58:0.1 (664.1) IN ALL Satania there are only sixty-one worlds similar to Urantia, life-modification planets. The majority of inhabited worlds are peopled in accordance with established techniques; on such spheres the Life Carriers are afforded little leeway in their plans for life implantation. But about one world in ten is designated as a decimal planet and assigned to the special registry of the Life Carriers; and on such planets we are permitted to undertake certain life experiments in an effort to modify or possibly improve the standard universe types of living beings.
58:0.1 (664.1) 在整個薩坦尼亞，僅有六十一個與玉苒廈相似的世界，即生命改良類行星。大多數居住性世界都是依照既定技術來安置人口的；在這些星球上，生命載運者在生命植入計劃中幾乎沒有回旋余地。但每十個世界中約有一個被指定為十進製行星，並歸入生命載運者的特別登記冊；在這些行星上，我們獲準進行某些生命實驗，以期改良或可能改善標準的宇宙生命類型。
58:1.1 (664.2) 600,000,000 years ago the commission of Life Carriers sent out from Jerusem arrived on Urantia and began the study of physical conditions preparatory to launching life on world number 606 of the Satania system. This was to be our six hundred and sixth experience with the initiation of the Nebadon life patterns in Satania and our sixtieth opportunity to make changes and institute modifications in the basic and standard life designs of the local universe.
58:1.1 (664.2) 600,000,000年前，由耶路瑟姆派遣的生命載運者委員會抵達玉苒廈，並開始研究物理條件，為在薩坦尼亞系統第606號世界啟動生命做準備。這將是我們第六百零六次在薩坦尼亞引入內巴頓生命模式的嘗試，也是我們第六十次對地方宇宙的基本和標準生命設計做出調整並實施改良的機會。
58:1.2 (664.3) It should be made clear that Life Carriers cannot initiate life until a sphere is ripe for the inauguration of the evolutionary cycle. Neither can we provide for a more rapid life development than can be supported and accommodated by the physical progress of the planet.
58:1.2 (664.3) 必須明確的是，生命載運者在星球尚未成熟到能夠開始進化周期之前，是無法啟動生命的。我們同樣無法提供比該行星的物理進程所能支持和滿足的更快生命發展。
58:1.3 (664.4) The Satania Life Carriers had projected a sodium chloride pattern of life; therefore no steps could be taken toward planting it until the ocean waters had become sufficiently briny. The Urantia type of protoplasm can function only in a suitable salt solution. All ancestral life—vegetable and animal—evolved in a salt-solution habitat. And even the more highly organized land animals could not continue to live did not this same essential salt solution circulate throughout their bodies in the blood stream which freely bathes, literally submerses, every tiny living cell in this “briny deep.”
58:1.3 (664.4) 薩坦尼亞的生命載運者設計了一種基於氯化鈉的生命模式；因此在海水變得足夠鹹之前，無法采取任何措施來植入它。玉苒廈類型的原生質只能在適宜的鹽溶液中發揮作用。所有的原始生命——包括植物和動物——都在鹽溶液的生長地中演化而來。即使組織結構更為復雜的陸生動物，若沒有這種至關重要的鹽溶液通過血液流動在全身循環，同樣無法繼續生存。這種血液流動讓每個微小的生命細胞充分沐浴在，確切地說是浸沒在這片「鹹水深淵」中。
58:1.4 (664.5) Your primitive ancestors freely circulated about in the salty ocean; today, this same oceanlike salty solution freely circulates about in your bodies, bathing each individual cell with a chemical liquid in all essentials comparable to the salt water which stimulated the first protoplasmic reactions of the first living cells to function on the planet.
58:1.4 (664.5) 你們的原始祖先曾在含鹽的海洋中自由遊弋；如今，這種同樣海洋般的含鹽溶液在你們體內自由循環，將每個單獨的細胞浸潤在一種化學液體中，這種液體在所有基本方面都與鹽水相當，正是這種鹽水激發了地球上首批生命細胞最初的原生質反應，使其開始運行。
58:1.5 (664.6) But as this era opens, Urantia is in every way evolving toward a state favorable for the support of the initial forms of marine life. Slowly but surely physical developments on earth and in adjacent space regions are preparing the stage for the later attempts to establish such life forms as we had decided would be best adapted to the unfolding physical environment—both terrestrial and spatial.
58:1.5 (664.6) 但隨著這個時代的開啟，玉苒廈在各個方面都在朝著有利於海洋生物初始形式生存的狀態演化。地球和鄰近空間區域的物理發展，正在緩慢卻穩步地為以後嘗試建立一種生命形式做好準備，我們認定，這種生命形式最能適應不斷變化的陸地和空間的物理環境。
58:1.6 (665.1) Subsequently the Satania commission of Life Carriers returned to Jerusem, preferring to await the further breakup of the continental land mass, which would afford still more inland seas and sheltered bays, before actually beginning life implantation.
58:1.6 (665.1) 在真正開始植入生命之前，薩坦尼亞的生命載運者委員會更願意等待大陸板塊的進一步分裂，這樣就能形成更多的內陸海和避風海灣，因此，他們返回了耶路瑟姆。
58:1.7 (665.2) On a planet where life has a marine origin the ideal conditions for life implantation are provided by a large number of inland seas, by an extensive shore line of shallow waters and sheltered bays; and just such a distribution of the earth’s waters was rapidly developing. These ancient inland seas were seldom over five or six hundred feet deep, and sunlight can penetrate ocean water for more than six hundred feet.
