It is upon the surface of this our earth that we behold in detail those wonders of the Great Creator's hands, which must fill all who contemplate and study them with enlarged ideas of His wisdom, goodness, and power. We see the millions of stars sparkling in the abyss of space, and our minds are so formed that we can measure and gauge their distances and rates of travelling, their orbits and their sizes, their weights, and the powers with which they attract and influence each other; but we only contemplate a star as one bright and beautiful object worthy to be one of the gems which the Almighty has set in His crown of glory, or a lamp to light the halls of His infinite habitation, but we still contemplate it as a single object; while on the surface of the earth our Maker has permitted us to roam and search out by what benevolent contrivances He has suited all things to the comfort and welfare of His creatures. How His mercy and goodness are extended amply to the most minute animalcule as well as to man, and how His powers of construction are to be found in the most minute objects which the microscope can display, as perfect as in the largest creature we behold. It is here upon our earth that we perceive how the structure and functions of all creatures are regulated and controlled by the unerring laws which He has created, over which laws the creatures have no control, and which if duly regarded and used according to the faculties each has been gifted with, will return the greatest joy and happiness their several natures are capable of, and secure all that perfection of operation which their mechanical frames are suited to perform; but before any description of the organised beings which dwell on the earth can be given, it will be proper to enter into a description of the earth itself, to see what sort of place God has provided for them, and how through succeeding cycles of time He has gradually perfected and prepared it for the reception of His last great work, Man. It is only a few miles below the surface of the earth that man has been able to penetrate and examine, but reason comes to assist him where examination fails, and it would have been but a few hundred yards only that his labours could have extended had it not been that parts, which are generally situated miles below the surface, are occasionally found at or even raised above it, by some disturbing cause which operated in times far back; so that man is able to examine on the surface parts which he could scarcely dig down to. The whole of the earth, its inhabitants, the air which surrounds it, the waters upon its surface, and its vegetable products, are composed of certain substances called elements, combined and united in certain numbers and proportions. The following is a list of all known:-- METALLIC ELEMENTS.