74 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



and abandoned to the laws of motion fimply, the 

 period muft be long pad, when there could not 

 have been the fmallefl: rifing on it's furface. The 

 adion of the rains, of the winds, and of gravity, 

 would have brought down every particle of Land 

 to the level of the Seas. 



It is not in the works of GOD, but in thofe of 

 men, that we are enabled to trace epochs. All 

 our monuments announce the late Creation of the 

 Earth which we inhabit. Jf it were, I will not fay 

 eternal, but of high antiquity only, we fhould, 

 furely, find fome productions of human induftry 

 much older than from three to four thoufand years, 

 fuch as all thofe that we arc acquainted with. 

 We have certain fubflances on which time makes 

 no very perceptible alteration. I have feen, in the 

 pofleflion of the intelligent Count de Caylus, con- 

 ftellation rings of gold, or Egyptian talifmans, as 

 entire as if they had juft come from the hand of 

 the workman. Savages, who have no knowledge 

 of iron, are acquainted with gold, and fearch after 

 it, as much for it's durability as for it's fhining 

 colour. Inftead, then, of finding antiques of only 

 three or four thoufand years, fuch as thofe of the 

 moft ancient Nations, we ought to poffefs fome 

 of fixty, of a hundred, of two hundred thoufand 

 years. 



Lucrelm 



