316 Ancient Vegetation of the Earth. 



nated one of his most noble faculties, whenever directed to any 

 end really worthy of his being. 



It is this which continually excites us to extend the field of our 

 knowledge, and to fathom the most hidden mysteries of nature, 

 without being able to hope, for the most part, any other reward 

 than the good which will result to all intelligent beings, in pro- 

 portion as they are able to form ideas more exact upon the nature 

 of the phenomena which surrounded them. These phenomena 

 appear the more difficult of investigation in proportion as, by their 

 nature and position, they are farther removed from our direct ob- 

 servation ; and in like manner we are struck with the results to 

 which profound researches have conducted those men who have 

 made these investigations the object of their studies. 



The invention of the telescope, by opening to our view what 

 is passing in the elongated regions of space ; and of the micro- 

 scope, by revealing to us the existence of numberless beings so 

 minute as, but for this instrument, would forever have escaped 

 our observation, have made, upon the human imagination, the 

 most vivid impression. 



The sciences have made such rapid advances, within late years, 

 that no one can reasonably expect to open new views and to dis- 

 close new truths equally exciting to human curiosity as those 

 disclosed by the telescope and the microscope ; but still, the study 

 of the soil upon which we daily tread, has become, within the 

 last half-century, in the hands of Werner, of Cuvier, and the 

 crowd of learned and able men who have assiduously followed 

 these illustrious pioneers, one of the sciences the most fruitful in 

 results, not only of high interest to the professionally learned, but 

 well calculated vividly to interest the imagination of all persons 

 who love to reflect upon the great phenomena of nature. 



In investigating the layers which compose the superficial strata 

 of the earth, their order of super-position, their nature, and the 

 animal and vegetable remains which they contain, Geology traces 

 for us the history of the earth during the long periods of time 

 that have preceded its present condition ; it makes known to us 

 the beings which have successively inhabited its surface, the rev- 

 olutions that have conduced to their destruction, and those which 

 have given birth to the mineral layers the earth contains, and the 

 modifications to which this surface itself has been subject by rea- 

 son of these revolutions ; it discloses to us, in short, that all these 



