreciable Effect; There Cause

Exfoliations Of    The   Surface, And A Resulting Heap Of    _Débris_ And

Boulders; And Elsewhere, After Decomposing The   Feldspar Into A White

Clay, Carry Away This And The   Accompanying Quartz And Mica, And Deposit

Them In Separate Beds, Fluviatile And Marine. When The   Exposed Land

Consists Of    Several Unlike Formations, Sedimentary And Igneous, The

Denudation Produces Changes Proportionably More Heterogeneous. The

Formations Being Disintegrable In Different Degrees, There Follows An

Increased Irregularity Of    Surface. The   Areas Drained By Different Rivers

Being Differently Constituted, These Rivers Carry Down To The   Sea

Different Combinations Of    Ingredients; And So Sundry New Strata Of

Distinct Composition Are Formed.

And Here Indeed We May See Very Simply Illustrated, The   Truth, Which We

Shall Presently Have To Trace Out In More Involved Cases, That In

Proportion To The   Heterogeneity Of    The   Object Or Objects On Which Any

Force Expends Itself, Is The   Heterogeneity Of    The   Results. A Continent

Of Complex Structure, Exposing Many Strata Irregularly Distributed,

Raised To Various Levels, Tilted Up At All Angles, Must, Under The   Same

Denuding Agencies, Give Origin To Immensely Multiplied Results; Each

District Must Be Differently Modified; Each River Must Carry Down A

Different Kind Of    Detritus; Each Deposit Must Be Differently Distributed

By The   Entangled Currents, Tidal And Other, Which Wash The   Contorted

Shores; And This Multiplication Of    Results Must Manifestly Be Greatest

Where The   Complexity Of    The   Surface Is Greatest.

It Is Out Of    The   Question Here To Trace In Detail The   Genesis Of    Those

Endless Complications Described By Geology And Physical Geography: Else

We Might Show How The   General Truth, That Every Active Force Produces

More Than One Change, Is Exemplified In The   Highly Involved Flow Of    The

Tides, In The   Ocean Currents, In The   Winds, In The   Distribution Of    Rain,

In The   Distribution Of    Heat, And So Forth. But Not To Dwell Upon These,

Let Us, For The   Fuller Elucidation Of    This Truth In Relation To The

Inorganic World, Consider What Would Be The   Consequences Of    Some

Extensive Cosmical Revolution--Say The   Subsidence Of    Central America.

The Immediate Results Of    The   Disturbance Would Themselves Be

Sufficiently Complex. Besides The   Numberless Dislocations Of    Strata, The

Ejections Of    Igneous Matter, The   Propagation Of    Earthquake Vibrations

Thousands Of    Miles Around, The   Loud Explosions, And The   Escape Of    Gases;

There Would Be The   Rush Of    The   Atlantic And Pacific Oceans To Supply The

Vacant Space, The   Subsequent Recoil Of    Enormous Waves, Which Would

Traverse Both These Oceans And Produce Myriads Of    Changes Along Their

Shores, The   Corresponding Atmospheric Waves Complicated By The   Currents

Surrounding Each Volcanic Vent, And The   Electrical Discharges With Which

Such Disturbances Are Accompanied. But These Temporary Effects Would Be

Insignificant Compared With The   Permanent Ones. The   Complex Currents Of

The Atlantic And Pacific Would Be Altered In Direction And Amount. The

Distribution Of    Heat Achieved By These Ocean Currents Would Be Different

From What It Is. The   Arrangement Of    The   Isothermal Lines, Not Even On

The Neighbouring Continents, But Even Throughout Europe, Would Be

Changed. The   Tides Would Flow Differently From What They Do Now. There

Would Be More Or Less Modification Of    The   Winds In Their Periods,

Strengths, Directions, Qualities. Rain Would Fall Scarcely Anywhere At

The Same Times And In