COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MINERAL AND MOSAICAL 
 
 GEOLOGIES. 
 
 c I u c ah o Vv *d o c t 
 
 u 
 
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 " SCRIPTURARUM, qua3 voluntatem Dei, dein, VOLUMEN CREATU- 
 " RARUM, quae potentiam revelant." 
 
 BACON, DE AUGMENT. SCIENT. lib. i. torn. iv. p. 40. 
 
 BY GRANVILLE PENN, ESQ. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR OGLE, DUNCAN, AND CO. 
 
 AND SOLD BY PARKER, OXFORD; DEIGHTON, CAMBRIDGE; BELL AND 
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PREFACE. 
 
 
 ? 3OJ baaif bo r efcri r .Vib^Vh') 
 
 I AM sensible that the first use which 
 I ought to make of this preface, is to 
 apologize for troubling the world again, so 
 soon after submitting to its judgment my 
 observations on The Primary Argument of 
 the Iliad. The best apology which I can 
 offer, is the assurance, that neither of these 
 tracts has been newly or hastily taken into 
 hand ; but, that they have lain by me for 
 many years, and have been occasionally 
 revised, extended, or curtailed, according 
 as later materials have fallen in my way. 
 
 When Varro published his treatise upon 
 Agriculture, he alleged ; " annus octoge- 
 cc simus admonet me, ut sarcinas colligam 
 " antequam prqficiscar de vita." No one 
 
 399 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 of common sense, will wait in the expect- 
 ation of such a monitor. Short of the 
 term of the vivacious Varro, every re- 
 flecting person will be sensible of a period, 
 in which it is prudent to begin sarcinas 
 colligere. This motive has induced me, 
 to allow treatises, upon subjects so widely 
 different, to follow each other so soon ; 
 and I request, that the same may be 
 favourably received as a general apology, 
 should the present tract not be the last 
 thus adventurously put forward. 
 
 With respect to the argument of the 
 present work, it is my wish, not to an- 
 ticipate it in a preface; but, to leave it 
 to unfold itself to the reader in the perusal. 
 I shall, therefore, only briefly and sum- 
 marily state; that the First and Second 
 Parts consider, severally, the doctrines of 
 the Mineral and the Mosaical Geologies, 
 concerning the MODE of the first forma- 
 tions of this terrestrial globe ; and, that 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 the Third Part compares the doctrines of 
 loth Geologies, relative to the MODE of 
 the revolutions which this globe has under- 
 gone. The results of these investigations, 
 will be found combined in the Conclusion, 
 with which the treatise is terminated. 
 
 I have endeavoured, by keeping the 
 argument simple and compressed, to avoid 
 all superfluous dilatation and digression ; 
 in which endeavour, I hope I shall be 
 found to have succeeded. It was origi- 
 nally designed, and it has been solely 
 prepared, with a view to such earnest 
 and sincere inquirers, as may be anxi- 
 ous to relieve their minds from per- 
 plexity, or to disengage them from error, 
 concerning the important subjects of 
 which it treats ; and to advance, in the 
 prosecution of the truth respecting them, 
 as far as its principles, actively pursued, 
 are capable of conducting them. Such ad- 
 vance, is frustrated by the practice which, 
 in similar discussions, has too frequently 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 prevailed ; of maintaining a constant skir- 
 mish with cavillers and sophists, whose 
 policy it is to challenge a perpetual warfare 
 on the road, in order that it might not be 
 travelled to the end. By yielding to that 
 stratagem, we contribute to the attainment 
 of one great end of infidelity. Whereas, if 
 we will only resolutely set forward, and 
 pursue our progress under the safeguard of 
 a sound and powerful principle, we may set 
 all adversaries at defiance ; and, by press- 
 ing on to the utmost extent to which that 
 principle will lead us, we shall at length 
 arrive at the term, from which it was the 
 design of the adversary to preclude us. It 
 is a weak system of tactics, which, in an 
 enterprise of great moment, would stop to 
 engage with every hovering band that at- 
 tempts to harass the march; while, at the 
 same time, there exists a consciousness of 
 force, sufficient to accomplish the enterprise 
 in spite of all opposition. 
 
 To those among the opponents who 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 cherish a general regard for truth, and 
 many such there are, the manifestation 
 of the Sacred Truth which we shall have 
 gained in their despite, will operate with 
 advantage ; and they themselves will thus 
 become benefited by the resolution, with 
 which their arms shall have been slighted, 
 and their opposition disregarded. With 
 respect to all other opponents ; as we can- 
 not entertain the hope of serving them by 
 our success, so neither shall we suffer our- 
 selves to be interrupted by their opposi- 
 tion : obturatd aure transibimus. 
 
COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MINERAL AND MOSAICAL 
 
 GEOLOGIES. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE characters which unfold themselves to PART I. 
 our view, in examining the substances of this 
 globe, point out to us some period, or periods, 
 in which the order of its structure sustained 
 violent agitation and alteration. In every 
 part of the earth we encounter unequivocal 
 evidence of disruption, subsidence, and subver- 
 sion of its hardest and most solid materials ; 
 and we discover remains, equally unequivocal, 
 of organic matter, both animal and vegetable, 
 involved and deeply imbedded in other of its 
 materials, which are soft, or which must have 
 been so at the time when those foreign sub- 
 stances were imbedded within them. Monu- 
 ments, so wonderful and so important, have 
 
A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. naturally stimulated the curiosity of man to 
 inquire, and to endeavour to ascertain, how and 
 when those amazing effects were wrought in the 
 substance of our globe. 
 
 An extended investigation of the same cha- 
 racters has led to a further observation : that 
 those foreign organic substances are not found 
 indiscriminately in all the materials of which 
 our earth consists ; that they are found only 
 in one order of them, while in another order 
 they are never found at all. This remarkable 
 fact, well established, has given occasion to 
 a division of the materials of the earth into two 
 general classes, distinguished chiefly by the 
 presence and the absence of organic fragments ; 
 and, since it has been observed, that the mate- 
 rials in which those fragments occur, bear, in 
 general, the appearance of sediment deposited 
 in water ; whereas, those in which they never 
 occur wear a crystalline, appearance; their 
 respective formations have been reasonably 
 ascribed to different immediate causes. And 
 because those which appear to be sedimentary 
 are observed to be deposited upon those which 
 appear to be crystalline, the latter, which sus- 
 tain the former, are with equal reason assumed 
 to be of a more ancient date : and from hence 
 all the mineral matter of this globe has been 
 distributed scientifically into two principal 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 divisions, entitled primary and secondary; the PART I. 
 Jirst of which comprises the crystalline matter, 
 containing no organic fragments, of which kind 
 are granite rocks ; and the second comprehends 
 the sedimentary matter, in which alone those 
 fragments are contained such are, calcareous 
 or argillaceous earths containing sea-shells. 
 
 An intermediate or transition class has of late 
 years been introduced, with much accuracy, 
 between the two ; comprising mineral masses 
 formed of the conglutinated fragments of dif- 
 ferent primary rocks, but rarely enclosing any 
 organic fragments such is that species of 
 rocks which is called pudding-stone. 
 
 In this general distribution of terrestrial 
 matter, the primary class, exhibits to us the 
 mineral matter of the globe in its primitive 
 formation and texture, previous to the existence 
 of organized beings : the intermediate class, ex- 
 hibits the same matter in a state of extensive 
 fracture and disorder, in consequence of some 
 violent force exercised upon it ; and the secon- 
 dary class, indicates the universal subjection 
 of mineral matter to the dissolvent quality 
 and mechanical action of water, subsequently 
 to the existence of organized beings. From which 
 general diversities, the intelligence is naturally 
 led to apprehend corresponding and succeed- 
 ing periods in the remoteness of time. 1. The 
 
; 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 PART I. period, of the beginning of this terrestrial sys- 
 tem, when it received itsjirst mineral formation. 
 2. The period, of a violent disruption and dis- 
 persion of part of the mineral substances com- 
 posing that Jirst formation ; and, 3. A period, 
 of the general destruction of animal and vege- 
 table life ; and of the occupation of our present 
 earth by the waters of the sea. These several 
 characters^ unequivocally marked, and of late 
 years observed with peculiar ardour and appli- 
 cation, have excited the ambition of science 
 to investigate, and to endeavour to detect, 
 the mode by which, and the times in which, 
 those several classes of matter received their 
 respective sensible formations. 
 
 The particular science which undertakes to 
 lay open to us these profound historical secrets 
 of time and nature, has received the denomina- 
 tion of GEOLOGY ; a science, whose pretensions 
 are of the most exalted and comprehensive 
 kind ; since it extends its view to the com- 
 mencement of time, and embraces within its 
 scope the origin and revolutions of all terrestrial 
 matter, mineral, vegetable, and animal. To at- 
 tain to the certainty of fact, in these important 
 particulars, is to arrive at an universal principle 
 of truth, diffusing light and distinctness over 
 every object of human contemplation ; to be 
 seduced into error respecting them, is to be- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 come involved in an universal cloud, spreading PART I. 
 obscurity and confusion over every object. TTT 
 It is evidently, therefore, of the very highest 
 concernment, that, in seeking for that certainty 
 of fact, we should make choice of the guide 
 competent to conduct us to it with the most 
 perfect security. 
 
 Unfortunately it happens, that TWO guides 
 present themselves to us, at the outset of this 
 pursuit, to importune and claim our confidence, 
 which two guides are directly contradictory to 
 each other; so contradictory, indeed, that 
 whichever of them be true, the other must of 
 necessity be absolutely and fundamentally false: 
 these are, the Mineral and the Mosaical Geologies. 
 The latter of these, is of very great antiquity ; 
 and rests its credit, for the truth of the histo- 
 rical facts which it relates, upon a record pre- 
 tending to divine Revelation ; and acknowledged 
 as such, by the uninterrupted assent of some of 
 the best and wisest of mankind, for upwards of 
 three thousand years. The former, is of very 
 recent origin ; and can hardly be said to have 
 existed, in a state approaching to maturity, for 
 much more than half a century. This guide 
 does not, indeed, pretend to oppose any record 
 to that of the other; but it aspires to esta- 
 blish a series of historical facts, by induction 
 from chemical principles newly discovered, which 
 
A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAP i 
 
 PART I. it affirms, disclose evidence of truth superior to 
 an y *-kat * s P r e sen ted in the professedly historical 
 document, and which must, therefore, qualify 
 the credit which that document is entitled to 
 receive. 
 
 To extricate themselves from the labour 
 and embarrassment of choosing between two 
 such different and adverse parties, some in- 
 quirers have attempted to employ them both ; 
 and with that view have endeavoured, by 
 various schemes of accommodation, to effect a 
 reconciliation between them. But, the result 
 has always been, that which must ever attend 
 measures of undue compromise and conces- 
 sion, perpetual inconsistency in the progress, 
 and ultimate failure in the issue. There can 
 be no real reconciliation between positive con- 
 tradictories, no compromise between truth and 
 falsehood; and therefore, since the generality 
 of inquirers have exclusively followed one or 
 other of these two guides, it is manifest, that 
 one division of them must have been drawn 
 into an error of the most extensive and in- 
 jurious operation : for, as Cicero long since 
 pronounced, " labi, err are, nesclre, decipi, et 
 tf malum et turpe ducimus ;" and there are few 
 subjects on which the force of this maxim falls 
 more heavily than on this. 
 
 In this dilemma, there is only one course 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. ' 
 
 which wisdom will counsel, or reason sanction; PART I. 
 and that is, to bring the pretensions of the 
 two opponents fairly to an issue, by applying 
 them both to some common and agreed test, 
 by the decision of which we may be able to 
 ascertain the validity of each, and thus, at 
 length, determine conclusively, which of them 
 is true, and which is false. 
 
 And the task is not so difficult as it might 
 at first sight appear, from the voluminous mass 
 of geological disquisition, the intricacy of the 
 subjects which it embraces, and the hard 
 words with which it has entrenched itself. 
 We have no necessity to embroil ourselves 
 with all the multitudinous details of that dis- 
 quisition: we need only to extract the root, 
 or fundamental principle, on which the bodies 
 of the two geologies severally rest; to apply 
 each to that common test ; and afterwards 
 to abide by the one whose superior validity 
 shall be established by the authority of that 
 criterion. 
 
 To extract the root or fundamental prin- 
 ciple of the new geology, is become a very 
 easy operation, in consequence of the sys- 
 tematic order which it has at last acquired. 
 It has now assumed a form of complete sym- 
 metry ; and presents itself to our view in the 
 unity of a well-compacted structure, with root, 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. trunk, and branches. We have, therefore, only 
 to direct our attention to the root, without 
 pursuing the process of the trunk, or the rami- 
 fications of the branches : such as is the quality 
 of the root, such also will necessarily be that 
 of the process and ramifications which derive 
 their substance and vitality from it. 
 
 Although many skilful and eminent writers 
 have contributed their assiduous labours to the 
 edification of this science, yet it perhaps owes 
 its fairest and most finished form to a recent 
 French geologist, who, in the execution of 
 his elaborate work, has displayed equal ability 
 and integrity of mind. For, although he has 
 applied the powers of a superior genius to 
 advance the progress of his science, and al- 
 though he has given to those powers all the 
 impulse of an enthusiastic ardour, inspired 
 by the grandeur of his subject, yet he has, 
 at the same time, affixed to his treatise this 
 honourable and upright profession : " My sole 
 " object is to propagate the truth; and I should 
 " see with satisfaction any work which should 
 l( establish it, even if it should overturn any 
 *' of the assertions which I have believed, 
 " or which I still believe, to be true. It was 
 " not a desire to maintain or to gain converts 
 ?' to a system, that induced me to take up 
 " my pen. I positively adopt none; and if, 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. J 
 
 " in treating of mineral masses and strata, PART I. 
 
 " I appear to follow an hypothesis with respect 
 
 " to the mode of their formations, it is, because 
 
 " such a method of proceeding appeared to 
 
 " me simple, and well adapted for representing 
 
 " facts, and connecting them together : much 
 
 " in the manner of those philosophers, who, 
 
 " though they are not convinced of the exist- 
 
 " ence of a magnetic fluid, yet suppose it, in 
 
 " order that they may be the better able to 
 
 " describe what takes place in the different 
 
 " phenomena of magnetism V 
 
 And, that this profession was as sincere 
 as it is positive, this respectable writer affords 
 many proofs ; and especially when, though 
 attached to the Neptunian geology of Werner, 
 he yet relinquishes its doctrine with respect 
 to the cause of the basaltic formations of 
 Saxony, in these terms : " The facts which I 
 " had just witnessed spoke too plainly; the 
 " truth was. too manifestly exposed before my 
 " eyes ; I must either have absolutely resisted 
 " the testimony of my sight, not to perceive 
 f it, or that of my comcience, not to declare it 2 ." 
 
 To such a dissertator we can, with confi- 
 dence, address an argument which equally seeks 
 
 1 D'AUBUISSON, Traite de Gcognosie, torn. i. Disc. Prcl. 
 p. 17. * Ib. torn. ii. p. 603. 
 
10 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART 1. for truth ; nor shall we think it necessary to apo- 
 logize for the earnestness with which we may 
 
 CHAP. i. .... J 
 
 deem it requisite to conduct it. The disciple 
 
 of Werner, who holds his mind in that state 
 of subordination to truth, that he is at all times 
 ready to pass from the Neptunian to the Plu- 
 tonian scheme of geology, if the latter can only 
 exhibit proof that the balance of reason weighs 
 on its side, must be equally ready to surrender 
 the mineral geology altogether to the Mosaical, 
 provided that the latter should be found, after 
 a trial of their respective authorities by some 
 common conventional standard, to be that which 
 can best sustain the test of the criterion. 
 
 Now, it is not difficult to find such a cri- 
 terion, because mineral geology itself proposes 
 one for the trial of its own validity, and the 
 Mosaical geology consents to submit itself, 
 unconditionally, to the same : so that the 
 whole operation will be reduced to the simple 
 process of applying, successively, to the same 
 standard, the root or fundamental principle of 
 the two geologies, with respect to the modes 
 of the primary and secondary formations of the 
 mineral substances composing this globe. 
 
 The test to which mineral geology appeals, 
 is the reformed philosophy oj 'BACON and NEWTON. 
 Our object will therefore be, to ascertain 
 whether the mineral or the Mosaical geology 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 11 
 
 can best endure the trial of that test. And, 
 since the former, which challenges the trial, 
 is of very recent origin, whereas the latter 
 is of very great antiquity, it will be in pro- 
 priety and order, that we should bring first to 
 the test the quality of the new pretender. Let 
 us therefore inquire What is Mineral Geology ? 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
12 A. COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PART I. MINERAL GEOLOGY, as it is properly cha- 
 racterized by Cuvier *, or, according to a more 
 
 CHAP. II. J . 
 
 recent denomination, GEOGNOSY, is no other 
 than mineralogy, or the science of minerals ; 
 determining the mode of the first formations of 
 the mineral substances composing this earth, 
 and the mode of the changes which those sub- 
 stances appear to have subsequently undergone. 
 
 That this is a true definition or description 
 of this geology, is attested, both by the state- 
 ments of its teachers, and by their reports 
 of the history of its origin. 
 
 " The principal object which geognosy has 
 " in view, (says the able writer from whom 
 " I have just quoted 2 ,) is, 
 
 " 1. The knowledge of the mineral masses, 
 " or rather of the different groups or systems 
 " of mineral masses, whose assemblage com- 
 " poses the solid portion of this terrestrial 
 " globe. It considers the mineralogical com- 
 " position, structure, and extent of each of 
 " these systems. It treats of their reciprocal 
 
 CUVIER, Theory of the Earth, sect. 22, p. 67. 2 Tom. i. p. 1. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 1 
 
 << dispositions, of the circumstances of their PART I. 
 " superposition one to the other, and of the 
 
 V^ I T /V JT ft 11, 
 
 " diiferent relations subsisting between them : 
 
 " Secondly; Of every thing which relates to 
 " THE MODE of their FIRST FORMATION : And, 
 
 " Thirdly; To THE CHANGES which they 
 " have undergone." 
 
 In this exposition, the first article describes 
 simple mineralogy; the two other articles de- 
 scribe the same science converting itself into 
 mineral geology. 
 
 If we consult the historical accounts of the 
 origin of this science, as they are delivered by 
 its professors, we shall find that they exactly 
 answer to the preceding description. They 
 relate, that the experience which had been ac- 
 quired in a long course of mineraloglcal practice, 
 the numerous observations which had been suc- 
 cessively made by a series of able and acute 
 mineralogists, and the light diffused over mine- 
 ralogy by the improvement and reformation of 
 chemistry, engendered an ambition in succeed- 
 ing mineralogists to advance beyond the mere 
 investigation of the actual properties of minerals; 
 their description and classification ; and to 
 endeavour, to detect, by means of physical prin- 
 ciples, the mode by which they were first 
 formed, and by which they were afterwards 
 altered in their circumstances. And it is this 
 
14 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. new and extraneous exercise of mineralogy that 
 properly constitutes the new science, which 
 
 CHA. II. 
 
 is called mineral geology, and which exercises 
 such exalted functions at the present day. 
 
 Thus, both the description of this geology 
 and its history, as delivered by its most dis- 
 tinguished and zealous conductors, confirm the 
 position; that it is no other than simple mine- 
 ralogy, or the science of minerals, pretending 
 to determine the truth, in two remote and 
 extensively important facts pertaining to the 
 history of this globe. 
 
 The first thought which a consideration 
 of these pretensions awakens in a reflecting 
 and reasoning mind, is this question : Can 
 mineralogy be competent to determine, by 
 means of physical principles alone, the matter 
 of fact in those points ? For, the proper sphere 
 of mineralogy is confined to the characters and 
 qualities, that is, to the actual sensible phe- 
 nomena of mineral matter ; and can actual sen- 
 sible phenomena alone supply the means of 
 determining, with the evidence which sound 
 philosophy and sound reason demand, the cer- 
 tainty of the two past facts in question ? 
 
 To this doubt it thus replies : that it is com- 
 petent to determine these two points of fact, 
 and with the evidence which reason and phi- 
 losophy demand ; that " the happy revolution 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 15 
 
 " effected by BACON and NEWTON in the studies PART I. 
 ff of the natural sciences, was not experienced in the 
 
 v/ 1 1 / V 1 * ii. 
 
 " science of geology until very late * ;" but that, by 
 employing the method of induction from " obser- 
 " vat ion and sound principles of physics, by the 
 " rules of an exact logic" " introduced by that 
 happy revolution, and adhering to the rules 
 taught and practised by those great teachers, 
 it is able to reason from the sensible phenomena 
 of mineral matter, to the, mode of its Jirst forma- 
 tion and of its subsequent changes : and that man, 
 " who has weighed the planets, and measured 
 " their distances, may presume to trace the 
 " operations by which the surface of the globe 
 " was arranged*." 
 
 This is the test by which mineral geology 
 desires that its own validity should be tried. 
 Let us, therefore, apply our close attention, 
 while it professes to instruct us upon these 
 two heads by the rules of " an exact logic, and 
 " sound physical principles;" and let us first 
 
 1 " L'heureuse revolution, que BACON et NEWTON avaient 
 " operee dans 1'etude des sciences naturelles, ne se fit ressentir 
 " que bien tard dans celles de la geologic." D'AusuissoN. 
 Disc. Prel. p. 3. 
 
 2 " L'observation, les principes d'une saine physique, et les 
 " regies d'une exacte logique." Ib. p. 36. 
 
 3 Comparative View of the Huttonian and Neptunian Systems 
 of Geology,?. 2, 3. 
 
16 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 PART I. hear it upon t\\e first head, viz. the MODE of the 
 first mineral formations of the earth ; comparing 
 it with the standard of BACON and NEWTON. 
 The issue of the first comparison, will pro- 
 bably determine the degree of authority which 
 it is entitled to command, with respect to 
 the second head, viz. the MODE of changes, or 
 revolutions. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PART I 
 " FORMATIONS, (in mineral geology,) are the 
 
 "different assemblages of particular rocks, or CHAP. in. 
 
 " soils, in which one and the same species 
 
 " eminently prevails. These are the true 
 
 " unities in the mineral constitution of the 
 
 " globe ; the determination of which is the 
 
 " great object of geognosy 1 . First formations, 
 
 " are those mineral formations which preceded 
 
 " the existence of organized beings 2 ." 
 
