As we purpose for the present to confine ourselves exclusively within the
telluric sphere of nature, it will be expedient to cast a preliminary glance
over the relations in space of solids and fluids, the form of the Earth, its
mean density, and the partial distribution of this density in the interior
of our planet, its temperature and its electro-magnetic tension. From the
consideration of these relations in space, and of the forces inherent in
matter, we shall pass to the reaction of the interior on the exterior of our
globe; and to the special consideration of a universally distributed natural
power -- subterranean heat; to the phenomena of earthquakes, exhibited in
unequally expanded circles of commotion, which are not referable to the
action of dynamic laws alone; to the springing forth of hot wells; and,
lastly, to the more powerful actions of volcanic processes. The crust of
the Earth, which may scarcely have been perceptibly elevated by the sudden
and repeated, or almost uninterrupted shocks by which it has been moved from
below, undergoes, nevertheless, great changes in the course of centuries in
the relations of the elevation of solid portions, when compared with the
surface of the liquid parts, and even in the form of the bottom of the sea.
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