58:1.7 (665.2) 在一個生命起源於海洋的星球上，大量的內陸海、廣闊的含有淺水和避風海灣的海岸線為生命植入提供了理想的條件；而地球水域的這種分布格局正在迅速形成。這些古老內陸海的深度很少超過一百五十或一百八十米，而陽光能夠穿透超過一百八十米的海水。
58:1.8 (665.3) And it was from such seashores of the mild and equable climes of a later age that primitive plant life found its way onto the land. There the high degree of carbon in the atmosphere afforded the new land varieties of life opportunity for speedy and luxuriant growth. Though this atmosphere was then ideal for plant growth, it contained such a high degree of carbon dioxide that no animal, much less man, could have lived on the face of the earth.
58:1.8 (665.3) 正是從這些後來氣候溫和宜人的海岸，原始植物才得以登陸。那裏大氣中高濃度的碳為新的陸地生命種類提供了快速繁茂生長的機會。雖然當時的大氣環境非常適合植物生長，但其中二氧化碳的含量非常高，以至於沒有任何動物，更不用說人類，能夠在地球表面生存。
58:2.1 (665.4) The planetary atmosphere filters through to the earth about one two-billionth of the sun’s total light emanation. If the light falling upon North America were paid for at the rate of two cents per kilowatt-hour, the annual light bill would be upward of 800 quadrillion dollars. Chicago’s bill for sunshine would amount to considerably over 100 million dollars a day. And it should be remembered that you receive from the sun other forms of energy—light is not the only solar contribution reaching your atmosphere. Vast solar energies pour in upon Urantia embracing wave lengths ranging both above and below the recognition range of human vision.
58:2.1 (665.4) 行星大氣層過濾後傳至地表的光線，僅占太陽光輻射總量的約二十億分之一。如果按每千瓦時兩美分的費率支付照射到北美洲的光照費用，其年度光照賬單將高達80萬兆美元。芝加哥的光照賬單每天將高達1億美元以上。還應記住，你們從太陽獲得的還有其他形式的能量——光並非唯一抵達你們大氣層的太陽饋贈。大量的太陽能傾瀉到玉苒廈，其波長範圍既高於又低於人類視覺的感知範圍。
58:2.2 (665.5) The earth’s atmosphere is all but opaque to much of the solar radiation at the extreme ultraviolet end of the spectrum. Most of these short wave lengths are absorbed by a layer of ozone which exists throughout a level about ten miles above the surface of the earth, and which extends spaceward for another ten miles. The ozone permeating this region, at conditions prevailing on the earth’s surface, would make a layer only one tenth of an inch thick; nevertheless, this relatively small and apparently insignificant amount of ozone protects Urantia inhabitants from the excess of these dangerous and destructive ultraviolet radiations present in sunlight. But were this ozone layer just a trifle thicker, you would be deprived of the highly important and health-giving ultraviolet rays which now reach the earth’s surface, and which are ancestral to one of the most essential of your vitamins.
58:2.2 (665.5) 地球大氣層對光譜中極紫外端的大部分太陽輻射幾乎完全不透明。這些短波長中的大部分被一個臭氧層所吸收，該臭氧層存在於距地表約十六千米高的區域，並向上空延伸十六千米。在地表現行條件下，彌漫在這個區域的臭氧層厚度僅為二點五毫米；然而，這層相對較少且看似微量的臭氧，卻保護了玉苒廈居民免受陽光中這些危險且具破壞性的紫外線輻射過量而造成的傷害。但倘若臭氧層再厚一點，你們就會失去那些極其重要且有益健康的紫外線，這些紫外線如今能抵達地表，並能生成你們最必需的維生素之一。
58:2.3 (665.6) And yet some of the less imaginative of your mortal mechanists insist on viewing material creation and human evolution as an accident. The Urantia midwayers have assembled over fifty thousand facts of physics and chemistry which they deem to be incompatible with the laws of accidental chance, and which they contend unmistakably demonstrate the presence of intelligent purpose in the material creation. And all of this takes no account of their catalogue of more than one hundred thousand findings outside the domain of physics and chemistry which they maintain prove the presence of mind in the planning, creation, and maintenance of the material cosmos.
58:2.3 (665.6) 然而，你們凡人中一些缺乏想象力的機械論者，卻執意將物質創造與人類進化視為偶然。玉苒廈的中道者們已收集了超過五萬個物理與化學事實，他們認為這些事實與偶然性定律不相容，並堅信這些事實無可辯駁地證明了物質創造中存在著智能意圖。而這一切還未考慮他們收集的超過十萬項在物理和化學領域之外的發現，他們堅稱這些發現證明了在物質宇宙的規劃、創造與維持過程中心智的存在。
58:2.4 (666.1) Your sun pours forth a veritable flood of death-dealing rays, and your pleasant life on Urantia is due to the “fortuitous” influence of more than two-score apparently accidental protective operations similar to the action of this unique ozone layer.
58:2.4 (666.1) 你們的太陽傾瀉出大量致命射線，而你們在玉苒廈的舒適生活，實則得益於四十多種看似意外的保護性機製所形成的 「偶然」 影響，這些機製類似於這種獨特臭氧層的作用。
58:2.5 (666.2) Were it not for the “blanketing” effect of the atmosphere at night, heat would be lost by radiation so rapidly that life would be impossible of maintenance except by artificial provision.
