Such is the vista into the past opened up through these rocky entablatures of the globe. Compared with other branches of knowledge, in point of mere exciting topics of interest, geology occupies a distinguished position. Nay, the truth here, to those not conversant with the science, is even more incredible than fiction. As a study into the records of creation, geology has disclosed views, and elicited discoveries, of the works of the Divine Architect of the world, which the religious inquirer will as cordially embrace, as ignorance only can overlook or misapprehend.—Newton imagined, so porous is all earthy matter, that this terrene globe could be crushed into the size of two or three cubic inches of solid substance. Geology now shows that the most concrete rocks, chains of hills and even of mountains, the soft clays of Virginia, and loose floating deserts of sand, are many of them composed of the shields and skeletons of animalcules; evidences, through all past time, of the wondrous prodigality of nature, and of the superabundant goodness of its Author. Nothing, indeed, at first sight can appear more barren of every point of interesting illustration than the rocky masses of the earth. Tear off the grassy covering which conceals, while it freshens, the outer crust of the globe, and to mere disorder and confusion there seems to be superadded the more repulsive features of sterility and death. But examine a little deeper, and you will see order, symmetry, and beauty; what is now frigid and motionless, was once animated with the breath of life; these stony chambers beneath, the necropolis of a buried world. The study of the Course of Creation, therefore, when read aright—whether in its organic or inorganic lessons—cannot fail to present the most varied and sublime illustrations of the power, wisdom, and goodness of Him who reared the stupendous fabric, and made our earth one of the bright rolling planets of the universe.