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tricts to the low countries, and alluvial lands are usually extremely fertile. By these operations, the quantity of habitable surface is constantly increased; precipitous cliffs are gradually made gentle slopes, lakes are filled up, and islands are formed at the mouths of great rivers : so that as the world grows stronger, its capacity for containing an increased number of inhabitants is gradually enlarging.

Of all the memorials of the past history of our globe, the most interesting are those myriads of remains of organized bodies which exist in the interior of its outer crusts. In these, we find traces of innumerable orders of beings, existing under different circumstances, succeeding one another at distant epochs, and varying through multiplied changes of form. "If we examine the secondary rocks, beginning with the most ancient, the first organic remains which present themselves, are those of aquatic plants and large reeds, but of species different from ours. To these succeed madrepores, encrenites, and other aquatic zoophites, living beings of the simplest forms, which remain attached to one spot, and partake, in some degree, of the nature of vegetables. Posterior to these, are ammonites, and other mollusci, still very simple in their forms, and entirely different from any animals now known. After these, some fishes appear; and plants, consisting of bamboos and ferns, increase, but still different from those which exist. In the next period, along with an increasing number of extinct species of shells and fishes, we meet with amphibious and viviparous quadrupeds, such as crocodiles and tortoises, and some reptiles, as serpents, which show, that dry land now existed. As we approach the newest of the solid rock formations, we find lamantins, phocæ, and other cetaceous and mammiferous sea animals, with some birds. And in the newest of these formations, we find the remains of herbiferous land animals of extinct species, the paleotherium, anaplotherium, &c. and of birds, with some fresh water shells. In the lowest beds of loose soil and in peat bogs, are found the remains of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elk, &c. or different species from those which now exist, but

belonging to the same genera. Lastly, the bones of the species which are apparently the same with those now existing alive, are never found except in the very latest alluvial depositions, or those which are either formed in the sides of the rivers, the bottoms of ancient lakes and marshes now dried up, in peat beds, in the fissures and caverns of certain rocks, or at small depths below the present surface, in places where they may have been overwhelmed by debris, or even buried by man. Human bones are never found except among those of animal species now living, and in situations which show that they have been, comparatively speaking, recently deposited."

More than thirty different species of animals have been found embedded in the secondary strata-no living examples of which are now to be found in any quarter of the globe. Among the most remarkable of these are the following.-1. The Mammoth, which bears a certain resemblance to the Elephant, but is much larger, and differs considerably in the size and form of the tusks, jaws and grinders. The fossil remains of this animal are more abundant in Siberia than in other countries; there being scarcely a spot, from the river Don to Kamschatka, in which they have not been found. Not only single bones and perfect skeletons of this animal are frequently to be met with; but, in a late instance, the whole animal was found preserved in ice. This animal was discovered on the banks of the frozen ocean, near the mouth of the river Jena, in 1799; and in 1805, Mr. Adams got it conveyed over a space of 7000 miles to Petersburgh, where it is deposited in the museum. The flesh, skin, and hair, were completely preserved, and even the eyes were entire. It was provided with a long mane, and the body was covered with hair. This hair was of different qualities. There were stiff black bristles from twelve to fifteen inches long, and these belonged to the tail, mane and ears. Other bristles were from nine to ten inches long, and of a brown color; and besides these, there was a coarse wool, from four to five inches long, of a pale yellow color. This mammoth was a

male; it measured nine feet four inches in height, and was sixteen feet four inches long, without including the tusks. The tusks, measuring along the curve, are nine feet six inches; and the two together weigh 360 libs avoirdupois. The head alone without the tusks, weighs 415 libs avoirdupois. The remains of this animal have been found likewise in Iceland, Norway, Scotland, England, and in many places through the continent onwards to the Arctic ocean.

2. The Megatherium. A complete skeleton of this colossal species was found in diluvial soil near Buenos Ayres, and sent to Madrid. The specimen is fourteen feet long, and seven Spanish feet in height.

