"The process of combination and cooling having gone on until those elements which are not volatile in the heat of our ordinary furnaces were condensed into a liquid form, we may here inquire what would be the result, upon the mass, of a further reduction of temperature. It is generally assumed that in the cooling of a liquid globe of mineral matter, congelation would commence at the surface, as in the case of water; but water offers an exception to most other liquids, inasmuch as it is denser in the liquid than in the solid form. Hence ice floats on water, and freezing water becomes covered with a layer of ice, which protects the liquid below. With most other matters, however, and notably with the various mineral and earthy compounds analogous to those which may be supposed to have formed the fiery-fluid earth, numerous and careful experiments show that the products of solidification are much denser than the liquid mass; so that solidification would have commenced at the centre, whose temperature would thus be the congealing point of these liquid compounds. The important researches of Hopkins and Fairbairn on the influence of pressure in augmenting the melting-point of such compounds as contract in solidifying are to be considered in this connection.
"It is with the superficial portions of the fused mineral mass of the globe that we have now to do; since there is no good reason for supposing that the deeply seated portions have intervened in any direct manner in the production of the rocks which form the superficial crust. This, at the time of its first solidification, presented probably an irregular, diversified surface from the result of contraction of the congealing mass, which at last formed a liquid bath of no great depth surrounding the solid nucleus. It is to the composition of this crust that we must direct our attention, since therein would be found all the elements (with the exception of such as were still in the gaseous form) now met with in the known rocks of the earth. This crust is now everywhere buried beneath its own ruins, and we can only from chemical considerations attempt to reconstruct it. If we consider the conditions through which it has passed, and the chemical affinities which must have come into play, we shall see that these are just what would now result if the solid land, sea, and air were made to react upon each other under the influence of intense heat. To the chemist it is at once evident that from this would result the conversion of all carbonates, chlorides, and sulphates into silicates, and the separation of the carbon, chlorine, and sulphur in the form of acid gases, which, with nitrogen, watery vapor, and a probable excess of oxygen, would form the dense primeval atmosphere. The resulting fused mass would contain all the bases as silicates, and must have much resembled in composition certain furnace-slags or volcanic glasses. The atmosphere, charged with acid gases, which surrounded this primitive rock must have been of immense density. Under the pressure of such a high barometric column, condensation would take place at a temperature much above the present boiling-point of water, and the depressed portions of the half-cooled crust would be flooded with a highly heated solution of hydrochloric acid, whose action in decomposing the silicates is easily intelligible to the chemist. The formation of chlorides of the various bases, and the separation of silica, would go on until the affinities of the acid were satisfied, and there would be a separation of silica, taking the form of quartz, and the production of a sea-water holding in solution, besides the chlorides of sodium, calcium, and magnesium, salts of aluminium and other metallic bases. The atmosphere, being thus deprived of its volatile chlorine and sulphur compounds, would approximate to that of our own time, but differ in its greater amount of carbonic acid.
"We next enter into the second phase in the action of the atmosphere upon the earth's crust. This, unlike the first, which was subaqueous, or operative only on the portion covered with the precipitated water, is sub-aerial, and consists in the decomposition of the exposed parts of the primitive crust under the influence of the carbonic acid and moisture of the air, which convert the complex silicates of the crust into a silicate of alumina, or clay, while the separated lime, magnesia, and alkalies, being converted into carbonates, are carried down into the sea in a state of solution.
"The first effect of these dissolved carbonates would be to precipitate the dissolved alumina and the heavy metals, after which would result a decomposition of the chloride of calcium of the sea-water, resulting in the production of carbonate of lime or limestone, and chloride of sodium or common salt. This process is one still going on at the earth's surface, slowly breaking down and destroying the hardest rocks, and, aided by mechanical processes, transforming them into clays; although the action, from the comparative rarity of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, is less energetic than in earlier times, when the abundance of this gas, and a higher temperature, favored the chemical decomposition of the rocks. But now, as then, every clod of clay formed from the decay of a crystalline rock corresponded to an equivalent of carbonic acid abstracted from the atmosphere, and equivalents of carbonate of lime and common salt formed from the chloride of calcium of the sea-water." [159]
H.—TANNIN AND BHEMAH.
