PT. I. 



Astronomy and Geology compared. 47 



deprived of this part of its investigations and reduced 

 to a mere examination of the different strata of rocks 

 and soil which have been successively accumulated. 

 What interest should we feel in knowing that the 

 lowest stratum consisted of primitive granite, or that 

 others were composed of old and new sandstone ? 

 Take away the remains of those living creatures 

 which have once animated the Earth, in these its 

 stages, and Geology would then become a dull and 

 profitless study indeed. The difference between 

 granite and trap, or trap and sandstone, would become 

 very unimportant in our eyes, if these formations did 

 not tell us a tale of the former living inhabitants of 

 the Globe. These investigations also lead us to a 

 conclusion of the most momentous character ; we 

 find, in tracing the Zoology of the Globe, that a cer- 

 tain chain of succession is established, and that the 

 principle of Progress appears to have pervaded it. 

 Here is a broad distinction between Astronomy and 

 Geology. As I have already observed, the stupendous 

 mechanism of Astronomy evinces no germ of decay 

 and no symptom of progress. In every stage Geology 

 exhibits both. Without those traces and remains of 

 former life Geology would resemble a theatre without 

 actors or dramatis personce. It is by this chain of 



