ipses; the same stars were always visible. This state of the earth
is supposed, from certain geological proofs, to have continued about a
thousand years, during which time the struggle between mind and matter
was solely confined to quadrupeds. Man is thought to have made his
appearance, so far as our documents go to establish the fact, about the
year of the world one thousand and three. About this period, too, it is
supposed that fire was generated by the friction of the earth's axis,
while making the diurnal movement; or, as some imagine, by the friction
of the periphery of the orb, rubbing against vacuum at the rate of so
many miles in a minute. The fire penetrating the crust, soon got access
to the bodies of water that fill the cavities of the earth. From this
time is to be dated the existence of a new and most important agent in
the terrestrial phenomena, called steam. Vegetation now began to appear,
as the earth received warmth from within--"

"Pray, sir, may I ask in what manner all the animals existed
previously?"

"By feeding on each other. The strong devoured the weak, until the most
diminutive of the animalcula were reached, when these turned on their
persecutors, and profiting by their insignificance, commenced devouring
the strongest. You find daily parallels to this phenomenon in the
history of man. He who by his energy and force has triumphed over
his equals, is frequently the prey of the insignificant and vile. You
doubtless know that the polar regions even in the original attitude of
the earth, owing to their receiving the rays of the sun obliquely, must
have possessed a less genial climate than the parts of the orb that lie
between the arctic and the antarctic circles. This was a wise provision
of Providence to prevent a premature occupation of those chosen regions,
or to cause them to be left uninhabited, until mind had so far mastered
matter, as to have brought into existence the first monikin."

"May I venture to ask to what epoch you refer the appearance of the
first of your species?"

"To the monikin epocha, beyond a doubt, sir--but if you mean to ask in
what year of the world this event took place, I should answer, about the
year 4017. It is true that certain of our writers affect to think that
divers men were approaching to the sublimation of the monikin mind,
previously to this period; but the better opinion is, that these cases
were no more than what are termed premonitory. Thus, Socrates, P