176 ^ag Smnicms, (Sssngs, rmtr |kbietos. [ix 



suggesting prettiness, but can hardly be called either 

 grand or beautiful But on our southern coasts, the 

 wall-sided cliffs, many hundred feet high, with vast 

 needles and pinnacles standing out in the sea, sharp 

 and solitary enough to serve as perches for the wary 

 cormorant, confer a wonderful beauty and grandeur 

 upon the chalk headlands. And, in the East, chalk has 

 its share in the formation of some of the most venerable 

 of mountain ranges, such as the Lebanon. 



What is this wide-spread component of the surface of 

 the earth ? and whence did it come ? 



You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You 

 may not unnaturally suppose that the attempt to solve 

 such problems as these can lead to no result, save that 

 of entangling the inquirer in vague speculations, in- 

 capable of refutation and of verification. 



If such were really the case, I should have selected 

 some other subject than a "piece of chalk" for my 

 discourse. But, in truth, after much deliberation, I 

 have been unable to think of any topic which would so 

 well enable me to lead you to see how solid is the foun- 

 dation upon which some of the most startling conclusions 

 of physical science rest. 



A great chapter of the history of the world is written 

 in the chalk. Few passages in the history of man can 

 be supported by such an overwhelming mass of direct 

 and indirect evidence as that which testifies to the truth 

 of the fragment of the history of the globe, which I hope 

 to enable you to read, with your own eyes, to-night. 



Let me add, that few chapters of human history haye 

 a more profound significance for ourselves. I weign 

 my words well when I assert, that the man who should 

 know the true history of the bit of chalk which every 

 carpenter carries about in his breeches-pocket, though 



