16 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



encroached upon by masses of falling, crumbling rock, and 

 the amazed traveller is seized with deep awe and vague 

 fear, when he crosses the vast wastes, covered with thous- 

 ands of silent stones, with which the elements have written 

 their Mene Mene in colossal letters on the mountain 

 slopes. But we are all accustomed to look upon these 

 events as the rare occurrences of a year or a season. 

 The tooth of Time works slowly, and generations pass 

 away, ere its marks are seen by human eyes. The hand 

 of Him in whose hands lies the fate of the earth, loves 

 not to send plutonic powers to shake the mountains from 

 their ancient foundations, and has promised that there 

 "shall not be any more a flood to destroy the earth." 

 But Alps and Andes, Cordilleras and Himalaya will fall, 

 and the eternal mountains be levelled to the ground. 



Our rock, hurled by his enemy from his ancient throne, 

 now lies in some deep, dark ravine, where night and dead 

 silence alone reign supreme. A giant block still, it hangs 

 threatening in boldly towering masses over the precipice, 

 and, in its sullen, stolid wrath, stems for a while the wild 

 raging flood. Wave after wave falls back from his strong, 

 rocky breast ; year after year the rushing waters leap 

 yelling over his proud head, or steal grumbling and 

 growling past the invincible foe. But the victory is here 

 also not to the strong. Step by step they push him 

 down into the valley ; limb after limb they tear from 

 his body and grind them into fine sand; by day and by 

 night, in winter and summer, they throw their whole power 

 against him, until at last he resists no longer and be- 

 comes "only a pebble." 



