16 TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL. 



see in operation to-day were in operation then. " He 

 giveth snow like wool. He scattereth the hoar-frost 

 like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels : who 

 can stand before his cold ? He sendeth out his word, 

 and melteth them : he causeth the wind to blow, and 

 the waters flow." God reigns in this planet, though it 

 be only a mass of flaming gas, a ball of liquid fire 

 cased in a shell of glowing rocks, or the world beau- 

 tiful where men live. 



What effect would these laws have upon the first 

 rocks? What influence would the weather have on 

 them ? The geologist tells us that the first rocks began 

 to "weather" They were exposed to the weather, 

 and remarkable changes at once began. This process 

 he calls " weathering." The result of this weathering 

 is at last to make soils. Naturally we might ask him 

 how he knows that. His answer is very simple : be- 

 cause this process of weathering is going on now upon 

 all rocks, and there is no reason to think it did not go 

 on then. The geologist has also another word, " den- 

 udation" When the first rocks appeared, they were 

 doubtless soon thrown or crumpled up by the shrink- 

 ing of the crust, into heaps and ridges. These prime- 

 val hills began at once to be weathered, to be torn 

 down and denuded by stormy winds, frost, ice, rain, 

 torrents, and floods. The moment there began to be 

 a rocky crust to the world, destruction, wreck, change, 

 and alteration began. The weather crumbled and broke 

 down the rocks. Denudation set in ; and the crooked 

 began to be made straight, the rough places plain, and 