3. The great Mastodon of the Ohio. This species appears to have been as tall as the elephant, but with longer and thicker limbs. It had tusks like the elephant, and appears to have lived on roots. Its remains abound in America, particularly in the great valley of the Mississippi.

3. The Tapir, which also abounds in America. The one named Gigantic Tapir, is about eighteen feet long, and twelve feet high.

5. The Irish Elk, or Elk of the Isle of Man. This gigantic species, now apparently extinct, occurs in a fossil state in Ireland, Isle of Man, England, Germany and France. The most perfect specimen of this species, which was found in the Isle of Man, is six feet high, nine feet long, and in height to the tip of the right horn, nine feet 7 inches. An engraving of this skeleton may be seen in vol. sixth of Supp. to Encyc. Brit.

The researches of Geology confirm the fact of a universal deluge, and thus afford a sensible proof of the credibility of the Sacred Historian, and, consequently, of the truth of the doctrines of Divine Revelation. But, besides the testimony which this science bears to the authenticity of Scripture History, it exhibits some of the grandest objects in the history of the physical operations of Divine Providence. It presents to our view in a most impressive form, the majestic agency of God, in convulsing and disarranging the structure of our globe, which at first sprung from his hand in perfect

order and beauty. When we contemplate the objects which this science embraces, we seem to be standing on the ruins of a former world. We behold "hills" which “have melted like wax at the presence of the Lord," and "mountains" which "have been carried into the midst of the sea." We behold rocks of enormous size, which have been rent from their foundations, and rolled from one continent to another-the most solid strata of the earth bent under the action of some tremendous power, and dispersed in fragments through the surrounding regions. We behold the summits of lofty mountains, over which the ocean had rolled its mighty billows-confounding lands and seas in one universal devastation-transporting plants and forests from one quarter of the world to another, and spreading universal destruction among the animated inhabitants of the waters and the earth. When we enter the wild and romantic scene of a mountainous country, or descend into the subterraneous regions of the globe, we are every where struck with the vestiges of operations carried on by the powers of Nature, upon a scale of prodigious magnitude, and with the exertion of forces, the stupendous nature of which astonishes and overpowers the mind. Contemplating such scenes of grandeur, we perceive the force and sublimity of those descriptions of Deity contained in the volume of inspiration: "The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty ; in his hand are the deep places of the earth, the strength of hills is his also. He removeth the mountains, and they know not; he overturneth them in his anger; he shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. At his presence the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved, and were shaken because he was wroth." "Thou coveredst the earth with the deep, as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hastened away.' While retracing such terrific displays of Omnipotence, we are naturally led to inquire into the moral cause which induced the Benevolent Creator to inflict upon the world such overwhelming desolations. For reason,

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as well as revelation, declares, that a moral cause must have existed. Man must have violated the commands of his Maker, and frustrated the end of his creation; and to this conclusion the Sacred historian bears ample testimony-"God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air."

EXAMPLES FROM HISTORY.

EMPLOYMENT OF TIME.

To be idle and unemployed, is a sign not only of a weak head, but of a bad heart. And as it is one vile abuse of time, which is given us for action, and action of the utmost moment, so is it one sure method to lead us to other and worse abuses. For he who is idle, and wholly unoccupied, will ere long, without question, be occupied in mischief. You must therefore take care that you employ your time; but then you must take as much care to employ it innocently; and by innocent employment is meant all the proper duties of your station, and all those inoffensive and short relaxations which are necessary either to the health of your bodies, or to the enlivening and invigorating your minds. You must be anxious to employ it in the best and noblest uses, in subserviency to your own eternal welfare; that is, with a constant eye to the glory of God and the good of mankind for herein consists our duty, and for this end was all our time given us.

EXAMPLES.

"We all complain of the shortness of time, (says Seneca,) and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing noth ing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be

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