The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1867-08-17
Popular Geology.

Hugh Miller, the peerless and deeply Ia
mented geologist of Scotland, during the
course of a lecture delivered before the Phi
losophical Society of Edinburg, thus spoke
of his views in regard to the process to
which the earth owes It's present form The
picture he draws is terribly grand We
copy from his book "Popular Geology"
pages 296, 297, 298:
! But time fails, and l cannot follow up this
/ subject to its legitimate conclusions. Allow
me, therefore, simply to state, that l must
! continue to hold, with Humboldt and with
Hutton, with Playfair and with Hall, that
/ this solid earth was at one time, from the
/ centre to the circumference, a solid mass of
molten matter Let us remember en-
! plOy here the words Of HumbOldt-that the
! great chemist Sir Humphrey Davy, to whom
we are indebted for the knowledge of the
most combustible metallic substances, re-
nounced his bold chemical hypothesis in his
last work g. Consultations of Travel ~ as
inadequate and untenable;" and further,
! that, with the oblate spherieity of the earth
and the planets to be accounted for, those
who continue to held what he rejected, will
be reduced, if they persist, to the unphilO-
sophical necessity Of regarding as a conse-
quence of miracle, popularity Of shape
easily explainable on the principles of
known law.
! Now, the fact of molten earth involves a
| long series of conditions each different from
all the others, and from the conditions Of the
! present time. 1t involves the existence of a
| period in the history of our planet when
! life, animal or vegetable, was not, and of a
succeeding period, when life began to be. 1t
| involves too, the ripening of the earth, from
| ages in which its surface was thin, earth
/ quake-shaken crust, subject 70 continual
| sinkings, and to fiery Outbursts of the plu-
| tonic matter, to ages in which it is the very
nature of its oldest inhabitant to calculate
| on its stability as the surest and most GER
tain of all things. 1t involves, in short,
! those successive conditions of life In the
/ geologic ages, which, In connection with what
| is now Scotland have, I'm afraid, all too
| inadequately attempted to set before you in
my present course. In fine, the primary
rocks, when they underlie to a great thick
ness as in our own country, the PalaeozOic
! deposits, l regard as the deposits of a period
! In which the earths crust had sufficiently
! cooled down to ermit the existence ola sea-
with the necessary denuding agencies
waves and currents-and, in consequence
of deposition also; but In which the internal
heat acted so near the surface, that whatever
| was deposited came, as a matter Of course,
| to be metamOrphOsed into semi-plutOnic
! forms, that retained only the qualification
L dare not speak Of the scenery of the period
We may imagine, however, dark atmos
phere of steam and vapor, which for age
after age cOnceals the face of the sun, and
through which the light of moon or star
never penetrates; oceans of thermal water
heated in a thousand centres to the boiling
point; low, halfmolten islands, dim through
the fog, and scarce more fixed than th,
waves themselves, that heave and tremblt
under the impulsions of the igneous agen
cies; roaring geYSers, that ever and amor
throw up their intermittent jets of boiling
fluid vapOr, and thick steam, from these
tremulous lands; and, in the dim outskirt:
of the scene, the red CLEAN of fire, sho
forth from yawning cracks and deep chasms
and that bears alOftfragments of molten Tocl
and clouds Of ashes. But should we con
tinue to linger amid a scene so featuTeles
and wild, or venture adown some yawniny
opening into the abyss beneath, where all i
fiery and yet dark-a solitary hell, withou
suffering or sin-we would do we'll to com
NIT ourselves to the guidance of a living poe
Of true faculty-ThOmas Aird-and Sc
with his eyes, and describe in his verse
The awful walls shadows might dusky mountain
But holy light touched an outline with its CLEAN
Tis but the eyes bewdered that fan would
And make nights thick blind presence to created shap
conform.
No moved by creeping creatul
crossed,
No lonely harper harp upon this fiery coast
Here all is solemn idleness mnsie here, jars,
Where silence guards coast thrill everast
bars:
No here shines wantOn ses but Ger the burniI
rim of restless halo shakes which marks the intern
heat
da beauteous see with dazzled sigI