The Valley of the South 271 



every year before the quarries were opened. They would soon 

 (geologically) have been entirely worn away. No, the hills are 

 not everlasting! The rocks are old. The hills, as hills, are 

 young features of the landscape. They are not the "eternal 

 hills" of folklore imagination. Mountains are an evanescent 

 feature of the landscape. Hills are ephemeral. They tarry 

 but a day geologically in the great process of the evolution of 

 land forms. "As it was in the Beginning; is now; and ever 

 shall be" was not written of the mountains and hills geologically. 

 When the Prophet sang this choral chant he was evidently not 

 thinking of the geologic history of the earth. 



