C14> A Morning^ s Walk from London to Kew. 



in both hemispheres ; — hciice all the But my imagination 



■varieties of marine ai)poaiimees and ac- 

 ciiniiilations of marine remains in parti- 

 cular situations ; and hence the succes- 

 sion of laj eis or strata, one upon ano- 

 ther, of marine and earthy remains. 'I'lic 

 observations of those strata-prove that 

 the periodical ciianges have already 

 occurred at least three times; or, in otiier 

 words, it appears that the scite on which 

 I now stand has been tJirce times cover- 

 ed by the ocean, and three times has 

 afforded an asylum for vegetables and 

 animals! How sublime — hon interesting 

 . — how aifecting is such a contemi)la- 

 tioa! How transitory , therefore, are all the 

 local arrangements of man, and how pu- 

 erile the study of the science niis-cal!ed 

 Antiquities ! Howfonlishthepridewhich 

 Taunts itself on splendid buildings and 

 costly mausoleums! How vain the 

 Ostentation of large estates, of extensive 

 boundaries, and of great empires ! — All 

 — all — will, in duo time, be swept away 

 and effaced by tlic unsparing ocean ; 

 and, if recorded in the frail memorials 

 of human science, will be spoken of like 

 the lost Atalantis, and remembered only 

 as a philosophical dream! 



Yet, how different, thought I, is the 

 rich scene of organized existence within 

 my view from that which presented 

 itself 0)1 this spot, when our planet first 

 took its station in the solar system. 

 Thesurface, judging trom its jirescnt ma- 

 terials, was then probably of the same 

 inorganic form and structure as the pri- 

 mitive rocks which still compose the 

 Alps and Andes ; or like those indurated 

 coral islands Mhi(;h are daily raising 

 their sterile heads above the level 

 of the great ocean, and teaching by 

 analogy the process of fc^rtilizalion. 

 At that period, so remote and so ob- 

 scure, all must have been silent, 

 barren, and relatively motionless. But, 

 the atmosphere and the rains hav- 

 ing, bv decomposition and solution, pul- 

 verized the rocks, and reduced them 

 into the various earths which now fer- 

 tilize the surface, from the inorganic 

 •soon sprung the vegetable, and tiom the 

 vegetable, in duo time, sprung the animal; 

 till the interesting assemblage of orga- 

 nized existences was completed, which 

 now present themselves to our endless 

 wonder and gratification, 



I looked around me on this book of 

 nature, ^vhioh so clofjuently speaks all 

 languages, and which, for every use- 

 ful purpose, may be read without trans- 

 lation or commentary, by the learned 

 and unlearacd ia every ago aud clime. 



[Oct. T, 



was humbled 

 on considering my relative and limited 

 powers, when I desired to ascend from 

 phenomena to causes, and to penetrate 

 the secrets of nature below the sur- 

 faces of tilings. I desire, said I, to know 

 more than my intellectual vision enables 

 me tosee in thisvolumeof unerrhigtruth. 

 1 can discover but the mere surfaces of 

 things by the accidents of light. I can 

 feel but the same surfaces in the contact 

 of my body, and my conclusions are go- 

 verned by their reciprocal relations. In 

 like manner, 1 can hear, taste, and smell, 

 only through the accidents of other me- 

 dia, ail distinct iiom the nature of the 

 substances «hich produce those acci- 

 dents. In truth, I am the mere patient 

 of certain illusions of my senses, and I 

 can know nothing beyond what 1 derive 

 from my eapacily of receiving impres- 

 sions from those illusions ! Alas ! 

 thought 1, I am sensible how little I 

 know; yet how much is there which I 

 do not, and can never, know? How 

 much more am I incapable of knowing, 

 with my limited organs of sense, than 

 I might know if their capacity or their 

 ntmiber were enlarged .' How can a 

 being, then, of such limited powers pre- 

 sume to examine nature beyond the mere 

 surface .' How can he measure unseen 

 powers, of which he has no perception, 

 but in the phenomena visible to his 

 senses ? How can he reason on the causes 

 of effects by means of implements 

 which reach no deeper than the acci- 

 dents produced by the surfaces of things 

 on the media which aflect his senses, 

 and which come not into contact with 

 the powers that produce the phenf>menaJ 

 Ultimate causation is, therefore, hidden 

 f<jr ever from man, and his knowledge 

 can reach no deeper or higher than to 

 register mechanical phenomena, and de- 

 termine their mutual relations. But 

 there is yet enough for man to learn, 

 and to gratify the researches of his cu- 

 riosity ; (or, bounded as are his powers, 

 he has always found that, art is too lotifr 

 and life too short. He may nevertheless 

 feel that his mind, in a certain sense, is 

 within a species of intellectual prison ; 

 but, like the terrestrial prison which 

 confines his body to one planet, no niiin 

 ever lived long enough to Exhaust the 

 variety of subjects presented to his con- 

 templation and curiosity by the intellec- 

 tual and natural world. 



Vk e seem, however, said I,^to be bet- 

 ter qualified to investigate the external 

 laws which govern inorganic matter, 

 thaa tlic subtle aud local powers which 

 govera 