 2. " In considering the globe in its entire - 
 " ness, and in fixing our attention upon its 
 " figure, we shall find, that it is exactly such 
 " as & fluid mass, endowed with similar motion, 
 " would have assumed ; and we shall be imme- 
 " diately aware of its primitive fluidity* " 
 
 3. " That the surface of the globe has been 
 " in a fluid state, is established by very ample 
 " evidence which extend to the whole sur- 
 " face of the earth, and indubitably prove its 
 " former fluidity 4 ':' 
 
 4. " There is a great class of rocks which 
 
 1 D'AuBuissoN, torn. i. p. 322, 3. 2 Ib. torn. ii. p. 3. 
 
 3 Ib. Introd. p. 3. 
 
 4 Compar. View of Hutt. and Nept. Geol. p. 4, 5. 
 
 C 
 
IS A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. " lies under every other, but never over any 
 nuT "of them; it is, therefore, the oldest, and, 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 as far as we know, the first formed. It is 
 denominated the primitive class. The rocks 
 " belonging to this class have a crystalline 
 " appearance, intimating, that they have been 
 " precipitated from a state of chemical solution 1 '' 
 
 5. " Crystallization, is the arrangement of 
 " the particles of a body in a regular deter- 
 " minate form; and it necessarily implies &pre- 
 " vious state of fluidity, which would allow these 
 " particles to arrange themselves in positions 
 " necessary to produce these forms 2 ." 
 
 6. "As we advance towards the lofty sum- 
 " mits of mountains, we arrive at strata, whose 
 " crystallization shows that they have been formed 
 " in afuid*" 
 
 7. " The superficial parts of the earth, at 
 " least to a certain depth, must have been 
 " originally in a soft. or fluid state. This fact 
 " is inferred from the shape it at present exhi- 
 " bits ; which, as astronomers tell us, is that of a 
 " spheroid compressed at the poles. This shape it 
 " evidently could not assume, unless to a certain 
 " depth its superficial parts were in a soft and 
 
 1 JAMESON'S Mineralogy, vol. iii. p. 67. 
 
 3 Comp. View of Hutt. &c. p. 4. 
 
 3 CUVIER, Theory of the Earth, 7. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 19 
 
 " liquid state. The liquidity thus proved to PART I. 
 
 " exist in the more superficial parts of the srlobe, 
 
 CHAP. in. 
 ' comprehending those that are now most 
 
 " solid, must have proceeded, either from 
 " igneous fusion, or solution in water V 
 
 8. " The different masses and strata, which 
 " compose the mineral shell of the terrestrial 
 " globe, have been fluid: the fact is not con- 
 " tested, it is Incontestable V " The spheroidal 
 " figure of the earth is a proof of its original 
 "fluidity: this important conclusion was never 
 " disputed ; the only question has been, whether 
 " the fluidity was the effect oiflre or water 3 . 7 ' 
 
 9. " It is beyond all doubt ; 1. that the 
 " mineral masses which compose the crust 
 " of the globe have been fluid. 2. It is not 
 " less certain, that the fluidity of secondary 
 " formations was aqueous ; and that they were 
 " formed in the bosom of the seas by a course 
 " of sediments, which successively deposited 
 " themselves one upon the other. 3. That the 
 " insensible and incontestable transition of the 
 " secondary to the primitive formations, indicate 
 " an analogous mode of formation in all*. Some 
 
 1 KIRWAN'S Geol, Essays, p. 7. 
 
 3 D'AuBUissoN, i. 379, 380. 
 8 JAMESON, iii. c. 5. p. 10. 
 
 4 D'AuBUissoN, i p. 388. 
 
20 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 " very distinguished natural philosophers have 
 " lately contested this mode of formation, (viz. 
 " the Neptunian, or by the action of water); and 
 " have endeavoured to substitute for it another, 
 " (viz. the Plutonian, or by the action of fire) ; 
 " but these anomalous theories appear to be 
 " mere oscillations, which the progress of our 
 " geological knowledge experiences in its po- 
 " sitive progress towards truth 1 .'" 
 
 10. " The first essential step which has 
 " been made in this course of pursuit, has 
 " been the general conclusion deduced from 
 "the assemblage of facts, after a long course 
 " of observations ; that all the substances which 
 " compose our mineral strata, must have ori- 
 " ginated from chemical combinations in an 
 " aqueous liquid 2 . There was at first, upon 
 " our globe, neither menstruum nor solvend; a 
 " confused assemblage of elements un assemblage 
 " confus d'el6mens formed itself in a liquid, of 
 " which water was the basis ; and it is from 
 " this first mixture that all substances whatever, 
 " which engage our observation or experi- 
 " ence, successively formed themselves 3 . 
 *' All enlightened geologists now agree, that 
 
 1 D'AuBtiissoN, t. i. p. 389. 
 
 8 DE Luc, LettresGeologiques,p. Ill, 112. 3 Ib. p. 120. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 21 
 
 " all the substances which compose our strata, PART I. 
 " must have been, at one time, contained in the 
 
 OriAr. Ill* 
 
 " same liquid; from which they were succes- 
 " sively separated by a chemical process >1 . 
 
 11. " The primitive soils, whatever was the 
 " mode of their formation and consolidation, 
 " were not formed or consolidated at the same 
 " instant : there was necessarily a succession of 
 " time 2 ." " Let us carry ourselves, in idea, to 
 " the Jirst moments of the formation of that part 
 " of the globe which is known to us; that is, 
 " of the thin rind or crust which covers our 
 " planet. At that epoch, the part of the globe 
 " which was then actually existing, was like 
 " a kernel surrounded by the elementary prin- 
 " ciples of the minerals, of which its rind 
 " or crust is now composed. We can repre- 
 " sent to ourselves these principles, as suspended 
 " in a vast dissolution, whatever else might have 
 " been its nature 3 . This CHAOTIC OCEAN 4 
 " or, ' original CHAOTicrLuiD 5 ,' very different 
 " from our present seas, contained the elements 
 " \)fthe primitive earths. In obeying the laws 
 " of the affinity of composition, they coalesced, 
 " and grouped themselves together in different 
 
 1 DE Luc, Ib. p. 384. 2 D'AUBUISSON, t. ii. p. 4. 
 
 3 D'AUBUISSON, torn. i. 270. 4 Ib. 355. 
 
 ' KlRWAN, p. 11. 
 
22 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATP: OF TIIE 
 
 " manners ; and they thus produced the in- 
 " tegral molecules of the different minerals. 
 " This was the^r^, or chemical structure. 
 
 12. " Causes which are unknown to us, 
 " having occasioned the precipitation of these 
 " molecules, they successively deposited them- 
 " selves, uniting by the laws of the affinity of 
 <( aggregation; and they formed our minerals. 
 " From this second or proper mineralogical 
 " structure, are derived the different particu- 
 " larities which minerals present to us in their 
 " texture and fracture. 
 
 13. " At length, the minerals formed, by 
 *' their assemblage, the masses or rocks, and 
 " the strata or soils, the aggregate of which 
 " constitutes the solid crust of the globe. The 
 " disposition of the minerals in their masses, 
 " of the masses in their strata, of the strata 
 " in the formations which subdivide them, and 
 " lastly, of the formations, with relation to 
 " each other, constitute the geognostic struc- 
 " ture 1 . 
 
 14. " The first formations were produced 
 " by a general cause. We can represent them 
 " to ourselves, as precipitations from an uni- 
 " versal dissolution, that is to say, from 
 V a dissolution which covered the whole 
 
 \ D'AuBuissoN, i. 271. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 23 
 
 " terrestrial globe. But, although the disso- PART I. 
 " lution was general, it will not follow that 
 
 CHAP. HT. 
 
 " every precipitate was such, and that each 
 " formed originally a stratum which enveloped 
 " the whole globe. While the dissolution de- 
 " posited one substance, or one rock, in one 
 " place, it is very possible that it produced 
 " no precipitate of the same species in another ; 
 " either because the constituent principles of 
 " the rock were not in sufficient quantities 
 " in that part of the dissolution, or because 
 " the causes of the precipitation did not there 
 " exercise their action, or lastly, because other 
 " causes obstructed them. In this place, they 
 " deposited granite; and a little further, 
 " micaceous schist, because the elements of 
 " mica were, perhaps, in a greater quantity in 
 " that part of the dissolution which covered 
 " the latter place 1 . 
 
 15. " When the observer enters into the 
 " details of the formation of minerals, he sees 
 " nothing but precipitations, crystallizations, and 
 " dissolutions. The powers which produced the 
 " minerals, and which collected and united 
 " their elements, were the powers of affinity. 
 " He will not be able to appreciate correctly 
 " their effects, without a profound knowledge 
 " of general chemistry. But he will stand in 
 
 1 D'AUEUISSON, i. p. 326, 7. 
 
24 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 " need of great reserve and discrimination, 
 
 " when he would conclude, from what takes 
 
 " place in our laboratories, to that which takes 
 
 " place in nature. Nature acts upon immense 
 
 " masses ; she has time at her disposal, it is 
 
 " nothing to her ; and these two circumstances 
 
 " will often be sufficient to render entirely 
 
 " dissimilar the effects of the same agent, and 
 
 " the products of the same cause. Time, 
 
 '< which has such narrow limits for us, has 
 
 " none at all for Nature ; for her, it is as inde- 
 
 " finite as space: both of these exceed even 
 
 " the conception of our imagination 1 . It is 
 
 " further to be observed, that we cannot 
 
 " flatter ourselves with being able to know all 
 
 '* the means which Nature employs in her forma- 
 
 " tlons ; and we are not to conclude that an 
 
 " effect is impossible to her, because we have 
 
 " not been able to produce it in our labora- 
 
 <' tories; for instance, we are not to conclude 
 
 " that a given substance is undecomposable, 
 
 " merely because we have not been able to 
 
 " decompose it 2 . 
 
 16. " It will be sufficient to recollect ; that 
 
 '' the science of physics makes known to us the 
 
 " laws which appear to govern matter, and that, 
 
 *' by continually keeping before our eyes the 
 
 1 D'AuBUissoN, torn. i. p. 241, 2, 
 3 Id. Disc. Prel. p. 30. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 25 
 
 (< phenomena of Nature, and the causes which PART I. 
 
 " produce them, it renders us competent to ap- CH 7p~i 
 
 " prehend and form a just notion of the rela- 
 
 " tions which may subsist between the effects 
 
 " ive see and the causes to which we are led to 
 
 " attribute them ; to be sensible, how necessary 
 
 " this science is to those who apply their 
 
 " thoughts to the revolutions of the terrestrial 
 
 " globe, and who endeavour to account for the 
 
 " changes which its surface experiences, or has 
 
 " experienced 1 . 
 
 17. " It is principally, I repeat it, the pro- 
 " gress of chemistry, that has conducted us to 
 " this general conclusion, from whence at length 
 " has resulted a solid basis for geology" . General 
 " chemistry, ought here to be our only guide, as 
 " to principles; and it is but very lately, that it 
 " has supplied us with true lights with respect 
 " to these 3 ." 
 
 Thus, the mineral geology concludes, from the 
 crystalline phenomena of this earth, that it was, 
 originally, " a confused mass of elemental prin- 
 16 ciples, suspended in a vast dissolution, a chaotic 
 " ocean, or original chaotic fluid ;" which, after 
 an unassignable series of ages, " settled them- 
 " selves" at last into the order, and corre- 
 spondence of parts, which it now possesses, 
 
 1 Id. -Disc. Prel. p. 30. 2 DE Luc, Lett. Gcol. p. 112. 
 
 3 Ib. p. iii. 
 
26 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. by a gradual process of " precipitation and 
 " crystallization," according to certain " laws 
 
 Try 
 
 ' of matter," which it denominates "the laws 
 of affinity of composition and aggregation;" and 
 that they thus formed successively, though 
 remotely in time, 1. a chemical, 2. a mineral, 
 and lastly, a geognostic, which is its present, 
 structure; and that it was during this long 
 process, and before it attained to its present 
 solidity, that the earth acquired its peculiar 
 figure by the operation of the physical laws 
 which cause it to revolve upon its axis. This 
 is that root, or fundamental principle, of the 
 mineral geology; which we were to extract, 
 and to try by the test of the reformed philo- 
 sophy of Bacon and Newton. 
 
 If these conclusions are the genuine fruits 
 of that reformed philosophy, we shall of course 
 find them to be in exact and entire concord 
 with the conclusions of Bacon and Newton 
 upon the same subject; since the mineral geology 
 professes to deduce them, by the method of 
 induction, " from observation, sound principles 
 " of physics, and by the rule of an exact logic," 
 introduced by that philosophy. 
 
 Bacon and Newton certainly taught, both 
 by doctrine and example, the method of philo- 
 sophizing by analysis and induction; and it was 
 that method, skilfully and rigidly observed by 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 27 
 
 them, that produced and constituted that PART I. 
 " happy revolution in the studies of the natural 
 
 , . , , , . ,, CHAP. III. 
 
 4 sciences, which mineral geology so justly 
 eulogizes. But, was there not a caveat, which 
 Newton annexed to his process of induction ? 
 " The method of analysis ," $&\&hQ, "consists in 
 " making experiments and observations, and 
 " in drawing general conclusions from them 
 " by induction; and in admitting no objections 
 " against the conclusions, but such as are taken 
 " from experiments, or other certain truths 1 ." 
 There were, then, some certain truths, which 
 had always authority, in Newton's philosophy, 
 to govern and regulate the process of induc- 
 tion ; and even to oppose objections to general 
 conclusions, if these betrayed any defect in the 
 analysis from which they were deduced : for 
 the analysis must be complete, before the induc- 
 tion can be conclusive. If, therefore, any cer- 
 tain truths were disregarded, and if the induc- 
 tion still persisted in going forward in despite 
 of them, it necessarily departed from philo- 
 sophy and truth exactly in the same ratio; and 
 only wandered, further and further, into the 
 wilderness of fiction and error. 
 
 And what are the certain truths, which, in 
 consequence of a manifest evidence of original 
 
 1 Optics, L. iii. 
 
28 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. defect in the analysis, have been crying out by 
 CHAP~~IIL ^ e moutn f Newton, during the last ten pages, 
 to the eager and unheeding progress of the 
 mineral geology Siste, viator! Halt! They 
 are these: "It seems probable to me, (said 
 " the wise, sober, and circumspect Newton,) 
 " that GOD, in the beginning, formed matter, in 
 " solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable 
 " particles, of such sizes and figures, and with 
 " such other properties, and in such proportions 
 " to space, as most conduced to the end for which 
 " HE formed them. All material things seem 
 " to have been composed of the hard and solid 
 " particles above mentioned, variously associated 
 " in the FIRST CREATION by the counsels of an 
 66 INTELLIGENT AGENT. For it became HIM 
 " who created them to set them in order; and 
 " if HE did so, it is unphilosophical to seek 
 " for any other origin of this world, or to 
 " pretend that it might rise out of a CHAOS 
 " by the mere laws of Nature; though, being 
 " once formed, it may continue by those laws 
 " for many ages V 
 
 This is the test, to which we were to 
 bring and apply the root of the mineral geo- 
 logy. Now, it must be evident to every un- 
 derstanding, that the mundane system which 
 supposed the earth to be at rest on the back of a 
 
 1 Optics, L. iii. in Jin. 
 
MINERAL ANQ MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 29 
 
 tortoise, is not more fundamentally in opposition PART I. 
 to the planetary system of Newton, than the con- 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 elusions of the mineral geology, which we have 
 just read, concerning the MODE of first formations, 
 are in opposition to the conclusions of Newton 
 upon the same subject ; which conclusions con- 
 stitute the basis of his philosophy. 
 
 The " confused assemblage of elements, or 
 " chaotic ocean ^ 
 
 instabilis tellus, innabllis unda, 
 
 from which the mineral geology derives the 
 figure, symmetry, beauty, and accommoda- 
 tion, which we " observe and experience" in 
 this earthly system, is no other than the 
 " CHAOS," which Newton has expressly and 
 pointedly rejected and reprobated. The opera- 
 tion, which he entitles " the setting in order" 
 is the very same which the mineral geology de- 
 scribes as " the forming successively a chemical, 
 " a mineral, and a geognostic structure" That ope- 
 ration, Newton ascribed to the immediate intel- 
 ligence and power of God; the mineral geology, 
 attributes it to general chemistry, and to certain 
 laws of affinity, acting through a long succession 
 of ages ; 
 
 Donicum ad extremum crescendi perfica finem 
 Omnia perduxit rerum Natura creatrix ! . 
 
 1 LUCRETIUS, ii. 1115. 
 
30 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART 1. Till all things, to their end of growing brought, 
 
 Creative Nature in perfection wrought. 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Newton emphatically, and as it were by a pro- 
 phetical judgment, pronounced this conclusion 
 of the mineral geology to be " unphilosophical ;" 
 and therefore, essentially contrary to that which 
 alone he acknowledged to be philosophical, 
 according to the principles of his own philo- 
 sophy. 
 
 This judgment, indeed, chiefly affects the 
 Neptunian system ; but he has not altogether 
 forgotten the Plutonian, which perpetually re- 
 places a perishing system of the globe with a 
 new one, by tf the mere laws of nature :" 
 " The growth of new systems out of old ones," 
 says he, " without the mediation of a DIVINE 
 " POWER, seems to me apparently absurd 1 . 99 
 
 Third Letter to Dr. Bentky. 
 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 31 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IT will be instructive and important, to PART I. 
 trace with some minuteness the oppositi&n of 
 doctrine, between the philosophies of Newton 
 and of the mineral geology, respecting a 
 chaotic state of this globe; and to observe, how 
 deeply the foundation of that opposition is 
 laid. " 
 
 When Newton had remarked, that the planets 
 presented to the view figures of obtuse spheroids, 
 and not of perfect spheres; when he had re- 
 flected upon the nature of that peculiar figure, 
 and had contemplated those orbs as subjected, 
 in their revolutions, to the adverse actions of gra- 
 vity and centrifugal force; his penetrating mind 
 at length discovered, that the rule of harmony 
 and equilibrium between those two contending 
 powers was only to be found in the Jigure of 
 an obtuse spheroid. To make this fact plain to 
 the understanding of others, he imagined this 
 hypothetical illustration. " If," said he, "the 
 " earth were formed of an uniformly yielding 
 " substance, and if it were to become deprived 
 
32 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. " of its motion" si terra constaret ex uni- 
 CHAP~IV " f rm i materia, motuque omni privaretur l f 
 the law of gravity acting equally, and without 
 resistance, from all points of its surface towards 
 its centre, would cause that yielding substance 
 to settle into the figure of a perfect sphere. 
 But, if it were then to receive a transverse im- 
 pulse, which should cause it to revolve upon 
 its axis, the new transverse force would coun- 
 teract the former force of gravity, by urging 
 the particles composing the yielding substance, 
 from their centre, towards their circumference; 
 and would thus produce an alteration in the 
 figure of that sphere. For, the new force would 
 tend to elevate the surface, and would have 
 most power at the equator, and least at the 
 poles ; whereas the opposite force of gravity 
 would tend to depress the surface, and would 
 have most power at the poles, and least at the 
 equator. The result of this inequality of gravita- 
 tion must necessarily be, that the original sphere, 
 becoming elevated at the equator, but not at the 
 poles, and the elevating power gradually dimi- 
 nishing from the equator to the poles, its figure 
 would be eventually changed into that of an 
 obtuse spheroid. 
 
 Princip. Math. L. iii. prop. I9.prob. 3. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 33 
 
 It being thus shown, that such would be PART I. 
 the necessary result of the compound power 
 of gravity and centrifugal force; it followed, CHAP * IV - 
 that those two forces, acting at the same time 
 in the earth supposed to be formed of an homoge- 
 neous and uniformly yielding substance, would 
 work themselves into harmony and equilibrium by 
 producing that figure ; which they would thence- 
 forward maintain. Whereas, if we suppose the 
 case of a true sphere, which should consist of a 
 solid and resisting substance ; the two forces must 
 act in perpetual and violent discord and conflict, 
 and with a constant tendency to disunite and rend 
 the texture of the fabric. Now, Newton, main- 
 tained, " that GOD at the beginning formed all 
 " material things, (and therefore this earth 
 " which is one of them,) of such. Jigures, and 
 " properties, as most conduced to the end for which 
 " HE formed them;" and, having thus demon- 
 strated, that the property of an obtuse spheroidw&$ 
 that which most conduced to the end for which God 
 formed the earth, he left it to the capacity of every 
 one to draw the obvious inference, in conformity 
 to his known principles, viz. that it is highly 
 probable, that God has formed the earth with the 
 samejigure, which it is manifest HE has given to the 
 other planets; and for which, an ADEQUATE RE A SON 
 is thus rendered plain to the intelligence. And he 
 confirmed this argument of probability , by super- 
 
34 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. adding the experimental proof; that unless the 
 earth was actually flatter at the poles than at 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 the equator, the waters of the ocean, constantly 
 rising towards the equator, must long since have 
 deluged and overwhelmed the equatorial re- 
 gions, and have deserted the polar; whereas, 
 the waters are now retained in equilibrium over 
 all its surface. Such was the whole nature, 
 design, and extent, of Newton's proposition 
 and demonstration. And so his accurate ex- 
 pounder drew his inference : " What we have 
 " said of a fluid earth, must hold of the earth 
 " as it is; for, if it had not this figure in its 
 " solid parts, but a spherical figure, the ocean 
 " would overflow all the equatorial regions, 
 " and leave the polar regions elevated many 
 " miles above the level of the sea; whereas 
 " we find, that one is no more elevated above 
 " the level of the ocean than the other 1 ." It 
 did not enter into his head, any more than it 
 did into Newton's, to draw from this demon- 
 stration the geological conclusion, that the earth 
 had been RE A L L ^ fluid. 
 
 But, the illustration inspired the mineral geo- 
 logy with peculiar satisfaction. Without mak- 
 ing any reference to the principles and conclusions 
 of Newton's philosophy, or to the object, for 
 
 1 MACLAURIN, Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Phil. p. 364. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 35 
 
 which alone he designed the illustration, it PART I. 
 seized upon his plastic sphere ; and transformed 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 his philosophical demonstration into a geolo- 
 gical proposition. That supposed sphere, bore 
 too convenient and desirable a resemblance 
 to the " chaotic fluid '," or " confused mixture of 
 " elements" not to be eagerly identified with 
 it by the mineral geology ; which could thus 
 argue the original fluidity of the earth, and its 
 consequent obtuseness ; and refer to the " Prin- 
 " cipia Mathematical for a Chaos. 
 
