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Of Paradise, when all the holy streams
And beautiful bowers of Eden land blush'd red
Beneath its awful waving, and the eyes

Of the lone outcasts quailed before its glare,
As from the immediate questioning of God.

And men are gazing to these "signs in Heaven"
With most unwonted earnestness; and fair
And beautiful brows are redd'ning in the light
Of this strange vision of the upper air:
Even as the dwellers of Jerusalem,

Beleaguer'd by the Roman,- when the skies
Of Palestine were thronged with fiery shapes,
And from Antonia's tower the mailed Jew
Saw his own image pictured in the air
Contending with the heathen; and the priest
Beside the temple's altar veiled his face
From that fire-written language of the sky.

Oh, God of mystery! these fires are thine!
Thy breath hath kindled them, and there they burn,
Amid the permanent glory of Thy heavens,
That earliest revelation, written out

In starry language, visible to all,
Lifting unto Thyself the heavy eyes

Of the down looking spirits of the earth!
The Indian leaning on his hunting bow,

Where the ice mountains hem the frozen pole,
And the hoar architect of Winter piles
With tireless hand his snowy pyramids,
Looks upward in deep awe- while all around
The eternal ices kindle with the hues
Which tremble on their gleaming pinnacles,
And sharp, cold ridges of enduring frost,-
And points his child to the Great Spirit's fire.

Alas! for us who boast of deeper lore,
If, in the maze of our vague theories,
Our speculations, and our restless aim
To search the secret, and familiarise
The awful things of nature, we forget
To own Thy presence in Thy mysteries!

THE WORLD.

PART III.

PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH.

CHAPTER 1.

Structure of the Earth.

"Ye mighty ones who sway the souls that go
Amid the marvels of the world below!

Ye, silent shades, who sit and hear around!
Chaos! and streams that burn beneath the ground!
All, all forgive, if by your converse stirred,
My lips shall utter what my ears have heard;
If I shall speak of things of doubtful birth,
Deep sunk in darkness, as deep sunk in earth.”

Virgil.

We have before shown that our globe is a planetary orb of a few thousand miles in diameter, and of a spheroidal shape, the difference between the polar, and equatorial diameters being twenty-six miles. The mean density of the earth, is about five times that of water, the interior being double that of the solid su perficial crust, hence if the interior of the earth be cavernous, its crust must be composed of very dense materials. The crust, or outer covering of the earth, significantly called “ Erdrinde," or Earth-rind, by the Germans, is that part to which our investigations are naturally directed. The greatest thickness of this superficial crust, which man has been able to explore, estimated from the highest mountain peaks, to the greatest natural or artificial depths, does not exceed ten miles; this, in comparison with the diameter, 8000 miles, is a distance, utterly insignificant, bear

ing about the same relative proportion, as the thickness of this paper to an artificial sphere a foot in diameter. The inequalities and crevices in the varnish of such a sphere, would proportionately represent the highest mountains, and deepest valleys. In the following diagram, from the Penny Cyclopedia, the relative proportions of the crust of the earth, and the inequalities of its surface, as compared with the mass of our planet, are attempted to be shown.

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The line from e to k, represents a depth of 500 miles, to the point i, a depth of 100 miles, and to the line b, 45 miles above the surface, the supposed limit of the earth's atmosphere. The dark line represents a thickness of ten miles, the estimated thickness of the crust of the earth; the points de ƒ g, indicate the altitudes of the highest mountains in the world. The highest peak in Europe, being Mont Blanc, which is 15,660 feet above the level of the sea; and in America, Mount Sorata, Andes, 25,400 feet, and in Asia, Chumularee, Himalayah, estimated at 29,000 feet, being more than five miles of perpendicular altitude. The depth of the sea is shown by the line a h, at the extremity of the arc. When we consider that the altitude of the highest mountains bears so small a proportion to the probable thickness of the earth's crust, we will be prepared to admit the possibility that they might once have been the bed of the ocean, and may have been raised to their present situations by subterranean agency,

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