18 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



most important part in causing the diversity of 

 elevation exhibited on the surface of the earth, 

 giving origin to hills and mountains and valleys, 

 with all their variety of scenery ; and so causing 

 the conditions necessary to the existence of 

 springs, rivers, and lakes, from which results so 

 much variety and beauty of scenery. But a 

 still higher interest belongs to the study of the 

 stratified formations ; for the various organic 

 remains they contain are a record of the past 

 history of the earth, by indicating the character 

 of the plants and animals by which it has been 

 successively inhabited, and by pointing out, in 

 some degree, the nature of the soil, the climate, 

 and in general the physical geography of the 

 earth, in periods incalculably remote from the 

 present time. 



One of the most remarkable truths disclosed 

 by geology is, not merely that multitudes of the 

 remains of plants and animals peculiar to former 

 conditions of the earth are preserved in the 

 stratified rocks, but that in many instances these 

 rocks, although of vast depth and extent, are 

 formed almost exclusively of the remains of 

 creatures once endowed with the senses and 

 functions of vitality. This truth, wonderful as 

 it is, is not inconsistent with the wide and all but 

 universal diffusion of life at the present moment ; 

 and it proves that in the remotest ages of the 

 earth's history the mysterious principle of vitality 

 was employed by its Divine Originator to minister 

 with a most energetic agency to a great variety 