 " The spherical figure of the earth, (it 
 " said) had for a long time suggested the idea, 
 " that its mass had been fluid, at least to a 
 " certain depth. Newton, proceeding from this 
 " idea, Newton, part ant de cette idee joined 
 " to the rotatory motion of the globe, found 
 " that its diameter at the poles, must be to 
 " its diameter at the equator, as 229 to 230. 
 " Now we find in the Philosophical Trans- 
 " actions, of the Royal Society of London, for 
 " the year 1791, a memoir by M. D'Albi, in 
 " which, discussing the sum of the results of 
 " the measure of a degree of the meridian in 
 " different latitudes, he finds that this deter- 
 " mination of Newton is confirmed by experi- 
 " ment, as far as this latter method of deter- 
 " mination could extend. We thus, therefore, 
 
36 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. " know, that our globe really was once liquid, 
 " at least to a certain depth ; and that when 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 ' it acquired its solidity in the portion essen- 
 " tial to its form, it had the same sensible 
 " velocity of rotation, which it has now." 1 
 And again : " The earth was covered with a 
 " liquid containing the substances of our mineral 
 " strata. It was then, that by a movement of 
 " rotation, continued sensibly thenceforward 
 " in the same degree, the earth received the 
 " spheroidal figure, which it has been found to 
 " possess by the observers of this age, and 
 " which Newton had proved by its motion"* The 
 " Neptunian system," it says, " only considers 
 " the earth to have had a spheroidal shape, 
 " when it was in a fluid form"* And it con- 
 cludes: " Since the earth has that spheroidal 
 " form, which its motion of rotation ought to 
 " produce in a liquid mass, it follows necessarily, 
 " that it must have been fluid*" 
 
 Thus reasoned the mineral geology, to 
 fortify itself with the support of Newton's 
 illustrious name. But, Newton did not set out 
 from any such idea, as that the earth " had been 
 " really fluid." The mineralogist's real fluidity 
 
 1 DE Luc, Lett. Geol. p. 81. 2 Id. 
 
 9 JAMESON'S Mineral. V. iii. p. 10. Note. * DE Luc, Ib. p. 107. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 37 
 
 of the earth, and Newton's supposed equally PART I. 
 yielding substance, have nothing whatever in CHAF IV 
 common ; neither identity of origin, nor conge- 
 niality of nature. And, indeed, the geologist 
 last quoted, in a brighter period of his lucubra- 
 tions refrained from deciding; "whether the 
 " obtuse figure of our globe was owing to its 
 " having been once fluid, or, whether it immedi- 
 " ately received thatjigure at the creation, as being 
 " the most convenient 1 " Although, even at that 
 moment of hesitation, he was far from the phi- 
 losophy of Newton, who had already concluded 
 the latter; yet his judgment might still have 
 fallen into coincidence with that philosophy. 
 But he at length concluded on the side of the 
 mineral geology, against Newton, maintaining, 
 that our globe " really was once a fluid;' consti- 
 tuting a chaotic liquid, out of which the whole 
 mechanism of its wonderful structure " rose by 
 " the mere laws of nature. 9 ' 
 
 Had Newton conceived, that his illustration 
 was liable to such gross and unscientific abuse ; 
 and that it would have been thus perverted to 
 prop a doctrine, from which he was abhorrent, 
 which he emphatically disclaimed, and which 
 he pronounced to be " unphilosophical '/" we may 
 be assured, that he would not have instanced 
 
 1 Lettres sur I Hist, de la Terre, torn. ii. p. 154, 
 
38 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. of this earth particularly, but of any ball consist- 
 ing of moist, homogeneous, and yielding matter, 
 such as softened clay ; which would have 
 equally supplied the illustration which he in- 
 tended. But his exalted mind, being con- 
 versant with the planetary orbs, drew his 
 example from them: incautiously, and too 
 confidently, as it would now appear. His sole 
 design, was to render intelligible, and sensible, 
 the compound effect of two known forces. 
 That he did not suppose that the earth had 
 ever really been fluid, and that it had settled 
 itself by laws of matter into its present figure ; 
 is proved, both by the object, and hypothetical 
 form, of his proposition, and by his express 
 ascription of its " properties," as of those of all 
 first formations, to the intelligent counsels and 
 creative act of God, immediately. His own 
 words were sufficient to have preserved his 
 proposition from the perversion which it has 
 experienced ; for he states it in different modes, 
 by which his intention is cleared from all 
 ambiguity. He does not only argue, " if 
 " the earth were fluid" &c. ; but he also argues, 
 " z/all circular diurnal motion were taken from 
 "the planets," x &c. ; " if all matter were 
 fluid 1 " &c. That these were only different 
 
 1 Pn'nc. Math. L. in. prop. 18. theorem 16. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 39 
 
 hypothetical propositions, employed to illustrate PART I. 
 the same principles, is thus manifest to every 
 
 V' H * \ c JL V 
 
 capacity. 
 
 And, when we can demonstrate to our intelli- 
 gence, by means of the illustration, that the 
 figure of an obtuse spheroid is that which alone 
 can produce harmony between two adverse, but 
 requisite forces acting in the same globe ; why 
 are we not rather to assume, with him, that 
 such a figure was given to it at its origin with a 
 view to that harmony, provided we acknowledge, 
 with him, an intelligent agent; than to conclude, 
 with the mineral geology, that it was left to pro- 
 duce itself, as the ultimate issue of a long, rude, 
 and violent conflict between the two forces ? 
 
 Such, however, are the opposite conclusions 
 of the two philosophies ; the one, concluding 
 from the figure of the earth to an intelligent 
 act of God; the other, to the action of a 
 chemical menstruum. " The several planets are 
 " spheroidal like the earth, therefore it has been 
 " fluid* -." I fear, that this argument would 
 not be held secundum artem, in the schools. 
 " Let the earth, (it argues) be supposed fluid to 
 " a certain depth ; then, the statical figure 
 " which it would assume, in consequence of ro- 
 " tation on its axis, would be that of a spheroid 
 
 1 GREENOUGH'S Geology, p. 172. 
 
40 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. " flattened at the poles. Such, or nearly such, 
 H~P~ T " being the figure which it has assumed, we have 
 good reason to belie vefrom this circumstance^ 
 " that the earth has been more or less fluid to 
 " a certain depth 1 ." No doubt, if we were 
 sure that the earth did assume that figure, we 
 should have the best reason to conclude of its 
 primitive fluidity ; but here also the logic needs 
 revisal ; for the previous question is, whether 
 it did assume that figure, or whether it received 
 it from an intelligent cause, and with a view to 
 a particular end; in which latter case, we cannot 
 possibly conclude to its primitive fluidity* The 
 latter, is the conclusion of Newton; the former, 
 is that of the mineral geology, which it calls, 
 " the great fact le grand fait" from which 
 results " the proposition, funda?nent at to miner at 
 " geology; viz. that the epocha, when all the 
 " operations whose monuments are before our 
 " eyes began upon the earth, is characterized 
 "by an immediate chemical circumstance, 
 " namely, the original fluidity of the globe* ." 
 
 Thus, both from crystalline character, and 
 from the obtuseness of spherical flgure, the mi- 
 neral geology concludes to Chaos; whereas, 
 from both of these, Newton concluded to God. 
 
 But, what is least to be tolerated in this 
 
 1 GREEN QUGH'S Geology, p. 91. 
 8 DE Luc. Lcttres Geol. p. 81. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 41 
 
 error, is that, after thus misapprehending and PART L 
 perverting Newton's illustration, it proceeds to ~^i\ 
 find him guilty of error in it. " Newton," it ^^^^^' 
 says, " supposed that the mass of the globe was 
 " homogeneous in density, and that its Jigtire, 
 " in flattening itself, became an ellipsoid. 
 " Maclaurin demonstrated the legitimacy of 
 " the second of Newton s two suppositions, the 
 " ellipticity of its form ; with respect to the 
 " other, that of its homogeneity, Clairault 
 " showed that it was inadmissible, by proving 
 " ' that it is denser in its interior than at its 
 " surface V " But, did Newton require it to be 
 " admitted as a fact?" Clairault might have 
 saved his pains, as far as they related to the 
 refutation of Newton. Newton indeed supposed, 
 that is, proposed, the case of the earth's homo- 
 geneity, as a philosophical hypothesis, in order to 
 a particular demonstration ; but, where did 
 Clairault discover that he supposed it, that is, 
 assumed it, as a geological fact ? After rectify- 
 ing Newton's error, however, by the more 
 accurate rule of Clairault, the mineral geology 
 thus proceeds to draw out the consequence of 
 Newton's supposition. 
 
 " We have seen, that the flatness of the 
 " earth is such as is indicated by the laws 
 
 1 D'AUBUISSON, i. 17. 
 
42 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. IV 
 
 PART I. "of hydrostatics ; that is, that the earth has 
 exactly the same figure which it should have, 
 if it had been originally fluid. By what 
 singular Chance, if it had always been solid, 
 " CM//*/ it have so extraordinary a form, which 
 " is a necessary consequence of the properties 
 " of fluids, and which seems to pertain to them 
 " exclusively ? The fact is, it has moulded itself 
 " into this .singular form : and, in order to 
 <f have been able to do so, its molecules must, 
 *' In all necessity, have been originally inde- 
 " pendent of each other, that is, they must have 
 " formed a fluid mass 1 " 
 
 This example, therefore, added to the pre- 
 ceding one, demonstrates how widely the mine- 
 ral geology stands apart from the philosophy of 
 Newton. We have no need to proceed further to 
 show, that it has failed under its own test ; and, 
 therefore, that its conclusions with respect to 
 the MODE of first formations are fundamentally 
 erroneous by that rule ; the proof of its dis- 
 cordance with the test, being technical convic- 
 tion of its error. So far, therefore, is "the 
 " happy revolution effected by Newton in the 
 " studies of the natural sciences," from hav- 
 ing been experienced " late in the science of 
 " mineral geology," that it is evident that it has 
 
 1 D'AuBirissoN,i. 23. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 43 
 
 not been experienced in it at all. It may have PART I. 
 been experienced in some of its subordinate 
 arguments ; but subordinate arguments are 
 subordinate considerations. In philosophy and 
 science, we are supposed to speak, first, of 'Jirst 
 principles ; and, certainly, there is no savour of 
 the philosophy of Newton in this first, funda- 
 mental principle, or root, of the mineral geology. 
 
 But it will be highly important that we should 
 proceed further with this subject, and that we 
 should investigate the cause of this extraordinary 
 discordance ; in order that we may ascer- 
 tain, precisely, how it has come to pass, that 
 the mineral geology, while it professed, and 
 while it really intended, to follow the method of 
 analysis and induction taught by Newton, should 
 nevertheless have concluded in direct contra- 
 diction to him. 
 
 It will, perhaps, say, that it draws its con- 
 clusions from a series of facts and observations 
 which were wholly unknown to the age of 
 Newton ; that if Newton had lived to witness 
 the vast progress that physical science has mad.e 
 in mineralogy and chemistry since his time, 
 he would have changed in toto, or, at least, 
 would have very materially modified, his con- 
 clusion. But, I reply; that it could only urge 
 that plea, by continuing under the same mis- 
 apprehension of Newton's principles, which has 
 
44 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. already caused it to conclude in contradiction 
 CHAP" TV to ki m ' Those principles, with relation to the 
 great question with which we are engaged, are 
 not alterable by any possible contingency in 
 the progress of the physical sciences. They 
 are derived from a far higher science, a science 
 which must ever govern and control the na- 
 tural sciences. His " rules of philosophizing ," 
 though prefixed, and immediately applied by 
 himself to the mathematical science, are not, 
 therefore, exclusively mathematical; they are 
 general rules, deduced from that universal science 
 which Bacon denominates, " prima philo- 
 sophia ;" viz. the science of universal logic, that 
 is, of universal and immutable reason 1 . 
 
 1 Regulce philosophandi ; Reg. 1. " More causes of natural 
 " things ought not to be admitted, than are true, and suffi- 
 *' cient for explaining their phaenomena. 
 
 Reg. 2. " Therefore, to natural things of the same kind, 
 " the same causes ought to be assigned, as far as it is pos- 
 " sible. 
 
 Reg. 3. " Qualities of bodies which cannot be increased 
 " or lost, and which pertain to all bodies which we can 
 " subject to our experiment are to be accounted qualities of 
 " all bodies universally. 
 
 Reg. 4. " In experimental philosophy, propositions, drawn 
 " from phaenomena by induction, are to be accounted as 
 " true, either strictly, or nearly approaching to it, until other 
 " phaenomena occur, by which they may be rendered either 
 " more accurate, or open to exceptions." 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAlCAL GEOLOGIES. 45 
 
 Mineralogy, however valuable and excellent PART I. 
 in its own proper sphere, is, in itself, merely a 
 
 CHAP* IV. 
 
 physical science; the science of mineral cha- 
 racters and mineral qualities ; and if it reasons 
 wrong within its sphere, it can never transmute 
 its false reasoning into true reasoning, by virtue 
 of any physical resources of its own : whereas, 
 Newton's philosophy, being essentially logical, 
 that is, rational, possessed always a rectifying 
 and conservative principle within itself. In 
 Newton, intuitive logic was dominant; and 
 mathematics- were the steps by which his logic 
 ascended to the elevation to which it attained ; in 
 the mineral geology, physical impressions are do- 
 minant, and logic is only an artificial instrument 
 which it seeks to employ for arranging those 
 impressions. How many eminent mathemati- 
 cians had seen apples fall to the ground, before 
 the intuitive logic of Newton apprehended the 
 phenomenon ? How different that logic was 
 from the logic of the mineral geology, we have 
 seen by the difference of their conclusions. 
 
46 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PART I. IT will be easy to point out, according to the 
 ~^~ preceding distinction, the cause of the signal 
 contradiction thus subsisting between Newton 
 and the mineral geology. It is simply this; 
 that, in attempting to reason of the MODE of first 
 formations, by Newton's method of analysis and 
 induction, the mineral geology has not carried 
 the process of analysis far enough back; whereas, 
 Newton carried it as far back as it could ex- 
 tend. Let us hear Newton himself. 
 
 " By this way of analysis" said he, "we may 
 " proceed from compounds to ingredients, and 
 " from motions to the forces producing them ; 
 " and, in general, from effects to their causes, 
 " and from particular causes to more general 
 " ones, till the argument end in the MOST GE- 
 " NERAL. This is the method of analysis. And 
 " the synthesis consists in assuming the causes, 
 " discovered and established, as principles, and 
 " by them explaining the phenomena pro- 
 <c ceeding from them, and proving the expla- 
 " nations 1 /' 
 
 To set this doctrine in all its light, I shall 
 
 1 Optics, lib. iii. in fin. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 47 
 
 subjoin the commentary of his exact reporter PART I. 
 upon this passage. CH iy 
 
 " In order to proceed with perfect security, 
 " and to put an end for ever to disputes, he 
 " proposed that, in our inquiries into nature, 
 " the methods of analysis and synthesis should 
 " be both employed in a proper order ; that we 
 " should begin with the phenomena or effects, 
 " and from them investigate the powers or 
 " causes that operate in nature ; that from 
 " particular causes we should proceed to the 
 " more general ones, till the argument end in 
 " the most general: this is the method of ana- 
 " lysis. Being once possessed of these causes, 
 " that we should then descend, is a contrary 
 " order ; and from them, as established prin- 
 " ciples, explain all phenomena that are their 
 " consequences, and prove our explanations : 
 " and this is synthesis. It is evident, that as 
 " in mathematics, so in natural philosophy, 
 " the investigation of difficult things by the 
 " method of analysis ought ever to precede the 
 " method of composition, or the synthesis. For, 
 " in any other way, we can never be sure that we 
 " assume the principles which really obtain in 
 " nature; and that our system, after we have 
 " composed it with great labour, is not mere dream 
 " and illusion 1 ." 
 
 MACLAURIN, Account of Sir I. Newton's Phil. p. 9. 
 
48 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. Now, the analysis of the mineral geology 
 
 does not extend beyond mineral matter ; whereas 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 that of Newton went back to all matter, of 
 which mineral matter is only a part. It must 
 be evident, that it is in the highest degree 
 unphilosophical to institute an argument on 
 the MODE of the jirst formation of mineral matter, 
 otherwise than by investigating the MODE of the 
 jirst formation of all matter In the general, and 
 then descending to that of mineral matter, in the 
 particular : because, by so doing, we necessarily 
 leave behind us the general principle of the 
 mode of the first formation of all matter ; and, 
 by assuming a partial principle for a general 
 one, and continually employing it as a general 
 one, we must proceed in error through all our 
 inductions, and the result must be, an error in 
 our ultimate conclusion. This has been the case 
 with the mineral geology ; for, the principle of 
 truth lay precisely in that part of the subject in 
 which the analysis of Newton reached beyond 
 that of the other ; which principle being, there- 
 fore, not comprehended in the other, it pro- 
 ceeded without its light and guidance ; and 
 hence the opposition of principles and conclu- 
 sions between the two. 
 
 The more general is the analysis, the more 
 general also will be the induction ; and " the 
 " argument by induction (says Newton) may 
 " be looked upon as so much the stronger, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 49 
 
 <c by how much the induction is more general." PART I. 
 The converse of this maxim must be equally 
 
 , J CHAP. V. 
 
 true : that the argument by induction may be 
 looked upon as so much the weaker, by how 
 much the induction is less general. But the 
 induction of mineral geology is less general than 
 that of Newton ; and, therefore, it is weaker in 
 the same degree. In the method of analysis 
 and induction, the extent of the induction must 
 depend upon the extent of the analysis : we 
 cannot conclude securely, further than we have 
 analyzed ; we can descend no further by syn- 
 thesis than we have ascended by analysis ; if 
 the latter has been limited to chemical and 
 mechanical causes, we shall conclude to the 
 same ; and if these comprise not the most 
 general cause, the most general cause will not 
 be included in the induction. But, the mode of 
 Jirst formation, necessarily supposes the most 
 general cause. 
 
 By confining the analysis to mineral matter, 
 detached from universal matter, and working 
 entirely within that circumscribed sphere, the 
 view of mineral geology was narrowed to the 
 peculiar characters which distinguished it as a 
 class of matter, namely, appearances or simili- 
 tudes of chemical action ; and attempting, by 
 principles collected in that partial sphere of 
 contemplation, "to explain its phenomena," and 
 
50 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. to conclude of the mode of its first formation, 
 and forgetting, that it was only a part of a 
 whole, the mode of whose first formation was 
 the mode of the first formation of all its parts ; 
 it ascribed the mineral structure of this globe 
 altogether to chemical action ; as promptly, and 
 with as little hesitation, as it would ascribe to 
 chemical action, a measure of Glauber's salts, 
 or sugar-candy, in the shop of a chemist, or a 
 confectioner : thus falling into the class of, 
 what Bacon entitles, " impediments of knowledge, 
 " in slipping off particular sciences from the root 
 " and stock of universal knowledge 1 " "I see, 
 " sometimes, (says he) the profoundest sort of 
 " wits, in handling some particular argument, 
 " will now and then draw a bucket of water out 
 " of this well for their present use; but the 
 " spring-head thereof seemeth to me not to 
 " have been visited 2 ." 
 
 Whereas, Newton's contemplation extended 
 and expanded itself to embrace all matter, in- 
 discriminately and collectively. Without suf- 
 fering his view to be arrested or distracted by 
 its particular discriminations, he applied him- 
 self to the consideration of matter in its totality, 
 in order to find the ultimate law, which is com- 
 
 1 Inter f. of Nature, v. i. p. 380. 3 Ibid. p. 53. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 51 
 
 mon to the universal system. In this survey PART l. 
 his mind searched for the mode of its first forma- 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 tion, and for an adequate cause of its existence; 
 and, sensible that the cause could not exist in 
 the effect, and recognizing the skill and wisdom 
 by which the whole was formed and ordered, 
 he concluded; that the first formation of all 
 matter, and, therefore, the first formation of all 
 the several parts or subordinate systems of 
 matter, was the work of an intelligent agent ; 
 " set in order in the beginning, with respect to 
 " size, figure, proportions, and properties," by 
 " the counsels of his own intelligence.'" He saw 
 all the separate systems of matter converge and 
 unite in one common centre of wisdom and 
 power, from which no one could bear to be 
 separated more than another, and from which 
 alone emanated the reason for the perfect exist- 
 ence of each ; and he ascribed to that common 
 centre of causation, in one and the same propo- 
 sition, both the existence and perfection of the 
 vast planetary system of matter, of which our 
 mineral earth is a member, and the existence and 
 perfection of every minutest system of matter 
 attached to this member of the planetary sys- 
 tem. " Such a wonderful uniformity in the 
 " planetary system, (said he) must be the effect 
 " of choice ; and so must the uniformity in the 
 " bodies of animals; these, and their instincts, 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 >2 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART L " can be the effect of nothing else than the 
 " wisdom and skill of a powerful ever- living 
 " agent 1 " Thus, Newton accounted at once, 
 and by the same principle, for all first forma- 
 tions whatever, while mineral geology can only 
 propose a principle for the first formations of 
 mineral matter; a principle, utterly inapplicable 
 to any other system of terrestrial matter, and 
 therefore proving the extent of its analysis. 
 And thus, his philosophy easily accomplished, 
 what mineral geology claims as its province, 
 but which it has never even attempted to 
 accomplish, viz. " to connect ivith their causes 
 " the phenomena, presented in our globe by 
 " the three kingdoms of terrestrial matter*" 
 
 But Newton prevented the equivocation 
 (shall I say? or the prevarication) which at- 
 tends the geognostic phrase, " mode of first 
 " formation," by employing the simple, dis- 
 tinct, and unequivocal word, creation. In doing 
 which, his exalted reason conformed to the 
 
 1 Optics, L. iii. 
 
 8 " La Geologic est principalement distincte de THistoire 
 " Naturelle, en ce que celle-ci se borne a la description et 
 <4 classification des phenomenes que presente notre globe, 
 " dans les trois regnes; au lieu que la premiere doit Her ces 
 " phenomenes avec leur causes." DE Luc, Lett. Geol. p. 3. 
 We should rather have expected, that such a writer would 
 have said, " aiec leur cause'' 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 53 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 plain dictates of common sense. For common PART I. 
 sense, duly instructed and rightly exercised, 
 plainly perceives that all first formations must 
 be creations ; otherwise, there would be forma- 
 tions before first formations. For, creations are 
 unquestionably formations ; and, if they are not 
 first formations, they must be prior to Jirst 
 formations; which would be a contradiction 
 in terms. The existence, arrangement, sizes, 
 figures, and properties of all these, Newton 
 ascribed to the immediate act of God Himself; 
 and he adjudged it to be unphilosophical, to 
 ascribe them to any mediate or secondary cause, 
 such as laws of nature operating in a Chaos. 
 De Luc abstained, with a very curious re- 
 servation, from employing the word creation, 
 in physical inquiries: " I shall not say created, 
 (said he) " because in physics I ought not to 
 " employ expressions which are not thoroughly 
 " understood between men 1 ." Not tinder stood! 
 By whom ? By those who do not choose to 
 understand it ; by those, who, like Falstaff, 
 " are troubled with the disease of not listening, 
 " the malady of not marking." Such were his 
 contemporay atheists and materialists of the 
 
 1 " Je ne dirai pas qu'elles ont ete creces ainsi, parce- 
 " qu'en physique je ne dois pas employer des expressions svr 
 " lesquelles on ne sentend pas. " Lett, sur I' Hist, de la Terre, 
 torn. ii. p. 211. 
 
