Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/445

 Rh subject of physical inquiry which can occupy the mind of Man, and by far the most interesting, from the personal concern we have in it, is the history of the formation and structure of the Planet on which we dwell, of the many and wonderful revolutions through which it has passed, of the vast and various changes in organic life that have followed one another upon its surface, and of its multifarious adaptations to the support of its present inhabitants, and to the physical and moral condition of the Human race.

These and kindred branches of inquiry, co-extensive with the very matter of the globe itself, form the proper subject of Geology, duly and cautiously pursued, as a legitimate branch of inductive science: the history of the Mineral kingdom is exclusively its own; and of the other two great departments of Nature, which form the Vegetable and Animal kingdoms, the foundations were laid in ages, whose records are entombed in the interior of the Earth, and are recovered only by the labours of the Geologist, who in the petrified organic remains of former conditions of our Planet, deciphers documents of the Wisdom in which the world was created.

Shall it any longer then be said, that a science, which unfolds such abundant evidence of the Being and Attributes of God, can reasonably be viewed in any other light than as the efficient Auxiliary and Handmaid of Religion? Some few there still may be, whom timidity or prejudice or want of opportunity allow not to examine its evidence; who are alarmed by the novelty, or surprised by the extent and magnitude of the views which Geology forces on their attention, and who would rather have kept closed the volume of witness, which has been sealed up for ages beneath the surface of the earth, than impose on the student in Natural Theology the duty of studying its contents; a duty, in which for lack of experience they may anticipate a hazardous or a laborious task, but which by those engaged in it is found to afford a rational and righteous and delightful exercise of their highest