Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/63

Rh These general facts are full of importance with reference to the question of the succession of formations and of life in the geological history of the earth. So much time has been occupied with these general views that it would be impossible to trace the history of the Atlantic in detail through the ages of the Palæozoic, Mesozoic, and Tertiary. We may, however, shortly glance at the changes of the three kinds of surface already referred to.

The bed of the ocean seems to have remained, on the whole, abyssal, but there were probably periods when those shallow reaches of the Atlantic, which stretch across its most northern portion and partly separate it from the Arctic basin, presented connecting coasts or continuous chains of islands sufficient to permit animals and plants to pass over. At certain periods also there were not unlikely groups of volcanic islands, like the Azores, in the temperate or tropical Atlantic. More especially might this be the case in that early time when it was more like the present Pacific; and the line of the great volcanic belt of the Mediterranean, the mid-Atlantic banks, the Azores, and the West India islands point to the possibility of such partial connections. These were stepping-stones, so to speak, over which land organisms might cross, and some of these may be connected with the fabulous or prehistoric Atlantis.



HE truths of the educational reformers reached comparatively small circles. Everywhere the schools continued to turn out ministers and priests; indeed, this was the accepted design of the schools. We have many illustrations of the home training during these years. I name a few as recorded. Christian Weise, eight years of age, was required by his parents to discontinue study on account of sickness. He objected to this course, saying "The power of Jesus Christ will come to my aid, he who is strong in the sick ones." George Nitzsch (who wrote a treatise entitled "Is Scripture God Himself?") in his ninth year could find no more delightful occupation than prayer and memorizing sermons. Feustking, when he was nine years old, had read the Bible through five times, and at the same age had preached before his father's congregation. It is said that some one wished to use extracts from classical writers; the Church authorities thereupon