crop out in succession, at the surface or on the slopes of mountains.”[7] But to make this view of the subject clearer, let us imagine that some Titanic power was granted us to push down these towering masses of granite to their original situation, below the metamorphic and stratified rocks, by which means we should at the same time restore these curved and broken strata to their originally horizontal position; and let us suppose that we were now again to descend to the foundations of the earth for the purpose of making another vertical section; then the crust of the earth would present to us an arrangement something like the leaves of a book, or the coats of an onion, arranged in successive and uninterrupted layers, or in concentric and unbroken circles. Such a diagram must of course be imaginary, and unless it is taken into connexion with the previous remarks, it is more likely to bewilder than to assist the beginner. Let it again be urged upon the reader, that such a chart as we are about to lay before him is only intended to give him an idea of the succession of these formations and systems, and that the details found in it are anticipatory of many future references to it on the student’s part. Let it not be supposed that this is a mere barren research into dry facts that have no connexion with our truest welfare; for if, as Lord Bacon somewhere finely observes, all study is to be valued “not so mush as an exercise of the intellect, but as a true discipline of humanity,” then what study is calculated to be more useful than Geology, in enlarging and purifying the powers of the mind, by teaching us how harmonious, and orderly, and economic are the works of God; in removing all narrow notions of the extent and age of this solid globe, which from the beginning had its origin in the almighty will of God; in checking the presumptuous or the chilling inferences of a sceptical philosophy, by everywhere pointing out the design, skill, and adaptations of an ever-present and most beneficent Creator; and in chastening those overweening ideas of ourselves which both ignorance and knowledge may create and foster, by saying to us, in the language of God himself, as we stand amazed in the presence of huge pre-Adamite vestiges of creation, “Where wast thou,” vain man, “when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding.” (Job xxxviii. 4.)