545. Geology is the history of the formation of the planet. It is the doctrine which comprises the structure and thus the form, with the organs or members of the planet, if we would compare the latter with an organic body.
1.Form of the Planet.
546. Crystallization belongs to the essence of the earth as the globular form does to that of water. The life of the earth consists in the formation of crystals. The being of the earth and of the crystal are identical. The solid planet earth, has originated also according to the laws of crystallization.
547. It is not, however, a single large crystal, the structure of which appears to be homogeneous; but it is crystallized in its smallest parts; it is an accumulation of crystals, which its atoms, integral parts, orconstituent formspresent for our examination. If a schorl or feldspar were extended to the size of the whole earth, its integral parts, though undiscoverable before by the microscope, would then become visible. Crystals would be exhibited therein of silicious, argillaceous, talcose, and calcareous earths, of iron, boracic acid, &c. In short it would prove a complexkindofrockormountain. The fundamental or principal mass of the planet is thus a granularkindofrockormountain, probably like granite. Each of these constituent forms is crystallized for itself out of the fluid-mass according to the laws developed in the theory of crystallization, in every point of the fluid a globe of crystallizing forces being constituted, that generated the constituent forms.
548. The earth (regarded as planet, not as element) has during its coagulation into a solid nucleus, generated an infinity of polar spheres, as every polar line consists of an infinite vicissitude of poles.
549. These integral crystals have originated only in drops of water; for then only was an infinite multitudeof polar axes and polar radii separated from each other. Water in infinitely numerous drops is rain. In the primary rain each drop crystallized, and each fell towards the centre, because the primary water ranged over a vast extent. The granular rock has originated in and out of rain. It is crystallizedrain.
550. It does not follow from this, that the earth should be an accidental accumulation of small crystals, which, by the rotation of the planet, formed themselves mechanically into a spheroid. As in small crystals the infinity of poles reunites to constitute some principal polarities, so also is this the case with the globe of the earth; this results from its genesis whereby it is present in a definite space, and hence coheres or hangs together asonepiece. The earth is onlyonesmall punctule of contraction wrought in æther-space by the agency of light. Again, it was without doubt a single central tension, which, occurring upon a large scale, attracted together all the particles of æther, and from that circumstance arranged them also. It was probably magnetism, which is so intimately connected with the rotation of the earth's axis, or the conflict of magnetism in its interior with the electricity upon its surface, which was active in the condensation and arrangement of the masses.
551. This arrangement of the parts of the earth, upon a large scale, is a regulation of its constituent forms. The adjusting forces are, however, those that operate through the whole sphere, and are thus linear and spherical at one and the same time. By these the laminæ of the nucleus were determined. The constituent forms of the earth are consequently arranged in laminæ. What in the crystal is called the cleavage of the laminæ, is in the earthstratification. The strike of the strata combined with their dip determines the crystal nucleus of the earth.
552. The strike and dip of the strata happened without doubt according to definite laws of crystallization, and has by no means been resigned to elevating force, mechanical dislocation, or even to chance.
553. On this very account the two directions of theearth's laminæ cannot have a similar bearing over the whole earth. They can only have a long tract extending in the same direction in individual mountain-chains. This does not, however, exclude a parallel strike and dip occurring in some wholly different quarter of the world; it must indeed occur, and in such instances we meet with the opposing sides or edges of the earth's nucleus.
554. The earth has without doubt originated according to the laws of the polyhedron, which represents in the nearest manner the globe. The polyhedron of the globe is the rhomboidal dodecahedron.
555. The land cannot therefore have an equal elevation everywhere above the water, because the crystal consists of edges, angles, and surfaces or sides. The mountain tops are probably the angles, the mountain ridges or chains the edges, the plains the lateral surfaces of the crystal.
556. Several mountain-chains run parallel, but interrupted, with the equator. This parallelism extends to the most temperate zones. Then follow oblique mountain-chains, as the Carpathian, Alps, Pyrenees. Lastly, mountain-chains pass from the poles to the equator, as the Sewo, Ural and Altai mountains. Subordinate mountain-chains unite the latter transversely and the former in the direction of the meridian. The earth is probably aregularnet of crystal edges and angles, and thus of crystal surfaces also.
PRIMARY VALLEYS.
557. Although the earth may be regarded as originally a crystal, that consists of level surfaces, edges and angles, wide fissures may still have originated between its laminæ, such as we see in large crystals of felspar. These fissures or gaps are the primary valleys.
558. There must be therefore valleys or parallel valleys, which probably extend for hundreds of miles, and are many miles deep—Longitudinal valleys.
559. The laminæ of the earth had without doubt transverse fissures, which have been called hidden passages. These transverse fissures are the transverse valleys, which are consequently less long and deep.
560. The mountains originate of themselves. They do not properly originate, but valleys only originate, and the ridges of the crystal laminæ afford the mountains. The mountains have not been originally upheaved above the surface of the earth, nor the valleys depressed. A valley, which is several miles broad, must originally have been several miles deep, and the mountain wall consequently several miles high. The earth at its origin was a cloven and jagged polyhedron, a polyhedric star, such as the moon is still.
561. The mountains are not therefore large crystals, which crystallized above the surface of the earth. They are only crystal laminæ, and may be as irregular as possible in form; for they are ruptured crystals.
562. The water, which from the beginning had covered the polyhedron, now sunk into the primary valleys. From the water resulted new and final crystallizations, and these deposited themselves in the valleys, upon the level ground and the flanks of the mountains; and thus the fathomless primary valleys have been in part filled up. There are no longer any primary valleys upon the earth.
563. After the water was once confined in narrow canals, it must begin to flow, and by the force of its current many a steep primary wall must have fallen in, been crumbled into ruins, and either been left upon the spot or washed away—Diluvial drift rocks (Trümmersteine), Nagelfluhe, Stratified rocks.
564. The principal direction of the water was formerly, as it is even now, determined by the rotation of the earth; it flowed therefore from east to west under the equator, from north-east to south-west in our temperate zones, and pretty well from the north or from the poles toward the equator in the frigid zones.
565. The primary valleys, which had originated in these directions, were more excavated by aqueous agency than those which ran in other directions, new valleysbeing also produced; the mountain chains therefore upon the earth agree in the main with the water courses, and, though not generated from, have been certainly changed in character by, the latter. Such must be our conclusion, if in the formation of the earth nothing but crystallization be taken into consideration. Condensation alone brings yet other phenomena along with it.
