52 PEOYED BY ASTEONOMY. 



agencies in existing nature, we are forcibly impressed with 

 the slowness of these operations at the present day. Lakes 

 are ascertained to shoal up, in the proportion of only a 

 foot in a century; and oceanic deposits are known to be 

 correspondingly tardy of accumulation. Hence we find that 

 during the entire historic period, the physical geography 

 of our globe, with the exception of local and minor modifi- 

 cations, has remained unaltered. The oceans, rivers, lakes, 

 and mountains recorded in Scripture, form the physical 

 features of the same regions at the present day ; the ocean 

 which Caesar crossed, still separates the Briton from the Graul ; 

 the same rivers water the capitals of the same countries of 

 Europe ; while the same Vesuvius which overwhelmed Her- 

 culaneum and Pompeii still threatens the surrounding dis- 

 tricts; and the same submarine volcanic agency which 

 alarmed the Roman people, continues in activity, and pro- 

 duces similar phenomena at the present day. 



When we contemplate those operations which have formed 

 or modified the crust of our globe, and observe their extent 

 and grandeur ; when we find evidence, not of a single change, 

 but of cycles of changes ; of seas on seas ; with alterna- 

 tions of dry land in the existence of forests, rivers, and 

 lakes ; together with proofs of volcanic agency, with its 

 long-continued intervals of action and repose ; and when we 

 reflect that nothing is made in vain, but that every created 

 object has its sphere of usefulness, and therefore of duration ; 

 and when we look on the fair and harmonious world around 

 us, and examine the diversified materials of which it is com- 

 posed, and the wondrous agencies by which it has been 

 elaborated into order, fertility, and beauty, we cannot avoid 

 the conviction, that operations thus complicated and extensive, 

 and results thus admirable and perfect, must have required 

 an adequate period for their development ; and that time, to 

 an extent inappreciable by human powers of calculation, 

 must have formed an essential element in the vast work of 

 Creation. 



ANTIQUITY OF THE UNTYEESE PEOYED BY ASTEOISTOMT. 

 It is the profound remark of Lord Bacon, that we must 

 seek the explanation of a phenomenon not merely in the 

 investigation of that object alone, but by comparing it with 

 others of like nature with its own ; and thus the antiquity 



