5. Mineral, Plant And Animal Creation

But it is really not possible to speak of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur and the rest in those early times, simply because what the chemists call by these names today did not exist. If a spirit-being of those times were to have met a modern chemist who spoke to him about carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and the rest, he would have retorted that nothing of the kind exists. We can justifiably speak of carbon, oxygen or nitrogen today but this could not have been done in those early times. Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, as we speak of them today, became possible only when the Earth had reached a certain density and had developed forces such as it contains today. Neither oxygen, nitrogen, potassium, sodium nor any of the so-called fighter metals existed in those olden times. On the other hand, in the Earth’s environment that is filled today by our atmosphere there was something a little like albumen in consistency, a very fine fluid halfway between our present water and air. The Earth at that time was entirely surrounded by an albuminous atmosphere. The albumen we know in eggs today is very much coarser, but a comparison is possible.