Our correspondent from Sens, whose observation about the Spiritist party we published in the previous issue, added to his letter another one regarding the increase in the volume of Earth, and that we were forced to postpone due to the abundance of material.
“I ask you again, sir, for your permission to submit to you a reflection that came to me while reading your last book on Genesis. Page 161 there reads: “At the time when the terrestrial globe was an incandescent mass, it did not contain one atom more nor less than today. However, the Spirits have said that there aren’t two different laws for the formation of main bodies and secondary bodies;” and then, I read somewhere else, that the plants give back to Earth more than they borrow from it. I do not know if this is well established and scientifically demonstrated, but according to this data and others, not to mention the meteorites that are today an undisputed fact, couldn’t it be the case that one day we discover that our globe is still acquiring volume, that would contradict this assertion?" It is very true that the plants give back to the soil more than they take from it; but the globe is not only composed of the solid part, and the atmosphere is an integral part of it; However, it has been proven that plants feed as much, and even more, on aerial fluids drawn from the atmosphere than on solid elements absorbed by the roots. Considering the quantity of plants that have lived on Earth since its origin, not to mention animals, the atmospheric fluids would long be exhausted if they did not feed on a permanent source; this source is in the decomposition of solid, organic and inorganic matters, that return to the atmosphere as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon and other gases that had been extracted from it. It is therefore a constant exchange, a perpetual transformation that takes place on the surface of the globe. Here it is just like the water that rises as vapor and falls back as rain, keeping the quantity always the same. The growth of plants and animals, operating with the aid of the constituent elements of the globe, their remains, however considerable they may be, they do not add a single atom to the mass. If the solid part of the globe increased, by this cause, in a permanent mode, it would be at the expense of the atmosphere, that would diminish accordingly, and would end by being unfit for life.
At the origin of Earth, the first geological layers were formed from solids momentarily volatilized, by the effect of high temperature, later condensed and precipitated by cooling. They undoubtedly raised somewhat the surface of the ground, otherwise it would have stopped at the granite layer, but without adding anything to the total mass, since it was only a displacement of matter. When the atmosphere, purged from the foreign elements that it held in suspension, moved into its normal state, things followed the regular course they have had since. Today, the slightest modification in the constitution of the atmosphere would inevitably lead to the destruction of present living beings; but then, probably, new races would be formed in different conditions of vitality.
Considered from this point of view, the mass of the globe, that is the sum of molecules that compose the whole of its solid, liquid, and gaseous parts, is incontestably the same since its origin. If it experienced expansion or condensation, its volume would increase or decrease, without any change in the mass. Therefore, if the mass of Earth increased, by the addition of new molecules, it would be by the effect of a foreign cause since it could not draw the elements necessary for its growth from itself.
Some people believe that the fall of meteorites can be a cause of increase in the volume of Earth; others, regardless of ways and means, are based on the principle that since the animals and plants are born, grow and die, the planetary bodies must be subjected to the same law.
First, the origin of the meteorites is still problematic; it was even thought for a long time that they could be formed in the upper regions of Earth's atmosphere, by the condensation of gasified matters coming from Earth itself; but assuming that they have a source foreign to our globe, that they come from the debris of a few broken planets, or that they form spontaneously by the condensation of interplanetary cosmic matter, in which case they could be considered as abortions of planets, their accidental fall could not give rise to a noticeable, and even less so, regular increase of our globe.
On the other hand, the similarity that one would claim to establish between plants and planets is lacking in accuracy, because that would make the latter organic beings, which is not admissible.
According to another opinion, the globe can grow by the influx of interplanetary cosmic matter drawn in its course through space, incessantly depositing new molecules on its surface. There is nothing irrational about this doctrine, for in this case the increase would take place by addition and superposition, as with all inorganic bodies; but, apart from the fact that one might wonder where this increase would stop, it is still too hypothetical to be admitted as a principle. It is only a system opposed by contrary systems, because, according to others, instead of acquiring, Earth spends, by the effect of its movement, meaning that it loses part of its molecules to space, and so, instead of growing, it diminishes. Between these two theories, positive science has not pronounced yet, and it is probable that it will not be able to do so soon, for lack of material means of observation. We are therefore reduced to formulating reasoning based on the known laws, that can give probabilities, but not certainties yet.
Here is, in response to the proposed question, the articulated opinion of the eminent Spirit who dictated the wise uranographic studies reported in chapter VI of
Genesis.
Parisian Society, July 1868, medium Mr. Desliens
The worlds become exhausted as they age and tend to dissolve to serve as formation elements for other universes. Little by little they give back to the universal cosmic fluid of space what they have drawn from it to form. In addition, all bodies wear out from friction; the rapid and incessant movement of the globe through the cosmic fluid has the effect of constantly reducing its mass, albeit by an inappreciable amount at a time.[1] The existence of worlds can, in my opinion, be divided into three periods. First period: condensation of matter, in which the volume of the globe decreases considerably, and the mass remains the same; it is the period of childhood. - Second period: contraction, solidification of the crust, hatching of germs, development of life until the appearance of the most perfectible kind. At this moment the globe is in all its plenitude: it is the age of virility; it loses, but very little, of its constituent elements. As its inhabitants progress spiritually, it passes into the period of material decline; it loses, not only because of friction, but also by the disintegration of molecules, like a hard stone that, eaten away by time, ends by falling to dust. In its double movement of rotation and translation, it leaves in space fluidic parcels of its substance, until the moment when its dissolution is complete. But then, since the attractive force is proportional to the mass - I am not saying the volume - the mass decreasing, its conditions of equilibrium in space are modified; dominated by more powerful globes to which it can no longer counterbalance, deviations in its movements are produced and in its position with respect to the sun; it suffers new influences, and from there emerge changes in the conditions of existence of its inhabitants, while waiting for it to disappear from the scene of the world. Thus, birth, life, and death; childhood, virility, and decrepitude, these are the three phases through which any agglomeration of organic or inorganic matter passes. It is only the Spirit, that is not matter, that is indestructible."Galileo.” What happens to the inhabitants of a destroyed world? They do what the inhabitants of a demolished house: they will settle elsewhere, in better conditions; the globes are, for them, only temporary stations; but it is likely that when a globe has reached its period of dissolution, it has long ceased to be inhabited, for then it can no longer provide the elements necessary for the maintenance of life.
Everything is an insoluble problem in nature, if we disregard the spiritual element; on the contrary, everything is explained, clearly, and logically, if that element is considered.
It should be noted that, according to the order of ideas expressed in the above communication, the end of a world would coincide with the greatest amount of progress of its inhabitants, compatible with the nature of that world, instead of being the signal of a reprobation that would condemn the majority to the eternal disgrace.
[1] In its translational movement around the sun, the speed of Earth is 400 leagues per minute. Earth’s circumference is 9,000 leagues at the equator, so that in its movement of rotation on its own axis, each point of the equator travels, consequently, at 9,000 leagues in twenty-four hours, or 6.3 leagues per minute.
Note: 1 nautical league is approximately 3.45 miles (T.N.)
