334 
granites are chiefly arranged in layers. The granite passes into gneiss, and 
gneiss into mica-schist and talc-schist ; and this is again closely connected 
with the green and grey slates ; and it is well known that many of these 
rocks formerly considered as plutonic [i. e., by the scientific doctrinaires] are 
really metamorphosed rocks.”* 
Sir William Logan also confesses, when speaking of the 
Laurentian limestones : — 
“ We do not yet know with certainty either the base or the summit of the 
series.”f 
In the Geological Magazine for January, 1865, we also find 
the following : — 
“ Judging from analogy, then, the Eozoon rock of Canada was the forarni- 
niferous formation in one part of an ocean which elsewhere may have borne 
manifold and higher species, and buried them in sands and muds, that have 
since lost all form and feature by the metamorphosis of age and pressure, or 
which were altogether shorn away by wave and weather when the old ocean- 
bed was lifted up.” 
I might quote more, but your patience must be wellnigh 
exhausted. I have made these quotations chiefly from our 
own Journal of Transactions , expressly to show that in this 
Institute we have here an antidote to such mere quasi 
“ doctrines of science ” as have been preached at Sion College. 
We have all moralized with Shakspeare as to the transforma- 
tion of “ the dust of Alexander ” into loam that may have been 
used to “stop a beer-barrel.” Geology now forces us to 
reflect, that the very granite of “the everlasting hills” may 
have originally been built up by foraminifera in the lowest 
depths of the seas ! But that need not disturb the faith of the 
Christian clergy or of any other believer in the old Sacred 
Scriptures. On the contrary, it rather suggests to me a text, 
if you will allow me now to take a text, at the end of my 
discourse, on the promise that I shall attempt no “ exegesis.” It 
has come to my mind more than once, as I have followed 
Professor Huxley from the nummulitic limestone and other 
strata down to the chalk, and at last to “the fundamental 
granite.” It is this : — 
“ The earth is the Lord’s, and all that therein is ; the 
COMPASS OE THE WORLD, AND ALL THAT DWELL THEREIN ’.—FOB 
HE HATH FOUNDED IT UPON THE SEAS , AND PREPARED 
IT UPON THE FLOODS .” t 
* Journal of Trans. Viet. Inst., vol. i. p. 32. 
f lb., p. 357. % Psalm xxiv. 1, 2. 