58:2.5 (666.2) 若非夜間大氣層的 「覆蓋」 效應，熱量將通過輻射迅速散失，以致在沒有人工供熱的情況下，生命將無法維持。
58:2.6 (666.3) The lower five or six miles of the earth’s atmosphere is the troposphere; this is the region of winds and air currents which provide weather phenomena. Above this region is the inner ionosphere and next above is the stratosphere. Ascending from the surface of the earth, the temperature steadily falls for six or eight miles, at which height it registers around 70 degrees below zero F. This temperature range of from 65 to 70 degrees below zero F. is unchanged in the further ascent for forty miles; this realm of constant temperature is the stratosphere. At a height of forty-five or fifty miles, the temperature begins to rise, and this increase continues until, at the level of the auroral displays, a temperature of 1200° F. is attained, and it is this intense heat that ionizes the oxygen. But temperature in such a rarefied atmosphere is hardly comparable with heat reckoning at the surface of the earth. Bear in mind that one half of all your atmosphere is to be found in the first three miles. The height of the earth’s atmosphere is indicated by the highest auroral streamers—about four hundred miles.
58:2.6 (666.3) 地球大氣層底部的八到十公里是對流層；這裏是造成天氣現象的風和氣流區域。該區域上方是內電離層，再往上則是平流層。從地球表面上升時，溫度在十至十三公里範圍內持續下降，在這個高度，氣溫約為攝氏零下57度。在隨後的六十五公里上升中，溫度在攝氏零下54度到57度之間保持不變；這個恒溫區域便是平流層。在七十二至八十公里的高度，溫度開始上升，這種升溫一直持續到極光出現的層次，此時溫度達到攝氏650度，正是這種高溫使氧氣發生電離。但如此稀薄大氣層中的溫度，很難與地表估算的熱量相提並論。請記住，你們整個大氣的一半都集中在最初的五公里內。地球大氣層的高度由最高的極光帶所標示——約六百四十公里。
58:2.7 (666.4) Auroral phenomena are directly related to sunspots, those solar cyclones which whirl in opposite directions above and below the solar equator, even as do the terrestrial tropical hurricanes. Such atmospheric disturbances whirl in opposite directions when occurring above or below the equator.
58:2.7 (666.4) 極光現象與太陽黑子直接相關，這些太陽氣旋就像地球上的熱帶颶風一樣，在太陽赤道上下兩側以相反方向旋轉。這些大氣擾動發生在赤道上方或下方時，其旋轉方向相反。
58:2.8 (666.5) The power of sunspots to alter light frequencies shows that these solar storm centers function as enormous magnets. Such magnetic fields are able to hurl charged particles from the sunspot craters out through space to the earth’s outer atmosphere, where their ionizing influence produces such spectacular auroral displays. Therefore do you have the greatest auroral phenomena when sunspots are at their height—or soon thereafter—at which time the spots are more generally equatorially situated.
58:2.8 (666.5) 太陽黑子改變光頻的能力表明，這些太陽風暴中心發揮著巨大磁鐵一樣的作用。這些磁場能夠將帶電粒子從太陽黑子噴口向外拋射，穿越太空抵達地球外大氣層，在那裏，這些粒子的電離效應造就了如此壯觀的極光景象。因此，當太陽黑子活動達到峰值時——或峰值過後不久——此時黑子通常更集中分布於赤道，你便會看到最壯觀的極光現象。
58:2.9 (666.6) Even the compass needle is responsive to this solar influence since it turns slightly to the east as the sun rises and slightly to the west as the sun nears setting. This happens every day, but during the height of sunspot cycles this variation of the compass is twice as great. These diurnal wanderings of the compass are in response to the increased ionization of the upper atmosphere, which is produced by the sunlight.
58:2.9 (666.6) 就連指南針的指針也對這種太陽影響很敏感，因為當太陽升起時它會略微向東偏移，而當太陽臨近落山時則會略微向西偏移。這種現象每天都會發生，但在太陽黑子周期的高峰期，指南針的這種偏移會加倍增大。指南針的這些日間漂移，是對陽光導致的上層大氣電離增強的反應。
58:2.10 (666.7) It is the presence of two different levels of electrified conducting regions in the superstratosphere that accounts for the long-distance transmission of your long- and short-wave radiobroadcasts. Your broadcasting is sometimes disturbed by the terrific storms which occasionally rage in the realms of these outer ionospheres.
58:2.10 (666.7) 正是由於超平流層中存在兩個不同層級的導電區域，才使得你們的長波和短波廣播能夠遠距離傳輸。你們的廣播信號有時會受到在這些外電離層區域偶爾肆虐的可怕風暴的幹擾。
58:3.1 (666.8) During the earlier times of universe materialization the space regions are interspersed with vast hydrogen clouds, just such astronomic dust clusters as now characterize many regions throughout remote space. Much of the organized matter which the blazing suns break down and disperse as radiant energy was originally built up in these early appearing hydrogen clouds of space. Under certain unusual conditions atom disruption also occurs at the nucleus of the larger hydrogen masses. And all of these phenomena of atom building and atom dissolution, as in the highly heated nebulae, are attended by the emergence of flood tides of short space rays of radiant energy. Accompanying these diverse radiations is a form of space-energy unknown on Urantia.
