Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/36

 32 spoken of only according to their relative importance to our earth, and to mankind, and without any regard to their real importance in the boundless universe, It seems impossible to include the fixed stars among those bodies which are said (Gen. i. v, 17.) to have been set in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; since without the aid of telescopes, by far the greater number of them are invisible. The same principle seems to pervade the description of creation, which concerns our planet: the creation of its component matter having been announced in the first verse, the phenomena of Geology, like those of astronomy, are passed over in silence, and the narrative proceeds at once to details of the actual creation which have more immediate reference to man.