The following synopsis of the instances of the occurrence of the words tannin and tan will serve to show the propriety of the meaning, "great reptiles," assigned in the text to the former, as well as to illustrate the utility in such cases of "comparing Scripture with Scripture:"
| 1. TANNIN. | |
| Exod. vii., 9.—Take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. | Probably a serpent, though perhaps a crocodile. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakôn].") |
| Deut. xxxii., 33.—Their vine is the poison of dragons. | Probably a species of serpent. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakôn].") |
| Job vii., 12.—Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me. | Michaelis and others think, probably correctly, that the Nile and the crocodile, both objects of vigilance to the Egyptians, are intended. (Septuagint, "[Greek:drakôn].") |
| Psa. lxxiv., 14.—Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength. Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. | Evidently refers to the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, under emblem of the crocodile. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakôn].") |
| Psa. xci., 13.—The young lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under foot. | The association shows that a powerful carnivorous animal is meant. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakôn].") |
| Psa. cxlviii., 7.—Praise the Lord, ye dragons and all deeps. | Evidently an aquatic creature. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakôn].") |
| Isa. xxvii., 1.—He shall slay the dragon in the midst of the sea [river]. | A large predaceous aquatic animal (the crocodile), used here as an emblem of Egypt. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakôn].") |
| Isa. li., 9.—Hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon. | Same as above. |
| Jer. li., 34.—[Nebuchadnezzar] hath swallowed me up as a dragon. | A large predaceous animal. (Septuagint, [Greek: "drakôn.">[) |
| Ezek. xxix., 3.—Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the rivers. | In the Hebrew tanim appears by mistake for tannin. This is clearly the crocodile of the Nile.Verses 4 and 5 show that it is a large aquatic animal with scales. (Septuagint, [Greek: "drakôn.">[) |
| 2. TAN. | |
| Psa. xliv., 19.—Thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons. | Some understand this of shipwreck; but, more probably, the place of dragons is the desert. (Septuagint, [Greek: "kakôsis.">[) |
| Isa. xxxiv., 13.—[Bozrah in Idumea] shall be a habitation of dragons and a court of owls [or ostriches]. | An animal inhabiting ruins, and associated with the ostrich. (Septuagint, [Greek: "seirên.">[) |
| Isa. xliii., 20.—The wild beasts shall honor me, the dragons and the ostriches, because I give water in the wilderness. | Evidently an animal of the dry deserts. (Septuagint, [Greek: "seirên.">[) |
| Isa. xiii., 22.—Dragons in their pleasant palaces. | Represented as inhabiting the ruins of Babylon, and associated with wild beasts of the desert. (Septuagint, [Greek: "xchinos.">[) |
| Isa. xxxv., 7.—And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of dragons,where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. | An animal making its lair or nest in dry, parched places. (Septuagint, [Greek: "hornis.">[) |
| Job xxx., 29.—I am a brother of dragons and a companion of ostriches. | The association indicates an animal of the desert, and the context that its cry is mournful.(Septuagint, [Greek: "seirên.">[) |
| Jer. ix., 11; x., 22.—I will make Jerusalem heaps, a den of dragons. | Same as above. See also Jeremiah xlix., 33; li., 37; and Mal. i., 3, where the word is in thefemale form (tanoth). (Septuagint, [Greek: "drakôn">[ and [Greek: "strouthos.">[) |
| Lam. iv., 3.—Even the sea-monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones.The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. | In the Hebrew text the word is tannin, evidently an error for tanim.The suckling of young, and association of ostriches, agree with this. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakôn].") |
| Micah i., 8.—I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning like the owls [ostriches]. | The wailing cry accords with the view of Gesenius that the jackal is meant. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakôn].") |