58:3.1 (666.8) 在宇宙物質化的早期，空間區域中散布著巨大的氫氣雲， 正是這些天體塵埃團，如今構成了遙遠空間中許多區域的特征。許多被熾熱的太陽分解並以輻射能形式散逸的有組織物質，最初都是在這些早期出現的空間氫雲中形成的。在某些特殊條件下，較大的氫雲團核內也會發生原子分裂。所有這些原子形成與原子分解的現象——正如在高溫星雲中發生的那樣——都伴隨著短空間射線輻射能洪流的湧現。伴隨這些多樣輻射的，是一種在玉苒廈上未知的空間能量形式。
58:3.2 (667.1) This short-ray energy charge of universe space is four hundred times greater than all other forms of radiant energy existing in the organized space domains. The output of short space rays, whether coming from the blazing nebulae, tense electric fields, outer space, or the vast hydrogen dust clouds, is modified qualitatively and quantitatively by fluctuations of, and sudden tension changes in, temperature, gravity, and electronic pressures.
58:3.2 (667.1) 宇宙空間中的這種短射線能荷，比存在於有組織空間領域中的所有其他形式的輻射能量大四百倍。短空間射線的輸出，無論它們來自熾熱星雲、強電場、外層空間還是巨大的氫氣塵雲，都會因溫度、引力和電壓的波動，及突然張力變化而發生質變與量變。
58:3.3 (667.2) These eventualities in the origin of the space rays are determined by many cosmic occurrences as well as by the orbits of circulating matter, which vary from modified circles to extreme ellipses. Physical conditions may also be greatly altered because the electron spin is sometimes in the opposite direction from that of the grosser matter behavior, even in the same physical zone.
58:3.3 (667.2) 空間射線起源中的這些意外事件，既取決於許多宇宙現象，也取決於循環物質的軌道，這些軌道形態的變化從近似圓形到極端橢圓形。物理條件也可能發生巨大改變，因為電子自旋有時與更大物質的自旋方向相反，即使在同一物理區域內也是如此。
58:3.4 (667.3) The vast hydrogen clouds are veritable cosmic chemical laboratories, harboring all phases of evolving energy and metamorphosing matter. Great energy actions also occur in the marginal gases of the great binary stars which so frequently overlap and hence extensively commingle. But none of these tremendous and far-flung energy activities of space exerts the least influence upon the phenomena of organized life—the germ plasm of living things and beings. These energy conditions of space are germane to the essential environment of life establishment, but they are not effective in the subsequent modification of the inheritance factors of the germ plasm as are some of the longer rays of radiant energy. The implanted life of the Life Carriers is fully resistant to all of this amazing flood of the short space rays of universe energy.
58:3.4 (667.3) 巨大的氫雲是名副其實的宇宙化學實驗室，孕育著所有階段的演化能量和蛻變物質。在那些頻繁交叠因而廣泛混合的巨型雙星的邊緣氣體中，同樣會發生巨大的能量活動。然而，這些巨大而廣泛的空間能量活動，對有組織的生命現象，即生物和生命體的原生質卻絲毫沒有影響。這些空間的能量條件與創建生命所必需的環境密切相關，但它們在原生質遺傳因子的後續改變方面，並不如某些較長的輻射能射線那樣有效。生命載運者所植入的生命完全能夠抵禦宇宙能量中所有這些短空間射線的驚人洪流。
58:3.5 (667.4) All of these essential cosmic conditions had to evolve to a favorable status before the Life Carriers could actually begin the establishment of life on Urantia.
58:3.5 (667.4) 所有這些至關重要的宇宙條件都必須演化到一種有利的狀態，生命載運者才能真正開始在玉苒廈創建生命。
58:4.1 (667.5) That we are called Life Carriers should not confuse you. We can and do carry life to the planets, but we brought no life to Urantia. Urantia life is unique, original with the planet. This sphere is a life-modification world; all life appearing hereon was formulated by us right here on the planet; and there is no other world in all Satania, even in all Nebadon, that has a life existence just like that of Urantia.
58:4.1 (667.5) 我們被稱為生命載運者，這不應該讓你們感到困惑。我們能夠並確實將生命帶往行星，但我們並未將生命帶到玉苒廈。玉苒廈的生命是獨一無二的，它起源於這個行星。這個星球是一個生命改良類世界；所有出現在這裏的生命都是由我們在這個行星上直接配製的；在整個薩坦尼亞，甚至整個內巴頓，沒有一個其他世界存在與玉苒廈完全相同形態的生命。
58:4.2 (667.6) 550,000,000 years ago the Life Carrier corps returned to Urantia. In co-operation with spiritual powers and superphysical forces we organized and initiated the original life patterns of this world and planted them in the hospitable waters of the realm. All planetary life (aside from extraplanetary personalities) down to the days of Caligastia, the Planetary Prince, had its origin in our three original, identical, and simultaneous marine-life implantations. These three life implantations have been designated as: the central or Eurasian-African, the eastern or Australasian, and the western, embracing Greenland and the Americas.
58:4.2 (667.6) 550,000,000年前，生命載運者團隊重返玉苒廈。我們與靈性力量及超物質力合作，組織並啟動了這個世界的原初生命模式，並將它們安置在這個世界的適宜水域中。在行星王子卡裏迦夏的時代之前，所有行星生命（除行星外的人格體）皆源於我們三次最初的、完全相同且同步進行的海洋生命植入。這三個生命植入地被指定為：中部或歐亞非區、東部或澳亞區，以及西部區（包含格陵蘭島和美洲）。
58:4.3 (668.1) 500,000,000 years ago primitive marine vegetable life was well established on Urantia. Greenland and the arctic land mass, together with North and South America, were beginning their long and slow westward drift. Africa moved slightly south, creating an east and west trough, the Mediterranean basin, between itself and the mother body. Antarctica, Australia, and the land indicated by the islands of the Pacific broke away on the south and east and have drifted far away since that day.
