Volltext Seite (XML)
that there was a plan In the divine mind which has been work ing with a special reference to the good of our race; and lastly, that the plan of creation, and its scheme of construction, belongs to but one system, however far we may go back into the past. All our observations respecting the past and present lead to the conclusion that the plan of creation is one—that the laws and forces which are now in operation have been the same from the beginning: therefore, the true method for an interpretation of the past, is by those laws and forces which govern the present. § 2. Our knowledge of the earth is confined to the earth’s crust, by which we mean to include all that part which is accessible to human observation. This part is the theatre upon which geological events have been acting from remotest periods, and still it is safe to draw inferences respecting phenomena belonging to the deeper seated parts, provided they are in accordance with established principles, or with what we know. § 3. The earth’s crust is composed of rocks, in which term geologists include not only consolidated materials, but sands, clays, soils, and fluids. S'rictly speaking, the earth’s crust is composed of rock and water. We might perhaps reckon also the free, gaseous bodies confined in caverns, which, under favor able circumstances, escape into space, as atmospheric air, car bonic acid, nitrogen, and ammonia; or they may be regarded as things contained in the crust, and as agencies through whose force and power the solid crust has changed its phases in time and its position in space. Heat should be added to the fore going; it operates per se, and gives activity and life to the liquids and gases which permeate the crust and fill its empty spaces. § 4. The monumental records of the past are of two kinds, the physical and the organic. To the former belong the impress of the movements of the earth’s crust upon itself, or upon the different strata which were deposited in different periods; to the latter, the preservations of plants and animals. Their remains occur in groups, and represent the forms of the differ-