376 Struclwe oj the Earth. 



' He had, for reasons of which we are not inforniod, selected Hoston as the first 

 place in the United States, in which he sliould exhibit the claims made on behalf 

 of the new science, originally promulgated by liis I'riend and master, Dr. Gall, and 

 afterwards extended and materially improved by liinisclf ; and tije kindness and 

 regard with wtiicii lie was received in every circle, were as warmly reciprocated 

 on his part. If ever man found sincere friends out of his own country, we are 

 sure, tliat this illustrious stranger had many such among us. Indeed, it would 

 have been a reproach, if he who v/as the friend of all his fellow men, should not 

 have found here, some of the liurnan family who would feel towards iiim as his 

 own benevolence merited. 



' The science which lie had so successfully cultivated, — the scienct of man — had, 

 as he often observed to his friends, elevated and refined his views of human na- 

 ture ; and he believed it had preserved him from declining into a fiseling of misan- 

 thropy and dissatisfaction witii the world ; a tendency to which, we imagine, 

 might have been strengthened by the sense of solitude which he had peculiarly 

 felt ever since the loss of his v.'ife, who died about two years ago. Whatever may 

 have been the cause — whether it were his natural temperament, or the cause here 

 stated, he manifested a philanthropy not surpassed in any age ; and lie was a liv- 

 ing exainpleof the beautiful sentiment of antiquity — Homo sum, nihil humani a 

 me alieiiuni puto.j 



STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH. 



[From ' the First Lessons in Natural History.'] 



All geologists are agreed that oiir present continents were once 

 covered with water. This is proved by the remains of marine 

 animals imbedded in the strata which lie on the summits of the 

 highest mountains. The structure of the globe as far as we are 

 acquainted witl> it from the intersections made by rivers, by the 

 action of the sea upon the coast, and by mining operations, con- 

 sists of beds of different kinds of stone, which generally increase 

 in thickness as we descend deeper. Stratification, in its simplest 

 form may easily be conceived, by placing a closed book with the 

 back resting upon the table, and raising the opposite edges a little; 

 the book may represent a thick mineral bed, and the leaves a se- 

 ries of strata. In nature we frequently find the strata much bro- 

 ken, and thrown out of the original position. Where any series 

 of strata are wanting, a question naturally arises, liave they been 

 carried away by some sudden inundation, before the upper strata 

 were deposited, or have they never extended to that place? In 

 some instances it is certain that the strata have beeti carried away 

 from particular situations, as in some of the excavations which 

 have formed valleys, in which the strata that terminated on one 

 side of the valley may be discovered again in the hills on the op- 

 posite side. The substances of which the strata are com])osed, 

 are argillaceous, calcareous, or siliceous earth, which are general- 

 ly more or less intermixed or combined. The strata of clay, 