58:4.3 (668.1) 500,000,000年前，原始的海洋植物生命已經在玉苒廈上紮根了。格陵蘭島和北極陸地板塊，連同北美和南美，正開始它們漫長而緩慢的向西漂移。非洲略微向南移動，從而在其與母體之間形成了一條東西向的凹槽，即地中海盆地。在南部和東部，南極洲、澳大利亞以及太平洋群島所在的陸地脫離開來，自那日起便漂向遠方。
58:4.4 (668.2) We had planted the primitive form of marine life in the sheltered tropic bays of the central seas of the east-west cleavage of the breaking-up continental land mass. Our purpose in making three marine-life implantations was to insure that each great land mass would carry this life with it, in its warm-water seas, as the land subsequently separated. We foresaw that in the later era of the emergence of land life large oceans of water would separate these drifting continental land masses.
58:4.4 (668.2) 我們曾把原始形態的海洋生命放置在中央海域避風的熱帶海灣中，這些海域是正在分裂的大陸板塊的東西向裂隙形成的。我們在三處進行海洋生命植入的目的，是確保陸地隨後分離時，每個大陸板塊都能將其溫暖海域中的這種生命帶走。我們預見到，在後來出現陸地生命的時代，廣闊的大洋水域將把這些漂移的大陸板塊分隔開來。
58:5.1 (668.3) The continental land drift continued. The earth’s core had become as dense and rigid as steel, being subjected to a pressure of almost 25,000 tons to the square inch, and owing to the enormous gravity pressure, it was and still is very hot in the deep interior. The temperature increases from the surface downward until at the center it is slightly above the surface temperature of the sun.
58:5.1 (668.3) 大陸漂移仍在繼續。地球核心在承受著每平方厘米近3,500噸的壓力下，已變得如鋼鐵般致密堅硬，由於巨大的重力壓力，其內部深處曾經且至今仍然非常熾熱。從地表向下，溫度逐漸升高，直到中心處，其溫度略高於太陽的表面溫度。
58:5.2 (668.4) The outer one thousand miles of the earth’s mass consists principally of different kinds of rock. Underneath are the denser and heavier metallic elements. Throughout the early and preatmospheric ages the world was so nearly fluid in its molten and highly heated state that the heavier metals sank deep into the interior. Those found near the surface today represent the exudate of ancient volcanoes, later and extensive lava flows, and the more recent meteoric deposits.
58:5.2 (668.4) 地球外層一千六百公里內的物質主要由不同種類的巖石構成。下面是更致密、更厚重的金屬元素。在早期大氣層形成之前，世界在熔融且高度加熱的狀態下，幾乎呈液態，因此較重的金屬深深地沉入內部。如今在近地表處發現的那些巖石，代表著遠古火山的噴發物、後期大規模的熔巖流，以及較近期的隕石沉積物。
58:5.3 (668.5) The outer crust was about forty miles thick. This outer shell was supported by, and rested directly upon, a molten sea of basalt of varying thickness, a mobile layer of molten lava held under high pressure but always tending to flow hither and yon in equalization of shifting planetary pressures, thereby tending to stabilize the earth’s crust.
58:5.3 (668.5) 外層地殼厚度約為六十五公里。這層外殼由厚度各異的熔融玄武巖海支撐著，並直接懸浮其上，這個流動的熔巖層保持在高壓下，卻總是傾向於四處流動，以平衡不斷變化的行星壓力，從而使地殼趨於穩定。
58:5.4 (668.6) Even today the continents continue to float upon this noncrystallized cushiony sea of molten basalt. Were it not for this protective condition, the more severe earthquakes would literally shake the world to pieces. Earthquakes are caused by sliding and shifting of the solid outer crust and not by volcanoes.
58:5.4 (668.6) 時至今日，各大洲仍在這一片未結晶的、柔軟的熔融玄武巖海上漂浮。 若非有這種保護性條件，更強烈的地震將把世界震得支離破碎。地震是由固體外殼的滑動和位移引起的，而不是由火山活動引起的。
58:5.5 (668.7) The lava layers of the earth’s crust, when cooled, form granite. The average density of Urantia is a little more than five and one-half times that of water; the density of granite is less than three times that of water. The earth’s core is twelve times as dense as water.
58:5.5 (668.7) 地殼中的熔巖層冷卻後，便形成花崗巖。玉苒廈的平均密度略高於水的五倍半；花崗巖的密度則低於水的三倍。地核的密度是水的十二倍。
58:5.6 (668.8) The sea bottoms are more dense than the land masses, and this is what keeps the continents above water. When the sea bottoms are extruded above the sea level, they are found to consist largely of basalt, a form of lava considerably heavier than the granite of the land masses. Again, if the continents were not lighter than the ocean beds, gravity would draw the edges of the oceans up onto the land, but such phenomena are not observable.
58:5.6 (668.8) 海底比陸地更密實，正是這種特性使大陸保持在水面之上。當海底被擠壓到海平面以上時，人們發現其主要由玄武巖構成，這是一種比陸地上的花崗巖重得多的熔巖。同樣地，如果大陸不是比海底更輕的話，那麽重力將會把海洋邊緣拉升到陸地之上，但實際上並未觀測到此類現象。
58:5.7 (668.9) The weight of the oceans is also a factor in the increase of pressure on the sea beds. The lower but comparatively heavier ocean beds, plus the weight of the overlying water, approximate the weight of the higher but much lighter continents. But all continents tend to creep into the oceans. The continental pressure at ocean-bottom levels is about 20,000 pounds to the square inch. That is, this would be the pressure of a continental mass standing 15,000 feet above the ocean floor. The ocean-floor water pressure is only about 5,000 pounds to the square inch. These differential pressures tend to cause the continents to slide toward the ocean beds.
