122 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. I. 



attentively considered the facts presented, even in this 

 brief survey, cannot, I conceive, refuse assent to the in- 

 ferences thus cautiously obtained. As we proceed in our 

 investigations, we shall find that from the earliest period of 

 the present physical condition of our planet, its surface has 

 undergone repeated modifications in the relative distribu- 

 tion of the water and the land ; and as the rocks and 

 mountains and plains have been subjected to perpetual 

 mutation, the element which has hitherto been considered 

 as the type of mutability, can alone be regarded as having 

 suffered no change. This idea is finely embodied by Lord 

 Byron in the following sublime apostrophe to the Ocean, 

 with which I will conclude this discourse. 



" Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee — 

 Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they ] 

 Thy waters wasted them while they were free, 

 And many a tyrant since ; their shores obey 

 The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay 

 Has dried up realms to deserts : — not so thou, 

 Unchangeable, save to thy wild waves' play — 

 Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow — 

 Such as Creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now ! " 



Childe Harold, Canto iv. 



