TIME AND CHANGE 



and other organic rocks are made. When these 

 rocks are again lifted to the surface and disinte- 

 grated into soil, then the debt of the sea to the land 

 is paid. This process, this cycle of soil loss and soil 

 growth, has gone on through all time, and must con- 

 tinue as long as the rain continues to fall, or as long 

 as the sea continues to send its tax-gatherers to the 

 land. In this great cycle of give and take of the 

 elements, the affairs of men cut but a momentary 

 figure; how puny they are, how transient ! How the 

 great changes, which in time amount to revolutions, 

 go on over our heads and under our feet, and we 

 rarely heed them, and are powerless to stay them! 

 A summer shower carries the soil of my side-hill, 

 which is mainly disintegrated Silurian rock and 

 shale, into the river, and some millions of years 

 hence, when it has become stratified rock, and been 

 lifted up into the light of day, some other, and, I 

 trust, wiser husbandman, will be gathering his har- 

 vest from it, and be worried over the downpour 

 that robs him of it. The farmer's worry is bound to 

 come back with the soil, and be passed along with it. 



