

32 THE PAST CONDITION 



facts as they are presented to us— which may be com- 

 pared with the greatest difficulties of any other kinds 

 of- historical study. 



What is this record of the past history of the globe, 

 and what are the questions which are involved in an 

 inquiry into its completeness or incompleteness ? That 

 record is composed of mud ; and the question which 

 we have to investigate this evening resolves itself into 

 a question of the formation of mud. You may think, 

 perhaps, that this is a vast step — of almost from the 

 sublime to the ridiculous — from the contemplation of 

 the history of the past ages of the world's existence to 

 the consideration of the history of the formation of 

 m ud ! But, in nature, there is nothing mean and un- 

 worthy of attention ; there is nothing ridiculous or con- 

 temptible in any of her works ; and this inquiry, you 

 will soon, see, I hope, takes us to the very root and 

 foundations of our subject. 



How, then, is mud formed ? Always, with some 

 trifling exception, which I need not consider now — . 

 always, as the result of the action of water, wearing 

 down and disintegrating the surface of the earth and 

 rocks with which it comes in contact — pounding and 

 grinding it down, and carrying the particles away to 

 places where they cease to be disturbed by this me- 

 chanical action, and where they can subside and rest. 

 For the ocean, urged by winds, washes, as we know, 

 a long extent of coast, and every wave, loaded as it is 

 with particles of sand and gravel as it breaks upon the 

 shore, does something towards the disintegrating pro- 

 cess. And thus, slowly but surely, the hardest rocks 

 are gradually ground down to a powdery substance ; 

 and the mud thus formed, coarser or finer, as the case 



