The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-10-10
Earth's Changes.

That great changes have taken place
on the surface of our globe by which,
in numerous instances, the ocean has
covered what was once dry land, and
that which was once washed by the
waves of the sea has since been left
bare; that at some period in the vista
Of past ages, mighty commissions have
shattered the rocky pavement of the
globe, covering its surface with new
soil, and burying many feet beneath it
the animals by which it was inhabited,
are by no means peculiar to the present
age.
The earliest Greek and Roman philos-
ophers were struck with the fact that
marine shells were often found at a
great distance from the sea; that they
were frequently accompanied by the re-
mains of fish, and of rocks evidently
worn by the action of the waves, thus
indisputably proving that, in these in
stances at least, the land and the sea
must, at some period, have changed
places.
The celebrated philosopher, Pythag-
oras, who lived more than five hundred
years before the Christian era, has given
the following propositions as the sub
stance of his views on this subject:
''Solid land has been converted into
sea, and sea has been turned into land;
marine shells have been found on the
SUBMITS of hills, and the anchor lies
far from the deep. Islands have be-
come connected with the mainland by
the accumulation of sand, as in the case
of Antissa joined to Lesbos, and of
Pharos joined to Egypt, and peninsulas
have been separated from the main land
and made islands. Land has been sub
merged by earthquakes; the cities of
Helice and Buris may be seen under the
sea, with their walls inclined, and plains
have been uplifted into hills. There
was time when Etna was not a burn
ing mountain, and the time will come
when it will cease to burn"
Similar doctrines were taught by
Aristotle.
''As time" says he, ''never fails, and
the universe is eternal, neither the Nile
nor the Tanais can have flowed forever.
The places where they rise were once
dry land, and there will be limit to
their operations. The same tracts of tho
earth, therefore, are not some ALWAYS
sea and some always land; but every
thing changes In the course of time. !"
Thus we see that more than two thou
sand years ago the leading doctrines of
geology were well understood and com
monty taught. The same remark holds
true in relation to astronomy.
While a few were sufficiently enlight-
ened to calculate an eclipse with toler-
able accuracy, the people around them
were involved in the grossest ignorance.
That this knowledge should not have
been communicated to the rest of the
world, instead of perishing with its pos
SCISSORS, may at first appear to be mat
ter of astonishment. But when we con-
slider that ancient philosophers had no
mode of intoxicating their principles but
by personal intercourse, we can easily
see how difficult it was for them to pre-
sent their opinions to the mass of the
people. And, indeed, if they had, the
people were SO little enlightened as to be
incapable of understanding them.
But war, the grand object of pursuit
in ancient days, was the most serious OBJ
stacle to the dissemination of knowledge
and when one nation fell before the VIC
torious arms of another, temples and
libraries, the works of art and genius
alike fell victims to their barbarous
rage.
The Greeks fell beneath the CONQUER
ing swords of the Romans, and thew. in
their turn, were overwhelmed by the
hordes of Northern sayages, who soon
extinguished, by their ignorance and
superstition, the only rays of knowledge
that had ever shone upon the earth, and
not until thousand years had rolled
away did it once enter their minds that
the hills and the valleys, the rivers and
the plains, were not in the same condi-
ton as they had been made by their
Creator.
So stupid had the Italians become,
that they built their cities upon the lava
which had overwhelmed those of former
ages, and the sudden protrusion of a
chimney through the bottom of cellar
was the first intimation of the existence
of Pompeii and Herculaneum. - Georqe
B. G!6Fta, IN Golden Days.