o4 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. I. 



benefit mankind, so natural processes, in themselves appa- 

 rently inadequate to produce any important effects, become, 

 by their combined and continued operation, an irresistible 

 power, by which the dry land is converted into the bed of 

 the ocean, and the bed of the ocean into dry land ; thus 

 fulfilling the universal law of nature, which subjects every 

 particle of matter to incessant change. 



Before proceeding farther in this inquiry, I would notice 

 an opinion, so generally prevalent that it may possibly be 

 entertained by some of my readers, namely, that the pheno- 

 mena which will come under our consideration, have been 

 occasioned by the deluge recorded in Scripture. But what- 

 ever may have been the modifications of the earth's surface 

 produced by that catastrophe, they must on the present 

 occasion be wholly excluded from our consideration, for 

 the changes to which geological inquiries relate are of a 

 totally different character, and referable to periods long 

 antecedent to that miraculous event. 



I have now to direct your attention to certain natural 

 operations which, when properly investigated, will afford 

 an easy explanation of facts of the highest interest and 

 importance, which present themselves at the first step we 

 take in our inquiry ; will teach us how this limestone has 

 been formed of brittle shells, and this marble filled with 

 the coral to which it owes its beautiful markings — how 

 wood has been changed into stone, and plants and fishes 

 have become inclosed in the solid rock. I have to explain 

 to you that the ground on which we stand was not always 

 dry land, but once constituted the bed of the sea — that the 

 hills, now so smooth and rounded, and clothed with verdure, 

 have been formed in the profound depths of the ocean, and 

 may be regarded as vast tumuli, in which the remains of 

 beings that lived and died in the early ages of the globe are 

 entombed ; — and that the wealds of Kent and Sussex, those 

 rich and cultivated districts which fill up the area between 