58:5.7 (668.9) 海洋的重量也是海底壓力增加的一個因素。較低但相對較重的海床，加上覆於其上的海水重量，接近於較高但輕得多的大陸重量。但所有大陸都傾向於滑入海洋。在海底水平處的大陸壓力約為每平方厘米1,400公斤。也就是說，這相當於一個大陸板塊位於海底之上5,000米處所產生的壓力。海底水壓僅約每平方厘米350公斤。這些壓差往往導致大陸向海底滑移。
58:5.8 (669.1) Depression of the ocean bottom during the prelife ages had upthrust a solitary continental land mass to such a height that its lateral pressure tended to cause the eastern, western, and southern fringes to slide downhill, over the underlying semiviscous lava beds, into the waters of the surrounding Pacific Ocean. This so fully compensated the continental pressure that a wide break did not occur on the eastern shore of this ancient Asiatic continent, but ever since has that eastern coast line hovered over the precipice of its adjoining oceanic depths, threatening to slide into a watery grave.
58:5.8 (669.1) 在前生命時代，海底的凹陷將一個孤立的大陸板塊擡升得如此之高，以致其側向壓力導致東部、西部、南部的邊緣向下滑移，越過下面的半粘稠熔巖層，最終墜入周圍的太平洋水域。這完全抵消了大陸的壓力，因此這個古老亞洲大陸的東海岸並未發生大範圍斷裂，但自那以後，東海岸線便懸於毗鄰的深海峭壁之上，隨時可能滑入水葬之地。
58:6.1 (669.2) 450,000,000 years ago the transition from vegetable to animal life occurred. This metamorphosis took place in the shallow waters of the sheltered tropic bays and lagoons of the extensive shore lines of the separating continents. And this development, all of which was inherent in the original life patterns, came about gradually. There were many transitional stages between the early primitive vegetable forms of life and the later well-defined animal organisms. Even today the transition slime molds persist, and they can hardly be classified either as plants or as animals.
58:6.1 (669.2) 450,000,000年前，植物生命向動物生命的轉變發生了。這種蛻變發生在分離大陸的綿長海岸線上那些受庇護的熱帶海灣和瀉湖的淺水中。而這種完全固有於原初生命模式的發展，是逐漸出現的。在早期原始植物形態的生命與後期形態鮮明的動物有機體之間，存在著許多過渡階段。時至今日，過渡型黏菌依然存在，人們很難將它們歸類為植物或動物。
58:6.2 (669.3) Although the evolution of vegetable life can be traced into animal life, and though there have been found graduated series of plants and animals which progressively lead up from the most simple to the most complex and advanced organisms, you will not be able to find such connecting links between the great divisions of the animal kingdom nor between the highest of the prehuman animal types and the dawn men of the human races. These so-called “missing links” will forever remain missing, for the simple reason that they never existed.
58:6.2 (669.3) 盡管植物生命的演化可追溯至動物生命，盡管人們已發現從最簡單生物體逐步演化到最復雜、最先進生物體的植物和動物漸變系列，但是，在動物王國的各大分類之間，以及在最高級的類人動物類型與最早的人類種族之間，你們都將無法找到這樣的連接環節。這些所謂的 「缺失環節」 將永遠無法找到，原因很簡單，因為它們從未存在過。
58:6.3 (669.4) From era to era radically new species of animal life arise. They do not evolve as the result of the gradual accumulation of small variations; they appear as full-fledged and new orders of life, and they appear suddenly.
58:6.3 (669.4) 從一個時代到另一個時代，動物界不斷湧現出全新的物種。它們的進化並非由微小變異的逐步積累而成；它們作為完全成熟的、全新的生命類別出現，而且它們是突然出現的。
58:6.4 (669.5) The sudden appearance of new species and diversified orders of living organisms is wholly biologic, strictly natural. There is nothing supernatural connected with these genetic mutations.
58:6.4 (669.5) 新物種和不同類別的生物體突然出現，是完全生物的、純粹自然的現象。這些基因突變與任何超自然現象毫無關聯。
58:6.5 (669.6) At the proper degree of saltiness in the oceans animal life evolved, and it was comparatively simple to allow the briny waters to circulate through the animal bodies of marine life. But when the oceans were contracted and the percentage of salt was greatly increased, these same animals evolved the ability to reduce the saltiness of their body fluids just as those organisms which learned to live in fresh water acquired the ability to maintain the proper degree of sodium chloride in their body fluids by ingenious techniques of salt conservation.
58:6.5 (669.6) 當海洋達到適當的鹽度時，動物生命得以進化，而且讓鹽水在海洋生物體內循環是相對簡單的。然而，當海洋面積縮減且鹽分比例大幅提升時，這些動物進化出了降低體液鹽度的能力，正如那些學會在淡水環境中生存的有機體，它們通過精妙的鹽分保存技巧，獲得了維持體液中適宜氯化鈉濃度的能力。
58:6.6 (669.7) Study of the rock-embraced fossils of marine life reveals the early adjustment struggles of these primitive organisms. Plants and animals never cease to make these adjustment experiments. Ever the environment is changing, and always are living organisms striving to accommodate themselves to these never-ending fluctuations.
