286 THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



CHANGES IN PKOGKESS AT THE BOTTOMS OF SEAS 

 —THEIR UNIVERSALITY. 



1. Extent of the movements of the Terrestrial Crust— Nature in- 

 cessantly at work — The gradual Cooling of the Earth a cause of 

 its present form, owing to the crumpling and breaking of its 

 Crust. 



Everything material is mutable: continuity of 

 change is the great law of nature. From the subtlest 

 gas which escapes our visual observation, to the solid 

 rock, all is subject to movement and transformation. 

 The smallest atom and the mightiest solar system 

 alike obey the laws of gravitation, and move on in 

 cycles of endless progression. The modifications 

 which everything, small and great, in the physical 

 world is undergoing may be more or less apparent, 

 more or less rapid ; but whether it be or be not de- 

 monstrable to the sense, it takes place all the same, 

 so that we may truly say that all matter, however 

 apparently dead, pulsates with life. 



Animals and plants are born, grow, and die. The 

 elements which concur towards their formation and 

 development are incessantly renewed. Having accom- 