54 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. middle of the last century. But was he, there- 
 CHAP v f re ' to com P^ ment those perverters equally of 
 morals and physics, by excluding from physical 
 science all mention of creation ? Was he aware, 
 that in excluding the word, he at the same time 
 excluded the idea associated with that word ; 
 and, together with the idea, the principle in- 
 volved in the idea? the exclusion of which is 
 the very parent-cause of all materialism, and 
 of all atheism? Newton was well aware of 
 this; and, therefore, though assuredly he knew 
 the laws of physical inquiry at least as well as 
 the best mineral geognist, he did not exclude the 
 word, but entertained it ; and proclaimed it, 
 as sufficiently intelligible to every unsophisti- 
 cated understanding, and as the sine qua non of 
 truth , in treating of material first formations. 
 His logic found, that God is the first physical 
 principle in physics, as He is the first moral 
 principle in morals ; and, that there is no argu- 
 ing truly in either branch of philosophy, without 
 the application of that Jirst, common, and uni- 
 versal principle. " De DEO ex ph&nonienis dis- 
 " aerere ad philosophianz Naturalem pertinet. - 
 " It pertains to Natural philosophy" said he, 
 " to reason from phenomena to GOD." 
 
 Had the mineral geology, therefore, carried 
 its analysis as far back as Newton, it would have 
 concluded to th&tjirst physical principle forjirst 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. & 
 
 formations; and, if it had done so, its general PART I. 
 induction would have been the same as New- 
 ton's ; but, by stopping its analysis short of 
 the term to which Newton extended his, its 
 induction became " the less general, and there- 
 " fore the less strong by how much it was the 
 " less general;' and thus it necessarily fell into 
 contradiction to him, as we have seen. 
 
56 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PART I. BUT, there must have been some cause, which 
 determined mineral geology thus to check its 
 analytical progress, at the term of mineral mat- 
 ter ; and to return at once from that point, to 
 the exercise of its synthetical operation. 
 
 That cause, was the fascination of physical 
 impressions, or what it denominates, phenomena. 
 For, being habitually conversant with mineral 
 substances, and passionately attracted by the 
 admirable characters and varieties which they 
 revealed ; the appearance of these acquired so 
 powerful an authority in its imagination as to 
 confine it within their sphere, and to render 
 every other object in nature secondary, and 
 comparatively unregarded ; and being unequally 
 instructed in other branches of knowledge, and 
 therefore partial to that particular branch with 
 which it felt itself most familiar, it was led 
 to regard that one branch, which in fact ex- 
 tends itself over the entire mineral surface of 
 our planet, as alone sufficient to supply all 
 the principles requisite for resolving the pro- 
 blem which it proposed to itself. Mineral 
 phenomena, were therefore assumed by mineral 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 57 
 
 geology as all-sufficient for determining the PART I. 
 great question, of the mode of the first formation 
 of mineral substances; and, in this common prin- 
 ciple, of the omnipotence of phenomena , both the 
 Neptunian and the Plutonian or Vulcanian sys- 
 tems entirely coincide. 
 
 Yet there were other orders, or classes, of 
 matter pertaining to this earth, whose first form- 
 at ions presented subjects for inquiry of equal 
 importance ; and which could not be separated 
 from the former, in the question of the mode of 
 first formations, without a dereliction of the 
 first principles of the philosophy of Bacon and 
 Newton, and, indeed, the first principles of com- 
 mon sense: these were the classes, of animal 
 and vegetable matter. Newton's rules of philoso- 
 phizing require, that we should refer to the 
 same common cause all existences, which share 
 the same common properties ; and the three 
 kingdoms of matter, equally share the same 
 general properties of matter. But, besides 
 sharing the same general properties of matter, 
 they demonstrate a community of system ; each 
 existing with relation to the others, and having 
 the reason of its own existence in that relation. 
 Thus the solid body of the earth exists with rela- 
 tion to the vegetation, which it is to fructify; 
 and to the animals which it is to support. The . 
 two latter exist with relation to the earth, 
 
8 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. without which they could neither be nourished 
 nor supported. They are thus, in fact, corre- 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 spending and constituent parts or members of 
 one whole; the first formations of each of which, 
 must therefore be referred to the same cause, 
 and to the same mode. Not to recognise this 
 principle, would be, to be something more than 
 purblind in philosophy ; and indeed we have 
 seen, that mineral geology lays claim to the 
 province, of " connecting with their causes 
 " the phenomena presented by our globe in 
 " the three kingdoms ;" although it has hitherto 
 confined its exercise to one only. What it 
 has thus omitted to perform, we shall now 
 endeavour to supply. 
 
 By the universal analysis of matter, we arrive 
 at the common cause of all the three orders of 
 terrestrial matter, and of their several systems, 
 and we perceive the equal relation of each to 
 that cause ; so that by discerning the relation 
 of any one of them, we at the same time 
 discern that of the other two. Now, their 
 respective characters, or phenomena, in first 
 formations, must be subject to the same common 
 law; and the authority of the phenomena for 
 determining the mode of their first formations, 
 must be the same in all. The highest principle 
 of probability in this question to which the mind 
 of Newton could attain by induction, was, as 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 50 
 
 we have seen, " that all material things were PART I. 
 " in the beginning created, and set in order 
 " by God, in their fittest sizes, figures, pro- 
 " portions, and properties ;" from the vast 
 planetary system, including this mineral globe, 
 to the most diminutive insect which exercises 
 its instinctive sagacity upon it. Common sense 
 discerns, that creation alone could give origin 
 of existence to that which before did not exist ; 
 it discerns, that there can be no intermediate 
 stage or degree between non-existence and exist- 
 ence, and therefore, no graduality in the passing 
 from the one state to the other. To the mode 
 of creation, we cannot therefore ascribe that 
 mode of succession to which we give the name 
 of time. The action of creation was therefore 
 effected without the mediation of time, and con- 
 sequently, in that mode which we express 
 when we exclude all notion of the mediation of 
 time ; namely, immediately, instantaneously, or 
 suddenly. Let us now endeavour to ascertain 
 exactly, what is the authority of sensible pheno- 
 mena for determining the mode of the first forma- 
 tions of each of the three kingdoms of matter, by 
 trying that authority, in each of them, succes- 
 sively. 
 
 As we trace back all terrestrial matter to a 
 term of first, or creative formation, so we trace 
 back each of its three orders, or kingdoms, to 
 
60 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. the same term ; for, all terrestrial matter, sig- 
 r nifies only the aggregate of those three kingdoms. 
 In the same manner, we trace back each of the 
 individuals composing each order ; for, the order 
 is only the aggregate of the individuals which 
 compose it. We thus likewise trace back the 
 generations of men to a primitive, ungenerated 
 parent or parents; and we perceive, that there 
 must have been a jirst formed, created man, as 
 certainly as there . has since been a succession 
 of generated men. Now, whatever be the stan- 
 dard of age in correspondence to which we may 
 suppose that first man to have been created, 
 it must correspond to some period of the 
 human life subsequent to the birth. It is of little 
 consequence to the argument, what that age 
 may be; but it is most consistent with the 
 notion of an Intelligent Agent, and therefore 
 most philosophical, to suppose, that He created 
 that first man with the perfection of mind and 
 body, " which most conduced to the end for 
 " which He formed him." That man received 
 a frame, to be sustained by the laws of nutrition, 
 which commenced with his existence; which 
 frame was similar to those that were to be 
 engendered from his own. He possessed, there- 
 fore, a bodily structure similar to ours, and con- 
 sisting of similar parts. Of these, let us con- 
 template those solid parts, which support the 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 61 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 soft and flexible, namely the bones; and let us PART I. 
 first ask, " what is bone, in its nature and com- 
 " position?" 
 
 To this question Anatomy replies : " the use 
 " of the bones is to give shape audjirmness to 
 " the body ; to be leavers for the muscles to 
 " act upon, &c.: their fibres, when first formed, 
 " are very soft, until, by the addition of a 
 " matter which is separated by the blood into 
 " them, they grow by degrees to the hardness 
 " of a cartilage, and then, perfect bone. But 
 " this change is neither made in a very short 
 " time, nor begun in all parts of the bone at once. 
 " By the continual addition of the ossifying 
 " matter, the bones increase till the hardness 
 " resists a further extension; and that hard- 
 " ness increasing while they are growing, the 
 " increase of their growth becomes slower 
 " and slower, till they cease to grow at all V 
 
 This is indeed the nature and composition 
 of bone, according to the law established after 
 creation by the creating agent, for the formation 
 and gradual growth of the animal system, and 
 which we call one of the laws of animal matter; 
 but we are now concerned exclusively with 
 the first, created, ungenerated man, and with 
 his bone; from the period of whose first form- 
 
 [ CHES EL DEN'S Oitcographia, Introd. 
 
62 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I, at ioji only, those laws were to begin to 
 CHAP" vi operate. It is evident, that in this man none 
 of those processes took place ; but he was created, 
 by the will and immediate power of God, in 
 the same form, and with the same structure, 
 which, after him, was to be produced only by 
 the operation of those laws. His bone, therefore, 
 was not formed " by degrees" but " in a very 
 " short time," namely, " at once;' not by " a 
 " continual addition of ossifying matter," but 
 with the full measure of that matter; not " with 
 " soft fibres, and growing by degrees to the hard- 
 " ness of a cartilage, and then of bone," for this 
 process must commence in a maternal womb, 
 from whence he did not proceed. In him, 
 therefore, the act of the Creator produced at 
 once, by the mode of creation, that form, struc- 
 ture, and composition of bone, which in all other 
 men is produced by the gradual process of 
 ossification, which has been described. 
 
 From hence we obtain this first principle, 
 with respect to the first formations of animal 
 matter; " that in those first formations the 
 " Creating Agent anticipated, by an immediate 
 " act, effects which were thenceforward to be 
 " produced only by & gradual process, of which 
 " He then established the laws." 
 
 If a bone of that first, created man now 
 remained, and were mingled with other bones 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 63 
 
 pertaining to a generated race ; and if it were to PART I. 
 be submitted to the inspection and examina- 
 
 . . CHAP. VI. 
 
 tion of an anatomist, what opinion and judg- 
 ment would its sensible phenomena suggest, 
 respecting the mode of its first formation, and 
 what would be his conclusion ? If he were 
 unapprised of its true origin, his mind would 
 see nothing in its sensible phenomena but the 
 laws of ossification ; '^t as the mineral geology 
 " sees nothing in the details of the formation 
 " of minerals, but precipitations, crystallizations, 
 " and dissolutions 1 ." He would therefore na- 
 turally pronounce of this bone, as of all the 
 other bones; that its "fibres ' were originally 
 "soft;" until, in the shelter of the maternal 
 womb, it acquired "the hardness of a cartilage, 
 and then of bone;' 7 that this effect " was not pro- 
 " duced at once, or in a very short time," but, by 
 " degrees;" that, after birth, it increased in 
 hardness " by the continual addition of ossifying 
 " matter, until it ceased to grow at all." 
 
 Physically true, as this reasoning would ap- 
 pear, it would nevertheless be morally and really 
 false. Why would it be false? Because it 
 concluded, from mere sensible phenomena, to the 
 certainty of a fact which could not be established 
 
 1 See above, p. 23. 
 
64 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. by the evidence of sensible phenomena alone ; 
 namely, the mode of the first formation, of the 
 substance of created bone. 
 
 From hence we obtain a second principle, 
 with respect to such first formations by crea- 
 tion : " That their sensible phenomena alone 
 " cannot determine the mode of their formation, 
 " since the real mode was in direct contradiction 
 " to the sensible indications of those phenomena" 
 What has been here said of the solid parts of the 
 animal structure, is equally applicable to all its 
 parts, and to every member of the animal king- 
 dom, at itsjirst creation. 
 
 Let us proceed from animal to vegetable 
 matter ; and let us consider the first created 
 tree, under which the created man first re- 
 posed, and from which he gathered his first 
 fruit. That tree must have had a stem or 
 trunk, through which the juices were conveyed 
 from the root to the fruit, and by which it was 
 able to sustain the branches upon which the 
 fruit grew. Let us consider the structure of 
 the wood which composed that stem or trunk ; 
 and let us ask, what is wood, in its nature 
 and composition ? 
 
 To this question, Natural History replies : 
 " If we entirely remove the bark, we perceive 
 " the wood; which is a solid body, giving support 
 " and strength to the tree. On which account 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 65 
 
 *' some naturalists have regarded it, as being PART I. 
 " with respect to trees, what bones are in the 
 
 < 1 v r / rr.t T i CHAP. VI. 
 
 bodies oi animals. Ihe ligneous, or woody 
 " folds, are at first soft and herbaceous, before 
 " they acquire the solidity of wood. They do 
 " not suddenly pass from the state of softness 
 " which they first have, to the hardness of 
 " perfect wood ; they only acquire that hard- 
 " ness, of which they are capable, after many 
 " years. In a young tree, all those woody 
 " folds (I mean those sensibly apparent folds 
 " which indicate the growth of each year,) are 
 " of unequal firmness, hardness, and density ; 
 " those of the centre being the hardest, and 
 " those of the circumference the most tender. 
 " The hardness of these folds is, therefore, only 
 " effected by degrees 1 : and since Nature does 
 " nothing but by a progressive course, it is not 
 " surprising that wood acquires its hardness 
 " only by little and little*." 
 
 This is, indeed, the nature and composition 
 of wood, according to the law established, after 
 creation, by the creating agent, for the formation 
 and gradual growth of the vegetable structure ; 
 and which we call one of the laws of vegetable 
 matter. But, we are now concerned exclu- 
 
 DUHAMEL, La L'hysique des Arbres, torn. i. c. 3. p. 30. 
 1 Ibid. p. 45. 
 
 F 
 
(36 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. s i ye ty w i tn tne fast, created, unpropagated 
 tree, and with its wood; from the period of 
 wnose jl rs t formation only, those laws were to 
 begin to operate. In the wood of this tree, 
 it is evident that none of those gradual processes 
 took place; but it was created, by the will and 
 immediate power of God, in the same form, 
 and of the same structure, which, after it, 
 was to be produced only by the operation of 
 those laws. Its wood, therefore, was not formed 
 " by degrees" but "suddenly;" its solidity was 
 not acquired "by a progressive course by little 
 " and little after many years ;" not by a gradual 
 hardening from a state of Softness and herba- 
 ceousness ; for that has its origin in a growth 
 from seed, from whence this tree did not pro- 
 ceed. In this wood, therefore, the act of the 
 Creator produced at once, by the mode of creation, 
 that form, structure, and composition, which 
 in all succeeding trees is produced by the 
 gradual process of lignification, which has been 
 described. 
 
 Here, then, we find the same first principle 
 in the first formations of created vegetable matter, 
 which we found in the first formations of created 
 animal matter ; a principle, common to both ; viz. 
 " That in those first formations the Creating 
 " Agent anticipated, by an immediate act, effects 
 " which were thenceforth to be produced only 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 67 
 
 " by a gradual process, of which he then esta- PART I. 
 " blished the laws." 
 
 CHAP VI 
 
 If a portion of this created tree now re- 
 mained, and if a section of its wood were to be 
 mingled with other sections of propagated 
 trees, and submitted to the inspection and 
 examination of a naturalist ; what opinion and 
 judgment would its sensible phenomena suggest 
 to him, respecting the mode of its jirst formation ; 
 and what would be his conclusion ? If he were 
 unapprized of its true origin, his mind would 
 see nothing in its sensible phenomena , but the 
 laws of lignification ; just as the mineral geolo- 
 gist " sees nothing in the details of the forma- 
 " tions of primitive rock, but precipitations, 
 " crystallizations, and dissolutions." He would, 
 therefore, naturally pronounce of it as of all the 
 other sections of wood : that its "fibres" when 
 they first issued from the seed, " were soft and 
 " herbaceous;' that they " did not suddenly pass 
 " to the hardness of perfect wood," but, "after 
 " many years ;" that the hardness of their folds, 
 " which indicate the growth of each year,"" was 
 therefore effected only " by degrees ;" and that, 
 " since Nature does nothing but by a progres- 
 " sive course, it is not surprising that its sub- 
 " stance acquired its hardness only by little and 
 " little^ 
 
 Physically true, as the naturalist would here 
 
68 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. appear to reason ; yet his reasoning, like that 
 of the anatomist, would be morally and really 
 
 f alse * And why would it: be false ? For the 
 
 same reason ; because he concluded, from mere 
 sensible phenomena, to the certainty of a fact 
 which could not be established by the evidence 
 of sensible phenomena alone ; namely, the mode of 
 the first formation of the substance of created wood. 
 
 We thus find a second principle, common to 
 the first formations both of animal and vegetable 
 matter; viz. "That their sensible phenomena 
 " alone cannot determine the mode of their 
 " formations ; inasmuch as the real mode was 
 " in direct contradiction to the sensible indications 
 " of those phenomena." What has here been 
 said of the solid parts of the vegetable struc- 
 ture, is applicable equally to all its parts, and to 
 every member of the vegetable kingdom, at its 
 first creation. 
 
 If, therefore, the natures of created bone and 
 created wood had suffered them to subsist, and 
 to be preserved until the present day; we 
 plainly perceive, how easy it would have been 
 to demonstrate to the science of physics, its 
 absolute incompetence to determine any thing 
 at all, by phenomena alone, concerning the mode 
 of the first formations of the first individuals 
 composing either the animal or vegetable king- 
 doms of matter. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 69 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THERE only now remains to be considered, the PART I. 
 third, or mineral kingdom of this terrestrial 
 system ; and it appears probable, to reason and 
 philosophy, by prima facie evidence, that the 
 principle determining the mode of first forma- 
 tions, in two parts of this threefold division of 
 matter, must have equal authority in this third 
 part. And indeed, after the closest investigation 
 of the subject, we can discover no ground 
 whatever for supposing, that this third part 
 is exempted from the authority of that common 
 principle ; or that physics are a whit more com- 
 petent to dogmatize concerning the mode ofjirst 
 formations, from the evidence of phenomena alone, 
 in the mineral kingdom, than they have been 
 found to be in the animal or vegetable-, or, to 
 affirm, from the indications of the former, that 
 the mode of its first formations was more gradual 
 and tardy than those of the other two. 
 
 Let us try this point, by proceeding with our 
 comparison ; and let us consider the first created 
 rock, as we have considered the first created 
 
70 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. bone and wood ; and let us ask, what is rock, in 
 AP~~ its nature and composition? 
 
 To this question, Mineralogy replies : " By 
 " the word rock, we mean every mineral mass 
 " of such bulk as to be regarded an essential 
 " part of the structure of the globe 1 . We un- 
 " derstand by the word mineral, a natural body, 
 " inorganic, solid, homogeneous, that is, com- 
 " posed of integrant molecules of the same 
 " substance 2 : We may, perhaps, pronounce 
 *' that a mass is essential, when its displace- 
 " ment would occasion the downfall of other 
 " masses which are placed upon it a . Such are, 
 " ' those lofty and ancient mountains, the first 
 " and most solid bones, as it were, of this globe,' 
 " les premiers, les plus solides ossemens which 
 " have merited the name of primitive, because, 
 " scorning all support and all foreign mixture, 
 " they repose always upon bases similar to 
 " themselves, and comprise within their sub- 
 " stance no matter but of the same nature 4 . 
 " These are the primordial mountains ; which 
 " traverse our continents in various directions, 
 " rising above the clouds, separating the basins 
 " of rivers one from another ; serving, by means 
 
 D'AuBUissoN, i. p. 272. 2 Ibid. 271. 3 Ibid. 272. 
 SAUSSURE, Voyages des Alpes, Disc. Prel. p. 6, 7. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 71 
 
 *" of their eternal snows, as reservoirs for feed- PART I. 
 
 " ing the springs, and forming in some measure 
 
 " the skeleton, or, as it were, the rough frame- 
 
 " work of the earth 1 ." These primitive masses 
 
 " are stamped with the character of a formation 
 
 " altogether crystalline, as if they were really the 
 
 *' product of a tranquil precipitation 2 ." 
 
 Had the mineral geology contented itself with 
 this simple mineralogical statement, we should 
 have thus argued, concerning the crystalline 
 phenomena of the first mineral formations ; con- 
 formably to the principles which we have re- 
 cognized. As the bone of the first man, and 
 the wood of the first tree, whose solidity was 
 essential for " giving shape, firmness, and sup~ 
 " port" to their respective systems, were not, 
 and could not have been formed by the gradual 
 processes of ossification, and Ugnification, of which 
 they nevertheless must have exhibited the sen- 
 sible phenomena, or apparent indications ; so, 
 reason directs us to conclude, that primitive rock, 
 whose solidity was equally essential for giving 
 shape, firmness, and support to the mineral 
 system of this globe, was not, and could not 
 have been formed by the gradual process of 
 
 UVIER, 7. p. 39. * D'AuBuissoN, ii. p. 5, 
 
72 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE" 
 
 PART I. precipitation and crystallization., notwithstanding* 
 any sensible phenomena, apparently indicative of 
 ' those processes, which it may exhibit; but that 
 in the mineral kingdom, as in the animal and 
 vegetable kingdoms, the creating agent antici- 
 pated in his formations, by an immediate act, 
 effects, whose sensible phenomena could not 
 determine the mode of their formation; be- 
 cause the real mode was in direct contradiction to 
 the apparent indications of the phenomena. 
 
