IN SIMPLE MINERALS. 427 



to be there ; I might possibly answer, that, for any thing I 

 knew to the contrary, it had lain there for ever : nor would it 

 perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer."* 



Nay, says the Geologist, for if the stone were a pebble, the 

 adventures of this pebble may have been many and various, 

 and fraught with records of physical events, that produced 

 important changes upon the surface of onr planet ; and its 

 rolled condition impUes that it has undergone considerable 

 locomotion by the action of water. 



Or, should the stone be Sand-stone, or part of any Con- 

 glomerate, or fragmentary stratum, made up of the rounded 

 detritus of other rocks, the ingredients of such a stone would 

 bear similar evidence of movements by the force of water, 

 which reduced them to the state of sand, or pebbles, and 

 transported them to their present place, before the existence 

 of the stratum of which they form a part ; consequently no 

 such stratum can have lain in its present place for ever. 



Again, should the supposed stone contain within it the 

 petrified remains of any fossil Animal or fossil Plant, these 

 would not only show that animal and vegetable life had pre- 

 ceded the formation of the rock in which they are embedded ; 

 but their organic structure might afford examples of contri- 

 vance and design, as unequivocally attesting the exercise of 

 Intelligence and Power, as the mechanism of a Watch or 

 Steam engine, or any other instrument produced by human 

 art, bears evidence of intention and skill in the workman 

 who invented and constructed them. 



Lastly, should it even be Granite, or any crystalline Pri- 

 mary Rock, containing neither organic remains, nor frag- 

 ments of other rocks more ancient than itself, it can still be 

 shown that there was a time when even stones of this class 



• I have quoted this passage, not in disparagement of the general argu- 

 inent of Paley, whicli is altogether independent of the incidental and need- 

 less comparison with which he has prefaced it, but to show the importance of 

 the addition, that has been made by the discoveries of Geology and Minera- 

 logy, to the evidence of the non-eternity of the earth, which so great a 

 master pronounced to be imperfect, for lack of such information as these 

 modern sciences have recently supplied. 