566. The first and most important of these is the elevation of temperature. We cannot think otherwise than at the first precipitation of the earthy a number of huge cavities remained in the interior of the earth, which were filled with water. This being heated, was converted into steam, which thrust up the superincumbent rock, and converted it into new mountains or mountain-chains. These agencies of heat may be called primary volcanoes, although they are not to be confounded with volcanoes proper.
567. The igneous cavities were probably placed in a certain order, according with the original edges and angles of the earth's body. They may have therefore thrown up mountain tops and chains.
568. But the cavities, besides raising mountain chains, could just as well depress or allow them to sink in, and thus produce valleys. By these means the seas have probably been formed. Like the seas so also have the inland seas or lakes originated.
569. Lastly, a similar origin must be ascribed to the world-sea or ocean. Many earthquakes arose, with all their concomitant phenomena, by partial and sudden falling in of the deep descending cavities of the earth. Frequently that which fell in was again driven out by the expansive force of the suddenly compressed air.
2.Organs of the Planet.
570. The principal mass or body of the planet is formed by the earths proper, as being the typical or genuine representatives of the earth-element. The otherclasses, as the metallic minerals or ores, the Inflammables, and salts, are to be regarded only as viscera of this body. If we take a circumspective glance at the planet, we cannot fail to recognize this remarkable relation, that it is properly the elemental families only of the earths that form the mountain masses, while the other families are only scattered within them, like the glands in an animal body. Let us again place the Families in tabular contrast with each other.
SILICIOUS,ARGILLACEOUS,TALCOSE andCALCAREOUS-EARTHS.A.Earth-silices.Earth-clays.Earth-talcs.Earth-calces.Fam.1. Quartz.1. Felspar.1. Mica.1. Lapis-lazuli.2. Zircon.2. Sapphire.2. Sappharine.2. Mesotype.3. Emerald.3. Ruby.3. Talc.3. Stellite.4. Leucite.4. Epidote.4. Angite.4. Tabular-spar.5. Topaz.5. Schorl.5. Hornblende.5. Boracite.6. Diamond.6. Azurite.6. Asbestus.6. Phosphorite.7. Garnet.7. Harmotone.7. Olivine.7. Titanite.B.Water-silices.Water-clays.Water-talcs.Water-calces.8. Hornstone.8. Clay-slate.8. Serpentine.8. Hydrophyllite.C.Air-silices.Air-clays.Air-talcs.Air-calces.9. Tripoli.9. Clay-stone.9. Lithomarge.9. Gypsum.D.Fire-silices.Fire-clays.Fire-talcs.Fire-calces.10. Obsidian.10. Lava.10. Basalt.10. Limestone.
571. Now we here observe that only Quartz, Hornstone, Tripoli and Obsidian, occur as mineral aggregates in large masses, while all the others are only rare precious stones. Among the Clays, only Felspar, Clay-Slate, Hornstone and Lava. Among the Talcs, only Mica, Serpentine, Lithomarge, and Basalt. Among the Calcareous-earths, which incline towards the nature of salts, all the first families are of rare occurrence, and the latter only appear as mineral masses. This regularity speaks moreover retrospectively in favour of the correctness of the classification. The families have thus the same import or value in Geology as in Oryctognosy.
A.—EARTHS.
572. The proper organs of the planet are the mineral aggregates or rocks. These are either presented to us as they have originally been precipitated from water by chemical process, or as they have been changed by the co-operation of the other elements. There are thusgeneticandmetamorphosedkinds of rock. The former were crystallized previous to the current of the water—Primary rocks. These rocks are changed either—
1. By water—Transition-rocks, or2. By air—Trappean-rocks.3. By fire—Volcanic-rocks.
1. By water—Transition-rocks, or2. By air—Trappean-rocks.3. By fire—Volcanic-rocks.
There are properly four kinds of rock formations—
1. Earth-formation, masses that have originated through the crystallizingforce of the earth-element itself—Primary-rocks.2. Aqueous-formation—Transition-rocks.3. Aerial-formation—Trappean-rocks.4. Igneous-formation—Volcanic-rocks.
1. Earth-formation, masses that have originated through the crystallizingforce of the earth-element itself—Primary-rocks.2. Aqueous-formation—Transition-rocks.3. Aerial-formation—Trappean-rocks.4. Igneous-formation—Volcanic-rocks.
The stratified rocks, having originated for the most part mechanically, are only the object of Physio-philosophy, in so far as chemical precipitations partly occur amongst them.
573. The earth-formation is represented by the crystallized primary rocks.
a.Earth-Formation.
574. The earths can only be precipitations from the element that immediately precedes them, and thus from water. They have been enveloped in the water, as this has been in the air, and the latter again in the æther, but not mechanically, as we at present dissolve clay in water, nor chemically either, as lime dissolves by corrosion in water, but dynamically. The water did not exist from the beginning as water in the air, but only its principles, which became for the first time water, when they had combined by electricity.
575. Even so was it the case with the earths. Theprimary water, which was present prior to the solid nucleus of the earth, is not the water, with which we are at present acquainted; it had still the earthy principles, the basic in itself, which being separated by a differencing act from the oxygenous of the water, was deposited as carbon specially produced. No calcareous, argillaceous, and silicious earth was imbedded in the primary water. How then could they have been dissolved in it? Some say, by a great quantity of acids which prevailed at that time; but from whence then did these acids come? The largest quantity of them resides in lime, gypsum, and common salt; but how could this quantity, which has not so much as acidified all the calcareous earth, have held the rest of the earths in solution? And then again are all the earths soluble by the process of acidification? We cannot reason in geogeny, as we would of a common chemical precipitation, where we precipitate earths that have been dissolved by elective affinities.
576. The earthsoriginatedfor the first time, when they were separated from the primary water. The instant of their precipitation was also the instant of their generation, even as rain is, or rather was, a production of the water. It is easy to say that the earths had been dissolved in the water, and were then precipitated by elective affinities. But it is absurd to rest content with such an assertion. The chief question still remains; how did the earthy originate, before the earth was? Every one can say how that which had already originated, and was only suspended in water, was precipitated. But we are in the habit of distinguishing the several earths, before having taken a survey of matters and inquired if earths then existed.