 The correspondence and correlation of the three 
 subjects, is pointed out by physical science itself, 
 in the passages which have just been quoted; 
 for, natural history notes the analogy of the 
 wood, in the vegetable structure, and mineralogy 
 notes that of primordial rock, in the mineral 
 structure, with the bone in the animal structure. 
 Solidity and consistency, therefore, are the common 
 properties of all the three. To produce that solidity 
 and consistency, which were as necessary for the 
 surface which was to sustain, as for the bodies 
 which were to be sustained by it, was equally 
 the end of the formation of each ; and, there- 
 fore, according to Newton's second rule, we are 
 bound by reason to assign the same identical 
 cause for the solidity and consistency of each. 
 And it will then necessarily follow ; that primi- 
 tive immediate crystallization, can furnish no data 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 73 
 
 for computing time, more than primitive 'im* PART I. 
 mediate ossification, or primitive immediate ligni- 
 jicatwn. 
 
 It matters not to this argument, whether 
 the mineral geology adopts the Neptunian or 
 the Plutonian system; whether it sees in the 
 phenomena of minerals, the characters of aqueous 
 solution, or of igneous fusion; because, the 
 argument is directed, universally, to the ques- 
 tionof the authority of phenomena, in first 
 formations, for determining the mode of their 
 production ; and it is, therefore, in no manner 
 affected by- the particular differences subsisting 
 between those two conflicting hypotheses : 
 whether the phenomena seem to indicate the 
 mode of water, or the mode of jire, they cannot 
 be indicative of the real mode. 
 
 But, the mineral geology has not contented 
 itself with that simple mineralogical statement ; 
 nor drawn the conclusion which we have drawn, 
 in conformity with the principles, and in obser- 
 vance of the rules, of Newton's philosophy. It 
 " affirms, that the characters^ which geology 
 " is written in the book of nature, in which it is 
 " to be studied, are minerals*;" and it " sees 
 " nothing" in that book of nature but " precipi- 
 " tations, crystallizations, and dissolutions ;" 
 
 ' D'AuBtnssoN, Disc. Prcl. p. 29. 
 
74 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. and therefore, because it sees nothing else, it 
 concludes without hesitation, from crystalline 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 phenomena to actual crystallization. Thus, by 
 attempting the impossibility of deducing an 
 universal principle, viz. the mode of Jirst forma- 
 tions, from the analysis of a single individual, 
 viz. mineral matter, separate from co-ordinate 
 animal and vegetable matter; and concluding 
 from that defective analysis, to the general law 
 of Jirst formations ; it set out with inadequate 
 light, and it is no wonder that it ended in 
 absolute darkness ; for such is its elemental 
 chaos, and its chemical precipitation of this globe : a 
 doctrine, so nearly resembling the exploded 
 atomic philosophy of the Epicurean school, that 
 it requires a very close and laborious inspection 
 to discover a single feature, by which they may 
 be distinguished from each other. 
 
 The sensible phenomena, which suggest crys<- 
 tallization to the Wernerian, or vitrification to 
 the Huttonian, in examining a fragment of pri^- 
 mitive rock, are exactly of the same authority, 
 but not of a particle more, with that which would 
 have suggested ossification and lignification to the 
 anatomist and naturalist, who should unknow- 
 ingly have inspected or analyzed created bone, or 
 created wood; and the same error would have 
 befallen all the three, should each have con- 
 eluded, from what they saw, that the substances 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 75 
 
 which they were severally engaged in examin- PART I. 
 ing, had been formed by the several modes of CHA ~ VII 
 crystallization, ossification, and ligniftcation: the 
 mineralogist can no more discover the mode of 
 the formation of primitive rock by the laws of 
 general chemistry, be they the laws ofjfire, or the 
 laws of water, than the anatomist can discover 
 the mode of the formation of created bone, by the 
 laws of generation and accretion. 
 
 But there is this notable difference between 
 the three cases ; that the animal and vegetable 
 structures were formed to continue only for 
 short durations of time ; they were to reproduce 
 their species, and to perish; and to be con- 
 tinued only by the succession of generation. 
 The first formations of these, have therefore 
 long since been resolved into their ultimate 
 elements, and are now totally irrecoverable by 
 us. Whereas, the first formed mineral masses 
 of this earth, constituting the " skeleton, or rough 
 " frame^work" of this globe, were not made 
 to reproduce their kind, nor to perish within 
 the experience of the human race ; they still 
 subsist, with the nature and structure which 
 they received at their first formation, or crea- 
 tion. When we discover no evidence what- 
 ever of re- compos it ion of divided parts, but a 
 simple homogeneous mineral substance, inca- 
 pable of production by any known secondary 
 cause, then we see a true Jirst formation. Such 
 
76 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. are the granite masses which we survey ; which 
 . were coeval with created man. 
 
 vll. 
 
 Hence it is evident, that we are to reason of 
 the first formation of primitive rock, as we should 
 reason of a hortus siccus, composed of created 
 plants from the garden of Eden; with which 
 those primitive rocks were contemporary, 
 although they have so long outlasted them. 
 If we knew, that those dried plants were formed 
 before the laws of vegetable generation and 
 growth could have commenced, we should take 
 no account of the apparent indications of gene- 
 ration and growth in their phenomena ; nor suffer 
 ourselves to be deluded by them, in respect 
 to the mode of their formation. In the same 
 manner we ought to dispose our judgments, 
 with respect to the first mineral formations; 
 which were unquestionably formed by the same 
 mode, because anterior to the first flowers that 
 grew upon the earth. 
 
 When,, therefore, we handle a piece of 
 granite from the Alps, the Andes, or the 
 Himmaleh mountains, and think we discern in 
 it the characters of aqueous, or igneous, action ; 
 if we would be sure to reason unphilosophically 
 and falsely, we shall instantly conclude, from 
 the first promptings of our senses, that the mode 
 of its first formation was by aqueous solution, 
 or by igneous fusion; we shall say, " this 
 " substance looks as if it was formed by the 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 77 
 
 " agency of water, or fire; we see nothing in PART L 
 " it but the characters of water, or of fire; ~~ 
 " therefore, it was formed by the agency of 
 " water, or of fire." And thus it is, that the 
 mineral geology actually does reason; though 
 professing to govern its reasoning, " by the 
 " principles of sound physics, and the rules of 
 " an exact logic." Nothing can be more un- 
 philosophical, and popular, than such prima 
 facie conclusions. 
 
 But, if we would reason philosophically, 
 and conformably to the principles and method 
 of Newton, we shall take our premises much 
 higher ; and shall reason thus : This substance 
 is a portion of terrestrial matter, and of that order 
 of terrestrial matter which constituted the first 
 mineral formations of this globe : it was therefore 
 not produced by any secondary cause, but it was 
 " created, and set in its order, by the Creator, 
 " with the properties which most conduced to the 
 " ends for which He formed it;" which properties 
 were, solidity and stability. It was designed to 
 sustain the loose materials of the globe, as the bones 
 were designed to sustain the soft and flexible 
 parts of the body. His first formations were made 
 in correspondence with the laws which He was 
 then about to establish, and in anticipation of effects 
 and appearances which were thenceforward to be 
 produced only by the operations of those laws; 
 
78 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. and since there are no decays and reproduc- 
 tions of granite mountains, as there are of 
 
 CHAP. VII. . 
 
 animal and vegetable structures, and therefore 
 no known laws for their successive or occasional 
 formation, it is reasonable and philosophical to 
 regard this piece of granite as a part of a Jirst for- 
 mat ion, the mode of which was Divine Creation; and 
 which has therefore always subsisted the same, 
 since the act of Creation brought it into being. 
 
 " But (exclaims the mineral geology,) can any 
 " one uphold the doctrine of universal forma- 
 " tion? Let him who answers in the affirmative 
 " reflect on the consequence which that doctrine 
 " involves. He must admit, that when the 
 " particles of quartz, feldspath, and mica, which 
 " had before arranged themselves so as to form 
 " granite, changed their mode of arrangement, 
 " so as to form gneiss, that change was con- 
 " veyed with the rapidity of an electric shock, 
 " from one end of the world to the other : 
 " that the currents of the different ^hemispheres 
 " had so equable a motion, that the particles 
 " borne along by these currents were so equally 
 " assorted, that within the tropics and without, 
 " the same dispositions began and ceased at the 
 " same moment: that similar pebbles were 
 " detached from their native rocks, at the poles 
 " and at the equator, by equal forces acting 
 " under the same circumstances, and were 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 79 
 
 . 
 
 deposited by the same means, and at the same PART I. 
 " time. All these he must admit, or reject in r 
 
 " toto the doctrine of universal formation*" 
 
 We have no objection whatever to the 
 alternative here offered us ; only we must rectify 
 some confusions in the statement. For, in 
 admitting universal formation, we are so far from 
 admitting what is here assumed, viz.: that 
 the particles of quartz^ feldspath, or mica, pre- 
 viously arranged themselves, or subsequently 
 changed the mode of their arrangement, that we 
 absolutely deny that any particles of matter, 
 of any description whatever, arranged them- 
 selves at all, prior to universal formation ; because 
 we affirm, that universal primitive formation 
 gave to all particles of matter, both their being 
 and their arrangement. And we cannot be 
 embarrassed by " the rapidity" of the operation 
 " from one end of the world to the other, like an 
 " electric shock;" because we suppose it in the 
 mode of first formation ; which was Divine Crea- 
 tion. We cannot be perplexed, that the par- 
 ticles were " equally assorted f both within the 
 " tropics and without, at the same moment," 
 because we conclude with Newton, " that all 
 " the particles of matter were variously associated 
 
 * GREENOUGH'S Geol. p. 225. 
 
80 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PARTI. " at the FIRST CREATION by the, counsels of an 
 
 CH \P~VII " I ntt ttig ent Agent;" and, for the same reason, 
 , we find no difficulty in supposing this operation 
 to have taken effect " at the poles and at the 
 " equator, by the same means, and at the same 
 " time" because it is the very conclusion of 
 Newton's philosophy, and of unsophisticated 
 reason ; which teach, Universal Primitive Form- 
 ation, by the Creative Act. 
 
 " What, then ! (it will perhaps further ex- 
 t( claim,) has God introduced appearances into 
 " His works, to mislead and to deceive His moral 
 ." and intellectual creatures? Has He affixed 
 " phenomena, which should seduce them into 
 " error?" Mu yii/oiTo, God forbid! Great was the 
 authority which warned ; py xpnire xar' ev}/*i>, aAAa 
 TW $ix<x,ia,v xpi<riy xppT " Judge not according to 
 <e appearance (pnty\ but judge a right judgment"'' 
 And although this precept was certainly not ad- 
 dressed to the mineral geology, yet it is of uni- 
 versal force, in every subject which may engage 
 the reason. Those phenomena cannot mislead, 
 deceive, or seduce any one, who faithfully and 
 diligently exercises his moral and intellectual 
 faculties by the rule which God has supplied for 
 their governance ; but only those, who neglect to 
 exercise them by that rule. For, those very 
 faculties, while they direct us to infer universal 
 jirst formation by the immediate act of God, caution 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 81 
 
 us not to be misled by the phenomena which that PART I. 
 act must occasion. They warn us, that all first 
 
 CHAP VII 
 
 formations of the material works of God must 
 have received a specific form of their substance, 
 and, therefore, must have exhibited to the 
 visual sense specific characters, even at the 
 moment when they were first called from non- 
 existence into being. Whether it were the 
 first formed bird, or the first formed shrub on 
 which that bird rested, or the first formed rock 
 on which that shrub grew, each must have in- 
 stantly exhibited sensible phenomena; the first, 
 of ossification ; the second, of lignification ; and 
 the third, of crystallization. Yet, the phenomena 
 would not have been truly indicative of actual 
 ossification and actual lignification in the two 
 first cases; and therefore, they would not have 
 been indicative of actual crystallization in the 
 last ; that is, of those subjects having passed 
 through any of these gradual processes. There 
 is no possibility of escaping from the self-evident 
 certainty of this principle; which extends 
 equally to all the three kingdoms of terrestrial 
 matter. And the uniformity, regularity, and 
 simplicity of all the works of God, direct us to 
 believe; that the texture, and consequent 
 phenomena, of first formations in all those three 
 kingdoms, would have manifested a direct cor- 
 respondence with the laws which He was then 
 
82 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. providing for His new system. It would have 
 done so in the first bone, it would have done 
 
 CHAP. VII. . , , . 
 
 so in the first wood; therefore, it would have 
 done so in the first rock. The bone, and the 
 wood, have passed away ; but the rock still 
 remains, and we contemplate it at the present 
 hour, in the east and in the west, in the north 
 and in the south. If crystalline composition is 
 the property, which, by the laws appointed at 
 the creation, constitutes the greatest hardness 
 and solidity in mineral substances, we shall 
 expect, that the primitive mineral masses will 
 be " stamped with a character altogether crys- 
 <f tattine*-" just as we conclude, by parity of 
 reason, that the bones of the first animals must 
 have been stamped with a character altogether 
 calcareous. 
 
 Those persons, therefore, who rightly use the 
 faculty of reason, will be in no danger of being 
 deceived 'by primitive phenomena; but will ascribe 
 them, by rational induction, to the immediate 
 design and act of God. To others, indeed, they 
 may become a judicial snare ; to " take the wise 
 " in their own craftiness ; and to make foolish the 
 " wisdom of science, falsely so called." 
 
 De Luc, in his " Letters on the Earth" ob- 
 served : " Neither natural history, nor physical 
 
 1 See above, p. 71. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 83 
 
 " science,leadustobelieve,thatourglobehasex- PART I. 
 " isted from all eternity ; whenever, therefore, it 
 " acquired itsjirst existence, the matter of which 
 " it was composed must, in all necessity, have 
 " been of some nature, and under some first in- 
 " tegrant form 1 " His mind was, for a moment, 
 sensible of this great truth; and he was then 
 nearer to " a solid basis for geology 2 " than he 
 ever was afterwards. But, it was only for a 
 moment ; for, from that period his philosophy 
 retrograded, while he imagined that it was ad- 
 vancing. He wanted either the ability, or the 
 resolution, to trace back all the links of the 
 chain, which connected the actual phenomena 
 of mineral matter with that great remote prin- 
 ciple. He vacillated; he could not stand the 
 intermediate sarcasms of the celebrated physical 
 philosophers who were his contemporaries, and 
 some of them his distinguished fellow country- 
 men ; and, resorting to his fatal system of 
 compromise and concession, he sought to con- 
 ciliate the good fellowship of physical science, 
 by surrendering that high and solid principle 
 to the chemical geology of Saussure. " In my 
 ." letters on the History of the Earth" says 
 he, " I acknowledged, that I saw nothing as yet 
 " that could lead me to conceive the formation 
 
 1 Tom. ii. p. 211. 2 See above, p. 25. 
 
84 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. " of primordial substances, the masses of which 
 " were unintelligible to me. Since the publica- 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 tion of that work, that of the observations 
 " and remarks of M. de Saussure, has become 
 " for me a compass by which to steer. From that 
 " time the observations of mineralogists, together 
 " with my own, have placed beyond all doubt 
 " this great geological fact ; that all the visible 
 " mass of our continents, except volcanic sub- 
 " stances, formed itself in successive beds, or 
 " strata, of different kinds, beginning with 
 " granite. It is impossible to deny this, after 
 " reading the " Voyages des Alpes" of M. de 
 " Saussure ; in which that great observer has 
 " so accumulated the proofs of this truth, that 
 " no one can doubt it, and retain any right to 
 " the title of geologist 1 :" that is, of mineral geolo- 
 gist. Thus, the importunity of sensible phenomena 
 fascinated his judgment; and drew away his 
 view from the great truth, of which he had 
 caught a glimpse. He went back from the 
 path of Newton, and plunged into the chaos of 
 chemical first formations; and he thereby reduced 
 himself to the necessity of seeking, by a daring 
 and inerudite tampering with texts of Scripture, 
 that visionary and arbitrary chronology for the 
 effects of Creation, which he had before strenu- 
 
 1 Lcttrcs Gtol. p. 73, 74. Note. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 85 
 
 ously refused to other geologists, who had de- PART I. 
 
 manded the same for the effects of the Deluge. 
 
 CH4P. VII. 
 
 I am well aware, of the power of phenomena 
 on the mind ; and, of the difficulty which the 
 mineral geology experiences, in resisting their 
 importunity with respect to the mode of the 
 jirst mineral formations. But then, I am equally 
 aware, of the difficulty which a countryman 
 experiences in renouncing his persuasion, that 
 the sun rises from the earth in the morning, and 
 sets at night, either in the ocean or behind the 
 hills. The difficulty is of the same kind in both 
 cases ; and proceeds from the same cause, viz. 
 the contradiction of the real fact, and the appa- 
 rent indications of the sensible phenomena. But 
 these contradictions, of fact and phenomena, 
 appear to reveal a law, designed to stimulate 
 the exercise of our rational and moral faculties, 
 and to abstract them from the dominion of 
 sense. 
 
86 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 PART I. THE entertainment of a chaotic philosophy, how- 
 - ever modified, within the lights of reformed 
 
 CHAP. VIII. . 
 
 philosophy and revelation, is a monstrum in the 
 history of the human mind ; because, there 
 exists no reason whatever, a priori, for suppos- 
 ing, that an Intelligent Agent gave imperfect 
 existence to any of His first formations ; and be- 
 cause we have found ample proof, a posteriori, 
 that in two parts out of three of this tripartite 
 system of matter, the first formations must have 
 been produced in their full perfection perfect 
 bone, and perfect wood. We are therefore 
 directed, by every sound principle of analogical 
 reasoning, to infer ; that in the third part, where 
 the first formations were as essential to the 
 structure of the globe, as in the two former to 
 the structures of their respective systems, the 
 first formations were likewise produced in their 
 full perfection perfect rock ; and we have seen, 
 that the indications of sensible phenomena can 
 have no authority whatever in this question. 
 To conclude then to a chaos, for that third part 
 of matter, in the present state of our knowledge, 
 is far more monstrous than the conclusion to 
 an universal chaos, in the heathen world. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 87 
 
 The pretended analogies by which it is at- PART I. 
 tempted to be maintained, are too fallacious to CHAIVVIII. 
 affect the judgment of any one who is at all 
 at the pains to think for himself, and who does 
 not permit the thread of his thoughts to be 
 intersected. " In the present order of nature, 
 " (says the mineral geology,) we observe that 
 " animals and vegetables advance by a compara- 
 " tively slow progression to maturity; such 
 " appears also to have been the order of nature 
 " in the progression of our planet to a tranquil 
 " state 1 ." The false reasoning of this argu- 
 ment needs scarcely to be pointed out : it first 
 takes ground upon a pre-assumption, that our 
 planet actually experienced a progression from a 
 disordered to a tranquil state, (which is the point 
 refused ;) and then it attempts to confirm that 
 pre-assumption by comparisons, which can 
 yield no analogy whatever ; namely, 1 . of the 
 present order of nature, with another supposed 
 antecedent state of things which it equally calls 
 the order of nature; and, 2. of the secondary forma- 
 tions of generated animal and vegetable structures, 
 under that present order, with the Jirst formation 
 of the mineral, in that antecedent state : between 
 which things it is manifest that there can exist 
 
 1 BAKEWELL, Elements of Geology, y. 
 
88 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. no relation of analogy whatever. The "present 
 ~V " order of nature" is a phrase without mean- 
 ing, if it is not intended to express the order 
 established by God at the creation; as Bacon 
 interprets it. But this excludes any pre- 
 existing order of nature, which are words ab- 
 solutely without any meaning at all ; not only 
 in religion and philosophy, but, in common 
 sense, which perceives, that nature is here a 
 slovenly word, borrowed from heathen igno- 
 rance, and only serving for the obscuration of 
 truth. To reason right, the analogy should 
 have been stated, between the jirst formations 
 of all the three kingdoms of matter; between 
 the first man, the first tree, and the first rock, 
 before the present order of nature commenced 
 its operation ; and the time requisite for the first 
 formation of the two first of these being found, 
 would give the time requisite for the first form- 
 ation of the third. But, what inference can 
 be drawn concerning it, from " the comparative 
 " slow progression to maturity" of generated 
 animals, or propagated trees, in the present 
 order of nature? The supposition of a primitive 
 chaotic fluid, or confused mixture of elements 
 produced by the Creator, is the supposition of 
 an Imperfect creation ; but, the tender condition 
 of nascent animals, or vegetables, under the 
 present laws of generation, is no imperfect 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 89 
 
 creation, but a beautiful part and sequence of PART I. 
 that first formation, in which the first animals, 
 
 f WAP VTTT 
 
 and first vegetables, were created perfect. If the 
 mineral geology could show it to be probable, 
 that the first man, and the first tree, subsisted 
 at first an " imperfect substance, which day by 
 " day was fashioned, when as yet there was none 
 " of them," then indeed it might infer with 
 consistency, " the comparatively slow progres- 
 " sion of our planet, from a state of chaos, 
 " to a state of maturity ;" but that it never can 
 do ; and therefore, it can never draw that in- 
 ference from the laws now operating in generated 
 beings, without renouncing all pretensions to 
 the faculty of conducting a logical argument. 
 There is a reason for the slow progression of 
 generation ; but there is no reason for slow pro- 
 gression v& first formations. 
 
 Again, it would argue by analogy ; and it 
 asks, " W r hy are there mountains on the globe?" 
 which question it immediately answers, exult- 
 ingly, with this other question : " Why are there 
 " pyramids in Egypt ?" as if it should say, " Are 
 " you answered now?" And it adds; that " the 
 " course which the antiquary pursues in his 
 t( researches concerning pyramids, marks out 
 " that of the geologist, with respect to moun- 
 " tains, and their bases, our continents 1 ." It 
 
 1 DE Luc, Lrttres Gtohgiques, p. 5. 
 
90 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE - 
 
 PART I. then shows, that in each there must be materials 
 and operation; but it forgets, that in the pyramid, 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 the materials must precede the operation ; whereas y 
 in mountains, the operation must precede the 
 materials. In the pyramid, there must be ma- 
 terials before the artificers can act; in the moun- 
 tain, the Artificer must act, before there can be 
 materials. In the one case we are led to inquire, 
 from whence did the artificers procure the ma- 
 terials ? but, in the other, how did the Artificer 
 produce the materials ? that is, what was the mode 
 of their first formation ? What true analogy, then, 
 can there be between the two cases, if closely ex- 
 amined ? But, from not examining them closely, 
 and limiting its view to a vague resemblance, 
 between the strata of soils in mountains, and 
 the layers of masonry in pyramids, it contents 
 itself with that resemblance ; and it con- 
 cludes, " we should indeed be very far behind 
 " hand in geology, if we were not able to dis- 
 " cover, from whence the materials proceeded of 
 " which those strata were formed 1 ." And from 
 whence does it at length discover that they 
 ultimately did proceed? From a chemical chaos, 
 or " confused assemblage of elements, of which 
 " water was the basis ; and it is from this first 
 " mixture, that all substances whatever, which 
 " engage our observation or experience, formed 
 
 1 DE Luc, Lett. Gcol. p. 7. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 91 
 
 " themselves* " And this " discovery' is to be PART I. 
 imposed upon us, as a result of " the happy re- 
 " volution, effected by Bacon and Newton in the 
 " studies of the natural sciences!" 
 
