OF THE EASTERN BORDERS. 317 



matter, and the various changes -which have succeeded. Supposing 

 that the vegetable energies of the Carboniferous era were fourfold 

 those of the present, sixty thousand years would be required for the 

 growth of the plants which are now mineralized in the 100 feet of 

 coal in South Wales ; and yet this is but a fraction of the time which 

 passed away while the 12,000 feet of accompanying sedimentary 

 strata were deposited, since all of them were of slow and gradual 

 formation. Even this vast period includes only a short section of 

 the records of nature. Taking our era as a stand-point, and looking 

 backward through the Devonian, the Silurian, and the Cambrian 

 systems, with their rocky beds many miles in thickness, and con- 

 taining myriads of extinct races, and then forward through the 

 Secondary, Tertiary, and recent formations, and marking how fre- 

 quently entire assemblages of organized creatures disappear and are 

 succeeded by others vpidely different, the mind labours in vain to sum 

 up the long series of ages which pass before it in succession. But 

 this survey, while teaching us to cultivate a reverential spirit, gives 

 elevation to our ideas of that Infinite Being, to whom " a thousand 

 years are as one day," and who, throughout all past time, has main- 

 tained order and harmony in the universe. 



Viewing, moreover, the history of coal, not only in connexion with 

 physical laws, but also with moral beings, we may perceive a relation 

 of means to an important end. The rank vegetation of a far-distant 

 era, the changes it has undergone, and its position in the bowels of 

 the earth where it can be reached by human skill, have a direct 

 bearing on the comforts of man and on social progress. From the 

 dark mine, therefore, indubitable evidence comes forth of the exist- 

 ence and power of God, and from thence may be heard a testimony 

 to His benevolence and forethought, in storing up for the use of man 

 a vast magazine of fossil fuel. 



' My heart is awed within me, when I think 

 Of the great miracle that still goes on 

 In silence round me — the perpetual work 

 Of Thy creation, finished, yet renewed 

 For ever." — Bryant. 



