GENERAL INFERENCES. 95 



of the relative influence of cause and effect, of wisdom and con- 

 trivance. We have here a combination of materials in every 

 coal-field, rough and rude as all about it may appear, which 

 directly speaks to us of intelligent superintendence. These 

 things by accident or chance could not have happened. The 

 heavens declare the glory of their Author. A voice from the 

 deep places of the earth speaketh of His ways. Astronomy 

 unfolds the wonders and stability of the starry system. Geology 

 lays open the interior structure and the beautiful arrangements 

 of our own planet. One series of rocks only have we touched 

 upon. To the eye of the common observer all appears confu- 

 sion and disorder — materials cast out and piled upon each other 

 at random, rocks upheaved and rent asunder according to no 

 method or law, and all within exhibiting the still more repulsive 

 features of sterility and death. The eye of science looks a 

 little deeper, where it sees order, symmetry, and a boundless 

 profusion of the richest materials, stored up ages ago for man's 

 use and social advancement, affording sustenance and enjoy- 

 ment to earth's varied tribes in far bygone times, and now these 

 stony chambers beneath, the Necropolis of its countless, long- 

 buried dead ! The illustrious Bacon has beautifully said : 

 " Philosophia naturalis, post verbum Dei, certissima supersti- 

 tionis medicina est ; eademque probatissimum fidei alimentum." 

 How truly is this the case with geological researches as to the 

 " potestas Dei " of which he afterwards speaks, where the 

 arrangements, diversity, and constituent elements of the frame- 

 work of the globe present such manifest illustrations of the 

 power, wisdom, and goodness of Him who reared the stupen- 

 dous fabric, and made our humble dwelling-place one of the 

 bright rolling planets of the universe ! 



Who would refuse to study and examine into these things ? 

 What interesting disclosures are missed when we do ! What 

 culpable, unpardonable neglect, or indolence, or prejudice, in 

 passing over knowledge so readily, and in every spot of earth's 