577. It must not, however, be thought, that all had happened in a gradual manner; that air was first converted into water, and lastly, after a lapse of some thousand years, the latter again into earth, without with the one element the principles conducting to the others being already and necessarily imparted. No, everything has been granted and determined atonestroke, even as withthe impregnation of the ovum all the organs of the future embryo are determined, although they first develop themselves gradually. The same agent, which creates the air solicits also its two principles unto combustion in the water; and the same act, which separates the oxygen gas out of the air as water, separates also the carbon from it to constitute earth. Not one can be posited, without the other being codetermined.
578. The analysing principle cannot be a something internal residing in the planet itself. But all that it is, it is through antagonism with the sun. This antagonism is light. This it is that divorces or separates the elements from their matrix; it is light, which has sundered the æther into the twofold air, and the air again into the denser elements, water and earth, separating the oxygen from the nitrogen and later on from the carbon, which must be taken up in water as an oxide.
579. At the commencement of the separation the fluid must be the first to emerge, because the cohesion or fixation of the poles is possible only in a successive manner, yet not as if water were according to its determination to be the first and the Earthy the second in the order of production. As the oxygen separated from the air to create water, so also must the carbon that was left have been precipitated from the water and metamorphosed into earth. Thence and thence only may we venture to say, that the earths originated out of water; for, properly speaking, they arose as absolutely for themselves as air and water; but as air succeeded æther, and water air, so did the earth the water.
580. Whatever be the bulk of the mass of water, to the same extent is the Earthy, or the germ of the Earthy, diffused throughout it. The whole is a fluid mass of earth. Light, however, penetrates the mass of water as a transparent body. As translucency is not a mechanical but a dynamic act, or process of differentialization in matter; so does this earth-water become separated into a mass of oxygen and carbon, or into ordinary water and into the earth-element.
581. The genesis of the earths is a process of conduction of light. All transparency is a formation of earth; for it is a separation of the Aqueous from the body of gravity. Where non-transparency exists, there has earth been already formed.
582. As the conducting process of light is an act of deoxydation, so are the earths at the same time also deoxydized by precipitation, and this in four stages which indicate the elements whereby light operates upon the Basic in water; or it might be said, by the four colours of, or by coloured, light. We already know that the earth, which presents in itself the most dismembered character is the calcareous earth; but that those which have preserved a more identical character in themselves are the silicious, argillaceous, and talcose earths. These earths may be viewed as those in which the lime has absorbed a proportion of oxygen, which has in it become carbonic acid. There is indeed onlyoneearth-substance in water. In this substance, which is neither silex nor calx, the polar principle has distributed itself, and that very portion, which has obtained the most thereof, has become calcareous earth.
583. The calcareous earth has originated in the upper parts of the aqueous globe, the other earths, however, in the depths, in the middle of that globe; for in the upper regions of the water, the light can exert a greater polarizing influence, and therefore that very earth is generated which stands nearest to the æther or to the light, viz. the different calcareous earth. But in the depths of the water, the light loses its energy, and is no longer in a condition to elicit the Oxygenous in the Basic; thereby identical and more fixed earths originate.
GRANULAR ROCK OR GRANITE.
584. The differenced calcareous earth has been associated with the differential water, remained for a longer period identical with and dissolved in it, and was therefore the last to be precipitated from it. The silicious earth with its neighbours must necessarily have been the first to separate from the water, as it is in a proper sense,that earth from which all water has been withdrawn. Two periods of precipitation exist therefore in geogeny, one that of the identical or fundamental earths, and one of the internally subdivided calcareous earths.
585. The silicious, argillaceous, and talcose earths must occupy, from their having been first precipitated, the middle of the planet. The water being earthy everywhere, had everywhere the capacity to become earth; but different earths originated, where the light was different in the fluid mass of earth. In pure light, or that upon the surface, the Earthy dualized itself into calcareous earth; in situations, where the light exercised less influence, the Earthy became talcose, still deeper argillaceous earth; lastly, at such a depth where the light could scarcely reach, the Earthy became a pure Earthy or silicious earth.
586. Precipitation, both upon a large and small scale, is a process of crystallization; the integral parts of the planet originate, like the nucleus and the perfected crystal, through central action and polar action. The integral forms of the planet impart the crystalline granule or its joints.
587. The integral forms of the three fundamental earths crystallized with and through each other intoonemass, or, in other words, the nucleus of the earth consists of a crystalline mass of the three fundamental earths. The solid nucleus of the earth consists of crystals upon a small scale of silex, clay, and talc.
588. As, however, no pole is produced of perfect purity in nature, so are the integral forms not perfectly pure fundamental earths, but other and later factors enter also into their composition, e. g. calcareous earth, with even ores and salts. The silicious earth is crystallized as quartz, the argillaceous as feldspar, the talc as mica.
589. The mixture of the three crystallized fundamental earths, which composes the nucleus of the earth, and upon which the polarized masses of soil have been supported, is therefore a definite species of rock, which has all the properties ofGranite, although that which has been extruded from the earth may have been altered by heat.
590. As the mass of the earth is about five times denser than water; so must the planet, before the Earthy was separated, have been much denser than at present. With its separation the fluid must have suddenly diminished, and moved towards the middle point of the planet. During the descent of water for many miles in extent, it must separate in drops. The separation of the earths was combined with rain.
591. In every falling drop the three fundamental earths, which are insoluble in water, crystallized. The first crystals therefore are only of the size of drops. It is only by this mode of origin that the crystallization into one another of the three constituent parts of granite without any cementing substance can be comprehended. Granite is an earthy hail-storm. The hail-stones crystallized during their fall in a similar manner with each other.
592. Upon the whole the silicious character predominates in granite, as the primary formation of the planet, and must do so, for silicious earth is the primary earth, the principal earth of this precipitation, and one from which clay and talc subsequently proceed, being higher heterogynisms produced by light. Properly speaking only two perfectly different characters of earth exist, the silicious earth as the pure separation of the Earthy, and the calcareous earth, as the last separation of the water from the Earthy. It may also be said that in the calcareous earth fire, in the talcose earths the air, in the argillaceous earth water has exercised its influence and displaced the Earthy. Not only quartz is silicious earth, but feldspar and mica consist in a great measure of the same. Still, however, these last two constituent forms are wholly different from quartz, and very far removed from the nature of silex; the feldspar obviously forming the transition to clay by its resolution into porcellanic earths, but the mica passing over into talc.