 But, says the mineral geology, " every propo- 
 " sition in the physical sciences, which does not 
 " result simply and immediately from the ob- 
 " servation of a manifest fact, can only be an 
 " induction drawn, by analogy, from facts which 
 " are known; this is an incontestable principle 
 " of all sound logic 2 /' There can be no doubt 
 of the truth of this maxim ; but the validity of 
 the induction must depend, entirely and abso- 
 lutely, upon the soundness of the analogy. Every 
 degree of unsoundness in the analogy, will impart 
 its defect to the induction; and as the pre- 
 ceding analogies proposed, between the mode of 
 the Jirst formation of the earth and that of 
 secondary formations, are utterly and palpably 
 unsound, so must the induction deduced from 
 them be utterly unsound also. 
 
 The mineral geology does not seem to be 
 aware, how baseless a fabric . it constructs, in 
 founding its doctrine of Jirst mineral formation on 
 secondary causes. " The first basis of geology 
 " founded on facts," says de Luc, "is certainly 
 " an exact knowledge of the mineral strata, 
 
 1 See above, page 20. f D'AUBUISSON, Tom. ii. 603. 
 
92 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. " which compose the mass of our continents 
 " subject to our observation; for, these strata, 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 ' the formation of which has entirely ceased, 
 " must have been the effect of primordial causes, 
 " ivhich no longer subsist" To the same 
 purpose D'Aubuisson, but with greater con- 
 sideration : " The nature of this cause, and the 
 " manner in which it acted, are most likely re- 
 " moved for ever from our knowledge: no effect of 
 " the same kind is ever now produced: all the 
 " circumstances of the division of the mineral 
 " masses into beds and strata, both in their 
 " primitive and actual states, are very far from 
 " being known to us; and, in concluding this 
 " subject, we are constrained to say, that to 
 " determine respecting stratification, its cir- 
 " cu instances, -and its laws, still remains a pro- 
 " blem to be resolved, and is perhaps the most 
 " important one in geognosy " Thus also Cuvier: 
 " We remain in utter ignorance respecting the 
 " causes, which have given rise to the variety 
 " in the mineral substances of which strata 
 " are composed. We are ignorant even of the 
 " agents which may have held some of these 
 " substances in a state of solution; and it 
 " is still disputed respecting several of them, 
 " whether they have owed their origin to the 
 " agency of water, or of fire 1 " 
 
 1 23, p. 70. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 93 
 
 That every effect must have a cause, is a PART L 
 truth which all the evil ingenuity of Hume 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 could not invalidate ; for he confirmed it while 
 he laboured to impugn it, by proving, that he 
 was striving to render his own sophistry the 
 cause, of the effect of scepticism in others. But 
 it does not necessarily follow, because every 
 effect must have a cause, that every sensible 
 physical effect must have a secondary physical 
 cause; on the contrary, we know that there 
 must have been, and there still must be, many 
 sensible physical effects, which can only be 
 ascribed to a Jlrst physical cause ; and we 
 have found, that the Jirst physical cause is the 
 Creator. 
 
 Now, in order to establish the legitimate 
 relation of cause and effect, subordinately to the 
 first cause, it is indispensably necessary, either 
 that the cause should have been known in the 
 course of actual operation, or the effect in course 
 of actual production ; in either of which cases, 
 we may securely pronounce of the relation of 
 cause and effect. To these alone Newton as- 
 signed the denomination of phenomena ; and he 
 affirmed, that " whatever cannot be deduced from 
 " phenomena, is to be called hypothesis; and that 
 hypotheses, whether metaphysical, physical, of 
 occult qualities, or mechanical, are not to be 
 
 fe 
 
94 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. " admitted in experimental philosophy 1 ." But, 
 if neither of these have ever been known, how 
 
 CHAP. VIII. ,, , . n i i-i .11 i *.- 
 
 fundamentally hypothetical must be the relation 
 alleged ! And who ever knew a granite rock, in 
 course of production, or a menstruum exhibiting 
 a cause capable of producing it ? Mineral geology 
 says, that it infers it, because the crystalline 
 substance of rock must have had a cause. So 
 must the calcareous substance of bone, and the 
 fibrous substance of wood, have had a cause ; 
 but, if it was first-formed, created bone, or first- 
 formed, created wood, it most assuredly had not a 
 secondary physical cause, whatever were the ap- 
 pearances, which the mineral geology call pheno- 
 mena; and, if it is Jirst-formed, created rock, it had 
 not a secondary physical cause, whatever are its 
 appearances. Yet, we know that there are now 
 secondary causes which produce bone and 
 wood ; but we know of no secondary cause 
 that produces granite. And the reason appears 
 to be obvious : for, the animal creation was to 
 subsist, by succession to the first-formed individuals ; 
 and therefore, laws for securing that succession, 
 by the multiplication of individuals, were neces- 
 sary: but, the mineral creation was to subsist, 
 permanently in its first-formed individuals ; there- 
 
 Pr. Math. Schol. General 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 95 
 
 fore, no laws for their multiplication were ne- PART i 
 cessary. And from this consideration alone, 
 accrues a very powerful moral evidence; that 
 the first mineral formations, which are still per- 
 manent, were formed by no other mode than 
 that which formed the first animals, which have 
 been succeeded by generation. 
 
 When, therefore, the mineral geology ascribes 
 the first formation of rocks to the mode of crys- 
 tallization in an universal tfyweows fluid, it assumes 
 an effect which was never known in course of 
 production, and explains it by an assumed cause, 
 which was never known in course of operation. 
 And what is this in philosophy, but assuming an 
 occult cause ; and in reason, but assuming a fiction 
 instead of a fact, for the basis of a science? For 
 the water- geologist, who maintains the crystalli- 
 zation of granite by water, is obliged at the same 
 time to acknowledge the fact of crystallization 
 by fire, in some instances ; and since we have 
 never witnessed the crystallization of granite at 
 all, either by water or by fire, the system that 
 would determine the mode of its formation to 
 water, absolutely, can have no real foundation. 
 
 The water -geologist, indeed, ascribes all 
 formations, primary and secondary, to water, 
 while the fire-geologist ascribes them all to fire; 
 which resembles " the glorious uncertainty," ir- 
 reverently ascribed to the law ; and ha* given 
 
96 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART L cause to an eminent chemical philosopher to 
 observe : " geologists arrive at conclusions dia- 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 ' " metrically opposite; upon which a clever 
 writer remarks, ' that among all the wonders 
 " geology presents to our view, the confidence 
 " of the theorists is the most unaccountable 1 .'" 
 But, there is still room for fancy to play 
 between the two; for, why might not those 
 formations be ascribed to both agents, in 
 succession? Why might not the primary 
 formations have been caused by fire, and the 
 secondary by water? Why, after a mineral 
 globe had been formed by igneous fusion, might 
 not a revolution have been effected by an 
 aqueous fluid? for we are certain of the 
 existence, and of the power, of both those 
 agents in the globe. Why then are we to con- 
 tend for the one, or for the other, exclusively ? 
 and why might they not have operated in alter- 
 nation ? Here is still a ground-plot left, to attempt 
 the raising a new system. The argument is so 
 entirely and essentially hypothetical on both 
 sides, that this last supposition may be just as 
 defensible as either of the other two. The 
 Neptunian has established the fact against Hut- 
 ton, that secondary formations are of aqueous 
 production ; by showing, that the perfect pre- 
 
 BRANDS, Manual of Chemistry, v. iii. p. 230. 
 
I 
 
 MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 97 
 
 serration of sea-shells in inland soils could not PART I. 
 have taken place, if the revolution which trans- 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 ported them thither had been effected byjire ; 
 for the shells, being calcareous, must have been 
 dissolved, and mingled with the general mass 1 . 
 But, he would infer from thence, that primary 
 formations must likewise have been of aqueous 
 production 2 ; which is more than his premises 
 can yield. He has refuted Hutton, indeed, in the 
 one argument, but he has left him as strong as 
 ever in the other : and yet, not a whit stronger 
 than himself; for, the force of their arguments 
 is so nearly poised and balanced, that they 
 neutralize each other. The result is, that there 
 will remain for ever a ground for hypothetical 
 contest between the two ; and, therefore, as 
 there exists no accessory weight of truth to de- 
 termine the scale definitively on either side, the 
 just conclusion is, that both are equally erro- 
 neous with respect to fact ; consequently, that 
 " the crystalline character stamped upon the pri- 
 " mitive mineral masses" was not stamped by 
 either of the secondary causes assigned ; but, that 
 it was impressed by the -first, Creating Cause, 
 who anticipated the effects of each, in giving 
 
 1 D'AUBUISSON, torn. i. p. 381. 3 Ibid. p. 388. 
 
 H 
 
 
9S A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. to those masses " the properties which most con- 
 CHAP vin " d uce d to the end for which He formed them." 
 
 A principal and obvious " end" of those "pro- 
 " per ties" as we have seen, was the solidity and 
 durability resulting from the grain and texture 
 of their composition ; so that the granite sum- 
 mits, traversed by Hannibal 2000 years ago, 
 are identically the same which we now witness ; 
 and we are sure that they stood identically the 
 same, twice 2000 years before him. Whatever 
 may be the destructive and wasting power of 
 the atmospheric agents upon some bodies, it 
 is null with respect to these, and therefore 
 idle to take account of it in geology; and it 
 is only resorted to, to aid a limping system. 
 We discern a manifest " end," likewise, in their 
 " sizes" and their "Jigures ;" for, to the alti- 
 tude of the former, is owing the accumulation of 
 supplies for the rivers which are to irrigate the 
 globe ; and, to the prolongations and incli- 
 nations of the latter, are owing the conduct 
 and direction of the rivers which actually 
 irrigate it. And how is it possible to contem- 
 plate the unchangeable arrangement, by which 
 all these perfect means conduce to their several 
 perfect ends, without " rendering immediately 
 " to GOD, the things which arc GOD'S ! " 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 99 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IT is revolting to reason, and therefore to true PART I. 
 philosophy, to observe how strenuously physical 
 science labours to exclude the Creator from the 
 details of His own creation ; straining every 
 nerve of ingenuity, to ascribe them all to 
 secondary causes. Can it be aware that, in so 
 doing, it is moving in the very direction which 
 leads, and which ever has led, to material- 
 ism, practical, if not theoretical ; and, there- 
 fore, in the very opposite direction to that in 
 which Bacon and Newton, of whom it makes its 
 boast, always moved ? And that, in every de- 
 gree in which it despoils the Creator, in order 
 to furnish the fiction which it extols under the 
 unmeaning term of Nature, it in the same de- 
 gree disclaims the philosophy of Bacon and 
 Newton, and sanctions the doctrine of Epicurean 
 atheism ? for, the atheism of Epicurus was not 
 a denial of Deity, but a denial of the action and 
 interference of Deity. 
 
 How different was the proceeding of Newton ! 
 who declared, " When I wrote my treatise about 
 " our system, I had an eye upon such principles 
 " as might work with considering men for the 
 
100 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. " belief of a Deity 1 :' that is, an intelligent, inter- 
 fering, and operating Deity. Hence it was, that 
 
 JLJV, 
 
 he taught : ' Hsec omnia, simili consilio con- 
 " structa, suberunt UNIUS dominio : Hie 
 " omnia regit, non ut Anima Mundi, sed ut 
 " universorum Dominus. Et propter domi- 
 " ilium simm, Dominus Deus navTox^arwp dici 
 " solet. Nam Deus est vox relativa, et ad 
 " servos refertur; et deitas ac dominatio Dei, 
 " non in corpus proprium, uti sentiunt quibus 
 " Deus est anima mundi, sed in servos*. All 
 " these things, constructed by the same Wis- 
 " dom, are subject to the dominion of ONE 
 " alone. HE, rules them all; not as a soul of 
 " the world, but as the Lord and Master of the 
 " universe ; and, on account of His own proper 
 " dominion, He is called, the Lord God Almighty. 
 " For God, is a relative term ; and relates to 
 " servants, or ministers ; and the godship and 
 " domination of God is, not over His own frame, 
 " as those supposed who considered Him only 
 " as the soul of the world; but, over His ser- 
 " vants or ministers" 
 
 But, does the mineral geology exhibit any 
 demonstration, that it " has an eye upon any such 
 " principles," in the management of its science ? 
 
 1 First Letter to Eentky. 
 
 8 Princip. Matk. L. iii. Sckol. General 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 101 
 
 It is vain to say, that it presupposes a first, PART I. 
 Intelligent Cause ; and therefore, that it has no CH 7T IX 
 need to propound it. It is indispensably ne- 
 cessary to propound it, like Newton ; and not 
 only to propound it, but to proclaim it, like 
 him ; and not only to proclaim it once, and 
 then to have done with it, but to recur to it 
 repeatedly and constantly, like him, as a first 
 principle never to be lost sight of; that, in so 
 intricate and dangerous a labyrinth, the mind 
 may holdfast by it, as a clue never to be relin- 
 quished ; lest, if it should once lose that clue, 
 it should stray further and further from the 
 only secure road, into the gloomy entangle- 
 ments of error, and should become ultimately 
 lost in all the horrors of moral darkness. He 
 who teaches a science, is understood to ground 
 it upon the Jirst principle which he propounds ; 
 and when that first principle is nature and 
 chemistry, when that nature is personified, and 
 when creative acts are ascribed to it; such 
 doctrine is fundamentally unscientific and un- 
 philosophical, if brought to the test of Bacon 
 and Newton; and essentially profane and im- 
 pious, if brought to the test of Revelation. It 
 is manifest, that the mineral geology, considered 
 as a science, can do as well without God, (though 
 in a question concerning the Origin of the Earth,} 
 
102 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. as Lucretius did ; and that, like him, it would 
 relieve God from all personal trouble in produc- 
 
 CHAP. IX. . 
 
 ing the wonderful arrangements of this globe. 
 Like Lucretius, it says in effect : 
 
 Quse bene cognita si teneas : Natura videtur 
 
 Libera continue Dominis privata superbis 
 
 Ipsa sua per se sponte omnia Diis agere expers ' : 
 
 If then you'll understand, you'll plainly see 
 
 How the vast mass of matter, Nature free 
 
 From th' proud care of th' meddling Deity, 
 
 Doth work by Her own private strength, and move 
 
 Without the trouble of the powers above. CREECH. 
 
 but, " The Creator of the ends of the earth faint- 
 " eth not "!" It may cry out at the assertion; 
 but it will not be at calumny, but at the dis- 
 covery of a truth of which it was unaware. 
 All that it requires, scientifically, is the presence 
 of unordered matter, with freedom to submit it 
 to Nature and Her chemical process. It signifies 
 little, to every overt end which it propounds, 
 whether it finds that confused matter existing 
 from eternity, or whether it obtains it in the 
 form of a spheroid of elemental mud, produced by 
 no very intelligent power. Like Lucretius, it 
 again says, in effect; 
 
 II. 1066. ' Isaiah, xl. 28. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 103 
 
 quom materies est multa parata, PART I. 
 
 Quom locus est praesto, nee res nee causa moratur 
 
 Ulla, geri debent nimirum, et confieri res 1 . CHAP. IX. 
 
 With matter ample, space, and causal force, 
 Formation follows as a thing of course. 
 
 There is no doubt, that by submitting its 
 mud 2 to its process, it might make for itself a 
 very ingenious mineral earth in the laboratory 
 of its imagination ; but then, it could never 
 succeed in clothing that earth with vegetation, 
 nor in peopling it with inhabitants, with all its 
 ingenuity and all its chemistry. And therefore, 
 since that is the case, it may assure itself; that 
 until it shall assign a MODE of first formation, 
 which can not only crystallize a mineral earth, 
 but moreover attach to it, when crystallized, 
 an investiture of vegetable and animal life, it 
 has not apprehended the true mode of the first 
 formation of this mineral globe. 
 
 Deduct from the intelligence of a First Cause, 
 and we sap our rational belief of a First Cause 
 in the same proportion. It is in vain to say, 
 that the wisdom which we extol in the laws of 
 
 1 LUCRETIUS, ii. 1068. 
 
 1 This ?nud, is a very venerable geological antique ; it is no 
 other than the pur, mot, of the old Phoenician cosmogony : 
 " MOT, limum nonnulli, alii aquosce mixtionis putredinem esse 
 " volunt. Hinc factum est seminium omnis creatures, et 
 " omnium rerum creatio." BHUCKERI Hist. Phil. T, i. p. 240. 
 
104 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. Nature, we ascribe ultimately to the Author of 
 Nature ; for, His intelligence is questioned, in 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 proportion as secondary causes are supposed to 
 execute functions which reason sees to pertain 
 exclusively to a First Cause. To assume arbi- 
 trarily, a priori, that God created the matter 
 of this globe in the most imperfect state to 
 which the gross imagination of man can contrive, 
 to reduce it, which it effectually does, by re- 
 ducing the creative Fiat to the mere produc- 
 tion of a spheroid of elementary mud ; and then 
 to pretend, that His intelligence and wisdom 
 are to be collected from certain laws, by which 
 He enabled that mud to work itself into perfec- 
 tion, after innumerable ages ; would tend to 
 lessen our sense, either of the divine wisdom or 
 power, did not the supposition recoil with tre- 
 mendous reaction upon the supposers, and con- 
 vict them of the grossest irrationality. The 
 supposition is totally arbitrary ; and not only 
 arbitrary, but viciously arbitrary; because it 
 is totally unnecessary, and therefore betrays a 
 vice of choice. For, the laws of matter could 
 not work perfection in the mass which the 
 Creator is thus supposed to have formed imper- 
 fect, unless by a power imparted by Himself, 
 who established the laws. And, if He could 
 thus produce perfection mediately, through their 
 operation, He could produce it immediately, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 105 
 
 without their operation. Why, then, wantonly PART I. 
 and viciously, choose the supposition of their ' 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 mediation ? It is entirely a decision of choice and 
 preference, that is, of the will; for, the reason 
 is no party in it, neither urging, suggesting, nor 
 in any way aiding or abetting the decision, but, 
 on the contrary, positively denying and con- 
 demning it. The vast length of time, which this 
 sinistrous choice is necessarily obliged to call 
 in for its own defence, could only be requisite 
 to the Creator for overcoming difficulties ob- 
 structing the perfecting process; it therefore 
 chooses to suppose, that He created obstructions 
 in matter, to resist and retard the perfecting 
 of the work which He designed ; while, at the 
 same time, He might have perfected it without 
 any resistance at all, by His own Creative 
 Act. 
 
 Or, does the mineral geology form its no- 
 tion of the Creator by so abject a standard, 
 as to imagine, that His infinite intelligence 
 created for Himself an interest, or an amusement 
 of curiosity, in watching the precipitation and 
 crystallization of the elements of His muddy 
 spheroid during a flux of ages, because itself 
 watches for several hours, with patient and 
 solemn sagacity, the progress of crystallization 
 in its own phial ; and that the difference of 
 
106 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. the two cases consists in the differences of 
 CHAP" ix <l uan tity an d time? In fact, it reasons from 
 itself to the Creator. But, why does it wait all 
 those hours for its crystals ? Because it cannot 
 have them any sooner, and is therefore obliged 
 to wait for them ; because it is constrained by 
 laws which it cannot control, and to which it 
 must therefore fain submit : if it could accele- 
 rate the process, it would not wait those hours. 
 If it was equally in its power, to obtain the 
 crystals by a process causing several hours' 
 delay, or by one that would yield them to it 
 at once, which would it deem the most in- 
 telligent selection for itself to make? If it 
 would not choose the former, why is it, arbi- 
 trarily and without any suggestion from reason, 
 to ascribe such choice to the Intelligent Creator? 
 It will no doubt reply, by the argument ; that 
 there is no such thing as time, no delay or ac- 
 celeration, with respect to God. But it 
 establishes no right to this subterfuge ; for the 
 previous question is refused it. Yet, grant it 
 the right ; and the argument will be found 
 most shallow and superficial. No doubt, there 
 is neither delay nor acceleration with relation 
 to God Himself ; but, with respect to His 
 creation, there is always that relation of time, 
 which He has demonstrated to be the rule of 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 107 
 
 His counsels with respect to this earth ; and it PART I. 
 argues a great infirmity of reasoning, not to 
 perceive the incongruity and inconsistency of 
 ascribing innumerable ages to the precipitation 
 of a brute globe, the great moral interests of 
 which were to pass away with such compara- 
 tive rapidity. 
 
 But, those laws, which the mineral geology 
 supposes to have required so many ages for 
 precipitating and crystallizing the primordial 
 rocks and primitive substances of this earth, 
 did not control the Creator ; since they must 
 have been of His own enactment. To suppose 
 then, a priori, and without the slightest motive 
 prompted by reason, that His wisdom willed 
 at the same time both the formation of a per- 
 fect work, and a series of resistances to ob- 
 struct and delay that perfect work, argues a 
 gross defect of intelligence somewhere ; either 
 in the Creator or in the supposer ; and I leave it to 
 this science to determine the alternative. " Na- 
 " ture," it says, " has time at her disposal, it 
 " is nothing to her; to her, it is as indefinite 
 " as space:' 1 it would better have said, that 
 the mineral geologist has time at the disposal 
 of his extravagant and undisciplined fancy, and 
 that it is nothing to him. But, since physical 
 science has of late been compelled, by the pro- 
 gress of physical research, to acknowledge ; that 
 
108 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. all the great and multitudinous events which 
 CH ~ IX fill up the histories of the nations occupying 
 the present surface of our globe, have fallen 
 within a compass of time not exceeding that 
 which has elapsed since the Mosaical epocha of 
 the Deluge; it might have acquired a sense of 
 the absurdity of supposing, that innumerable 
 ages were employed in laying the pavement of 
 a theatre, on which so brief a drama was to be 
 acted. Sound philosophy contemptuously re- 
 jects such an auxiliary as time, in concluding 
 of the MODE of first formations. It is not needed 
 for the service of truth; but, merely to lend a 
 helping hand to physical adventure, when it has 
 rambled beyond the light of truth. If time is 
 nothing to God, and this is the only rational 
 meaning that can be bestowed upon the pro- 
 position, " time is nothing to Nature J ," it is 
 evident, that He has no need of it ; and it is much 
 more philosophical in that case to suppose, 
 that He did not employ it in FIRST FORMATIONS, 
 than to suppose, that He employed it profusely 
 and prodigally, when He did not need it. 
 
