Geology. 237 







together, till the eye of man can see the perfection 

 of its work, and its beautiful proportions, is another 

 proof of the perfect adaptation of these works to 

 the higher nature of man. No other worldly good, 

 but gold, has ever sent men on such long and peril- 

 ous journeys. The gradual unfolding of the plan 

 of nature so enchains the mind, that ease is for- 

 gotten and money despised, except as a means. It 

 is never valued for a moment, compared with pro- 

 ss in this pursuit. Linnaeus not only roused his 

 mind and body to the work, so that weariness and 

 disease were almost forgotten, but his pupils were 

 fired with that enthusiasm which sent them round 

 the world, to find for their teacher and for them- 

 selves, new lines in this book of nature. 



There is one department of science, embracing, 

 indeed, the whole range of Natural I listory, in which 

 the most brilliant revelations were reserved for our 

 day, and where the human mind has yet its grandest 

 problems to solve in the material world. Slowly 

 from the mountain and the valley did light break in 

 upon the mind, and the great truth become esta- 

 blished, that in the bosom of the earth, where there 

 had for ages seemed to be mere chaos and confu- 

 sion, there was a divine volume of stony leaves with 

 strange inscriptions the record of unnumbered or- 

 ganized beings, kept through long ages amid the 

 convulsions of the globe, the warring elements of 

 fire and water, all perfect for man the translator. 

 He has already read enough to learn that the 

 earth's true history is written in this volume, and 



