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Show VELOP:HE~1 OJ' 'I "111: YJ:GI:'I'ABLJJ: AND .A.NI:MAL K.INGDO:MI OF .ANl~L~LS l!'l .ASCENDING SERIES OJ' ROCKS. F«ETAL HUMAN BRAIN' 1 Gneiss and Miea Slate aystem 1 } ~ Clay Slate and Ora wacke Syatem } 3 811urian SJitem 4 Old Red SanclltoDI • • • • • • • • • • ~ Carboniferoat formatioD Saurians (iohthrosau- \ l~a:: : ~ e New Red Sandstone . .. ... . J • •• • • • • • • • • • • 7 Oolite 8 Cre~ceoua~atioD of a manupial animal) {tapirs, horses, '\ (dormouse, squirrel, ~ g Lower Eoceae (racoon, opo•·J (genette, fox, .) {taiDal:aUilll·, ;;.i.; · J 10 Miocene &c.) •••• ~ } deer, kc.) 11 Pliocene (monkeys) • (man) • • • • • • 12 Superftc ht month that of an aTerlebrated animal; ~nd month, tbat of a ftah J 8rd month that of a turtle J ttb month, that. of a bird • 6th month, that of a rodent J etb month, that of a ruminant J 7th month, that · of a dJgltJgracJe animal; 8th month, that of the quadruma na; 9th month attain• full human eA .. racter. !l THE BODIES OF SPACE. THEIR ARRANGEMENTS .AND FORMATION IT is familiar knowledge that the earth which we innabit is a globe of somewhat less than 8000 miles in diant~ ter, betng one of a series of eleven which revolve at different distances around the sun, and some of which have satellites in like manner revolving around them. The sun, planets, and satellites, with the less intelligible orbs termed comets, are comprehensively called the solar system, and if we take as the uttermost bounds of this system the o:cbit of Uranus, (though the comets actually have a wider range,) we shall find that it occ11pies a portion of spac~ not less than three thousand six hundred millions of miles in extent. The mind fails to form an exac~ notion of a portion of space so immense; but some faint idea of it may be obtained from the fact, that, if the swiftest race-horse ever known had begun to traverse it, at full speed, at the time of the birth of Moses,. he would only as yet have accomplished half his journey. It has long been concluded amongst astronomers, that the stars, though they only appear to our eyes as brilliant points, are all to be considered as suns, representing so many solar systems, each bearing a general resemblance to our own. The stars have a brilliancy and apparent magnitude which we may safely presume to be in proportion to their actual size and the distance at which they are placed from us Attempts have been made to ascertain the distance of some of the stars by calculations founded on parallax, it being previously understood that tf a parallax of so much as one second, or the 3600th of a degree could be ascertained in any one instance, the distan ·ce might be assumed in that instance as not less than J 9,200,000 millions of miles! In the case of the most brilliant star, Sirius, even this minute parallax could not be found: from which of course, it was to be inferred that the distance of that star is something beyond the vast dis-. tance which has bee.n stated. In some others, on which |