593. There does not exist in nature an order of silex, clay, or talc, so soon as we take up these earths in a simply chemical manner. Nature instead of silex produces quartz, instead of clay feldspar, instead of talc mica; and these must be the earths, that determine this partof the mineral system; they are the characters of orders; there is thus properly no order of silex but of quartz, none of clay but of feldspar, none of talc but of mica, at least according to their signification.
594. The points of origin for this division of the mineral system or that formed by the fundamental earths are the three fundamental crystallizations, and upon theseeverythingthat does not belong to the calcareous earth must and does naturally arrange itself. The mineral system is only the developed and separated granite. The fact cannot rest unobserved, that mica has only one laminar cleavage, feldspar two, quartz three, this being for the first time a perfect crystal, a double tetrahedron with one column.
595. With granite and with it alone the solidity, the body and form of the earth has been given; it is the homogeneous fundamental mass of the planet, and is therefore crystallized throughout to the finest degree in its three constituent forms.
GNEISS AND MICA-SCHIST.
596. If, in addition to granite, several formations are displayed which bear traces of the same mode of origin, of the same component parts and the same aggregation, it may be inferred that they are only metamorphoses of the same precipitate. Granite is the basis of geogeny.
597. Granite is a totality for the earth, it is a representation of the three terrestrial elements under the form of identical earth; it is the earth represented in silex, water in clay, and air in talc; it is an universe represented individually in the earth-elements.
598. The granite can undergo metamorphosis in only three ways; for its essence is indeed only trinity. Nothing can individualize itself from granite but quartz, feldspar, and mica. All the formations of this period are thusquartz,feldspar, ormica formations. The granite appears under a threefold form as quartz, feldspar, and mica-granite.
599. The first quartz formation is properly the graniteitself, and its character will be also the determinant for all the metamorphoses of quartz—quartz-granite.
600. The first structure, in which the character of feldspar as regards its laminated form and its more argillaceous nature obtains the preponderance, isGneiss—Feldspar-granite.
601. The first structure in which mica is the predominant character, is theMica-schist—Mica-granite.
602. All rocks that do not belong to the calcareous formation come under these three forms. The progressive formation of the earth takes a threefold course, since it begins in a threefold and yet single manner in granite.
603. The gneiss and mica-schist precipitations followed subsequently to the completion of granite. For all precipitation is a true process, in which water has a certain tension peculiar to this process, by virtue of which this form of earth and no other has been produced.
604. By granite the silicious principally came out of water, but what was argillaceous and talcose remained behind.
605. Gneiss and mica-schist are indeed subdivided granite, but not in the sense of the already perfected granite having been again stirred up and dissolved, but as already separated in principles, in the primary water.
606. Gneiss and mica-schists are products of a more mighty operation of light than granite. They are nearer to the upper layers of water.
607. After the granitic rain, or after the formation of granite, the sphere of water was no longer perfectly transparent; but water was now found also in the primary valleys, in which the light had more power, and thus greater capacity for splitting. During the formation of granite the water has only become polar by light; but, as it was there wholly transparent without opposition, it could never attain to a perfect dualization. In the second earth-rain and in the valleys, the light on the contrary produces dualization of the fundamental earths, since the sides of the mountains afford opposition to the light, become themselves polar against the water, and at the same time heat is produced.
608. Gneiss and mica-schist enter into a polar relation with gravity, and that indeed as a Different to an Identical, as periphery to centre or as light to gravity.
609. Now the falling granite had in part lost its quartz and obtained a predominance of feldspar. Furthermore as the water-globe was already greatly collapsed, the crystals thus originated in larger drops, and occurred besides in water already stagnant or flowing. The schistose gefüge must have emerged as well through the preponderance of the laminar felspar, as by the flowing of water and the attraction of the granite-walls. This schistose granite isgneiss.
610. When the gneiss was thrown down the talc predominated in the water; it now fell in the same manner with less quartz and feldspar, and was deposited in a still more schistose form than mica-schist.
611. Granite, gneiss and mica-schist are the first that together form a Whole, each factor whereof has been evolved in an equally perfect manner.
LAMINATION.
612. By this active antagonism of granite to gneiss and mica-schist theLaminationof the latter is determined. Every particle of gneiss is attracted from the granite-wall and placed in a definite direction, corresponding to the polar operation of granite; the particles of gneiss already deposited attract the coming ones, and so on. The parts of the gneiss and mica-schist are not deposited upon the granite by virtue of their dead or inert gravity, but by virtue of living polar attraction. They are not therefore deposited in the depth of the primary valleys, nor do they fill up the latter; but they are attracted by the granite-walls and deposited to a greater or less extent like laminæ of crystallization, in large perpendicular layers.
613. By these two precipitations the primary valleys were in part filled up, and partly narrowed by the polar attraction of the walls. The primary valleys therefore are no longer present upon the earth, unless everythingbe called a primary valley that has not arisen or been excavated by the current of water.
614. Gneiss and mica-schist have indeed taken part in the primary crystallization, yet are, however, only its last movements, as the water had already met with resistance, and was partly stagnant; their mass therefore is not so purely crystallized as granite. They are not parts of the earth's nucleus, but lie only like a crust upon it like hollow crystals.
615. It may be said that gneiss and mica-schist originated only because there were fathomless valleys in the granite, in which the dissevering actions were inclosed, and extended themselves from one mountain-wall to another, while the light could be reflected in them and heat the earth.
616. So long as the granite was devoid of valleys, so long also did no other formation originate. This is proved by the fact that upon the highest mountains the granite is bare and uncovered, while this is not the case upon its lateral walls. It is therefore the second and third earth-rain that first originated, after the earth was heated. Gneiss and mica-schist are, so to speak, precipitated by reflected light.
617. The principal valleys of gneiss and mica-schist have not originated by themselves, but have been modelled according to the form of the granitic valleys. The valleys of those earth-precipitates are properly only subsequent valleys.
618. The lamination is not everywhere a mechanical phenomenon, but without doubt also a polar. It is exactly the same law, which determines the lamination of crystals, that does that of the strata of the earth, and operates also in producing their lamination.
PRIMARY LIMESTONE.
619. The earths must be viewed asonemass, the component parts of which observe a mutual relation. Now, after the silex, clay and talc had been precipitated, a proportionate abundance of lime became free, which wasthen thrown down at the end of this period of precipitation, asPrimary limestone.
