126 THE Mooy. 



v/ere formed by aqueous agency, and successively at different intervals 

 of time. As a further evidence of the same kind, we may state the in- 

 teresting fact, that even the impressions made by rain drops upon what 

 was once sand or mud, are preserved in rocks so distinctly, that we can- 

 not mistake their character. 



Now all these facts are consistent only with the supposition, that 

 the stratified rocks were formed from the washings of those existing be- 

 fore, and that animals aud plants or parts of them were quietly imbedded 

 with them, and converted into the solid form in which we now find thcnr, 

 for heat would evidently have destroyed what we now find so remark- 

 9.bly preserved. And with these facts before him, we think, no one, in 

 his senses, will maintain that the stratified rocks were originally formed 

 by the Creator in their present form and position. They are the imper- 

 islfable anonuments of the Earth's past history, which, unlike ihe re- 

 cords of iiations, have never been interpolated or falsified, and thus ren- 

 xlered unworthy of trust, and which enable us to go back to the period, 

 wlien time was yet young, and thence, assured that no importanl fact 

 has been lost or left unrecorded, trace, in indelible characters, the great 

 series of events as they transpired, and the successive revolutions, v.'luch 

 look place in llie exterior crust of the globe, and in the races of its in- 

 habitants, until we arrive at its present state, so well adapted to support 

 and give exercise to the highest forms of organized being. Whilst of 

 mere theories we niay be afraid, oi facts we dare not. Of these, Geol- 

 ogy spreads out before us the richest treasures, inviting us to come and 

 jnake them our own ; nor should we be deterred from the delightful la- 

 bor, thougli men, who have never spent an hour in the field of personal 

 observation, or learnt more than some of the terms of our science, 

 should call us ^^ sciolists.,'''' because we, equally loving the Book of llev- 

 •elation, should differ from them as to the proper reading and inlcrj)re- 

 lation of the Book of Nature, whicli Uie great Ruler of the world has 

 onened to our view. 



THE MOON. 



None of the larger bodies, which compose the solar system, can 

 compare with this little satellite in the interest which it has excited. — 

 With none do we possess so intimate a physical acquaintance, and none 

 has been invested by popular superstition with so great and so varied 

 influences. 



lu magnitude it is comparatively insignificant, being only 2160 miles 

 .in diameter, and it is exceeded iii bulk many tliousand times by other 



