Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/430

 426 to preserve the purity of the sea, renders them unfit for the support of terrestrial animals or vegetables,) and transmitting them in genial showers to scatter fertility over the earth, and maintain the never-failing reservoirs of those springs and rivers by which they are again returned to mix with their parent ocean; in all these circumstances we find such evidence of nicely balanced adaptation of means to ends, of wise foresight, and benevolent intention, and infinite power, that he must be blind indeed, who refuses to recognize in them proofs of the most exalted attributes of the Creator."

of the physical history of the compound forms of unorganized mineral bodies, has been anticipated in the considerations given in our early chapters to the unstratified and crystalline rocks. It remains only to say a few words respecting the simple minerals that form the ingredients of these rocks, and the elementary bodies of which they are composed.

"In crossing a heath," (says Paley,) "suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came