24 TOWN GEOLOGY. 



where their voices are not heard among them." So held 

 the Psalmist concerning astronomy, the knowledge of 

 the heavenly bodies; and what he says of sun and stars 

 is true likewise of the flowers around our feet, of which 

 the greatest Christian poet of modern times has said 



To me the meanest flower that grows may give 

 Thoughts that do lie too deep for tears. 



So, again, you will be in harmony with the teaching 

 of St. Paul, who told the Romans " that the invisible 

 things of God are clearly seen from the creation of the 

 world, being understood by the things that are made, 

 even His eternal power and Godhead ;" and who told 

 the savages of Lycaonia that " God had not left Himself 

 without witness, in that He did good and sent men rain 

 from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling men's hearts 

 with food and gladness/' Rain and fruitful seasons 

 witnessed to all men of a Father in heaven. And he 

 who wishes to know how truly St. Paul spoke, let him 

 study the laws which produce and regulate rain and 

 fruitful seasons, what we now call climatology, 

 meteorology, geography of land and water. Let him 

 read that truly noble Christian work, Maury's "Physical 

 Geography of the Sea; " and see, if he be a truly rational 

 man, how advanced science, instead of disproving, has 

 only corroborated St. Paul's assertion, and how the ocean 

 and the rain-cloud, like the sun and stars, declare the 

 glory of God. And if anyone undervalues the sciences 

 which teachus concerning stones and plants and animals, 

 or thinks that nothing can be learnt from them con- 

 cerning God allow one who has been from childhood 

 only a humble, though he trusts a diligent student of 

 these sciences allow him, I say, to ask in all reverence, 



