perished added to the modification of materials for the support of future animal life.

6th Period.

This is considered the close of the ancient epoch, previously to which we found the earth a great waste, and a barren desolation.

When it was called into existence by the power of God we know not, but whenever done, it was the work of God. Much, very

much, we may conjecture on the subject. Possibly it was at first a mere gaseous mass created and put in motion by the power and wisdom of God.

The elements may have been ten, twenty, thirty, or fifty, but whatever the number may have been, they were under the laws of the Creator, fixed, sure, certain, and invariable in results. Acting under these laws, they became atmospheric air, water, and rock, by chemical affinity, and the action of heat, or electricity, known to pervade all nature, and without which life cannot be sustained. Of the length of time to effect these purposes we know absolutely nothing. There is time enough for all the changes we can imagine, nor can we conceive a single reason why God should be in a

hurry. Nor is it unlikely that God has been, and is now, and will be creating worlds, of which the noble science of astronomy affords strong presumptive proof.

Various reasons may be given to show the probable fluent state of the earth, and its gradual cooling, and the formation of rocks, as the foundation of the future earth, to be prepared for the support of life, the glory of the works of God, and above all these subordinates advancing to the great work of creating man, the intellectual lord of this lower world.

In all these changes we trace clearly a work of progress and utility. Its progress is seen in the states through which it has passed, and its utility not only for life at the time, but preparation for the creatures that were to follow.

It is possible that the coralline insect was the first of living creatures, whose only food was lime and carbon floating in the seas. That these two may have supported animal life is made highly probable, when we consider how largely lime and carbon enter into wheat, the most important of all the cerealia, or grains.

These insects then became food for more

perfectly organized animals, which in time became food for others.

Each of these periods of life closed by some vast convulsion of nature, or some change in the elements destructive of life. At each close the earth became again a waste, until God once more brought living creatures into being, by his power and wisdom.

During these periods there were no land animals nor dry land plants, because as yet perhaps no dry land appeared. The absence of dry land appears during this epoch from the primary rocks. These rocks are generally horizontal, and consequently formed at the bottom of large bodies of water, or they are generally found inclined against the slopes of the granite rocks. The vegetations of this era must have been abundant and luxuriant, perhaps beyond anything now known on earth; and yet was probably flowerless and fruitless, and the leaves hard, not nutritious, and therefore unfit for the nourishment of animals. It was, however, a manifestation of the divine goodness, perhaps, in clearing the air of matter deleterious to animal life, and certainly in storing mineral masses which, in the proper time, were to be of the utmost importance to the

human race, for the comfort, power, and civilization of man.

The wealth of England now in a very great degree depends on the treasures laid up in magazines at this period. The vast coal mines in the United States will be a greater source of power than the golden sands of California; less destructive of morals, and more conducive to happiness and civilization. Not only is the fireside made comfortable and pleasant during the storms of winter, but mechanical powers are put in operation, and the iron horse travels forty, and fifty, and sixty miles the hour, conveying thousands of travellers and hundreds of tons of property; and the steamship not only ploughs the river, the lake, and the bay, but boldly meets the waves of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian oceans, bearing in her bosom the riches of every clime. So also the bursting of volcanoes, rending, breaking, and melting rock, and reducing wood to coal, the rushing of waters, grinding, pulverizing, washing, and moving materials for soil, exhibit the power, wisdom, knowledge, and goodness of God, approaching a point of greater and greater arrangement for a great future work. Although, could the eye of man have seen the earth in

this state, it would have presented to him only waste, desolation, and terrific prospects. Yet God was there in his greatness. Had an angel informed one unacquainted with the facts, of the great end of all these apparently rude and violent operations, and the final beautiful results, it would have required great faith to accredit the declaration.

During the first period of the second epoch, while the coal formation was going on, land animals were not known. Indeed the superabundance of carbonic acid gas would necessarily destroy all land animals; as they would now perish, if the atmosphere became overcharged with this necessary gas, and yet when in excess destructive to animal life. Vegetation, however, would be abundant, and of enormous bulk, being fed by the very material necessary for its growth. Thus, God had clearly in view his great end, and all things beautifully and progressively leading to the most important results. At this period the corals and encrinites were found, with some alterations, but the trilobites had nearly, perhaps entirely, disappeared; while univalve and bivalve shells have greatly increased.

Salt, a mineral so exceedingly important to