224 Bones of the Zeuglodon. [April, 



true, and experience seems to justify the assertion, that many 

 phenomena still remain invested with the deep and profound, 

 though the causes of their occurrence may have been placed be- 

 fore the understanding in the clearest light. 



It is true, that there are somethings which are mysterious so 

 long only as their causes are hidden from us; the tricks of jug- 

 glers, for instance, may be so regarded, but these are not the 

 phenomena which we have in view, neither are they ever of that 

 kind, which move the deeper feelings of the soul; they merely ex- 

 cite a temporary surprise. 



The phenomena and events, over which hang a deep and profound 

 mystery, and which stand farthest advanced in the fore ground, are 

 those which belong to the natural world. Some of these stand out 

 more prominently than others, but none more so than those which 

 are connected with the extinction of life in the vast period of geo- 

 logic time. These we apprehend will never in time be less mys- 

 terious than they are now, for they are as much so as they were 

 a half a century ago, when the facts were then becoming esta- 

 blished, or, in the intermediate time when they began to be incorpo- 

 rated into the common beliefs of scientific men; and now, that 

 they seem about to become a part of the common stock of know- 

 ledge they still maintain all that they ever possessed of the pro- 

 found and mysterious. How much this feeling has been deepened 

 by circumstances we cannot say. If the low and the humble had 

 only been involved in the catastrophes of which we speak we 

 might have felt less interest in the events. When, however, it 

 w^as discovered that the high as well as the low", the great as well 

 as the powerful, had been subjected to the same law, men were 

 more conscious of the magnitude and importance of the facts, 

 and began to study with deeper feelings the phenomena connect- 

 ed with them. 



But the interest of these phenomena de not rest alone, nor so 

 much, on the place which the beings themselves occupy in the 

 scale of existence, as on the design and end of such an ordinance. 

 The phenomena themselves when viewed with all the light which 

 can be concentrated upon them, prove that they cannot have 



