NOMOS. 173 



a new epoch, in which the old changes are repeated 

 in monotonous succession, and 



" The meanings of the homeless sea, 



The sound of waves that swift or slow 

 Draw down (Eonian hills, and sow 

 The dust of continents to be," 



are the only sounds until the air is again startled 

 by the roar of the earthquake which is destined to 

 submerge the land, and raise once more the bed of 

 the sea to the light of day. But the new land is no 

 longer the bare and inhospitable granite which it was 

 at first, though still bare and inhospitable, for it is 

 now another kind of rock, a rock which has been 

 formed out of the sediment which had accumulated 

 at the bottom of the ancient seas, and which has been 

 formed, in part by the heat and pressure which operated 

 at the time, of upheaval, and in part by the drying 

 action of the winds and sunbeams after this time. 



At length, after repeated revolutions of this kind, 

 there is a great change, and the hitherto barren and 

 desolate landscape becomes covered with forests of 

 tropical luxuriance. There is a change, indeed, of 

 which the history is plainly and permanently written 

 upon the crust of the earth, for these forests, instead 

 of being destroyed by the waters which eventually 

 overwhelm them, are converted into coal by the 

 rock-making processes which are at work during 

 this period of baptism. 



Contemporaneously, also, with the appearance of 

 forests, the air begins to pulsate with the breath of 

 animals, and polypes and shell-fish of various kinds 

 become busied in the construction of coral reefs and 