620. The calcareous mass may be viewed as corrosive earth, from which a certain quantity of carbon has been set free. As such, and combined with the oxygen developed out of the water by the influence of light to form carbonic acid, the lime was insoluble and was precipitated.
621. The primary limestone has also not been mechanically deposited. It has a crystalline texture, is a calcareous granite, and generally succeeds the mica-schist formation.
b.Water-Formation—Transition-Rocks.
METAMORPHOSIS OF THE PRIMARY PRECIPITATIONS.
622. The metamorphosis of the granite did not terminate with these precipitations. They are only the starting points for the metamorphosis, in which the effort was first manifested to free themselves from the primary combination. In the metamorphosis of earths, the fundamental earths, or the constituent parts of granite, strove to become each for itself a particular rock. They were all identified in quartz; in granite they for the first time parted company with each other, yet still formed a common sphere; lastly, in gneiss and mica-schist they all separated into three spheres, but which still did not differ in mass from granite.
623. Individualization had not yet been attained. The gneiss had still all the constituent parts of the granite, as well as the mica-schist; both are only a more peripheric, slaty granite, the one having a preponderance of the Argillaceous, the other of the Talcose. With these formations, however, Geogeny cannot remain stationary; for verily the law of the development of the world is individualization. Instead of granite, simply quartz, instead of gneiss simply clay, instead of mica-schist simply talc must be separated; and then the termination of this period is attained, the trinity of the simple earths has been completely represented.
624. All the Earthy could not have been separated from the water by the first storm of precipitation. For the water now rested very much collapsed upon the earth's nucleus, and could no longer therefore assume the form of rain. That therefore which was now precipitated could no longer be thoroughly crystallized, but must follow the current and disquietude of the water, and thus emerge from it in a slaty or massive condition.
625. The quartz of the granite endeavours to set itself free from the clay and talc, or it becomes freed by the latter removing from it in virtue of its polar behaviour. There is therefore one series of rocks, in which the granite is constantly rejecting the feldspar and mica more and more, and at last subsists as quartz simply, whichquartzose rocksas forming entire mountains are for intelligible reasons not of frequent occurrence.
626. The completion of the gneiss in its entire separation from the granite, and the evolution of feldspar upon a large scale constitutes theclay-slate, and finally clay-stone and clay-porphyry. This yields us a new series of formations, in which the gneiss gradually attains to being divested of quartz and mica and to a pure position as feldspar. The clay-slate is a true gneiss, that has lost the definite particles of quartz and mica.
627. The position of mica-schist constitutes in its purity the talc-formation, talc-slate, chlorite-slate, hornblende-slate.
628. After these several precipitations, the calcareous mass remains behind in the water, and now, as in the first periods of crystallization, is charged with carbonic acid, and is precipitated as transitionary calx under the form ofmountain limestone.
629. These formations are found upon the whole to be arranged on the earth, in the order of time at which they were precipitated from the water. In the middle of the loftiest mountains is granite, then gneiss and mica-schist; then follow quartzose rocks, clay-slate or porphyry, talcose rocks, and lastly on the edge of all these runs the chain of alpine or mountain limestone. In the last ofthese formations are found fossil remains of corals and molluscous animals. For these formations fell first of all after the water had a solid bottom, and the granitic mountains projected above it.
SEDIMENTARY OR STRATIFIED ROCKS.
630. The period had now arrived in which the fundamental earths, being upon the whole completed, predominate. That which was separated in a chemical way from the Earthy out of water, has been in great part precipitated. This period, however, although the first and most extensive, indicates but the half of Geogeny, or as yet only one pole in the genesis, which requires the other. In the beginning both poles were in the water, that of the fundamental earths as well as that of the calcareous earth; the light shone upon, dissevered them, and earths, the most heterogeneous in respect to water, were first of all precipitated.
631. While the fundamental earths were precipitated, the calcareous earth was repelled and retained, on account of its homogeneity, in water, because the acid half continued longer fluid than the basic. The water was thus after its separation from these substances a true limewater.
632. Through this separation, however, the great antagonism in the water ceased; and subordinate antagonisms now made their appearance, which were kept united by the former. The calcareous earth is now occupied no more as one pole, but is the whole water itself, upon which, as it is less deep, the light acts anew and with greater force.
633. The dispersions of earths began just at this period to multiply themselves, from the only fettering agent, namely gravity, having betaken itself to rest; every earthy now emerges from its connexions, the factors falling wholly asunder into alkalies and acids, which combine in a multifarious manner.
634. These dispersions associated with the torrents of water that were now everywhere present preventedcrystallization from taking place upon a large scale; they moreover mingled with the mechanically water-borne and crumbling débris of the earlier species of rocks; their laminations therefore resemble rather a mechanical deposit from water. They are theStratified rocks.
635. As the first period must include the calcareous earth, so also in the period of strata or in the dualized period this earth is not without a slight antagonism of the fundamental earths; and this it is which for the first time becomes distinct, but always with a preponderance of the calcareous over the fundamental earths, while in the primary periods this relative proportion of the two was the reverse.
636. The primary period repeats itself again in the second, and thus strata consisting of the fundamental earths originate, as we have seen exemplified in the primary and transition formations of limestone. The precipitation of strata is divided also into four formations, into silicious, argillaceous, talcose and calcareous strata, close to which range also the strata of ores, Inflammables and salts.
637. In other respects the chemical deposits of this period are so blended with the mechanical, that their mode of origin seems for the most part to have happened in both ways.
638. The silicious formation returning in the stratified periods is chiefly under the condition ofsandstone. Apart from that, which has originated through the detritus of the older kinds of rocks, it may be assumed, that the prevailing lime still held some silicious earth in a state of moisture within itself, and that this during its separation was precipitated as a fine alcohol, namely, as sand. If, however, sand fell, so also must a proportionate quantity of lime fall, by combining itself with an acid. Sand and lime therefore usually accompany each other. If the two be regarded also as only floated freely and suspended in water, still the chemical antagonism manifests itself between them as if they were in a mortar, and they have been precipitated in layers alternating witheach other. The sandstone is as a rule therefore imbedded in the lime; it is a mortar containing but little lime. The mechanical silicious deposits are exemplified in the Nagelfluh, old red sandstone, Grauwacke, sandstone and drift-sand.
639. The stratified clay appears to have been deposited as clay-stone; it passes over into slate and potters' clay. The talcose strata pass by serpentine and potters' stone into steatite and meerschaum.
