CHAPTER II. He the world Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide MILTON. "ARE you at leisure now, mamma?" said Harry. "I have been thinking of our conversation yesterday, but cannot imagine the state of the rest of the world when our hills were fluid." "I wish it was in my power to give you the information you desire, Harry; and that we could trace the history of the Earth itself, as we have done that of some of the nations which inhabit it. In a general point of view there is this resemblancethat as the present state of our own country, for instance, is the result of many previous changes, some very remote, and others more recent; some produced suddenly, and others operating in a gentle, gradual manner: so the state of the natural world is the result of a long succession of UNCERTAINTY OF OUR KNOWLEDGE. 23 events; and if we had a faithful record of the order in which they have taken place, and the effects successively produced by these changes, I can imagine few studies more interesting. Unfortunately such records do not exist, and we can only supply the want of them by observing the present course of nature in the causes of waste, decay, and renovation which are still operating, and producing changes of a similar character to those which lie hidden in the obscurity of distant ages. know that all those events have been prepared and directed by the same wise and benevolent Providence that is now working wonders in every part of the creation: we may therefore expect to find a certain uniformity of design, accomplished by means in a great measure resembling those now employed in the order of nature." We “But will not this uniformity supply the want of the record?" "In some cases it may, but in very many it cannot; because, though we perceive that certain events have taken place, we do not see the chain of successive causes and effects which connected those events with each other." "You called this shell, one of the Medals of 1 Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. i. p. 1. Creation, and said there were many such. Now, if they were collected and arranged, would they not answer the purpose?" "We should be quite lost without those medals: they are our principal guides in prosecuting the inquiry; but we cannot always be sure how to arrange them, so as to form a regular, progressive history of the Earth. The cabinet of nature has been thrown into disorder from a variety of causes; and it is only of late years that naturalists have attempted to class these medals. We may compare their efforts to those of an antiquary, digging among the ruins of Herculaneum. He finds here a piece of Roman coin; there a vase, or a picture, or a statue; and he is delighted at possessing such authentic testimonies of the arts, manners, and mode of life of an ancient people; but if he wishes to arrange these relics as they stood in Roman apartments, unless the picture affords an example, he will not know where to dispose the vase or the statue. In another particular also we may compare these seekers of relics. Both at Herculaneum and Pompeii the antiquary finds temples with inscriptions commemorating their restoration, after having been thrown down by an earthquake. At Pompeii he sees that the work was not completed: SUCCESSIVE REVOLUTIONS. 25 unfinished columns are lying on the ground, and the temple for which they were designed appears only half repaired.' And thus the naturalist, who examines the relics of the primitive world, finds certain evidence of 'that greater Herculaneum' having been repeatedly shaken and overwhelmed. The Medals of Creation bear the stamp of different ages: : some had ceased to be current coin, and were buried in the ruins of the state to which they belonged, before the mould in which others were to be cast was prepared; but the naturalist cannot, like the antiquary, refer to other sources of knowledge for the precise date of his earthquake. He must trust to his relics, or endeavour to judge of the circumstances of the ancient revolution by comparing its effects with those of recent convulsions. In doing this, he is very likely to form erroneous conclusion, as you will perceive when I tell you that M. Cuvier, a naturalist who has distinguished himself by the care and diligence with which he has examined the fossil relics of the primitive world, considers the present state of our knowledge respecting its early history to be so imperfect, that he compares it with that which the ancients possessed of astronomy, at the time when some 1 Lyell, ib. 354. C some philosophers thought that the heavens were formed of polished stone, and that the Moon was no larger than the Peleponnesus." Harry laughed heartily at this idea and said, “I hope, mamma, this is only a figure of speech; for you see, if such be the real state of the case, it must be quite hopeless to make any inquiry." 66 Why so, my dear ? You forget that if astronomers had yielded to so indolent a thought, we should still be ignorant of the system of the universe. The knowledge of man has always extended in proportion to his observation of facts, and to the justness with which he has reasoned upon them. A very trivial circumstance happening to come under the notice of a reflecting person, may lead to the greatest discoveries—as you know was exemplified in the well-known story of Sir Isaac Newton watching the fall of an apple from a tree. Why should not natural history also have one day its Newton?' It was M. Cuvier who asked himself and his readers this question; therefore you see his low opinion of the present state of knowledge on this subject, did not make him despair of its being greatly extended hereafter. sons are still pursuing the 1 Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, p. 4. Many intelligent perinquiry; and perhaps 2 Evenings at Home, iii. 118. |