THE OLD AGE OF CONTINENTS. 133 



to yield to impending revolution. Human history is but 

 a scene in the moving panorama of life, and its term is 

 no less certain than that of the Mesozoic saurians. It 

 may be the last scene, but it will not be perpetual. Its 

 limitations are inscribed upon the scroll of the geologic 

 ages, and proclaimed in the events of the passing hour. 



Neither can the series of continental renovations con- 

 tinue without limit. The time must come when the earth 

 itself will be " in the sere and yellow leaf." The forces 

 which hoist a continent dripping from the depths of a re- 

 cent ocean will be weary of their labors. Already they 

 act with greatly lessened energy. These, like all other 

 forces, are seeking rest. Equilibrium and stagnation are 

 the goal of all mechanical activities. Uplifted mountains, 

 denuded continents, obliterated seas, appearing and dis- 

 appearing races, these are all but the incidents of the 

 progress of all terrestrial forces to a state of ultimate re- 

 pose. Not only has nature fixed the limits of our race; 

 she has equally staked out the duration of the present ter- 

 restrial order, and proclaimed in the ears of all intelli- 

 gences that the flow of events which we trace so clearly 

 to a remote beginning is destined, in the distant future, 

 to be merged again into ancient chaos. So the perpetu- 

 ity of the cosmical order is not insured by the laws of 

 matter alone. An omnific Arm begins, sustains, controls 

 the evolutions of the successive cycles of material history. 



The indications of continental decay at which we have 

 glanced are worthy of further study. I shall, therefore, 

 resume the theme and point out other cases of continental 

 wastage which have resulted in obliteration. 