STRATIFIED LIMESTONE.
640. The pole which had operated continuously from the fundamental earths contained in the Earthy has now separated from it, and the tension is again extinguished. The Earthy is now contained in a pure state in water without continuance of the silicious pole; the influx of water has now obtained the preponderance. So soon, however, as the antagonism of this water to the stratified silex, clay and talc ceases, the more internal, hitherto restrained by the feebler antagonism, becomes awakened, as it did after the precipitation of the fundamental earths.
641. The principles are necessarily combined more firmly in the fundamental than in the calcareous earths. In this both the oxygenic and basic earth-principle must each attain for itself completion, and represent the two primary bodies in the earth with the same capacity for separation and activity.
642. The production of earths results from a constant antagonism subsisting between them and water. The more the Basic is thrown down, by so much does the Oxygenous preponderate to a greater degree in water. The water becomes oxydized and seeks to divide into its two principles, into oxygen and hydrogen.
643. By this contest tension is also excited in the earth-principles, namely, oxygen and carbon, and they begin in themselves to separate. The metallic basis of the earths strives to become free. During the separation, however, the oxygen snatches as it were some carbonalong with it and appears as carbonic acid; but the carbon of the earthy lays claim to some of the hydrogen and oxygen to combine with it and appears as corrosive or calcareous earth.
644. The acid is therefore a half of the earth, which passes over into water, and the corrosive earth is also a half of the earth that has lost its Aqueous. The former is the Aqueous in the earths, the latter the Earthy itself separated from the former.
645. The corrosive force is therefore no peculiar action in nature, but only the effort made by the earths to complete themselves and imbibe water or acid. The corrosive force is no synthesis, but a moiety.
646. A total earth may be therefore regarded as a combination of acid and corrosive body. These two component parts are separable in the calcareous and talcose earths; but in the argillaceous and silicious earths they are so intimately dissolved, that they can not be separated from each other.
647. Carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, but not oxygen, fall or range upon the corrosive side of the earth in question.
648. Regarded in this general manner the corrosive principle stands opposite to the principle of combustion, and what is combustible, is in idea corrosive. The corrosive power is, however, but feeble in the gaseous nitrogen, stronger in hydrogen and finally strongest in the body of earth. The earthy carbon is the proper corrosive principle. The direct antagonism is not therefore between the corrosive body and oxygen, but between it and the carbonic acid, and therefore between it and all the acids, or acidity generally. The last earthy antagonism is that between the corrosive body and acid.
649. The corrosive body regarded specially as simply a pure earthy body, must stand opposite to the two moveable elements. The corrodent is therefore constantly striving to draw water and air into itself, and upon this depend also the effects produced by the corroding matters. The corrosive calcareous earth acts in a destructive manner,it abstracts water and air from bodies. The action of the corrosive body is a deprivation of water and air, and hence the elevated temperature of burnt lime in water. If again the corrosive lime be full of water and air, it is neutralized. It is now forsooth again a total earth, in a mechanical sense being again provided with water and acid. All earths are an equal or identical mixture. Acids and alkalies are thus to be regarded in this respect as moieties, and thereupon their chemical relation appears to depend. The elemental bodies are desirous to complete themselves. If therefore a base stands in corresponding import with a certain acid, it will thus have a greater affinity for the latter, tending to separate it from some other combination. Upon this principle, which has indeed been hitherto unknown to exist, the grades of affinity appear to depend.
650. As regards the mode of occurrence of the calcareous earth, it also is not of so mechanical a nature as is generally supposed. Its legitimate relation to sandstone and other precipitations, speak against that. But crystallization has for the most part disappeared in it; and it is only in cavities that crystals shoot out, like the ores in metallic veins. In granite the commencement is crystal, but in lime it is the termination; crystallization determines the character in granite, in calx or lime, however, the crystals are only blossoms.
651. The calcareous earth multiplies itself as a reduction of the earth of gravity and that indeed three times. There exists, so to speak, a corrosive silicious as also argillaceous and talcose earth. The three corrosive earths are calcareous earth, strontian and baryta, or it may be said that the first would be salt, the second Inflammable, and the third, metal.
652. Still a polar separation emerges in the stratified calx, while the two earth-principles become more individualized. The carbonate of lime ranks on the lowest stage. In this, however, the differencing process of light had not remained stationary, but elevated the carbon to a higher grade; carburetted hydrogen and sulphur originate in the calcareous earth combined as gypsum, with oxygen.
653. It may be said, that calx were decomposed into alkali and carbon; water into oxygen and acid. Carbon and oxygen become carbonic acid in limestone. Carbons and hydrogen become sulphur, combined with oxygen sulphuric acid in gypsum. Hydrogen and oxygen become hydrochloric acid in common salt.
654. Gypsum is to be regarded as a calcareous earth, which is inflammable in character, as the fundamental earths were metallic. The philosophical essence of gypsum consists not in its oxydation by sulphuric acid, but in the combination of calcareous earth with sulphur, as occurs in that of iron-spar with iron; in this combination, however, the carbonic acid has still remained, whereby the sulphur became acid. The gypsum was therefore a carbonaceo-sulphate of lime, an oxydized metal with a very large proportion of calcareous earth.
655. Gypsum and chalk are related polarwise to each other, separate during the general precipitation, and are deposited opposite to, or alternately upon, each other.
656. In fluor-spar, apatite and boracite the last differentialization of lime and carbonic acid is lost. The principal masses are the carbonate and sulphate of lime.
657. The strata of the Inflammables, such as of pit-coal, and of the ores, as of iron, calamine, appear to have originated in simply a mechanical manner.
REPEATED SEDIMENTARY PRECIPITATIONS.
658. The precipitating process is a process of polarization, which comprises several stages. In it there are moments of time.
659. If the fluid mass be large, this polarization will then require considerable time to penetrate throughout it.
660. The polarizing process will issue from a definite point, which is different from water, and thus form the point upon which the light operates with greatest force.
661. This is solid ground. During the calcareous precipitation, there was no other ground present savethat of the mountain tops. It was thus from these that the calcareous precipitation set out.
662. With each precipitation a greater number of mountain tops made their appearance, because the water sank; for the calcareous earth is about three times denser than water.
663. Such being the conditions belonging to the sedimentary periods, several consecutive centuries characterized by precipitations with repeated recessions and elevations of the water, elapsed and have left evidence of the time thus consumed.