 It, is a singular fatality, and a fact pregnant 
 with instructive virtue, that the mineral geology, 
 while it lays claim to a rank in the school of 
 Newton, should nevertheless have lapsed into 
 
 1 See above, p. 24. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 109 
 
 the very error against which he warned it ; PART I- 
 viz. " the derivation of this admirably ordered CHAP. ix. 
 " globe from the elements of a chaos, by the 
 " mere laws of Nature ;" and that it should 
 thus* have concluded, by attracting to itself the 
 very stigma of " unphilosophical" which Newton 
 posted up as the term of his warning. This, 
 however, has necessarily resulted from the 
 causes which have been exposed ; namely, its 
 delusion with respect to primitive phenomena, 
 and its consequent defective and unskilful em- 
 ployment of the method of analysis and induc- 
 tion, in laying the basis of its science. By not 
 rendering the analysis universal and complete, 
 in imitation of Newton, it failed to ascend to 
 the common cause of the first formations of all 
 material things, and to combine them all in 
 equal relation to that cause; and it thereby ex- 
 cluded from its philosophy every moral prin- 
 ciple, limiting its speculations to physical 
 principles only. 
 
 It is exactly by this exclusion, that it demon- 
 strates itself altogether alien from Newton. It 
 concludes, from physical principles only ; New- 
 ton, from physical principles always subjected 
 to moral: and, from the differences of these 
 methods has necessarily resulted, the opposi- 
 tion of their respective conclusions. In the 
 intuitive logic of Newton's mind, morals and 
 
110 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. physics were indissolubly articulated together, 
 CHAP" ix anc ^ termmate d jointly in God. Newton held 
 the connexion of natural and moral philo- 
 sophy to be so intimate, that the latter 
 must necessarily be extended by the sound 
 extension of the former; so that if the lat- 
 ter be not proportionately extended, all ex- 
 tension in the former is unsound and vi- 
 cious. " If," said he, " natural philosophy, in 
 " all its parts, by pursuing this method (analy- 
 " sis and induction*), shall at length be per- 
 " fected, the bounds of moral philosophy will be 
 " also enlarged. For, so far as we can know 
 " by natural philosophy what is the FIRST 
 " CAUSE, what power HE has over us, and 
 " what benefits we receive from HIM, so far 
 " our duty towards HIM, as well as that to- 
 " wards one another, will appear to us by the 
 " light of Nature 1 ." 
 
 And it would be so advanced by geology also, 
 were it perfected according to Newton's phi- 
 losophy ; concluding from universal analysis to 
 a First common and intelligent Cause, " creating, 
 " and setting in the order most conducive to 
 " the ends for which He formed them," every 
 Jirst formation of His universe. Physics and 
 morals are to the corporate sum of human 
 
 1 Optics ', 1. iii. in fin. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. Ill 
 
 knowledge, what the vascular and nervous sys- PART L 
 terns are to the animal body. Where the 
 animal frame is perfect, those systems insepa- 
 rably and equally accompany each other, in all 
 their processes and ramifications. The vascular 
 system supplies substance and bulk ; the 
 nervous, sense and conscious life. We know, 
 that the vascular system may supply bulk 
 beyond the extent of the nervous branches, or, 
 after they have perished ; but, all those parts 
 are without sense and feeling. And so, in the 
 body of human knowledge, are all those 
 elongations of physical science, which grow 
 beyond the growth of the moral knowledge 
 with which they ought always to preserve a 
 parallel ; either by not attempting to exceed 
 the moral measure, or by being careful to 
 cause the moral branch to grow in equal pro- 
 portion with the physical. Otherwise, they 
 show only as the monstrous, or the paralyzed, 
 members of the system to which they pertain. 
 
 But, what growth or advancement can 
 moral philosophy acquire from mineral geo- 
 logy ; proceeding, from imperfect and defective 
 analysis, to a conclusion of Nature, personified, 
 and invested with the attributes of deity ? 
 Such a conclusion shuts out the First Cause, 
 the First Physical and Moral Principle, from the 
 mental view; and substitutes in its place a 
 
112 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. counterfeit power, to receive all the homage of 
 the mind. The existence of that First Cause 
 
 CH4P IX 
 
 may, perhaps, be adverted to ; but He is then 
 consigned to repose and inaction ; and the phy- 
 sical philosopher, having discharged the pre- 
 liminary formality, deems himself at liberty to 
 proceed without Him ; and to speculate, in full 
 freedom, on the laws of matter or of nature. 
 If this is Newton's philosophy, it is Newton s 
 philosophy palsy-struck. TOUTO cux ETro^tri 1 , " this 
 " did not," NEWTON ! 
 
 Philo remarked, " that there ivere those who 
 " were more engaged in admiring THE WORLD 
 " ITSELF, than the MAKER OF THE WORLD; 
 " and who falsely attributed to Him, an INACTION 
 
 " in it: nvts rov xo<r/*ov /xaAAoi/ n TOV Ko<rfj.o7roiov 
 
 f and he cautioned them, " not 
 " to reverence it IMMODERATELY" pn TTASOI/ TOU 
 jufrpiou aTToo-s/xi/uvai 2 , lest it should draw aside their 
 contemplation from that which should princi- 
 pally engage it; namely, its First Cause and 
 Omnipotent Creator. It is offensive, to observe 
 how commonly this is the case in the natural 
 sciences even at the present day ; although we 
 are existing in a focus, in which are combined 
 and concentred all the united lights of reformed 
 
 1 John, viii. 40. 2 PIIILO, T. i. p. 2. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 113 
 
 philosophy and of revelation. Such deter- PART I. 
 mined averseness to admit God, as the first 
 physical principle, in the pale of sciences wholly 
 conversant in His own works, can only be paral- 
 leled by the conduct of our first parents imme- 
 diately after the Fall ; when " they heard the 
 " voice of God, and hid themselves from His 
 " presence among the trees of the garden." 
 Equally unhallowed is the demonstration which 
 the natural sciences make, when they abandon 
 Newton, proclaiming GOD as the immediate 
 and sole cause, not only of the existence, but 
 of the order, of all first formations, and the 
 first principle, moral and physical, in universal 
 science ; and when they palm upon us Nature, 
 as His proxy or substitute. An heathen phi- 
 losopher could discover, that Nature can be no 
 other than God. " A man says, Nature gyves me 
 " these things : (exclaimed Seneca). Do you not 
 " understand, that when you say this, you are 
 " only changing the name of GOD ? For, what 
 " else is Nature, but GOD, and the divine 
 " reason 1 ?" " I have often wondered, (said the 
 " excellent Boyle, above a century ago,) that 
 " in so inquisitive an age as this, among those 
 " learned that have, with much freedom, as 
 
 1 SENECA de Bencf. iv. c. 7. 
 
114 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. " well as acuteness, written of the works of 
 " Nature (as they call them), and some of 
 
 CHAP. IX* 
 
 ' them, of the principles too, I have not met 
 " with any that has made it his business to 
 " write of Nature herself. This will perhaps, 
 " hereafter, be thought such an omission, as 
 " if one should particularly treat of the barrel, 
 " wheels, string, balance, index, and other 
 " parts of a watch, without examining the 
 <f nature of THE SPRING, that sets all these a- 
 tf moving 1 " We have not much improved, 
 since Boyle wrote this admonitory stricture ; 
 for we have seen, that the mineral geology speaks 
 of Nature, in terms that would have provoked 
 the natural theology of Seneca. An eminent 
 mineral geologist asks; " Why should not 
 <' natural history one day hare its Newton 2 ? " 
 There is no reason why it should not : but, 
 this we may venture to affirm, peremptorily; 
 that it will never have that Newton, unless, 
 following in the steps of his illustrious proto- 
 type, he shall so conduct his science, as to 
 conclude, from the most general analysis, to the 
 wisdom and power of an Intelligent Agent, as 
 
 ' Free Inquiry into the Received Notion of Natute. Prtf. 
 ? CUWER, Theory of the Earth, 1. p. 27. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 115 
 
 the immediate cause both of the being and perfect PAST I. 
 arrangement of all Jirst formations ; and unless 
 his natural philosophy shall proceed by a course, 
 which shall at the same time equally advance 
 the progress of moral philosophy. 
 
116 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 W 'A\>V' -'WttVx* 0/(l 
 ' vo^v^wniV 
 
 \VV'V 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 i 
 
 PART I. WE have now determined the question, con- 
 cerning the authority of sensible phenomena, for 
 deciding the mode of Jirst formations in the mineral 
 kingdom of matter,by applying the same question 
 to the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; and sound 
 philosophy clearly perceives, that their authority 
 is precisely the same in all the three ; and that 
 the mineral geology can advance no one plea 
 in objection, which might not have been equally 
 advanced, and with equal futility, by anatomy 
 and natural history. It therefore concludes 
 of the " skeleton, or frame-work of this globe," 
 the " magnce ossaparentis" as of the skeleton of 
 created man : That it was not produced by any 
 secondary cause, but by the immediate act of the 
 First, Intelligent, Omnipotent Cause ; and that 
 it is unphilosophical, to seek any other origin for 
 its form and composition, or to pretend, that these 
 might have arisen out of a chaos, chaotic ocean, 
 or confused assemblage of elements, by the mere 
 laws of Nature. And thus, the whole order of 
 Jirst mineral formations, or simple primitive rocks 
 and earths, together with all their strata and all 
 their varieties, are withdrawn from the specula- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 117 
 
 tions of the mineral geology, respecting the mode PART L 
 of their production ; so that it may only exer- 
 cise those speculations, philosophically , upon that 
 remaining order of minerals, which, by bearing 
 incontestable evidence of alteration, either by 
 decomposition, recomposition, or mechanical action, 
 prove themselves to be distinct in circumstance 
 from the former. 
 
 To what cause, then, it will exclaim, 
 are we to ascribe the regular successive 
 strata in the first mineral formations, pre- 
 vious to the disturbance of which they bear 
 the evidence ? I ask, in reply : To what cause 
 are we to ascribe the regular successive lamina 
 in the shell of foe first tortoise ; or the regular 
 successive folds in the wood of the first tree; or 
 the regular successive compartments in the pulp 
 of the first orange ? The final cause, in each, 
 was the end to which it was to serve ; the effi- 
 cient cause, was the intelligent power which 
 sought those ends ; to whom, all created mag- 
 nitudes are equal. 
 
 To what cause, it will again exclaim, are we 
 to ascribe the characteristic diversities of granite, 
 porphyry, serpentine, &c. ? I again reply, by 
 asking : To what cause are we to ascribe the 
 diversity, of the ivory of the first elephant, and 
 the horn of the first elk ; of the wool of \hzfirst 
 sheep, and the fur of the first ermine ? Those 
 
118 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART I. were first formations, then, as the granite, the 
 porphyry, and the serpentine, continue to be first 
 formations, now. To what cause are we to ascribe 
 the diversity, of spots in the first formed 'pant her, of 
 stripes in the Jirst formed tiger, and of & plain hide 
 in thejirst formed lion? To what are we to ascribe 
 the differing textures, of bone, cartilage, and 
 muscle, in the created animal ? We may as well 
 ascribe all these to differences of secretion and 
 accretion, which never took place, as the diver- 
 sity of primitive rocks to differences of precipi- 
 tation and crystallization, which never took place. 
 Of true first formations, the cause of the being 
 and of the diversity must be the same. Are not 
 use, beauty, and variety, manifest ends in this 
 creation? and, if they are so in the vegetable 
 and animal kingdoms, why are they not to be 
 the same in the mineral ? And, as the Creator 
 at first planted the earth with every tree, not 
 only "good for food," but also " pleasant to 
 " the sight" that is, the sight of man; as He 
 adorned it with the gaiety of flowers, and 
 enlivened it, not only with melody of sounds, 
 but likewise with variety and splendour of co- 
 lours ; so He provided its interior with mineral 
 substances both of use and beauty, to be 
 afterwards drawn forth to light by the activity 
 and industry of man ; imbedding within it His 
 treasuries of ores and gems, and causing to 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 119 
 
 arise from its surface the useful and beautiful PART I. 
 varieties which are found among His primitive CH 7T -_ 
 mineral formations. The philosophy of Bacon 
 and Newton, will never consent to derive these 
 from an elemental chaos. 
 
 I know, that the mineral geology wishes to 
 establish a distinction between the mineral, and 
 the other two kingdoms; and that it claims a 
 sort of scientific property in the former, to 
 which it does not lay equal pretension in the 
 latter ; but, as the distinction it intends is 
 unreal, so its claim can never be realized. 
 " Man" it says, "who has weighed the planets, 
 " and measured their distances, may presume 
 " to trace the operations by which the surface 
 " of the globe has been arranged 1 ." What true 
 analogy can be found between the two cases, 
 or what possible consequence can flow from 
 the one to the other ? What just comparison can 
 be made, between the measurement of present 
 objects of sense, and the recovery of past facts 
 of history? Because we can apply rules of 
 arithmetic or mathematics to present objects, 
 we are not therefore, capacitated to recal past 
 events. In the former case, we carry the evi- 
 dence of the truth along with us; in the latter, 
 
 1 See above, p. 15. 
 
120 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 PART I. we must seek it elsewhere, for we can never 
 find It in the subject matter of our study. 
 
 What, then, is to become of that vast por- 
 tion of the mineral kingdom, of which we 
 would thus despoil the Mineral Geology? 
 
 It is to be restored to, and to be committed 
 to the charge of, simple and genuine Mine- 
 ralogy ; that sound and valuable science, to 
 which pertains the cognizance of the mineral 
 natures of the globe, as that of the animal 
 natures pertains to zoology, and that of the vege- 
 table to botany. The zoologist does not speculate 
 on the mode of the formation of the first animal in- 
 dividuals by secondary causes, nor the botanist on 
 that of thejirst vegetable : they severally confine 
 their attention to the characters and properties of 
 the individuals themselves ; which bound their 
 vast and admirable sciences. In the same man- 
 ner, the characters and properties of the mineral 
 individuals, bound the science of mineralogy; 
 but yet leave it an equally wide and luxuriant 
 field, for the exercise of its intelligence. When 
 it would attempt to refer to secondary chemical 
 causes, for the MODE of the first formations of 
 those individuals, it then mistakes its sphere, 
 and becomes Mineral Geology : a science, which 
 is so far from conducting us in the same course 
 with Newton, that it leads us quite the con- 
 trary way. Newton's course leads upwards, to 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 121 
 
 an open and unimpeded issue; at the exit of PART L 
 which we perceive the da wirings of a light, that 
 
 CHAP. X, 
 
 assures us we are near the sources of divine, truth. 
 That of the mineral geology, on the contrary, con- 
 ducts us downwards, to an obscurity ; in which 
 we are presently stopped by a bivium, leading, 
 on the one hand, to a chaos of aqueous solution, 
 and, on the other, to a chaos of igneous fusion. 
 Here we might long hesitate, which path to 
 pursue ; and little would it matter, which of 
 the two we take at last, if we are deter- 
 mined to proceed in that direction ; for, as both 
 are equally remote from the exit to truth, 
 whichever is most pleasing to the palate of 
 the fancy, will yield the greater gratification ; 
 and all that can be obtained from either, is the 
 gratification of the fancy. The Neptunian and 
 Plutonian geologies may here securely contend, 
 in ceaseless equality, for the truth of their re- 
 spective systems ; for, both being equally 
 erroneous in principle, neither can ever become 
 vanquished by the other. 
 
 But, can we seriously contemplate this in-' 
 terminable contest, to dogmatize concerning 
 the first formations of this globe by secondary 
 agencies, without hearing the Voice which spoke 
 " out of the whirlwind, and said: Who is this that 
 
 " DARKENETH COUNSEL BY WORDS WITHOUT 
 
 " KNOWLEDGE? Gird up Thy loins like a man; 
 
122 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. X, 
 
 PART I. " for I will demand of Thee, and answer Thou ME. 
 " Where wast Thou, when I laid the foundations of 
 " the earth ? Declare, if Thou hast understand- 
 " ing. Whereupon are the foundations thereof 
 " fastened? or, WHO laid the corner-stone thereof? 
 " Knowest Thou it, because Thou wast then born ? 
 " or, because the number of Thy days is great l ? " 
 Whereas, if we will take the contrary direc- 
 tion, and travel with Newton ; we shall make 
 the nearest approximation, which the light of 
 unaided reason can make, to the truth of the 
 MODE of Jirst formations, in all the THREE king- 
 doms of terrestrial matter. 
 
 Job, xxxviii. 1. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 123 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IT has been sufficiently shown ; that the root, or PART II. 
 chaotic principle, of the Mineral Geology, cannot 
 endure the test of the reformed philosophy of /HAP - * 
 Newton, to which it appealed. It will hardly 
 expect, that we should enter into an argument 
 to prove that Newton is right; before we infer, 
 from that failure, that its own conclusions are 
 erroneous. Since it has admitted the authority 
 of his philosophy, it must abide by its decision ; 
 and the reader will have seen enough, in the 
 progress of this discussion, to convince him of 
 the just title which that authority possesses to 
 decide the question at issue ; viz. the MODE, by 
 which all Jirst formations of this globe were 
 really produced. He will be sensible, that the 
 highest probability to which the energies of 
 unassisted reason can attain in this question, is 
 only to be found in that philosophy ; and there- 
 fore, that it cannot exist in the opposite philo- 
 
124 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. sophy, which it contradicts, refutes, and repro- 
 bates. The conclusions of the mineral geology 
 upon this point are, therefore, in direct opposition 
 to the highest probability ; and therefore, to say 
 the least, they must be in the highest degree 
 improbable. 
 
 Valuable, however, as the highest probability is, 
 where the certainty of truth cannot be attained ; 
 yet, when the mind has once attained to that emi- 
 nence of secondary evidence, it experiences an 
 eager yearning to advance still higher, in conse- 
 quence of the innate appetite for truth, which 
 characterizes the intellect of man. Let us then 
 inquire, whether this final gratification is abso- 
 lutely withheld from us ; or, whether we may 
 not be able to add, to the sentiment of the highest 
 probability, the consummation of positive cer- 
 tainty. 
 
 That this can only be supplied by competent 
 and positive history, and that physical induction 
 is utterly inadequate to impart it, is a truth 
 felt, and indirectly avowed, by the mineral 
 geology itself. " Before we proceed to deter- 
 " mine causes, (says the ingenuous M. D'Au- 
 " buisson,) let us endeavour to make ourselves 
 " acquainted with their effects. All the cir- 
 " cumstances of the division of mineral masses 
 " into beds and strata, as well as the presence 
 " of these, both in their primitive and actual 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 125 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 " state, are yet far from being known to us; PART II. 
 
 " and we are constrained to say, in closing 
 
 " the subject, that the determination of stratifiV 
 
 " cation, its circumstances, and laws, remain 
 
 " still a problem to be solved ; and it is per- 
 
 " haps the most important of geognosy. We 
 
 " should have nothing more now to do, than 
 
 " to compose an history of the revolutions which 
 
 " have taken place in the terrestrial globe during 
 
 " the formation of its mineral crust; but that 
 
 " those revolutions are of an order which has 
 
 " nothing analogous to the effects which ive see 
 
 " Nature produce. The thread of induction is cut 
 
 " off, it can no longer conduct us: to attempt to 
 
 " advance without its aid, would be voluntarily to 
 
 " lose ourselves in pure hypothesis. Neverthe- 
 
 " less, to Jill up the void, as far as we are 
 
 " permitted, and to show what observation 
 
 " seems to indicate as most probable, and most 
 
 " simple, I shall summarily expose the manner 
 
 " in which Werner represents the changes 
 
 " which progressively took place in the forma- 
 
 " tion of the mineral strata 1 ." He then lays 
 
 down the principle, constituting the root of this 
 
 geology, which we have just tried by the 
 
 criterion of Newton; viz. " that the earth was 
 
 " heretofore covered by a vast chaotic ocean, 
 
 1 Tom. i. 353. 
 
126 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART ir. " very different from our actual seas, and 
 containing the elements of the primitive 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 " earth 1 . 99 
 
 The prudence and judgment of this estim- 
 able geologist are not so conspicuous in the 
 conclusion of this passage, as his ingenuousness 
 is in the former part. He first acknowledges, 
 that a void exists in the physical means of 
 recording an history of the revolutions of the globe, 
 occasioned by the thread of induction being cut 
 off; and, that to attempt to advance without its 
 guidance, is to plunge ourselves into pure 
 hypothesis; and yet he immediately proceeds to 
 supply that void with pure hypothesis, as if the 
 presence of fiction is always a more desirable thing 
 than the absence of truth : a principle, which 
 has been the fruitful source of the most dangerous 
 errors. But, how comes there to be any void? 
 The truth is, that the mineral geology has created 
 the void at which it repines, by rejecting the history 
 which had filled it. And it is the place of the 
 history so rejected, that it fills up with the hy- 
 pothesis which we have confuted by the authority 
 of NEWTON ; whose " thread of induction' has 
 not been " cut off;" but, on the contrary, has 
 conducted us to the measure of the highest 
 
 1 M. D'AUBUISSON, torn, i. 355. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 127 
 
 probability, and therefore, to the verge of that PART II. 
 certainty which can only be supplied by com- 
 petent and positive history. 
 
