134 GEOLOGY OF THE SECOND DISTRICT. 



with their mighty waters. The earth has had its stormy periods, without doubt ; hfe has often 

 been at the mercy of an agitated tumultuous ocean ; the earth has rocked with earthquakes, 

 mountains have been upheaved from the deep, long lines of coasts have been reclaimed from 

 the ocean's sway ; living beings have had their allotted times of existence, and have ceased 

 to exist ; but all this has been but the still small voice, when compared with the tremendous 

 convulsions taught by modern geologists. We must look at the past and present as belong- 

 ing to one system, and to all the changes which have taken place as limited in degree and 

 extent. The Lingula which existed at the era of the Potsdam sandstone, was fitted by its 

 structure to exist now, for aught we can know to the contrary. The waters and air are as 

 compatible to the existence of the Ichthyosaurus and Mastodon now, as in the era of the lias, 

 or the period preceding the flood. 



The wonders of sober truth ought to be sufficient to satisfy the boldest minds, and to gra- 

 tify the imaginations of the cultivators and lovers of positive knowledge, without seeking to 

 magnify and distort the operations of nature, and to assimilate them to the dreams of an agi- 

 tated and sickly mind. 



The above remarks have no reference to the limitation of animated existences, for we know 

 of no limitation which shall compass the forms of living beings ; truth treads closely upon the 

 wonderful and extravagant ; and we realize in nature, both in the past and present, what to the 

 untaught and unobserving would pass for the picturing dreams of a half wakeful condition. One 

 sees that the possibilities of existence has no limit, though nature constructs and builds up 

 her forms from models of the simplest kind, and often appears to husband her resources ; yet 

 often do we meet her under forms and conditions so extraordinary that we have feared we 

 should charge her with extravagance if we received and admitted only the truth, or believed 

 what our eyes were permitted to sec. These views by no means conflict with the preceding. 

 The physical world is adapted to living beings ; these adaptations are strictly limited, and 

 will not permit of wide deviations from a certain standard under the present system upon 

 which beings are organized. The extremes of heat and cold are within narrow bounds to the 

 improtecled ; the atmosphere above and the waters beneath, can suffer but little change be- 

 fore it strikes a death blow to the organization of every being within their media. 



We may be assured that it is the will of nature to preserve and protect the races, till their 

 destiny is completed ; and we may reasonably doubt the teachings of geologists when they 

 would have us believe that whole races have been extirpated at once. Individuals suffer, but 

 the race may live on, till the powers of organization are too enfeebled to continue their kind, 

 or to wage a longer warfare with the elements. 



