They
are, humanly speaking, some four or five worlds older.
What do I mean? This--that between the time when the one, and the
time when the other, was made, the British Islands, and probably the
whole continent of Europe, have changed four or five times; in shape;
in height above the sea, or depth below it; in climate; in the kinds
of plants and animals which have dwelt on them, or on their sea-
bottoms. And surely it is not too strong a metaphor, to call such
changes a change from an old world to a new one.
Mind. I do not say that these changes were sudden or violent. It is
far more probable that they are only part and parcel of that vast but
slow change which is going on everywhere over our whole globe. I
think that will appear probable in the course of this paper. But
that these changes have taken place, is my main thesis. The fact I
assert; and I am bound to try and prove it. And in trying to do so,
I shall no longer treat my readers, as I did in the first two papers,
like children. I shall take for granted that they now understand
something of the method by which geological problems are worked out;
and can trust it, and me; and shall state boldly the conclusions of
geologists, only giving proof where proof is specially needed.
Now you must understand that in England there are two great divisions
of these New Red sandstones, "Trias," as geologists call them.
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