58:6.6 (669.7) 對巖石包裹的海洋生物化石的研究揭示了這些原始有機體在早期適應過程中的努力。植物和動物都從未停止過進行這些適應性嘗試。環境始終在變化，而生物體也總是在努力適應這些永無止境的波動。
58:6.7 (670.1) The physiologic equipment and the anatomic structure of all new orders of life are in response to the action of physical law, but the subsequent endowment of mind is a bestowal of the adjutant mind-spirits in accordance with innate brain capacity. Mind, while not a physical evolution, is wholly dependent on the brain capacity afforded by purely physical and evolutionary developments.
58:6.7 (670.1) 所有新生命類別的生理配置與解剖結構，都是對物理定律作用的響應，但隨後賦予的心智，則是輔助心智之靈依據先天腦容量所作的贈與。盡管心智並非源於物理進化，但它卻完全取決於純物理與進化發展所賦予的腦容量。
58:6.8 (670.2) Through almost endless cycles of gains and losses, adjustments and readjustments, all living organisms swing back and forth from age to age. Those that attain cosmic unity persist, while those that fall short of this goal cease to exist.
58:6.8 (670.2) 在幾乎無休止的得到與失去、適應與再適應的循環中，所有生物體從古至今都在反反復復地發生著變化。那些達到宇宙合一的則存留，而那些未能達到這一目標的則消亡。
58:7.1 (670.3) The vast group of rock systems which constituted the outer crust of the world during the life-dawn or Proterozoic era does not now appear at many points on the earth’s surface. And when it does emerge from below all the accumulations of subsequent ages, there will be found only the fossil remains of vegetable and early primitive animal life. Some of these older water-deposited rocks are commingled with subsequent layers, and sometimes they yield fossil remains of some of the earlier forms of vegetable life, while on the topmost layers occasionally may be found some of the more primitive forms of the early marine-animal organisms. In many places these oldest stratified rock layers, bearing the fossils of the early marine life, both animal and vegetable, may be found directly on top of the older undifferentiated stone.
58:7.1 (670.3) 在生命發端或原生代時期構成地球外殼的龐大巖石系統群，如今在地球表面的許多地方都已看不到了。當它從後世的沉積物之下顯現時，人們只會發現植物和早期原始動物生命的化石遺骸。其中一些較古老的沉積巖與後續的巖層混雜在一起，有時它們會露出一些早期植物生命形態的化石遺跡，而在最上層巖層中，偶爾也能發現一些早期海洋動物有機體中更原始的形態。在許多地方，可直接在較古老的、未分化的巖石之上，發現這些帶有早期海洋動物和植物生命化石的最古老的疊巖層。
58:7.2 (670.4) Fossils of this era yield algae, corallike plants, primitive Protozoa, and spongelike transition organisms. But the absence of such fossils in the early rock layers does not necessarily prove that living things were not elsewhere in existence at the time of their deposition. Life was sparse throughout these early times and only slowly made its way over the face of the earth.
58:7.2 (670.4) 這個時代的化石包含藻類、珊瑚狀植物、原始的原生動物，以及海綿狀的過渡有機體。但早期巖層中缺乏此類化石，並不一定證明在沉積形成之時，其他地方不存在生物。在這些遠古時期，生命稀疏而零落，且只是緩慢地在地球表面蔓延開來。
58:7.3 (670.5) The rocks of this olden age are now at the earth’s surface, or very near the surface, over about one eighth of the present land area. The average thickness of this transition stone, the oldest stratified rock layers, is about one and one-half miles. At some points these ancient rock systems are as much as four miles thick, but many of the layers which have been ascribed to this era belong to later periods.
58:7.3 (670.5) 這個遠古時代的巖石目前就在地表，或非常接近地表，覆蓋了現今陸地面積的約八分之一。這種轉變期巖石（即最古老的疊巖層）的平均厚度約為兩千五百米。在某些地方，這些古老的巖石體系厚度可達六千五百米，但許多被歸入這個時代的巖層實則屬於更晚的時期。
58:7.4 (670.6) In North America this ancient and primitive fossil-bearing stone layer comes to the surface over the eastern, central, and northern regions of Canada. There is also an intermittent east-west ridge of this rock which extends from Pennsylvania and the ancient Adirondack Mountains on west through Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Other ridges run from Newfoundland to Alabama and from Alaska to Mexico.
58:7.4 (670.6) 在北美洲，這種古老、原始、含有化石的巖層出現在加拿大的東部、中部和北部地區。此外，還有一條由這種巖石構成的斷斷續續的東-西向山脈，從賓夕法尼亞州和古老的阿迪倫達克山脈向西延伸，穿越密歇根州、威斯康星州和明尼蘇達州。其他山脈從紐芬蘭延伸到阿拉巴馬，從阿拉斯加延伸到墨西哥。
58:7.5 (670.7) The rocks of this era are exposed here and there all over the world, but none are so easy of interpretation as those about Lake Superior and in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, where these primitive fossil-bearing rocks, existing in several layers, testify to the upheavals and surface fluctuations of those faraway times.
58:7.5 (670.7) 這個時代的巖層在世界各地都有出現，但最容易辨認的當屬蘇必利爾湖周邊及科羅拉多河大峽谷中的巖層，這些原始的含化石巖層存在於多個巖層中，見證了那些遠古時期的地殼隆起和地表變化。
58:7.6 (670.8) This stone layer, the oldest fossil-bearing stratum in the crust of the earth, has been crumpled, folded, and grotesquely twisted as a result of the upheavals of earthquakes and the early volcanoes. The lava flows of this age brought much iron, copper, and lead up near the planetary surface.
