296 THE WORLD. 



passed them, and how few of the countless thousands of all that 

 sea, have been preserved for the curious gaze of the student of 

 nature. The thoughts which overwhelm the mind when con- 

 templating the wonders of the universe, impress us with almost 

 a feeling of sadness that creation is so vast we can never compre- 

 hend the whole of it. The influence however, of scientific pur- 

 suits upon the mind, is most beneficial, and the great lesson 

 taught by science is, that our habitual ideas, and our first im- 

 pressions are far from being nearest the truth. Indeed we have 

 already observed in the first part of this work, that Astronomy 

 begins by convincing us that the sun, which apparently is revolv- 

 ing around the eaith, is in reality still, but that our globe is turn- 

 ing daily on its axis, although apparently unmoving. Geology 

 in like manner begins with even more unpleasant truths, and 

 convinces us that the present configuration of the continents and 

 seas, so far from being the primeval condition of things, is but one 

 of the various vicissitudes through which the world has passed. 

 We are accustomed to consider the earth as coeval with man, 

 and that but five or six thousand years have elapsed since their 

 creation. Geology demonstrates that our present abode is of far 

 greater antiquity, and the slightest examination of the crust of the 

 earth will convince us, that the substances of which it is com- 

 posed, are the results of accumulations or deposits extended 

 through a long period of cycles. As we have already observed 

 all the strata, with the exceptions of the igneous rocks, the granite, 

 the gneiss, and the mica-schist systems, are fossiliferous, and it 

 is highly probable that even these rocks are of sedimentary ori- 

 gin, and once contained the remains of organic matter. The 

 vast series of other deposits are the undoubted mineralized beds 

 of primeval oceans, with occasional interpositions of lacrustine 

 or lake formed, and fluviatile or river deposits, the former rival- 

 ing those of the vast Atlantic and Pacific, and the latter those of 

 the immense inland lakes and rivers of the American continent. 

 We do not find these mineralized beds or rocks, in all cases bear- 

 ing the marks of quiet, but showing the agency of numerous dis- 

 turbing influences, they have been upheaved and bent over; and 

 broken through by the erupted and molten masses from beneath, 



