If the Earth grew from a small nucleus to its present size by

the extremely gradual drawing-in of innumerable small masses in
its neighborhood, the process would always be slow; much slower
at first when the small nucleus had low gravitating powers,
more rapid when the body was of good size and the store of
materials to draw upon plentiful,and gradually slower and
slower as the supply of building materials was depleted
If the Earth grew from a small nucleus to its present size by
the extremely gradual drawing-in of innumerable small masses in
its neighborhood, the process would always be slow; much slower
at first when the small nucleus had low gravitating powers,
more rapid when the body was of good size and the store of
materials to draw upon plentiful,and gradually slower and
slower as the supply of building materials was depleted.
Meteoric matter still falls upon and builds up the Earth, but
at so slow a rate as to increase the Earth"s diameter an inch
only after the passage of hundreds of millions of years. If the
Earth grew in this manner, the growth may now be said to be
essentially complete, through the substantial exhaustion of the
supply of materials.