PT. i. Astronomy and Geology compared. 49 



approaching so nearly to reason, and yet so plainly 

 distinguishable from it. 



Change does not necessarily include Progress, but 

 in this case both change and progress are manifested. 

 The word c progress ' may be coupled with others 

 giving it a signification of deterioration, as the 

 progress of decay, the progress of ruin, the progress 

 of destruction ; but when the word progress is used 

 by itself I think that it is popularly coupled with 

 the idea of advance. We mean progress in good, 

 progress from a comparatively worse state of things 

 to a better ; at any rate, it is in this sense alone that 

 it is applicable to Geology. As far as we can trace 

 the history of the past this idea is impressed upon 

 us; it is a regular series of advancing steps. In 

 order to measure progress, it is requisite that we 

 should adopt some point of departure or comparison. 

 A ship may be proceeding rapidly on its voyage, but 

 a passenger in the cabin has no means of testing the 

 motion. \Ve are empowered in some degree to 

 measure the progress which Oreology enables us to 

 realise, because we can estimate the point from 

 which it departed, and we know that which it has 

 reached. If there be truth in the discoveries which 

 have been made, the earliest state of the Earth was 



K 



