North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1852, 1851-09-13
LITERARY NOTICE.

not seek happiness In what Is mlSnamed pleasure
seek it rather in what is termed study. Keep yon
consciences clear, your curiosity fresh, and eb
every opportunity of cultivating your minds Occup,
your leisure hours in making yourselves wiser men
Learn to make right of your eyes; the commones
things are worth looking at-even stones and weeds
! and the most familiar animals. Read good books no
! forgetting the bes: of all There is true philos
ophy in the Bible. than in every work of every scep
tic that ever wrote and we would be miserable crea
lures without it, and none more miserable than you
/ Such is the beginning of book written by Scotch
4 man who commenced life in the humble occupation
| of stone quarter. Acting upon the advice which
he gives, and studying and observing while he work
ed, he has written, in a style animated and graph.
c upon subjects heretofore considered the dryest and
most epulsve, that the literary world LAYS aside the
latest production of the poet novelist to read Hugh
Miller's last work on Geology His are the earnest
truthful thoughts of the working mans direct health
full mind not the morbid creations and hot-bed pro-
ductions of distempered imagination. To him the
volume of is full of interest and beauty and
well does DR.. auckland declare that he would give
his left hand to possess such powers of description as
this man. He has clearly demonstrated that to him
who studies nature Alright, there are
Books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.''
While engaged in his humble employment, and
beholding huge layers of stone piled one upon anoh-
er, he looked not upon them with foolish face of
rustic wonder, or brute unconscious gaze, which
leave the mind vapd and unmproved but bearing the
torch of discovery to these parts of creation
and beholding there the Footprints of the CREATOR
his mind is led only " from Nature up to Natures
God,'' as might be the case with superficial
Observer but infinitely exploring what had before been
considered barren field, he makes such interesting
discoveries, that with the rapt enthusiasm and ardent
Imagination of true of science, and devoted
admrer of nature, he exclams with Jacob at Bethel,
Surely the Lord is in this place, and knew it not.
We are pleased with the frankness with which he
avows himself working man, we'll as the mod
esy with which he presents his facts, constituting
the slow gathering of years. giving with hearty
goodwill his contribution to the general fund.- hum
bly, hoping that they may stepping stones
laid across, until such time Biologists of greater
skill shall have bridged the gaps now existing
in that science.
Severing the rough stone, with the mason's ham,
he discovers the remains of petred fishes, which
he describes graphically that We scarcely need
his plates to give us an accurate idea of them. 1t
may be objected that he the technical names of
the Geologs, describe his Ichthyoes - stone
fish but his descriptions all given in plain SIM
pie language, and are comprehensive by all. How
beautifully he apologies for his learned language and
jaw-breaking names:
Page 80. I" Some of my humble readers may pos
sibly be repealed by these names They are like all
in science, unfamiliar in their respect to
English readers, just because they are names not for
England alone, but for England and the world.
am assured, however, that they all composed of
very good Greek, and Pcturesquely descriptive of
some popularity in the fossils they designate One
IF the Ichthy otes with thorn spine in each fin,
bears the of 4cqnLhodes, thorn-like another,
with curiously fretted scales, has been named the
Giytoepis carved scale. Such is the principle of
The name is condensed description.
But though all the names mean Something they can
not mean a great deal and as learned words repel
lnlearned readers, shall take the liberty OF remind
ng mine of the humble Glass; that there is no legtl-
nate connection between Geology and the dead Ian
yuages. The existences of the Old Red Sandstone
had lived for ages, and had been dead for myrads of
iges, ere there was Greek enough in the world to
furnish them with names. There IS no working man,
he be a person of intelligence and information,
however unearned, in the vulgar accePtatlon of the
ohraze, who may not derive much pleasure and en-
argement of idea from the study of Geology, and
cq uant himself minutey with its truths, as II
of all the learning of Bentley"
He confirms an opinion, which we ave heard adj
RANGED by miners in State, Sc that nature is
tI active, and that wonderful formations yet in
,rogress' He instances the hill of Jorullo, in the
leghborhood of the City of Mexico:
cit is rarely that the Geologist catches hill in
he of forming and hence the interest of this we'll
ttested instance. From the period of the discovery
America the middle of the last century, the plains
IF JorulIo had undergone change of surface, and
he of the present hill covered by plantations
IF indigo and sugarcane, when, in June 1853, hollow
sounds were heard, and succession of earthquakes
continued for sixty days. to the great CONSERVATION
If the inhabitants. After the cessation of these and
in a period of tranquility, on the 2sth and 29th of
a horrid subterranean noise was again
leard and tract four square miles in extent rose up
in the shape of dome or bladder, to the height OF
1910 feet above the original level of the plain The
affrghted Indians fled to the mountains, and from
thence looking down on the phenomenon, saw flames
issuing from the earth for miles around the newly |
elevated h and the sofened surface rising and fall
ing like that of agitaed sea, and opening into nu
nerous rents and assures. Two brooks, which had
ateed the plantations, precpitated themselves into
The burning chasms. The of this singular event
was visited by Humboldt, about the beginning OF the
present century. At that period, the volcanic agen-
cies had become comparatively quiescent; the hill.
however, retained its orig inal altitude. number OF
smaller hills had sprung up around 1t, and the traV-
sIIer found the waters of the inguphed rlVuets es
gaping, at high temperature, from caverns charged
with sulphureous vapors and carbonic acid gas Ihere
were inhabitants OF the country living at the time.
who were than twenty years older than the hill
IF JorulIo, and had witnessed its rse.
"The wonders of Geology exercise every faculty
Of the mind-reason, memory, imagination;" they |
ire powerful stimulan to thought, and enlarge the
Intellectual domain If in the true American spirit
we should be asked respecting Geology, cui bono
what is it good for!) we can reply in the words OF
he author, that 6 it has its cash value" The time
and money squandered in Great Britain afone'> in !
rcbn for coal in districts where the Welinformed