58:7.6 (670.8) 這個石層是地殼中最古老的含化石巖層，由於地震動蕩和早期火山活動，已被褶皺、折疊，並怪異扭曲了。這個時期的熔巖流將大量鐵、銅和鉛帶到了接近行星表面。
58:7.7 (670.9) There are few places on the earth where such activities are more graphically shown than in the St. Croix valley of Wisconsin. In this region there occurred one hundred and twenty-seven successive lava flows on land with succeeding water submergence and consequent rock deposition. Although much of the upper rock sedimentation and intermittent lava flow is absent today, and though the bottom of this system is buried deep in the earth, nevertheless, about sixty-five or seventy of these stratified records of past ages are now exposed to view.
58:7.7 (670.9) 在地球上，很少有地方能像威斯康星州的聖克羅伊河谷那樣，如此生動地展現這種活動了。這個地區曾發生過一百二十七次連續的陸地熔巖流，隨後被水淹沒，並形成巖石沉積。盡管如今上層巖石沉積物和間歇性熔巖流大多已不復存在，盡管這個體系的底部已深埋於地下，然而，仍有約六十五至七十處這些過去時代的層巖記錄如今已展現在我們面前。
58:7.8 (671.1) In these early ages when much land was near sea level, there occurred many successive submergences and emergences. The earth’s crust was just entering upon its later period of comparative stabilization. The undulations, rises and dips, of the earlier continental drift contributed to the frequency of the periodic submergence of the great land masses.
58:7.8 (671.1) 在許多陸地接近海平面的那些早期年代，發生過多次連續的淹沒與浮現。地殼正進入其相對穩定的後期階段。早期大陸漂移造成的波動起伏，導致了大陸地板塊周期性淹沒頻發。
58:7.9 (671.2) During these times of primitive marine life, extensive areas of the continental shores sank beneath the seas from a few feet to half a mile. Much of the older sandstone and conglomerates represents the sedimentary accumulations of these ancient shores. The sedimentary rocks belonging to this early stratification rest directly upon those layers which date back far beyond the origin of life, back to the early appearance of the world-wide ocean.
58:7.9 (671.2) 在這些原始海洋生命的時期，大陸海岸的大片區域沉入海底，深度從幾米到八百米不等。許多較老的砂巖和礫巖代表了這些古老海岸的沉積堆積物。屬於這種早期分層的沉積巖直接堆積在那些可追溯至遠早於生命起源的時期、即全球海洋初現時期的巖層之上。
58:7.10 (671.3) Some of the upper layers of these transition rock deposits contain small amounts of shale or slate of dark colors, indicating the presence of organic carbon and testifying to the existence of the ancestors of those forms of plant life which overran the earth during the succeeding Carboniferous or coal age. Much of the copper in these rock layers results from water deposition. Some is found in the cracks of the older rocks and is the concentrate of the sluggish swamp water of some ancient sheltered shore line. The iron mines of North America and Europe are located in deposits and extrusions lying partly in the older unstratified rocks and partly in these later stratified rocks of the transition periods of life formation.
58:7.10 (671.3) 這些過渡巖層沉積物的部分上層含有少量深色頁巖或板巖，這表明出現過有機碳，並證明存在過那些在隨後的石炭紀或煤炭時代蔓延地球的植物生命形態的先祖。這些巖層中的大部分銅都源於水的沉積物。有些銅存在於古老巖石的裂縫中，是某些遠古避風海岸線上緩慢流動的沼澤水的濃縮物。北美和歐洲的鐵礦位於沉積物與噴出物中，它們部分存在於較老的未層疊巖石中，部分則存在於生命形成過渡時期的後期層疊巖石中。
58:7.11 (671.4) This era witnesses the spread of life throughout the waters of the world; marine life has become well established on Urantia. The bottoms of the shallow and extensive inland seas are being gradually overrun by a profuse and luxuriant growth of vegetation, while the shore-line waters are swarming with the simple forms of animal life.
58:7.11 (671.4) 這個時代見證了生命在全世界水域中的傳播；海洋生命已在玉苒廈上廣泛繁衍。淺而廣闊的內陸海底正逐漸被茂密繁盛的植被所覆蓋，而近岸水域則充斥著形態簡單的動物生命。
58:7.12 (671.5) All of this story is graphically told within the fossil pages of the vast “stone book” of world record. And the pages of this gigantic biogeologic record unfailingly tell the truth if you but acquire skill in their interpretation. Many of these ancient sea beds are now elevated high upon land, and their deposits of age upon age tell the story of the life struggles of those early days. It is literally true, as your poet has said, “The dust we tread upon was once alive.”
58:7.12 (671.5) 整個故事都生動地展現在世界紀錄這本巨大 「巖石書」 的化石頁面中。只要你掌握了解讀這本巨型生物地質史冊的技巧，其頁面便會始終可靠地訴說著真相。這些古老的海床中，許多如今已高聳於陸地之上了，其歷經漫長歲月的沉積物訴說著遠古歲月裏生命掙紮的故事。正如你們的詩人所言：「我們所踩踏過的塵土，也曾是有生氣的。」 這完全是真實的。
58:7.13 (671.6) [Presented by a member of the Urantia Life Carrier Corps now resident on the planet.]
58:7.13 (671.6) [由現在駐居於此行星的玉苒廈生命載運者團隊的一員呈獻。]