The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-05-03

higher than the evzoon, still an immsa
urable distance from man, the crown an
head of the whole. The little lingula. til
flower like encrinites, and their compeer
were then the kings upon our planet an
their right there was no one to dispute.
Still forward through the ages, the eartl
quake and volcano, as well as the ocea
are at work ceaselessly through a dav {
God, an fnfnHy to man. The Siluria
and Devonian ages pass, and organic es
istences reach still higher state of deve
opment. AS yet no air breathing form ha
appeared. What is food to the plant ha
ever been poison to the animal. Some
thing must be done to gather up the cal
bon of the atmosphere and leave an al
capable of being breathed by animal
whose home may be upon the land. No
tice the adaptation of the means to def
mite end. Mark yonder steamer as it pillow
its way over the world of waters. Whenc
came the coal that glows in her furnaces
or supplies warmth on a winter eve, on
thousand hearths all over our world .
Away down among the rocks the mine
delves to supply the world with fuel,
dreadful trade enough is his; often mad,
worse by neglect or carelessness, but HI
must toll that the hearth may glow: tina
commerce may not stand idle. How came
that bed of carbon to be prepared ready te
MS hand? Somtimes you may trace or
your familiar coal evidence that it has moi
always been what it now seems to be-
There are forms of leaves, traces of frag.
ments of trunks, all preserved in stone tc
give us some idea as to what forms com.
posed the forests of our planet in other
periods. What ages must have passed
while those forests were growing, or being
everthrown by earthquake shocks to make
way for others as evanesccnt, but as luxu-
RANT! That limp of carbon is the mute
record Of chronology, to gain any idea
of which we must think of the cycles of
liindoo mythology. The minutes of this
mute record are the years of Brahma.-
Century after century circles away; the
superintendent carbon becomes exhausted
and other beings at last appear. All these
changes still look forward to the occupancy
of man. The same means that made the
air fit for breathing, animal life, stored up
those exhaustless supplies of coal for the
use of man when he should appear.
The end of the era of carbon brought
the first scouts of the reptile horde whose
monstrous forms were soon to take possess
sion of the globe. The dominions of shell
fish is past, the empire of fishes has lost it's
supremacy, as the all wise Deity calls into
life host of other forms. Immense rep
tiles able to live either in the land or
water seem to have been the distinctive
feature of the Friassic as of the Jurassic
ages.
The noblest works of men perish, the
palaces of Nineveh, or the bricks of the
Euphrates crumble into dust. The piles of
Palmyra or Baal- beck, or our own Palenque
and Cxmal fall into ruins. The very rec
ords of their builders have passed so far into
that no one can tell even what
names they bore. The gentle rain and
springing verdure obliterate in season
the traces of an armies march. The earth
has covered up much of the wreck of its
great battle fields, where the destinies of
nations were decided by the cast of arms.
In few decades no trace will be lett to tell
that the plains of Waterloo, the heights of
Gettysburg, or the tangles of the Wilder
ness were ever Redeemed with the flood of
thousands, but here are the
marks of the feet of animals long since
extinct; the very ripple marks of seas that
once rolled where cities now stand Sub
lime remains are these; beside them how
modern seem the ruins of Greece and
Rome, the shrines of Palestine, the won
ders of the catacombs, or Egypts stately,
piles. After all, no matter how
interesting those mute but suggestive
traces of tho older WORLD may be, the later
memorials must have the greater interest,
as they help to tell the story of human
efforts and human victories in the great
struggle upward from barbarism to civili-
cation. 1t is the great life of humanity
that claims the worlds enduring interest.
We cannot linger among those reptile
these ripple marks of seas that
once rolled where harvest now wave An
other cycle is past, and we reach the ter
tiary age, and the still existing age of man.
mails. One more CONFUSION was needed to
grind down the rocks and prepare the fully
grown continents for the reception of man.
The camel and horse; these animals des-
tined in coming times to serve the needs of
man, had taken their places and all that
was then needed was his appearance as the
destined monarch of the whole. Suddenly
the arctic region experiences great uplift,
until, instead of receiving the warm waters
of tropical currents, it reaches above the
line of FROST and the glacial epoch begins.
Steadily southwark move the ice fields,
down forest growths, obliterat-
ing river channels and ploughing others;
carrying tons Of boulders and cubic miles
Of gravel far away from their native local
ity and strewing them as surface soil over
other areas.
Another earthquake throb and the arctic
sinks to it's former level the
glaciers meet and the earth is ready for its
master, man: Stone implements at first,
then of metal, show that he had some
means of supplying his wants. How long
ago he first appeared we have no means of
learning. This much we do know; he liv-
ed contemporary with many animals now
extinct. Again it seems tolerably certain
that the eastern continent, although the
newest had the Oldest population. This is
the testimony of revelation, and geology so
far has produced nothing to contest it
The Bible represents Asia Minor as the
birth place of the race, and all through the
historic period the tide of emigration has
radiated from that as common centre.
Few now probably credit the idea of the
of the Noachic flood. While
the peoples who dwelt upon the plains of
Babylona were filling up their cup of wrath,
VIC do not know that others of the same