APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 65 



whirligig of time brought its revenges " in those 

 days as in these. That dry land, with the bones 

 and teeth of generations of long-lived elephants, 

 hidden away among the gnarled roots and dry 

 leaves of its ancient trees, sank gradually to the 

 bottom of the icy sea, which covered it with huge 

 masses of drift and boulder clay. Sea-beasts, such 

 as the walrus, now restricted to the extreme north, 

 paddled about where birds had twittered among the 

 topmost twigs of the fir-trees. How long this state 

 of things endured we know not, but at length it 

 came to an end. The upheaved glacial mud hard- 

 ened into the soil of modern Norfolk. Forests grew 

 once more, the wolf and the beaver replaced the 

 reindeer and the elephant ; and at length what we 

 call the history of England dawned. 



Direct proof may be given that some parts of the 

 land of the northern hemisphere are at this moment 

 insensibly rising and others insensibly sinking ; and 

 there is indirect, but perfectly satisfactory, proof, 

 that an enormous area now covered by the Pacific 

 has been deepened thousands of feet, since the pre- 

 sent inhabitants of that sea came into existence. 

 Thus there is not a shadow of a reason for believing 

 that the physical changes of the globe, in past times, 

 have been effected by other than natural causes. 



A small beginning has led us to a great ending. 

 If I were to put the bit of chalk with which we 

 started into the hot but obscure flame of burning 

 hydrogen, it would presently shine like the sun. It 

 seems to me that this physical metamorphosis is no 



