I passed one day by a very ancient and wonderfully populous city, and asked one of its inhabitants how long it had been founded. “It is indeed a mighty city,” replied he; “we know not how long it has existed, and our ancestors were on this subject as ignorant as ourselves.” Five centuries afterwards, as I passed by the same place, I could not perceive the slightest vestige of the city. I demanded of a peasant who was gathering herbs upon its former site how long it had been destroyed. “In sooth, a strange question,” replied he; “the ground here has never been different from what you now behold it.” “Was there not of old,” said I, “a splendid city here?” “Never,” answered he, “so far as we have seen; and never did our fathers speak to us of any such.” On my return there five hundred years afterwards, _I found the sea in the same place_; and on its shores were a party of fishermen, of whom I inquired how long the land had been covered by the waters. “Is this a question,” say they, “for a man like you? This spot has always been what it is now.” I again returned five hundred years afterwards; the sea had disappeared: I inquired of a man who stood alone upon the spot how long this change had taken place, and he gave me the same answer as I had received before. Lastly, on coming back again after an equal lapse of time, I found there a flourishing city, more populous and more rich in beautiful buildings than the city I had seen the first time; and when I would fain have informed myself concerning its origin, the inhabitants answered me, “Its rise is lost in remote antiquity: we are ignorant how long it has existed, and our fathers were on this subject as ignorant as ourselves.” This striking passage was quoted in the _Examiner_, in 1834. Surely in this fragment of antiquity we trace the “geological changes” of modern science. GEOLOGICAL TIME.