No. 338.] 
15 
why not also well directed when it seeks to unfold to man the bounties 
of Providence which lie concealed within the crust of the globe. When 
it shall be ascertained in the progress of our discoveries, that while one 
position of our State abounds in rich and verdant pasturage, another por- 
tion is remarkable for its successful tillage, another portion contains 
inexhaustible mines of valuable metals ; one part yields its abundant 
supplies of lime and marble, another part its contributions of gypsum, 
salt and coal, and every part its share in the great aggregate of our na- 
tional wealth ; and when the whole shall be brought under the active 
control of the ingenuity, the industry and enterprise of our citizens, and 
made subservient to the interest and happiness of man, who can set 
bounds to the extent of our resources, or sum up the total amount of 
our greatness. 
Great Britain is probably more indebted for her national aggrandize- 
ment to her mineral wealth than to all other causes combined. With- 
out her coal, her metallic ores could never have been drawn from the 
depths of the earth where they lie concealed ; or if found near the sur- 
face they could never have been profitably refined. Without her coal, 
her Birmingham, her Sheffield, her Manchester and other manufactur- 
ing towns would never have existed. Without her manufactures, her 
commerce would be prostrated. Without her commerce, her wealth 
and her influence among the nations of the earth would speedily pass 
away. 
The Geological Survey of the State, and the results which your com- 
mittee hope it will produce, cannot be contemplated in a moral point 
of view without the liveliest interest. The wisdom and benevolence of 
the great Creator of the Universe are everywhere displayed in his 
works ; and the more the investigations of philosophy and science are 
brought to scrutinize those works, the greater that wisdom and bene- 
volence appear. 
" In the formation of organized bodies, that is, in the structure of 
animals and plants, the most superficial observer cannot fail to discover 
a beautiful and refined mechanism ; but if we cast our eyes upon the 
ground and look at heaps of gravel, sand, clay and stone, it seems as if 
chance only had brought them together ; and that neither symmetry 
nor order can be discovered in their nature. But a closer examination 
soon convinces us of that, which reasoning from the wisdom and de- 
sign manifested by other parts of creation, we might beforehand have 
