at this stone
sees in it not only that mechanical and chemical agencies have
cooperated in the work of its formation, but that animal life itself may
have been the chief agency in bringing the materials together and giving
form to the peculiar architecture employed in its formation. If it is a
piece of limestone this latter statement will be eminently true.

Here is a powerful motive for the study of physical science. It is not
to be expected, nor is it possible, that every individual can be a
scientist in the strict sense of the word, but it is possible for
everyone of ordinary intelligence to become familiar with the salient
facts of science, if only a small portion of the time that is now
devoted to the reading of literature that is rather harmful than helpful
be spent in studying the phenomena and works of nature.

The acquirement of such knowledge would furnish every individual with a
constant source of instructive amusement that would never lose its
interest. He would not be dependent every hour upon people and things
outside of himself; because he would carry about with him inexhaustible
sources of instruction and pleasure that would furnish him continual and
helpful diversion and save him from a thousand morbid tendencies that
are always ready to seize upon an unemployed mind. There are many men
and women in the insane asylum to-day for the simple reason that they
have not made intelligent use of the mental powers that nature has
endowed them with.

Sermons are not always preached from pulpits. They are written in the
rocks and on the flowers of the field and the trees of the forest.

Let us then look a little at the underground foundation of all this
beautiful earth. And before attempting that, the question may arise in
some minds how we know what is so deep down under the surface.
Fortunately this is a question very easily answered. At some period
after the rocks were formed the crust of the earth was broken by
volcanic eruptions at various places and times, and turned up, as in the
formation of mountains, so that the edges of the various stratifications
of the rocks, from those near the surface down to the lowest rocks, are
exposed to view. Another means of knowing what the various formations
are has been by borings of deep wells. These borings, however, are only
confirmatory of what was well known before through the upheavals that
are plentiful in all parts of the world. There is abundant evidence that
a