THE MUSEUM. 



i8i 



whole earthly structure upon the found- 

 ation of an Azoic devoid of life. 

 But it is surely not devoid of the 

 evidences of life. In point of 



time, this is the ify-leaf in the book 

 which we must first turn over be- 

 fore we can read what is recorded on 

 its written pages. But if there is in- 

 scribed on it the name of the donor of 

 the volume who presents it to us, so 

 richly unfolding a true conception of 

 nature in the past ages of the world, 

 it ought to be the page most endeared 

 to us, as revealing where we are to 

 look for the very origin of material 

 things. But if this Azoic age was de- 

 void of life, the question may very 

 properly be asked whence has come 

 the vast amount of Graphite — which 

 is almost pure carbon — that is found 

 in the rocks of this age. 



Upon the authority of Dawson and 

 Logan, who have most thoroughly 

 studied this age, it is scarcely an ex- 

 ageration to say the quality of carbon 

 in it, is sometimes equal to that of a 

 similar area in the coal or true carbon 

 age. It is true carbon exists in con- 

 siderable quantity in the atmosphere 

 in carbonic acid combined with oxygen; 

 and that it once existed in still greater 

 quantity there, by an amount now rep- 

 resented by the limestones, and car- 

 bonate minerals, the beds of Coal, 

 Graphite and Hydrocarbon products, 

 as mineral oils etc, stored up in the 

 earth, is very probable. But if there 

 is any way in which this carbon can 

 be taken from the atmosphere, liberat- 

 ed from its union with the oxygen and 

 applied in the way of forming such 

 products, it is not known to science; 

 unless it is by and through the agency 

 of the plant life, or of animal life se- 

 creting shell or coral (limestone) for a 



habitation, and nourished and fed by 

 the plant — a small exception only be- 

 ing made for such limestones as may 

 have been formed by chemical precipi- 

 tation. 



Whence came the Anthracite coal 

 and bituminous matter, sometimes 

 amounting to ten per cent, in the rock 

 of this age; unless as the residue of 

 plant and animal life. Whence the 

 vast beds of iron oxide ores in the 

 form of Hematite and Magnetite in 

 the Lake Superior region, at Pilot 

 Knob, Mo., and many other places. 



These oxide products point to natu- 

 ral reduction; to which, outside of arti- 

 ficial reduction in our furnaces, we are 

 strangers to the process; unless through 

 the reducing effects of decomposing 

 vegetable and animal matter. All this 

 points to life, constant, continuous, 

 uninterrupted, on our globe, from the 

 beginning. 



When was that.' Some, who have 

 not properly considered that they are 

 striving to measure infinite problems 

 by a finite measure; unmeasurable 

 space and immensity in duration, with 

 the yard stick of finite reason and 

 shortness of human life, have cut the 

 Gordon Knot in despair and declare 

 matter and living germs to be eternal 

 and uncreated. But of this much we 

 may be absolutely certain, everything 

 has had a beginning, and has had its 

 origin and will have its end in time. 



The proof of this is seen in the uni- 

 versal and constant change we see go- 

 ing on in everything and everywhere 

 around us. For had existing forces 

 been acting from eternity every change 

 which they are capable of accomplish- 

 ing would have been effected in the 

 ages past, and we would now witness 

 nothing but absolute rest and stagna- 

 tion in the universe. 



