THE 
MEDALS OF CREATION. 
INTRODUCTION. 
“* Groxoey, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects 
of which it treats, ranks next to AStTRoNoOMyY in the scale of 
the Sciences.”—Sir J. F. W. Herschel. 
GEOLOGY, a term signifying a discourse on the Earth, 
(from two Greek words: viz. yn, ge, the earth ; and Adyos, 
logos, a discourse,) is the science which treats of the phy- 
sical structure of the planet on which we live, and of the 
nature and causes of the successive changes which have 
taken place in the organic and inorganic kingdoms, from 
the remotest period to the present time, and is therefore 
intimately connected with every department of natural 
philosophy. 
While in common with other scientific pursuits it yields 
_ the noblest and purest pleasures of which the human mind is 
susceptible, it. has peculiar claims on our attention, since it 
offers inexhaustible and varied fields of intellectual research, 
and its cultivation, beyond that of any other science, is in 
a great measure independent of external circumstances; for 
VOL. I. B 
