26 Missing Chapters of Geological History. 



have been built into the Greek temples of the second city ; the 

 fragments of the temple have helped to construct the Roman 

 palaces of the third; the decayed palace has supplied the farm- 

 house built in the Middle Ages, and from this house have been 

 obtained such stones as were left to build the hut in which the 

 goatherd now dwells. And yet, in spite of this, some of the old 

 wall remains. We can even make out its direction and something 

 of its ancient grand proportions. The tool-marks upon its stones 

 represent the fossils of the rock, and point out to us the handi- 

 work of some living organism, while the conversion of some 

 plainly hewn stone into the shaft of a Greek column, or the 

 step of a Roman stair, obliterating the first use, point to others 

 more modern which might lead us to forget the past history. 

 So it is with the old rocks ; the breaks are many, and the 

 changes are great ; but the breaks and the changes themselves 

 tell the history in so far that they prove to us a lapse of time 

 compared with which modern history is as nothing. 



And it is only in this way that it is possible to obtain a reason- 

 able idea of the true nature of geological history. In the newest 

 rocks, where there is no appearance of a break of any kind — in 

 the cases where we can make the nearest approach to a record 

 of continuous events, we find that the species characteristic of 

 one part of a period are not those that prevail in another. 

 Some difference of this kind is invariable, and the longer and 

 more complete the evidence, the more clearly does this fact 

 come out. The law of nature in this matter is clearly marked. 

 It is a law which, in its normal action on organized matter, 

 avoids mere repetition and tends to perpetual variety. It is 

 the law, according to which the two sides of a man's face are 

 not strictly alike, the strength of the two sides is different, 

 the children of the same parents are some tall, others short, some 

 dark, others fair. This law prevails throughout all nature — 

 it lies at the base of . all natural history ; and it is connected, 

 more or less clearly, with another great law, that of the perpe- 

 tual adaptation of every part to every other, not by a mono- 

 tonous uniformity, but by appointing change as the principle 

 of action. 



Nature indeed is infinitely elastic. Life is thrust in every- 

 where, and that which is present is always of that kind best 

 adapted for the circumstances. But this is not effected by 

 any after-thought of Providence, or by a miracle interfering 

 with the ordinary course of things. It is in itself Providence 

 fitly so called. It is the foreseeing and arranging beforehand 

 that there shall be no hitch or interruption in the great work 

 of creation. 



And this great method of nature once understood, the 

 weakness of falling back upon a succession of destructions and 



