TIME AND CHANGE 



past, we might have had the same impression, so 

 tranquil, for the most part, has been the earth's his- 

 tory, so slow and rhythmical have been the beats 

 of the great clock of time. We see this in the homo- 

 geneity of the stratified rocks, layer upon layer for 

 thousands of feet as uniform in texture and quality 

 as the goods a modern factory turns out, every yard 

 of it like every other yard. No hitch or break any- 

 where. The bedding-planes of many kinds of rock 

 occur at as regular intervals as if they had been de- 

 termined by some kind of machinery. Here, on the 

 formation where I live, there are alternate layers of 

 slate and sandstone, three or four inches thick, for 

 thousands of feet in extent; they succeed each other 

 as regularly as the bricks and mortar in a brick wall, 

 and are quite as homogeneous. What does this mean 

 but that for an incalculable period the processes of 

 erosion and deposition went on as tranquilly as a 

 summer day? There was no strike among the work- 

 men, and no change in the plan of the building, or 

 in the material. 



The Silurian limestone, the old red sandstone, 

 the Hamilton flag, the Oneida conglomerate, where 

 I have known them, are as homogeneous as a snow- 

 bank, or as the ice on a mountain lake; grain upon 

 grain, all from the same source in each case, and 

 sifted and sorted by the same agents, and the finished 

 product as uniform in color and quality as the out- 

 put of some great mill. 



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