Possibilities of Creation; Or, What the World Might Have Been

A Book of Fancies. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.

THE author describes his work as a treatise of the Bridgewater class. We should rather describe it as a reductio ad absurdum in Natural Philosophy. A great deal of humor, ingenuity, and information are brought into play to turn the world upsidedown, for the very laudable purpose of demonstrating that it is better to be right side up, — a method of demonstration curious and interesting enough, if comprised in a single essay, but rather long-drawn-out, when spread over four hundred pages. Suppose, for instance, is the writer’s mode of argument, a malicious demon let loose, with power to set the earth topsy-turvy, on condition of keeping it still an earth. With what exultation does he bestride the Himalayas to watch the convulsions which he causes ! How does he kick his heels against the mountain-flanks, in ecstasy at seeing men bleached and blistered with the chlorine or nauseated with the sulphuretted hydrogen which he has substituted for our wholesome and pleasant air ! Or what should we do, if potato-roots had happened to be moistened with gin instead of water ? What if men, instead of standing godlike erect, had been great balls of flesh, rolling along the ground as best they could, — if Young’s poetical figure had been a practical truth, and this globe were the Bedlam of the universe, — if the fixity of Nature had been shattered, and we sat down at our feasts to find the soup bitter as strychnine, the wine changed into vinegar, and mild ale fiery as vitriol ? What if wrinkles and gray hairs came in the twinkling of an eye, — if children were born with matured minds,—if no one were capable of anger,— and men started at the same point to arrive at the same conclusions? In short, —

To all which startling inquiries we are fain to say, that, if Merrie England sits under her present squally skies in such a frame of bliss that she must have recourse to her imagination, when she wishes to contemplate a nice little imbroglio, she must be awarded the palm for being what Mark Tapley would call “jolly under creditable circumstances.” For ourselves, we frankly confess that we find quite trouble enough in steering among the realities of creation, without caring to venture far out among its possibilities.