MACKIE — REMNANTS OP THE FIRST LIFE-WORLD. 135 
graphical range, none to wtich a considerable other portion of this 
world has not been useless and unserviceable. Is it so with man ? 
The stars of heaven — how many ages old ! — teU him the track of the 
world he lives upon ; mysterious magnetism guides the slender needle 
by which his freighted ships are safely steered from shore to shore ; 
the very lightning is his messenger. The coal and iron of his mighty 
engines are ages old ; the clay of the bricks of which he builds his 
houses, and the marble of the statues with which he adorns his 
palaces, have passed through ages of preparation ; innumerable and 
diversified as are the materials of the earth, has he not a use for them 
all, from the lowermost granites to the uppermost surface-soils ? 
Would there have been all these elaborations of the mineral 
substances, all these ages of manipulation, all these preparatory 
creations for the hero of seventy years, for the mere animal that was to 
perish with the beasts of the field ? No. 
" Life is real ! life is earnest ! 
And the grave is not its goal ; 
* Dust thou art, to dust returnest,' 
Was not spoken of the soul." 
As on summer's eve, when twilight is fading, the gentle air springs 
up, tranquillizing the spirit with its cool fragrance ; so, o'er the study 
of the past, come refreshing thoughts of the Eternal. 
CHAPTER m. 
The Remnants of the First Life- World, and the Bottom Rocks. 
Thousands — millions — millions upon millions of years ago ! Time, we 
know, had no beginning, and time, we know, can never cease. Not so 
creation. Our senses may appal at the thought of the fearful cycles 
through which the creative energy has been acting ; our frames may 
tremble with emotion in contemplating the vast realms of space through 
which the Godhead has passed, bringing life out of darkness ; but the 
mind puts a boundary to creation, vast as it is. It looks back to the 
the time when nothing was, and around, in all directions, to the 
vast blank beyond the universe of worlds and stellar systems. It feels 
creation may be going on in the unbouuded regions far beyond the limits 
of our own, and that it may be ever and ever extending; once begun 
never ceasing, and always exhibiting beneficence and perfection. 
