274 Address before the Association of American Geologists. 



any proof from their writings, as exulting in the supposed collis- 

 ion ; — but 1 am happy to believe, that such apprehensions are rap- 

 idly passing away. Theologians of enlarged and impartial minds 

 are beginning to study geology ; and instead of finding its truths 

 hostile to revelation, they find, that it furnishes them with new 

 and interesting matter, such as no other science can, for illustra- 

 ting the perfections and government of Jehovah ; — and such men 

 as Drs. Chalmers and Smith,* have already reaped from it a rich 

 harvest. I trust that the day is not distant, when the supposed 

 geological objection to revelation will be as little remembered, as 

 is now the analogous objection derived from the Copernican sys- 

 tem of astronomy ; and which, two or three hundred years ago, 

 was supposed to be fraught with so much danger. 



Another mode in which practical geology carries with it its 

 own reward, is by bringing us into constant communion with 

 unsophisticated nature, in her most sublime and interesting as- 

 pects. It is hardly possible to place the geologist in any spot on 

 the globe, where he does not witness around him the marks of 

 mighty agencies and revolutions, that are unheeded by the com- 

 mon mind, but which furnish him with a rich fund for reflection. 

 But his most appropriate place is among the wildest scenery of 

 nature ; now, plunging into the deep cavern, studded with glit- 

 tering spars, and perhaps the charnel-house of the antediluvian 

 world ; now, tracing his way through the dark gorge, with jutting 

 rocks rising around him, as if they formed the battlements of 

 heaven ; now, mounting the lofty ridge and drinking in the glo- 

 ries of the vast landscape ; and now, standing upon the edge of 

 the yawning precipice, to witness the roaring cataract, as the 

 waters thunder down their steep and rocky bed, until, escaping 

 from their narrow passage, they flow out quietly, as the calm and 

 majestic river, to fertilize and beautify the extended plain. In 

 all these scenes, he sees the arm of Omnipotence laid bare, and 

 is initiated into the sublimest mysteries of nature. There, while 

 his hody and his mind are invigorated, he acquires a permanent 

 relish for all in creation that is sublimely great and elegantly lit- 

 tle. Henceforth, he possesses a source of gratification of which 



* See Chalmers's Natural Theology, and Smith's Lectures on the Relation be- 

 tween the Holy Scriptures and some parts of Geological Science. An able view 

 of this subject is also. given in the sermons of Rev. Mr. Melville, of London, Vol. 

 ii, p. 297, Am. edition. 



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