MACKIE — THOUGHTS ON DOVER CLIFFS. 
283 
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 equisetaeeous plants mark the spongy pyri- 
tous " Middle " Greensand ; 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 Cypridse in the Weald Clay on which they rest ; 
and weather-beaten Studfall, with legends older than those of its 
Eoman 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 ; 
