geology that it was subject to such transformations before the creation of man. This is about as reasonable as to suppose that because a piece of gold has been several times melted, while being refined, it will therefore need to be treated in the same way again, at some future time. No truth could be more evident than that this earth was made for the very use which it now subserves, to be a habitation for man. It was subjected to a succession of important transformations and changes, which occupied periods of immense duration. But in all these changes, so far as they have been examined, there was a manifest, reference to the ultimate use for which the earth was forming. Dr. Buckland, (Geology vol. 1 page 409,) speaking of the wisdom displayed in forming the earth, and adapting it to the use and comfort of man, makes the following remark:—"It is impossible to contemplate a disposition of things so well adapted to afford the materials essential to supply the wants, and to keep alive the industry of the inhabitants of our earth. * * * We may surely, therefore, feel ourselves authorized to view, in the geological arrangements above developed, a system of wise and benevolent contrivances, prospectively subsidiary to the wants and comforts of the future inhabitants of the globe." This important principle is very distinctly recognized and insisted upon by geologists. Those great revolutions and changes, to which the earth was subjected through a series of many ages, were precisely those changes which were necessary in order to prepare the earth for the use of man. Every new discovery in geology reveals some hitherto unknown storehouse of wealth, which was laid up by the slow process of ages, and which is still held in reserve to supply the wants of future generations of men. Prof. Hitchcock, in his Geology of Massachusetts, has the following remarks on this subject: "The globe was evidently preparing" (during the long period of its formation,) "for the residence of man and animals that now inhabit it. Before their creation, its temperature was
