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fully fixed on that glorious consummation of im- 

 mortality, which our Lord has purchased for us, 

 by his death and resurrection." 



21th. A. new world of knowledge has opened 

 to me, dear mamma, since my uncle began to 

 teach us a little geology. I know it is but an 

 outline, the slightest sketch, as he says, of the 

 science ; but it is sufficient to give a general idea 

 of the strata near the surface of the globe ; and 

 the specimens of the different series have made 

 all he told us doubly impressive. He has no 

 beautiful minerals and crystals, as they are very 

 expensive, and not so instructive as his rock col- 

 lection. Indeed, he considers his children in all 

 that he does ; and these drawers were, I believe, 

 arranged purposely for their benefit. 



He shewed us this morning another class of 

 substances imbedded in the secondary strata ; 

 these are the pebbles or broken fragments of 

 rocks which they are often found to contain, and 

 which have evidently belonged to strata older 

 than themselves. For instance, new red sandstone 

 frequently contains pieces of the carboniferous 

 limestone belonging to the order next below it, 

 as well as of many still older rocks : it is, in fact, 

 nothing but a mass of sand and gravel cemented 

 together ; and which sand and gravel are only 

 the remains, or debris as they are called, of former 

 rocks. My uncle says we may conclude, from 



