About the Long Past 



Sea-beds have become dry land ; and dry lands 

 have become sea-beds. Rivers have carved new 

 paths for themselves ; and cataracts have worn 

 away vast masses of rock, carrying the debris to 

 the sea. Ocean-waves have battered down lines 

 of cliffs, and new cliffs have emerged from under 

 water. All these things have come about, not 

 in a few years, but in hundreds of years, in 

 thousands of years, some say in millions of years. 



Such time-possibilities are not, however, with- 

 out limits. Sooner or later the Astronomer steps 

 in with a — ** Hold ! Enough ! The Sun as a 

 light and heat giver could not have existed 

 then." 



But we may leave such perplexing comparisons 

 and calculations, and may content ourselves with 

 a general — '' Very long since ! " 



There was a time when men believed our 

 Earth to be at rest, in the centre of a revolving 

 Universe. That notion had to be given up as 

 knowledofe o^rew. There was a time, far more 

 recent, when we all felt confident that this firm 

 ground, on which we live and move, stand and 

 work, was solidly calm and immovable. That 

 notion too has had to be abandoned. 



For the Earth-crust itself is in motion ; certainly 

 in parts ; probably as a whole. Here it is gently 



III 



