42 GEOLOGY. 



2. ,It is an interesting science. It opens to our view 

 a new world, and presents us with numerous objects of 

 beauty and of interest, before unnoticed. The most 

 barren ledges, the commonest rocks and walls by the 

 wayside, destitute of anything to admire or notice, show 

 to groups of young explorers, that these have not 

 merited the long neglect they have suffered ; that they 

 contain much that is rich and beautiful, not merely 

 when arranged on the shelves and cases of a cabinet, 

 but when placed on the mantelpiece of the parlor or 

 drawing-room, and furnishing instruction and delight to 

 the most elevated minds. 



3. It is among the grandest of sciences. It leads us 

 to view, with increased admiration, the towering moun- 

 tain and awful precipice, and induces and enables us to 

 examine with greater ardor and more exalted delight, 

 those features of the earth, which never fail to excite 

 ideas of sublimity even in the rudest mind. We learn 

 from it, that amid the lofty aspect, the terrific grandeur, 

 and the wild confusion of the Alps and Andes, there is 

 order and regularity, which evince the skill of a wise 

 and all-powerful architect. Arrangement amidst appa- 

 rent disorder, a vast storehouse of riches overhung by 

 forms of terror, objects of the highest beauty grouped 

 beneath the awfully sublime, afford to the passing geolo- 

 gist a moral as well as an intellectual banquet. 



4. It gives new interest and increased utility to our 

 journeys and our walks. A person, with the slightest 

 knowledge of geology, never passes from one country 

 or place to another, without finding much to admire, 

 and much to increase his store of knowledge. If he 

 find no thriving village, no field covered with the fruits 

 of the farmer's industry, no fertile tract groaning under 

 its load of stately forest trees, or smiling beneath its 

 dress of beautiful verdure, he still finds in the barren 

 plain or the broken ledge, much that is beautiful, rich, 

 and instructive. 



5. It furnishes a healthful and instructive amusemeni 

 to the young. Wherever it has been introduced into 

 schools, the pupils have taken more or less of their 

 pastime in examining and collecting specimens of min- 



