THE RIPPLE-MARK- 59 



daily occurrence on the sands, we find the explanation of 

 the geological phenomenon. The sandstone-rock, hard 

 as it now may be, was once a beach, as impressible as 

 that in which we may now be leaving our foot-prints. 

 And though, in thousands of cases, these foot-prints 

 will be swept away by the next flow of the water, 

 it may so happen that they will remain. And it is a 

 wonderful circumstance that all trace of some of the 

 gigantic animals which once inhabited the world has 

 perished from the knowledge of mankind, save only the 

 track of their foot-prints left in what was then adhe- 

 sive mud, but which successive ages have converted into 

 hard stone. If Robinson Crusoe was powerfully affected 

 by meeting with the naked human foot-print in the 

 sand, what a crowd of thoughts are awakened by disco- 

 vering in the hard rock this only evidence of a gigantic 

 animal ! A true poet has said, 



" It is the soul that sees : the outward eyes 

 Present the object, hut the mind descries ; 

 And thence delight, disgust, or cool indiff'rence rise." 



We may live among the grandest scenes of Nature, or 

 may visit the noblest monuments of art, and remain 

 insensible to their beauty or sublimity. Differently 

 affected, we may find in the barren sands of the sea- 

 shore enjoyment of the purest character, and specula- 

 tions, which, rising from nothing more important than 

 the trail of a sea-slug, will lead us to contemplate, and 

 in measure, to comprehend some of the most extensive 

 operations of Nature, bringing under review unnum- 

 bered ages, past, present, and to come. 



