274 Address before the Association of American Geologists. 
any proof from their writings, as exulting in the supposed collis- 
ion ;—but I am happy to believe, that such apprehensions are rap- 
idly passing away. Theologians of enlarged and impartial minds 
are beginning to study geology ; and instead of finding its truths 
hostile to revelation, they find, that it furnishes them with new 
and interesting matter, such as no other science can, for illustra- 
ting the perfections and: government of Jehovah ;—and such men 
as Drs. Chalmers and Smith,* have already reaped from it a rich 
harvest. I trust that the day is not distant, when the supposed 
geological objection to. revelation will be as little remembered, as 
is now the analogous objection derived from the Copernican sys- 
tem of astronomy ; and which, two or three hundred years. 95°, 
was supposed. to be fraught with so much danger. 
Another mode in which practical. geology carries with it ne 
own. reward, is by bringing us into constant communion with 
unsophisticated nature, in her most sublime and interesting as- 
pects. It is hardly possible to place the geologist in any spot on 
the globe, where he does not witness around him the marks of 
mighty agencies and revolutions, that are unheeded by the com 
mon mind, but which furnish him with a rich fund for reflection. 
But his most appropriate place is among the wildest scenery of 
ature ; now, plunging into the deep cavern, studded with glit- 
tering spars, aud perhaps the charnel-house of the antediluvian 
world ; now, tracing his way. through the dark gorge, with jutting 
rocks rising around him, as if they formed the battlements of 
heaven ; now, mounting: the lofty ridge and drinking in the glo 
ries of the vast landscape ; and now, standing upon the edge of 
the yawning precipice, to witness the roaring cataract, as the 
‘waters thunder down their steep and rocky bed, until, —- 
from their narrow passage, they flow out quietly, as the calm 
Majestic river, to fertilize and beautify the extended plain. ser 
all these scenes, he sees the arm of Omnipotence laid bare; a 
Die 8 Lctseaiis on the Relation be? 
parts of Geo gia Science, An able va 
nons of Rev. Mr. Melville, of London, V8 
wee ite 
