TIME AND CHANGE 
past, we might have had the same impression, so 
tranquil, for the most part, has been the earth’s his- 
tory, so slow and rhythmical have been the beats 
of the great clock of time. We see this in the homo- 
geneity of the stratified rocks, layer upon layer for 
thousands of feet as uniform in texture and quality 
as the goods a modern factory turns out, every yard 
of it like every other yard. No hitch or break any- 
where. The bedding-planes of many kinds of rock 
occur at as regular intervals as if they had been de- 
termined by some kind of machinery. Here, on the 
formation where I live, there are alternate layers of 
slate and sandstone, three or four inches thick, for 
thousands of feet in extent; they succeed each other 
as regularly as the bricks and mortar in a brick wall, 
and are quite as homogeneous. What does this mean 
but that for an incalculable period the processes of 
erosion and deposition went on as tranquilly as a 
summer day? There was no strike among the work- 
men, and no change in the plan of the building, or 
in the material. 
The Silurian limestone, the old red sandstone, 
the Hamilton flag, the Oneida conglomerate, where 
I have known them, are as homogeneous as a snow- 
bank, or as the ice on a mountain lake; grain upon 
grain, all from the same source in each case, and 
sifted and sorted by thesame agents, and the finished 
product as uniform in color and quality as the out- 
put of some great mill: 
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