506 ON THE SUCCESSIVE FORMS 



If we cannot actually apply the rule in such a case, 

 we can at least conjecture, within certain limits, what 

 was the depth of such a force as elevated any single 

 mountain chain, of which the continuous direction and 

 uniformity of position indicate a single uniform action, 

 as does probably the earthquake of Lisbon. Could we 

 suppose that Europe had been produced by one effort, 



the focus of the paraboloid would be scarcely less dis- 



* 



tant than the centre of a solid earth. But the reader 

 can reflect for himself; the data are before him. 



Nor must the great question of Time be passed over 

 lightly. We are too apt to measure this by our own 

 brief duration, as our vanity dreams that the universe 

 was created for us. Let us contemplate Time as it 

 relates to the Creator, not to ourselves, and we shall 

 no longer be alarmed at that which the history of the 

 Earth demands. Every change which it has undergone 

 has required time : every new deposition of rock has 

 been the work of ages ; and the sum of these is the 

 duration which has been reviewed ; although this is 

 possibly but a small space compared to that through 

 which it has existed as a planetary globe. Every stra- 

 tum of rock is the work of time, often of far more than 

 we choose to contemplate : while from what we see, 

 we can approximate to that which we know not how 

 to measure. He who can measure and number the 

 strata from the first to the last, is prepared to solve 

 this question as it relates to the intervals of repose, 

 but of those only, riot to those of the revolutions : let 

 him ascertain the time required to produce a stratum 

 of a given depth, let him seek it in the increase of co- 

 lonies of shell fishes, in deposits of peat, and in the 

 earthy deposits of seas and lakes, and he has found a 

 multiplier, not to disclose the truth, but to aid his 

 imagination. 



Who indeed can sum this series? the data are not 



