not conclude this part of my subject better than ords of my respected friend, whom I have more e quoted: "The time is not far distant, when the of Natural Theology will receive a great acces the proofs of design which geology can unfoldi e Phoenix, ascending with new splendour from s of its parent bird, is the true image of that al youth in which all things around us rejoice. in the skies, nor on the earth, is the work of * ever at a stand. It elevates our ideas of the of the ALMIGHTY, to infer, from the existence of in all stages of formation, that His creating ener ver sleep; that they constitute a perfection of ure; and that all his operations are pursued in nd ages with an undeviating constancy, whether in the heavens, the ocean, or the land."† there is another and a most important lesson to hed from a consideration of this branch of geoI science, "Fossil organic remains," Professor on justly remarks, in his judicious and elegant prefixed to the new edition of Cuvier's Essay, the relics of a primeval world long since gone proclaiming, with a loud voice, the instability of ly affairs, and impressing upon the minds of those seriously consider them, sentiments of piety and gs of devotion.

If the antiquary digs from among the ruins of Her

e same time depressed, and sunk in the unfathomable depths of ocean which now covers the formerly inhabited dry lands.

That is, the arrangement of matter in new forms.

Knight's Facts and Observations, &c. 260.

culaneum a piece of ancient money, a vase, or a statue, we rejoice with him, in finding the mode of life, the manners and arts of an ancient people, placed before our eyes :-If he finds an old record, illustrative of the history of his country, however limited in extent that country may be, we are grateful to him for the particle of knowledge he has added to our store;-but if, among the ruins of the common country of the human race, we linger at the great sepulchre of animated beings destroyed by the hand of fate, who can look upon it without piety! It is not here the statues of Polycletus that we admire, but the admirable monuments of the workmanship of nature, taken from the ruins of the great Herculaneum overwhelmed by the ocean, that we look upon with feelings of the deepest wonder and de votion."

And no wonder that we become serious and devout, with so solemn and so awful a scene unfolded to our view, for, it is a truth that cannot be concealed, far less denied, that while these extraneous fossils and other organic remains, which every where meet the eye of the geologist in his researches into the deep places of the earth, demonstrate to him the many changes and revo lutions that have taken place in our globe, and that we stand on the ruins of a former world; they, at the same time, proclaim, in a language that cannot be mis understood, and therefore requires not the wisdom of a Daniel to interpret-that, this our earthly kingdom is departing from us-that, weighed in the balance of recent discovery, our permanency here is found want ing!

Yes: This mysterious hand-writing on the wall of

earthly habitation, to which so many eyes are now ed in the present era of geological science, displays, aracters awfully illuminated by the torch of know, and, by it rendered legible to all,-THIS IS NOT CONTINUING CITY, THIS IS NOT YOUR LASTING E OF ABODE!

at here, to the Christian, the consolations of that H, which

." Builds a bridge, from this world to the next, O'er death's dark gulph, and all its horror hides,"

very opportunely forward, and these results of gical discovery become, in his view, the hands of, and are made subservient to, the interests of on, by demonstrating the inestimable value of that ation, which has brought life and immortality to and extended the hopes of our immaterial part nd death and the grave.

ere, the comfortable deductions which flow from octrines of Jesus can be fully appreciated, and the import and meaning of that benign and consoling ession," IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE ARE MANY MAN," be distinctly understood.

uly considered, and viewed as they ought to be, e principles of Christianity, these dry bones are to speak the same language as that of the lilies the sparrows, to which we had occasion to refer at commencement of our work; or, the soft whisperof our holy religion are made to speak for them, having adopted the chain of reasoning, to which

John xiv. 2.

their suggestions naturally lead-Behold, say they, these ancient relics of former times-these striking me morials of things that have long since passed away--how wonderfully they have been preserved through in. numerable generations, and such an infinite succession of ages, by the conservating power of their great Creator: If, therefore, YOUR HEAVENLY FATHIL, your MAKER and your GOD, has taken so much pains to preserve and protect, for so great a length of time, such a multitudinous host of the corporeal remains of his inferior creatures,-shall HE not, much more, care for and preserve, that intellectual spark-that ray of the divinity, with which he has so highly distinguished and endowed his rational offspring-with which he has so highly adorned and ennobled MAN-the last and the most perfectly formed of his numerous creatures in this lower world?-0 YE OF LITTLE FAITH!

END OF VOLUME FIRST.