6 THE MEDALS OF CREATION. 
man who is devotedly attached to any branch of natural 
science: I never knew such an one. There may be such 
individuals—for religion only can change the heart—but if 
there be, they are very rare exceptions; and the loud 
clamours which are always raised against the man of science 
who errs, prove how rarely the study of the works of the 
Creator fails to exert an ennobling effect upon a well-regu- 
lated mind. Fortunate, indeed, are the youth of either sex, 
who early imbibe a taste for natural knowledge, and whose 
predilections are not thwarted by injudicious friends.” 
And while Geology exerts this hallowing influence on the 
character, it possesses the great advantage of presenting 
subjects adapted to every capacity ; on some of its investi- 
gations the highest intellectual powers and the most pro- 
found acquirements in exact science are required ; while 
many of its problems may be solved by any one who has 
eyes and will use them ; and innumerable facts illustrative 
of the ancient condition of our planet, and of its inha- 
bitants, may be gathered by any diligent and intelligent 
observer. 
But it is surely unnecessary to dwell on the interest and 
importance of a study, which instructs us that every pebble 
we tread upon bears the impress of the Almighty’s hand, 
and affords evidence of Creative wisdom ; that every grain 
of sand, every particle of dust scattered by the wind, may 
be composed of the aggregated skeletons of beings, so 
minute as to elude our unassisted vision, but which pos- 
sessed an organization as marvellous as our own ;—a science 
whose discoveries have realized the wildest imaginings of the 
poet,—whose realities far surpass in grandeur and sublimity 
the most imposing fictions of romance ;—a science, whose 
empire is the earth, the ocean, the atmosphere, the heayens ; 
—whose speculations embrace all elements, all space, all 
time ;—objects the most minute, objects the most colossal ; 
—carrying its researches into the smallest atom which the 
