30 PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY. 



earth ; the mountains gather clouds, rain falls, the streams flow down 

 their new channels, the sea resumes its appointed boundary ; cliffs are 

 wasted, low shores are extended, vallies are filled up, volcanoes are in 

 action ; nature revives again, and man, by contemplation of the pheno- 

 mena, reads the awful history of his birth-place, gathers ideas of the 

 immense agency exerted in the construction of the earth, compares 

 this planet with the other members of the solar system, and views 

 the solar system itself as only a small part of the immeasurable works 

 of God ! 



