THE HISTORY OF THE GROUND, 13 



CHAPTER II. 



THE HISTORY OF THE GROUND. 



iv. THE SOIL-MAKERS. There are two ways 

 of looking at the history of things. One is to imagine 

 that things were first made as they are now. The 

 other is to think that things are as they now appear, 

 because of many past events that gradually shaped 

 them to their present form. It has been thought by 

 many wise men, in the past, that the world was made, 

 from the very beginning, just as we now see it ; that 

 when Adam went forth from the Garden of Eden, he 

 found the world but freshly made, and precisely as 

 we see, it to-day. It has been thought by other wise 

 men, that the years of the world are past counting ; 

 that our planet passed through many long stages of 

 growth ; that its present appearance is the result of 

 infinite changes, every change being a step upward, 

 a step toward improvement. In the opinion of these 

 men, the world, under God's guidance, grew to its 

 present form through various stages of growth, and in 

 each stage subject to natural laws that have neither 

 change nor turning. These are opinions, and there 

 have been good men who have firmly held to one or 

 the other of these two opinions. 



