MACKIE — THOUGHTS ON DOVER CLIFFS. 



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greenish sands below, layers of rough rock jut out, and dark furze 

 and scraggy bushes luxuriate in the softer intermediate soils. 



Descending to the lower level of the pretty village of Sandgate, 

 ferruginous springs and equisetaceous plants mark the spongy pyri- 

 tous " Middle " G-reensand ; and as we trace along the verdant slopes 

 from Hythe to Lympne, the grey hard "Kentish rag" on which 

 they rest, crops out, and we step over hundreds of sparkling rills of 

 limpid water with forests of crisp watercress. 



How solemn in their teachings become the mouldering bones in 

 the vaulted crypt of the old handsome church at Hythe, after an in- 

 spection of the tiny Cypridae in the "Weald Clay on which they rest ; 

 and weather-beaten Studfall, with legends older than those of its 

 Boman days written in its massive lichen-stained walls, speaks to 

 us more touchingly of the vicissitude " of all things human," when 

 we reflect on the landslips that have overturned its massive towers, 

 built and guarded in its ancient days of glory by the invincible 

 legions of the " Empress of the "World," — the "Eternal City," now 

 fallen and prostrate as these crumbling ruins. 



Every inch of the ground is fraught with historical associations 

 and local incidents, and every fragment is filled with natural wonders 

 which carry the mind beyond the ages of history into the boundless 

 and interminable past, heightening the enjoyment of the picturesque 

 scenery around, and mingling with the very essence of our souls, ad- 

 miration, love, and gratitude to that great Being whose attribute is 

 eternity, and whose kingdom is illimitable space. 



How enlarged and ennobled our ideas of his inestimable supremacy 

 become as we trace through the records of the great geologic ages, 

 the gradual unfolding and slow and solemn workings out and de- 

 velopment of his far-foreseeing plans, and find no traces of discord, 

 chance, or chaotic confusion, but see in the earliest times the radi- 

 ance of his glory, and in his, to us, most primitive creations the same 

 vivid impressions of his power and wisdom as in the most recent 

 and most elaborate of his works. 



There is perhaps no isolated portion of geology that has more 

 clearly proved the immensity of geologic ages, than the group of 

 rocks we are considering. As at the present hour the sea is washing 

 away cliffs and shores, and dispersing the material, — 



"Ever drifting, drifting, drifting, 

 On the shifting 

 Currents of the restless main ; 



