64 SELECTED ESSAYS FROM LAY SERMONS 



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 entan- 

 gling the inquirer in vague speculations, incapable of refu- 

 tation 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 delibera- 

 tion, I have been unable to think of any topic which would 

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

 tion 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 have a more profound 

 significance for ourselves. I weigh 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 ignorant of all other history, is 

 likely, if he will think his knowledge out to its ultimate 

 results, to have a truer, and therefore a better, conception 

 of this wonderful universe, and of man's relation to it, than 

 the most learned student who is deep-read in the records 

 of humanity and ignorant of those of Nature. 



The language of the chalk is not hard to learn, not nearly 

 so hard as Latin, if you only want to get at the broad fea- 

 tures of the story it has to tell; and I propose that we now 

 set to work to spell that story out together. 



