330 /. D. Dana on American Geological History. 



the Infinite Creator from his works ? Far from it : no more 

 than in tracing the history of a plant. We but study the 

 method in which Boundless Wisdom has chosen to act in crea- 

 tion. For we cannot conceive that to act without plan or order 

 is either a mark of divinity or wisdom. Assuredly it is far from 

 the method of the God of the universe, who has filled all nature 

 with harmonies ; and who has exhibited his will and exalted 

 purpose as much in the formation of a continent, to all its de- 

 tails, as in the ordered evolution of a human being. And if 

 man, from studying physical nature, begins to see only a Deity 

 of physical attributes, of mere power and mathematics, he has 

 but to look within at the combination of the affections with in- 

 tellect, and observe the latter reaching its highest exaltation 

 when the former are supreme, to discover proofs that the highest 

 glory of the Creator consists in the infinitude of his love. 



My plan, laid out in view of the limited time of a single ad- 

 dress, has led me to pass in silence many points that seem to 

 demand attention or criticism ; and also to leave unnoticed the 

 labors of many successful investigators. 



There are some subjects, however, which bear on general 

 geology, that should pass in brief review. 



I. The rock-formations in America may in general be shown 

 to be synchronous approximately with beds in the European 

 series. But it is more difficult to prove that catastrophes were 

 synchronous, that is, revolutions limiting the ages or periods. 



'The revolution closing the Azoic Age, the first we distinctly 

 observe in America, was probably nearly universal over the 

 globe. 



An epoch of some disturbance between the Lower and Upper 

 Silurian is recognized on both continents. Yet it was less com- 

 plete in the destruction of life on Europe than here, more species 

 there surviving the catastrophe ; and in this country there was 

 but little displacement of the rocks. 



The Silurian and the Devonian Ages each closed in America 

 with no greater revolutions than those minor movements which 

 divided the subordinate periods in those ages. Prof. Hall ob- 

 serves that they blend with one another, and the latter also 

 with the Carboniferous, and that there is no proof of contem- 

 poraneous catastrophes giving them like limits here and in 

 Europe. 



But after the Carboniferous, came the Appalachian revolution, 

 one of the most general periods of catastrophe and metamor- 

 phism in the earth's history. Yet in Europe the disturbances 

 were far less general than with us, and occurred along at the 

 beginning and end of the Permian Period. 



