828 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. III. 



up — the mammoth and mastodon, with enormous deer and 

 oxen, now quietly browsed in the verdant plains — other 

 changes succeeded — those colossal forms of life in their 

 turn passed away, and at length the earlier races of man- 

 kind took possession of a country, which had once more 

 become a scene of fertility and repose. 



To those who have favoured me with their attention 

 through this discourse, it cannot be necessary to aver, 

 that the successive changes in organic and inorganic na- 

 ture thus rapidly portrayed, are supported by proofs so 

 incontrovertible, and traced in characters so intelligible, as 

 to constitute a body of evidence with which no human tes- 

 timony can compete. It is true that the time required for 

 this succession of events must have extended over an 

 immense period ; but time and change are great only in 

 relation to the beings which note them, and every step we 

 take in geology shows the folly and presumption of attempt- 

 ing to measure the operations of nature by our own brief 

 span. " There are no minds," says Mr. Scrope, " that 

 would for one moment doubt that the God of Nature has 

 existed from all eternity ; but there are many who would 

 reject as preposterous, the idea of tracing back the history 

 of If is works a million of years. Yet what is a million, or 

 a million of millions of years, when compared to eternity ?"* 

 Germany presents us with an interesting series of analo- 

 gous changes, effected in a later era. The outburst of the 

 now extinct volcanoes of the Rhine, the accumulation of 

 fluviatile silt over the plains, and the subsequent elevation 

 of the whole country, show that these physical mutations 

 were not confined to a single region or period. 



In the Andes, the enormous disruptions and elevations 



of the most ancient as well as modern deposits, teach us, 



that through a long lapse of ages, the volcanic fires of South 



America have acted with intense energy ; and yet more, 



* Geology of Central France. 



