The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1883-05-26
TIE G4Ekr KINGDOM.

| For years the astronomer, the Dot.HisV'
the chemist and other scientists have
| stood with reverent awe upon the
threshold OF infinite wonders that inyesti-
CATION in every direction reveals The
astronomer has stood before the people,
to tell OF the marvellous worlds revealed
by the telescope, while speculation has
vainly endeavored to pierce the mystery
that hides the fact OF animated exist
enec, in these spheres that wheel in the
boundless realms, that reach, III their
measureless orbits, beyond finite compre-
hension, into the borders Of the infinite.
Then the microscopist, with equal inter-
est and wonder, reveals the inconceivable
magnitude OF the mysterious world that
has been discovered, but only partially
revealed, in drop of water or an atom of
water, peopled by multitudes of active
and busy creatures, actuated by the uni
versal impulse that throbs to the extrem-
est boundary of life, and is manifested in
every expression of existence.
While the more apparent revelations of
Nature have thus been more thoroughly
studied and perhaps better understood,
the mineral kingdom, possibly broader in
extent and variety, says the mining Re
view" OF Chicago, has been largely over
looked and neglected Many of the
scenes most inviting to men, can be
studied III the active scenes OF life; eE-
citing companionship and common inter.
est, have made them attractive; beauty
and fragrance and sunshine, have added
their charms, while in some, the wings
of Imagination fitted upon the borders
of the unknown, and, basked in the
light of paradise, that reason could
never reach. The geologist however
must go down into the deeper solitudea
of Nature; he has to deal with stern
facts, and must find solid basis for his
theories. The lesson that he reads is not
a meteors' fash, or the tinted leaf Of
flower, but the tracery OF creations ig-
ger upon the record book OF centuries.
He studies the gigantic struggles Of OPP
posing forces, Of conflicting elements,
where continents were as leaves in the
blast. He must go backward on the
march of epochs. through the conflicts of
ages, over all the changes and readjust-
ments, toward the misty dawn OF that
first day, when the earth was without
form, and void.
The day is not far distant, when it will
be discovered that the mineral kingdom
can show field OF study, broader aud
deeper than any other, and that it fur
nishes basis upon which every other
science rests The kingdom of the rock
and mineral in its infinite variations and
countless forms of expression, forms a
center toward which all scientists may
direct their best thought. and is one to
which all must come for substantial
basis for the foundation of every other
line of Study, in which the human mind
can engage.
There are many indications which
would show that this kingdom is the
climax of creation, the mother that folds
the children OF Nature in her bosom, and
gives to them her own Immortality.
The vegetable world is largely repre-
scented in the coal fields and in the flint
rock, one OF the earth's massive founda.
ton stones, fragments OF which, furnish
ing man with fire, have done more thar
any other thing, to advance the gener'
ations Of men, in the pathway Of civil
cation This rock was formed from {
microscopic vegetable. The anima
kingdom is represented in the chalk ant
limestone foundations, which constitute
the most important part of the rocky
strata OF the earth, formed, as is wei
known, by untold millions of infusoria
dropping into their graves, in the I'M
moved fathoms of the oceans depths
After sleep OF centuries, some great
upheaval, that lifted a continent iron
the bed Of the sea, brought the remains
OF these invisible children up, to be fash
toned into the everlasting pyramids o
Egypt, and into homes and temples, FOL
the children OF men,
Noted criminals in America have thpi