664. The recession of the water was not always an ebbing or sinking in, but a diminution or disappearance of the same, like the water in a glass lessens in quantity, or becomes thoroughly solid, if salt crystallizes therein.
665. By such precipitations whole basins of land became dry or freed from sea-water. Streams therefore of fresh water originated, and with them corresponding organizations.
666. These streams gradually filled the basins and formed seas. As the seas coalesced by the constantly descending water, an inland sea arose.
667. This inland sea became again salidified, and that indeed of itself by the influence of light and the dissolution of the salt-banks, which were not overflown. Such is still the Caspian sea and others of that kind. In these marine plants and animals could again originate.
668. Thereupon new precipitations of salt succeeded, the gypsum and calx being again dissolved, and consequently diminutions also of water, whereby rivers again originated. One and the same basin of land was alternately covered with fresh and saline water.
669. Marine and fresh-water animals could therefore originate and perish alternately. And this is the explanation of the fact why banks inclosing both kinds of animals are found above and below each other.
670. An alternating ingress of the sea is not therefore necessary in all cases to explain the occurrence of marine fossil remains. Such an assumption is alsowholly inconceivable. Nor is alternating elevation and depression of the soil necessary to the explanation of this phenomenon.
671. During the time of precipitation the temperature of the water and consequently of the earth and air also was necessarily raised. All creatures, which then originated, must correspond therefore to those of warmer climates.
672. The fossil remains do not require the assumption of a change having taken place in the inclination or bearing of the earth's axis; nor of a heating of the surface by a fiery interior.
673. With every later precipitation other animals and plants must originate, because the temperature and also the mixture of water was changed. The fossils therefore indicate the age of the sedimentary strata.
674. During the last precipitations the creatures of colder climates must have originated.
675. Land animals cannot, or but rarely, be found in the sedimentary strata, if even they had already been in existence prior to their formation. For the inundations did not break in suddenly, but the water rose by degrees. They had time therefore to retire to the high grounds.
676. Land plants may, on the contrary, lie in the sedimentary strata, because of their inability to escape.
677. The bones of birds and men must be found least of all fossilized, because a retreat by them was most easily effected. It does not follow, from our not finding them, that they have not existed.
678. The different fossil remains have therefore not simply lived, where they are found, but originated there also. Some of course may have been floated also to these localities.
679. The inundations of water were in general necessary, because basins of land and precipitations were everywhere present; but not all on that account at the same time.
680. In this sense there was a general flood, a deluge, namely, for every land.
c.Air-formation.
TRAP-ROCKS.
681. Vapours and gases of different kinds may be contained in the interior of the earth in two ways, either chemically combined as carbonic acid, or mechanically inclosed in cavities of the earth. Both may be developed, or expanded by calefaction, and the latter by diminution of pressure.
682. If those that are chemically combined be developed by calefaction, they then form vesicular spaces in the masses of earth whereby the latter are extended and raised above the surface; such as amygdaloid, basalt and others of this kind.
683. Warm springs may originate by subterraneous processes, chemical or volcanic; probably, too, by the compression of air that has forced its way into these situations.
684. Earthquakes may indeed originate in different ways; as in addition to the falling in of cavities, by the chemical development also of gases, by their subjection to heat, by aqueous vapours, and also by the sudden diminution of pressure upon these incarcerated gases.
685. This diminution of pressure proceeds from sudden rarefaction of the atmosphere—due probably to the disappearance of air in a particular place, or resulting from a change of the wind, or the formation of heavy rain. Earthquakes can therefore extend through many countries, without requiring to depend upon each other or on a common focus of action.
686. The silicious trap is silicious sinter, tripoli and polierschiefer.
687. The argillaceous trap, amygdaloid, clinkstone, several porphyries.
688. The talcose trap, basalt.
689. The calcareous trap, probably chalk.
d.Fire-formation.
VOLCANIC-ROCKS.
690. Volcanoes are secondary combustions of masses that have originated through the primary combustion, and are therefore only of local occurrence. Such combustible masses are without doubt bodies belonging to the class of Inflammables, and thus carbons, sulphur, sulphuretted metals. Simply burning gases would throw up on high the masses of earth, but not heat them to the degree of fusion.
691. By the heat of these combustions the masses of earth have been fused, forming lavas. The silicious lavas are obsidian, pitch-stone. The argillaceous lavas are the kinds usually met with. Next come the talcose lavas. The calcareous lavas are probably dolomite.
B.—METALLIC ORES AND INFLAMMABLES.
692. Metallic-ores and Inflammables are products of the planet, when completed, and have not originated along with the origin of the latter, like the earths. The question accordingly arises, what have been the forces by which the metals and Inflammables were produced.
a.METALLIC VEINS.
693. Fissures in rocks, so narrow that they cannot be illuminated by the sun, are called passages orveins. They are rarely found in granite, appear generally for the first time in gneiss, more rarely in the later kinds of rocks, and almost cease to be met with in the stratified chain of mountains. They are found principally in mountains, and thus in masses of earth which project above the level land. We must thus arrive at the conclusion that they have there originated by actual fissure, and that indeed for this reason, that masses which project or stand freely out would admit of yielding asunder more easily than the masses of the plains. This fissure may takeplace by mechanical disruption, by land-slips, or even also by desiccation.
694. The veins are not prolonged into the kind of rock that underlies them, as e. g. gneiss veins into granite, and so on; they have hence originated from above.
695. They are open and wider above and strike out below; they have not therefore originated by a force acting from beneath.
696. In the schistose rock they form generally transverse fissures.
697. There was a time in which the veins stood empty, as well as a time in which the primary valleys were empty, namely unreplenished with gneiss, mica-schist, and such like minerals.
b. PRODUCTION OF ORE.
698. Geogeny takes two directions; the one passes upon the periphery into the splitting action of light, the other into the abyss, where darkness reigns.
699. The valleys were the condition that conduced to the differentialization of the earths, because in them light had power to produce the highest polarity. By the valleys the Earthy has been separated into its principles; silex has separated into clay and talc, to which finally carbonate calcareous earths and salts succeeded.
700. The Earthy cannot subsist in its identity in the broad valleys; the earth cannot be represented as the pure symbol of gravity. All bodies that have originated upon thesurfaceof the planet are oxydes or salts.
