52 CHARLES LYELL GEOLOGY COMPARED TO HISTORY. We often discover with surprise, on looking back into the chronicles of nations, how the fortune of some battle has influenced the fate of millions of our contemporaries, when it has long been forgotten by the mass of the population. But far more astonishing and unexpected are the connections brought to light when we carry back our researches into the history of nature. The form of a coast, the configuration of the interior of a country, the existence and extent of lakes, valleys, and mountains can often be traced to the former prevalence of earthquakes and volcanoes in regions which have long been undisturbed. To these remote convulsions the present fertility of some districts, the sterile character of others, the elevation of land above the sea, the climate, and various peculiarities, may be distinctly referred. On the other hand, many distinguishing features of the surface may often be ascribed to the operation, at a remote era, of slow and tranquil causes-to the gradual deposition of sediment in a lake or in the ocean, or to the prolific increase of testacea and corals. To select another example; we find in certain localities subterranean deposits of coal, consisting of vegetable matter formerly drifted into seas and lakes. These seas and lakes have since been filled up; the lands whereon the forests grew have disappeared or changed their form; the rivers and currents which floated the vegetable masses can no longer be traced; and the plants belonged to species which for ages have passed away from the surface of our planet. Yet the commercial prosperity and numerical strength of a nation may now be mainly dependent on the local distribution of fuel determined by that ancient state of things. Geology is intimately related to almost all the physical sciences, and it is most desirable that a geologist should be well versed in chemistry, natural philosophy, mineralogy, zoology, comparative anatomy, botany; in short, in every science relating to organic and inorganic nature. With these accomplishments, the geologist would rarely fail to draw correct philosophical conclusions from the various monuments transmitted to him of former occurrences. He would know to what combination of causes analogous effects were referable, and would often be enabled to supply, by inference, information concerning many events unrecorded in the defective archives of former ages. But as such extensive acquisitions are scarcely within the reach of any individual, it is necessary that men who have devoted their lives to different departments should unite their efforts; and as the historian receives assistance from the antiquary, and from those who have cultivated different branches of moral and political science, so the geologist should avail himself of the aid of many naturalists, and particularly of those who have studied the fossil remains of lost species of animals and plants. The analogy, however, of the monuments consulted in geology, and those available in history, extends no farther than to one class of historical monumentsthose which may be said to be undesignedly commemora tive of former events. The canoes, for example, and stone hatchets found in our peat-bogs, afford an insight into the rude arts and manners of the earliest inhabitants of our island; the buried coin fixes the date of the reign of some Roman emperor; the ancient encampment indicates the districts once occupied by invading armies, and the former method of constructing military defences; the Egyptian mummies throw light on the art of embalming, the rites of sepulture, or the average stature of the human race in ancient Egypt. This class of memorials yields to no other in authenticity, but it constitutes a small part only of the resources on which the historian relies, whereas in geology it forms the only kind of evidence which is at our command. But this testimony of geological monuments, if frequently imperfect, possesses at least the advantage of being free from all suspicion of misrepresentation. We may be deceived in the inferences which we draw, in the same manner as we often mistake the nature and import of phenomena observed in the daily course of nature; but our liability to err is confined to the interpretation, and if this be correct, our information is certain.-Elements of Geology. LYTE, HENRY FRANCIS, a British clergyman and poet, born at Kelso, Scotland, June 1, 1793; died at Nice, France, November 20, 1847. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he several times gained the prize for English poetry. He took orders, held curacies in Ireland, and eventually became rector of Brixton, England. He published several volumes of poetry, mostly of a devotional character. Lyte's first work was Tales in Verse Illustrative of Several of the Petitions of the Lord's Prayer. A fine biography of Henry Vaughan, the Silurist, has an enduring place in English literature. In 1834 he published The Spirit of the Psalms, a collection of hymns and psalms, drawn from various sources, but mainly his own. Lyte can hardly be said to rank high as a poet, refinement and pathos rather than great imaginative power being the chief features of his work. As a preacher he was simple, earnest, and graceful in style, but his chief claim to remembrance lies in the beauty and spiritual elevation of his hymns, some of which may be Isaid to have become classical. Among the best known of his hymns are Abide With Me; Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken; Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven, and Pleasant Are Thy Courts Above. His hymn Abide With Me was written at Nice, not long before his death. EVENING. Sweet Evening hour! sweet Evening hour! Sweet hour! that bids the laborer cease, That gives the weary team release, That leads them home, and crowns them there With rest and shelter, food, and care. Oh, season of soft sounds and hues, And God receives and answers prayer. Then, as the earth recedes from sight, From sin and grief, to peace and love. Who has not felt that Evening's hour Sweet hour! for heavenly musing made, In the autumn of 1847 the Rev. Mr. Lyte was advised to go for a time to the south of France. Before leaving England he wished once more to preach to his people. His family feared what the result of such an effort might be, but he insisted, 56 HENRY FRANCIS LYTE and was able to go through the service. He knew that he was preaching for the last time, and his sermon was full of solemn and tender appeals to those whom he had long guided and instructed. At the end of the service he retired, exhausted in body, but with his soul sweetly resting on that Saviour whom he had preached with his dying breath. As the evening drew on he handed to his family the following beautiful hymn, which he had just written. This was his last hymn on earth. He reached Nice, and shortly after his spirit entered into rest. He pointed upward as he passed away, and whispered, "Peace, joy." 66 ABIDE WITH ME!" Abide with me! fast falls the even-tide! The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide ! Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day; Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word; Come not in terrors as the King of kings; Thou on my head in early youth didst smile; |