701. If the earth-difference be generated in the illumined valleys, so must the earth-identity be produced in the dark valleys; for it is the absence of light alone that allows the purely Basic to subsist. This earth generated out of gravity is the ore.
702. The ore is a child and a treasure of darkness; where light is, it must vanish; it cannot endure its gaze. Metal when exposed to day is given up to annihilation, to oxydation.
703. Darkness is, however, no power, and can consequently be only the opportunity, not the cause of anything's happening. Other forces, instead of that of light, must have therefore operated in the production of ores. In order to discover these forces the relations of the ores must be carefully weighed or considered.
704. The ore is in a philosophic sense a reduced earth, and so reduced indeed that the basic principle has obtained the preponderance over the oxygenic or supporter of combustion, and attained unto substantiality.
705. In light, in the water forsooth when illuminated, the two earth-principles were already divided internally, but not completely separated; salt only originated, namely an acid and alkali.
706. The ore is, however, a salt wholly reduced, and indeed the reduced alkali has become metal, the reduced acid with the basis of hydrogen, Inflammable, namely, coal or sulphur.
707. Now as light was not able to produce such a separation in the free or full sense of the term, forces must thus have been present in the dark passages, which completed this separation.
708. Ore and Inflammable are the total salt dissevered, and this is the dissolution of the two; the former are blue and yellow, the latter is the compound green.
709. The processes of the formation of salt and of ore are both indeed processes of separation, but yet they stand opposite to, or rather transcend each other. Both mutually conditionate each other.
710. While the earths submitted to the action of light upon the surface of the planet are converted into salt, the process of the formation of ore takes place in the dark or under the earth; or while above the oxygen is predominant, the basic body is that below. The ore imparts upon a large scale its oxygen to the salt, and the salt bestows its basic body on the ores.
711. No ores could originate in the middle of the earth were light even to have no access thereunto. Fornot merely do earth and darkness belong to the genesis of the ore, but earthy water like as unto salt.
712. The ore is not a conversion of earths that have already existed, or been actually separated; but it originates first of all during the process of separation. Where ore is, fluid has thus been, and polarity, which is not directly derived from light. The ore is a mere child of the planet, a pure terrestrial essence generated without the joint assistance of the heaven, and therefore the highest substantiality of the planet, the spirit of the earth.
713. What gneiss and mica-schist, calx and salt, are in the bright valleys, such is the ore in the dark valleys; the former are the differenced ore, and this is their identification.
714. There is no peculiar metallic body or seed, which had already existed in the primary creation as something special or peculiar, and which by one process only, as perhaps even by its gravity, was precipitated or posited from the fluid mass. One and the same substance, if found exposed in a valley to the light, becomes earth; but ore when it is in a dark passage.
715. Of a certainty neither clay, sand, talc, or calx become metal. For these are at once definitions of the spirit, words that have been already completed and expressed, and cannot be recalled; so also the ore will not again become clay, even if it be submitted to light. The indeterminate substance only, which under other conditions might have become clay, becomes in the darkness ore.
716. What is not in idea, prior to the adjustment or fixation of a pole, reduced to ore, can on no account become that out of an already finished mass of earth. Conversions of earth into ore by chemical arts are labours bestowed in vain.
717. Yet if ores do originate, they originate only out of the indefinite Basic, which is still in the water, just as trap stones originate not from a stony dust that pre-existed, but out of the pure indifferent substance of the air.
718. The veins and the formation of ore are one, asare the valleys with the calcareous and salt formations; and he who asks how has the ore originated, must forthwith inquire as to what is the essence of the veins.
719. The ore has not originated externally to the veins and been at some time or other conducted into them by means of water. For how should it thus originate? The reply is, a specific action must have been at work in the fluid, which determined it to separate ore and nothing else. But where is this ore-forming action in the free space of water? Nowhere. And if also the ore had been separated or diffused throughout the whole mass of water, what a world-wonder is it that it merely flowed into the veins and some stockworks? What prevented it from filling in large masses the broader valleys? The mechanical theorist upon metallic veins must assume an attraction on the part of the veins for the ore-particles in water; but how could this attraction have drawn these particles for miles in extent out of the water? and were this action strong enough, it must still be gifted with greater power to produce or at least separate the ore out of the water, that is found in the empty spaces formed by the veins.
720. Since ore has on a large scale separated from the calcareous and salt formations like the Identical from the Different, it has done so also upon a small scale in the veins. There the same process of separation has preceded it.
721. Now, however, nothing can be separated, i. e. nothing be reduced, without the oxygen accumulating upon something else. The Earthy must therefore separate during the formation of metal into the Reduced and Peroxydized.
722. The reduced earthy is the metal or inflammable; the peroxydized, however, an earth proper. This earth is calledvein-stone.
723. The ore hasonlyoriginated in opposition to the vein-stone, and when this has taken the Different of the Earthy into itself. Therefore the vein-stones are also different from the kind of rock in whichthey occur, and that through greater differentialization; they have even receded for the most part into acid and alkaline poles, as calc-spar, fluor-spar, heavy-spar, which are the usual vein-stones. All vein-stones are oxyds and as a rule, those in which the oxygen is freely manifested, namely as acid. The vein-stones were the sheath of the ore, which could first appear when this sheath had withdrawn itself.
724. The metal stands in relation to the vein-stone. Thus in argillaceous vein-stones we commonly meet with iron, manganese; in the quartzoze with gold; in the calcareous with lead, &c. There are here also extremes. There are vein-stones, called sterile veins, in whose antagonism no metal has been formed; and there are veins, that are merely filled with metal, such as the Stockwerke, Lager.
725. Since the ore and the vein-stones thus originate together, and in such a manner that they conditionate each other; their fundamental mass must have been one, and a separating force, which is not light, must have operated upon them.
726. Moreover, as the ores occur only in narrow spaces with their vein-stones and both form alternating tables upon the walls of the veins, they must have been attracted by the latter.
727. The walls of the vein consequently exert a polar influence upon the ore and vein-stone. Now, if this be their mode of action, they must be in a condition to separate the fundamental mass.
728. It is thus the vein themselves, which, by a vital force, produce the metals; they are thus a living womb, or matrix as it has been emphatically termed.
729. Two walls in close juxtaposition are requisite for the production of metal. Upon a freely exposed wall or face of rock no metals are found.
730. By this separation, however, two kinds of minerals originate, Inflammables, and ores proper or metals. The action of the walls must be therefore of a twofold nature.