 It is amusing to observe the confidence, with 
 which the mineral geology offers to contrive an 
 history that shall supply that void; as if we 
 were left totally without one. " The ancient 
 tf history of the globe," it justly remarks, " is one 
 " of the most curious subjects that can engage 
 " the attention of enlightened men ; and if 
 " they take any interest in examining, in the 
 " infancy of our species, the almost obliterated 
 " traces of so many nations that have become 
 " extinct, they will doubtless take a similar 
 " interest in collecting, amidst the darkness 
 " which covers the infancy of the globe, the traces 
 " of those revolutions which took place anterior 
 " to the history of all nations. We admire the 
 " power by which the human mind has 
 " measured the motions of globes, which 
 " nature seemed to have concealed for ever 
 " from our view. Genius and science have 
 " burst the limits of space; and a few observa- 
 " tions, explained by just reasoning, have 
 <* unveiled the mechanism of the universe. 
 ft Would it not also be glorious for man to 
 i burst the limits of time, and, by a few 
 (( observations, to ascertain the history of the 
 
I2S A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " world, and the series of events which preceded 
 " the birth of the human race l V 
 
 CHAP, I. 
 
 It is needless to inquire, what degree of 
 glory would attend the success of the effort ; 
 because we are perfectly certain, that the effort 
 never could be successful. Imagination might 
 be satisfied, and enthusiasm gratified, by the 
 schemes of apparent concinnity which those 
 efforts might produce ; but, stern reason, which 
 only looks to truth and evidence, sees before- 
 hand, that physical induction can never pro- 
 duce a true history of the series of events which 
 preceded the birth of the human race. The 
 certainty of history, must be derived from a 
 source very different in its nature from physical 
 speculation. 
 
 It is wisely observed by Mr. Kirwan; that 
 " past geological facts being of an historical 
 " nature, all attempts to deduce a complete 
 " knowledge of them merely from their still 
 " subsisting consequences, to the exclusion of 
 " unexceptionable testimony, must be deemed 
 " as absurd, as that of deducing the history of 
 " Ancient Rome solely from the medals or 
 " other monuments of antiquity it still exhibits, 
 
 'CUVIER, l.p. 27. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. ] 29 
 
 " or the scattered ruins of its empire, to the PART II. 
 " exclusion of a Livy, a Sallust, or a Ta- 
 
 (e ^ , CHAP. I. 
 
 ' CltUS 1 . 
 
 To add the consummation of certainty to 
 the highest probability, respecting the Jirst 
 formation and the revolutions of this globe, is 
 the peculiar pretension of the Mosaical Geology; 
 and we are now to try the root, m fundamental 
 principle, of this geology, by the same test, by 
 which we have already tried that of the Mineral 
 Geology. 
 
 It is evident to reason, that certainty con- 
 cerning a past fact, such as is the mode by which 
 all material existences were really Jirst formed, 
 must be historical certainty : the subject, there- 
 fore, is no longer a subject for philosophical 
 induction, but for historical testimony ; and, like all 
 other subjects for evidence, demands a voucher, 
 competent to establish its truth. Now, the 
 voucher that could establish the fact, respect- 
 ing the true mode of Jirst formations, must 
 have been a witness of that mode; but the 
 only witness of the mode of Jirst formations, or 
 creations, was the Creator Himself. 
 
 But, how may we presume to hope, that 
 we can obtain the positive testimony of that 
 awful Actor, and sole Witness, of the opera- 
 
 1 KIUWAX, p. 5. 
 K 
 
130 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. tion of Creation? from whom alone we can 
 derive the consummation, of positive certainty. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 As Newton has conducted us to the emi- 
 nence of the highest probability, and therefore to 
 the verge of certainty ; so BACON, to whom the 
 mineral geology equally appeals, shall be our 
 guide, to lead us on to that sacred testimony 
 in which alone the evidence of certainty can 
 subsist ; for, the foundation-stone which he laid 
 for that system of science which produced 
 " the happy revolution effected by himself, and 
 " afterwards by NEWTON, in the studies of the 
 66 natural sciences," was no other than this : 
 
 " Let us FIRST seek for the dignity of science 
 " in its Archetype, or Exemplar, that is, in 
 " the attributes and acts of GOD ; so far as they 
 " are revealed to man, and may be discreetly 
 " investigated by him. In which inquiry, we 
 " are not to speak of doctrine, since all doctrine 
 " is acquired knowledge; but no knowledge in 
 " God is acquired, but original. We must 
 " therefore seek another name ; that of ' Wis- 
 " DOM,' by which name the sacred Scriptures 
 " denominate it." 
 
 Bacon particularly adverts to that article 
 of those sacred Scriptures, in which " WISDOM" 
 is sublimely personified ; as having been present 
 with, and attendant on the Creator, at the first 
 formation of His creation. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 131 
 
 " The Lord by WISDOM hath founded the PART II. 
 " earth, by INTELLIGENCE hath He established 
 
 pTT p T 
 
 " the heavens. Doth not WISDOM cry, and 
 " INTELLIGENCE put forth her voice, saying : 
 " The Lord possessed Me in the beginning 
 " of His way, before His works of old. I 
 " was set up from everlasting, from the be- 
 " ginning, before ever THE EARTH was. When 
 " there was no depths I was brought forth ; 
 " when there were no fountains abounding 
 " with water. Before the mountains were 
 " settled, before the hills, was I brought 
 " forth: while as yet He had not made THE 
 " EARTH, neither the plains, nor the heights 
 " of the dust of the world. When He prepared 
 " the heavens, I was there; when He set a 
 " compass upon the face of the depth: when 
 " He established the clouds above : when He 
 " strengthened the fountains of the deep: 
 " when He gave to the sea His decree, that 
 " the waters should not pass His command- 
 " ment: when He appointed the foundations 
 " of THE EARTH. Then I was by Him as one 
 " brought up with Him ; and I was daily His 
 " delight, rejoicing always before Him; re- 
 " joicing also in the habitable part of His 
 " earth, My delights were with the sons of 
 " men. Now therefore hearken unto Me, O 
 " ye children : for, blessed are they that keep 
 
132 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 PART II. " My ways. Hear My instruction, and be 
 " wise, and refuse it not 1 !" 
 
 It is this " WISDOM," vouchsafed to man as 
 a positive and competent voucher of the fact 
 of the first formation of this earth, that Bacon 
 here propounds; and upon the authority of 
 whose testimony, he thus proceeds : 
 
 " Thus, then, the FACT stands: In the works 
 " of the Creation, we behold a twofold emana- 
 " tion of the divine virtue ; of which the one 
 " relates to its power, the other to its wisdom. 
 " The former, is especially observed, in the 
 " creating the material mass; the latter, in 
 " the disposing the beauty of its form. This 
 " being established, it is to be remarked, that 
 " there is nothing in the ' History of the Crea- 
 " tion,' to invalidate the fact, that the mass 
 " and substance of heaven and earth was 
 ' ( created confusa 2 confusedly or undistinguish - 
 " ably, in ONE MOMENT of time; but that six 
 " DAYS were assigned for disposing and adjusting 
 " it: in so signal a manner did God distinguish, 
 " between the works of His Power, and of His 
 " Wisdom. We may further observe ; that in 
 " the creation of matter, it is not related, ' God 
 " said, Let the heaven and the earth be,' as it is 
 
 1 Prov. Hi. 19; viii. 1, 22 33. * See after, p. 150. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 133 
 
 " related of His other works which ensued ; PART 11. 
 
 " but, simply and actually, ' God created the ^ 
 
 " heaven and the earth: so that the matter 
 
 " itself seems to have been, as it were, a work 
 
 " of hand; but the introduction of its form, 
 
 " bears the style of a law or a decree 1 ." 
 
 Bacon here appeals to a " Revealed History of 
 " the Creatio?if'the authority of which, his judg- 
 ment entirely acknowledged, and the statements 
 of which, he employed for the foundation of his 
 new philosophy : a document, which we should 
 therefore have expected to obtain equal authority 
 with all those who endeavour to gain confidence 
 to their own doctrines, by making profession of 
 conforming to his. This " Revealed History" is 
 no other than that which was imparted to 
 man by GOD, the only possible voucher for the 
 fact of creation, through the ministry of MOSES; 
 the authority of which record is acknowledged, 
 with equal homage of the reason, by Newton, 
 and which supplies the last degree of evidence 
 that remained, to perfect that of the highest 
 probability, deduced by Newton from a general 
 analysis of the universe. 
 
 This sacred and inestimable record, which 
 was revealed to mankind above 3000 years 
 
 J BACON de Augment. Scient. lib. i. p, 37, vol. iv. 
 
134 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. a g> unfolds a detailed recital of the sensible 
 mode by which God "formed, and set in order' 
 
 f H AP T 
 
 the entire system of this terrestrial globe ; 
 and likewise, the history of a great universal 
 revolution which He caused it to sustain, by the 
 operation of water, 1656 years after He had 
 created it. This history comprises, therefore, 
 a revelation, 1. of the MODE of Jirst formation, 
 of every member of this earthly system ; and 
 2. of the MO DE,by which God afterwards effected 
 an universal alteration in the substance and 
 circumstances of its structure. 
 
 A record of such amazing authority ought, 
 in common reason, if it be authentic, to direct, 
 and altogether to govern the intelligence, in all 
 researches concerning first formations and re- 
 volutions of the earth ; for, in proportion as we 
 should depart from such a guide, we must 
 necessarily depart from the only rale which 
 is able to establish certainty upon those sub- 
 jects. This record, comprises the Mosaical Geo- 
 logy. We shall therefore proceed to investigate 
 the great and important facts disclosed in this 
 sacred geological history ; comparing them with 
 the same test with which we before compared 
 the Mineral Geology, and keeping constantly in 
 view, both the general conclusion of Newton, 
 respecting the mode of Jirst formations, and 
 the corollaries, which we have been led to 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 135 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 deduce from that conclusion. But, in pursuing PART II, 
 that comparison, let us be careful to adhere 
 firmly to the principles which they disclose ; 
 observing rigidly the admonition of Newton, 
 which enjoins, " to admit no objections against 
 " them, but such as are taken from certain truths'" 
 plainly and unequivocally competent to dis- 
 prove them. 
 
 The conclusion of Newton was this : 
 I. That GOD, in the beginning, formed all 
 material things, of such sizes and figures, and 
 with such other properties, and in such propor- 
 tion to space, as most conduced to the end for 
 which He formed them; and that He variously 
 associated them, and set them in order, in His 
 FIRST CREATION, by the counsels of His own 
 Intelligence ; antecedently to the commencement 
 of all secondary causes, or laws, which, though 
 they might continue the first formations, could 
 not possibly have any share in producing them. 
 
 The corollaries which resulted from that 
 conclusion, were these : 
 
 1 . That, in the first formations of all material 
 things, God anticipated, by an immediate and 
 incomprehensible act of His power, sensible 
 effects, which were thenceforward to be produced 
 only by gradual processes, of which He then 
 established the laws. 
 
 2. That the sensible phenomena alone of the 
 
136 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. first formations of material things, whether 
 animal, vegetable, or mineral, could not there- 
 fore determine any thing at all concerning the 
 mode of their formation ; because, the mode by 
 which they were actually first formed, must 
 have been in direct contradiction to the apparent 
 indications of those phenomena. 
 
 " That the things which are seen, were not 
 " made of things which do appear' ^ EX $AINO- 
 MENflN TO, fixc-rroptvfr yzyowou : but, " that they 
 " were formed by the Word ofGov-^-of HIM, who 
 " calleth those things which are not as though 
 
 *' they We7'e" ie**nfT*<r0*l pyjjuari sou 1 rov XO.AOUVTO? 
 
 T* py ovroc, w ovra 2 : is therefore not only the first 
 principle of faith, but the first principle of philo- 
 sophy; of that reformed philosophy which was 
 effected by BACON and NEWTON. And thus, in 
 this first great principle, both true philosophy, 
 and religious faith, are found identified. 
 
 * Heb. xi. 3. 2 Rom. iv. 17. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 137 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IN entering upon a minute examination of the PART II. 
 text of this Sacred Record, in order to obtain a 
 true and precise apprehension of its contents, 
 it is indispensably necessary, first of all, that we 
 should inform ourselves, correctly, of its general 
 nature, and true character; by exercising the 
 most scrupulous caution and circumspection, 
 and by diligently employing those means of 
 interpretation, which the resources of sound 
 learning, and sound criticism, are alone able to 
 supply. 
 
 With respect to the general nature and 
 character of the record, methods of exposition 
 have been devised, diversified, and applied, in 
 all the variety which the subject matter could 
 suggest to vivacity of imagination and ingenuity 
 of conjecture : " tarn varias (as has been truly 
 " remarked), et multa ex parte ineptas, ut qui 
 " omnes consider averit, et inter se compara- 
 " verit^ multo sit incertior qiiam antea fuit } 
 " so various, and in a great proportion so 
 
 J ROSENMULLEU, Sen. Auiiquiss. Tell. Hist. p. 7. 
 
138 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " absurd, that whoever considers them all, and 
 " compares them all together, will be in greater 
 " perplexity than he was before." No inter- 
 preter has so simply, so briefly, and yet so 
 critically, pointed out the rules for its true 
 exposition, as the author of this just remark, the 
 learned D. I. G. Rosenmuller, in his little 
 tract entitled " Antiquissima Tdluris Historia f 
 which rules are incorporated, by his learned 
 son, E. F. C. Rosenmuller, into his " Scholia 
 in Genesin, Cap. 1." Although this venerable 
 expositor has been incautiously drawn, by 
 the imposing countenance of mineral geolo- 
 gists" metaUicarum rerum periti' into some 
 concessions militating, in certain particulars, 
 against the plain import of the record, yet 
 the principles of his interpretation are so sound 
 and true, that they supply the means of 
 rectifying even his own aberrations in this 
 respect ; which, however, are not greater than 
 those of our own learned commentator, Bishop 
 Patrick, who has in a similar manner been 
 seduced, by the same cause, into concessions 
 injurious to the truth, because contrary to the 
 import, of the record. 
 
 " All ingenuous and unprejudiced persons, 
 " (says the learned German expositor,) will 
 ** grant me this position ; that there is no 
 ** method for removing difficulties more secure 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 139 
 
 " than that of an accurate interpretation, derived PART 11. 
 " from the words of the text themselves and 
 
 . . . CHAP. II. 
 
 ' their true and legitimate meaning; and de- 
 " pending upon no hypothesis. Being im- 
 " pressed with this truth, and having repeat- 
 " edly perused the text with a view to this 
 " principle; I now submit the interpretation 
 " which appears to me to correspond the best, 
 " both to the signification of the words, and 
 " to the nature of the subject to be explained 1 " 
 The rules which constitute the canons of this in- 
 terpretation, are these two : 
 
 1. That " the style of the first chapter, as 
 " of the whole book of Genesis, is strictly HISTO- 
 " RICAL; and that it betrays no vestige whatever 
 " of allegorical or Jigurative description: sty him 
 " lutjus capitis, quemadmodum totius Geneseos, 
 ' ' esse HISTORICUM; nee allegoricz vestigium 
 " ullum apparere" : the truth of which pro- 
 " position, (he justly adds), must be so manifest 
 " to any one who reads with attention, that it 
 " can need no proof id cuivis attente legenti 
 " ita clarum esse debet, ut probatione non 
 " egeat 3 ." This position is alleged, against 
 certain loose and visionary critics; who were 
 more inclined to study the indulgence of their 
 
 1 HOSE* MULLEll, Sell. ]). 7. 2 Id. p. 8. 3 III. p. 9, 
 
140 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. fancies, than to exercise the labour of their 
 CH ~ u judgments, on points which their reason did 
 ^ not instantly apprehend. 
 
 2. That, " since this history was adapted to 
 " the comprehension of the commonest capacity, 
 " Moses speaks, according to OPTICAL, not 
 " PHYSICAL, truth: quia tota h<zc historia 
 " captui vulgi est accommodata, loquitur Moses 
 " ex veritate OPTICA, non PHYSICA*." That is, 
 he describes the effects of creation, optically, or 
 as they would have appeared to the eye; and 
 without any assignment of physical causes : 
 in doing which, he has not merely accom- 
 modated his narrative to the apprehension 
 of mankind in an infant state of society, 
 and employed a method of recital best suited 
 to a vulgar capacity; but, he thereby also 
 satisfies an important requisition of experi- 
 mental philosophy, viz. to describe effects 
 accurately and faithfully, according to their 
 sensible appearances : by which means, the mind 
 is enabled to receive a clear and distinct impres- 
 sion of those appearances, and thus to reduce them 
 to their proper causes, and to draw from them 
 such conclusions as they are qualified to yield. 
 For, as the mineral geology has justly remarked ; 
 
 * ROSEN MUJLLER, Sen. p. 13 and 63 ; and Jun. p. 14. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 141 
 
 " The determination of causes, must follow our PART II. 
 
 " acquaintance with their effects" " From the 
 
 " oversight of which principle, (the learned 
 
 " expositor truly observes,) a great part of in- 
 
 " terpreters have wandered so far into error, 
 
 " as to imagine they have detected the systems 
 
 " of modern physics in the recital of Moses; 
 
 " and have perverted and tortured his language, 
 
 " into an adaptation to their own preconceived 
 
 " opinions 1 ." 
 
 These two canons of interpretation, will 
 thoroughly vindicate their validity, in the pro- 
 gress of the following exposition ; and will fully 
 demonstrate, that the first chapter of the record 
 " discloses an interpretation, in which the 
 " laws of physics and the language of the Hebrew 
 " text, subsist in the closest harmony: quod 
 " hoc caput interpretationem legibus phy sices 
 " prorsus consent aneam, eandemque verbis text-its 
 " Hebr&i aptissimam, patitur*." 
 
 1 ROSENMULLER, Sen. p. 14. a ROSENMULLEK, Jun. p. 8. 
 
142 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PART II. ACCORDING to the method of recital, exposed 
 in the preceding chapter, the historian thus 
 
 CHAP III 
 
 ' delivers the First Article of his sacred his- 
 tory : 
 
 " In the beginning, GOD created the HEAVEN 
 " and the EARTH : 
 
 " BUT, the EARTH was INVISIBLE, and UN- 
 " FURNISHED; and DARKNESS was upon the 
 " face of the deep. 
 
 " THEREFORE the ^Spirit of God went forth 
 " upon the face of the waters, and God said, LET 
 " THERE BE LIGHT! and there was LIGHT! 
 
 " And God saw the light, that it was good; 
 " and God divided the light from the darkness; 
 " and God called the light DAY, and the darkness 
 t( He called NIGHT. 
 
 " And the evening and the morning were the 
 
 " FIRST DAY." 
 
 It will be advisable, in considering this, 
 and some others of the following articles of the 
 history, that we should proceed, 1. by esta- 
 blishing the interpretation of the passage; 2. by 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 deducing its true import; and 3. -by considering PART II. 
 the particular errors which have resulted from CHA ~^T in 
 a defective interpretation of the text. 
 
 I. 1. This article immediately presents a 
 very important grammatical and critical ques- 
 tion, which appears to have been entirely over- 
 looked ; but on which, nevertheless, as will 
 presently be seen, the true interpretation of the 
 sequel essentially depends. This question re- 
 gards the Hebrew conjunction i, vau, which 
 is employed no less than fourteen times in the 
 original of this first article. 
 
 This conjunction, to which the elder Mi- 
 chaelis assigns thirty-seven different significa- 
 tions, and Noldius upwards of seventy, is a 
 particle which discharges, in the Hebrew lan- 
 guage, the functions of all the conjunctions, 
 both copulative and disjunctive ; its sense being 
 determinable, in each particular case, only by 
 the context, and by the practice and genius 
 of the language ; on which account it has been 
 acutely remarked, that " Since we are not ex- 
 " ercised, as the Hebrews were, immediately 
 " to adapt our thoughts, upon the occurrence 
 " of this simple particle, to the different respects 
 " which the discourse requires; he who should 
 " always interpret i by et, and, would not place 
 " us in the same position with the Hebrews; 
 " for we need a further guidance to fix its 
 
144 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 PART H. " actual significations, which they did not 
 need 1 ." Now, almost all the modern ver- 
 sions have uniformly rendered this particle, 
 in the passage before us, by the copulative 
 conjunction et and, in all the fourteen places 
 where it occurs. Hence it is, that our English 
 version renders it: " God created the heaven 
 
 1 " Dicendum fuit, 1 grammatics nihil magis jper se significare 
 quam ET ; Ebrseosque audientes i eo tantum moneri conjun- 
 genda esse sequentia cum prsecedentibus, at modo conjunc- 
 tionis eorum non designate. Modus autem ille quisnam esset, 
 intelligi debuit ex serie sermonis, rerumque antecedentmm et pos- 
 teriorum naturis ac relatione ad se iniicem, quatenus ese alntnde 
 quam ab hac particula i innotuerant; itautqui i aliterquam 
 perET exponit, suam interpretationem probare debeat. Qua- 
 propter particulse hujus varies usus tradere non est grammatici 
 Ebraici, sed ad rhetoricam artem potius spectat. Traduntur 
 ergo illi usus per accidens tantum, et respectu quodam ex- 
 terno, nempe in ordine ad alias linguas, et ad interpretes 
 juvandos, utpro i eamparticulam subs tituant, quam quis lingua 
 istaexterasermonem faciens tali loco positurusfuisset. Cumque 
 hoc pacto simplicimse vi conjunctivse ipsius i aliqua alia notio 
 superaddatur, agnoscendum est non sic meram versionem fieri, 
 sed paraphrasin veluti aut comment arium compendiosum. Id 
 tamen facere necessarium, quia versiones traduntur populis 
 non ita exercitatis,ac erant Ebrcei ad inflect andam occurrente copu- 
 lativa simplici cogitationem in cos respectus, quos requirit ser- 
 monis series. Itaqiie, qui reddcret vbique } simpliciler ET, nos 
 non poneret in eodem stafu quo erant Ebrcei. Egcntibus enim 
 au.rilio ilhid non dare non idem est, ac illud non dare non egen- 
 ^Xot. Tympii, ad Noldii Concord. Partic. Heb. p. 283. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 145 
 
 " and the earth; and the earth was without PART II. 
 " form," &c. But, if we look to the most 
 ancient Hebrews; who were well exercised in, 
 and familiarly conversant with, all the pecu- 
 liarities of their own native language ; we shall 
 find, that they all interpreted it by the disjunc- 
 tive particle, but ; none of them by the copu- 
 lative, and. Thus it was rendered by the 
 Jirst interpreters of the text, the Jews of 
 Alexandria, nearly three hundred years before 
 the Christian era : H <XPX% 9ro *i ffl ^ ^ f ? T0 " ovg&vov 
 
 xai rw yw* 1? AE yn w ao^aro?, &C. " In the be- 
 
 " ginning God created the heaven and the 
 " earth; but, the earth was invisible" &c. In 
 the same sense it was apprehended by the 
 learned Jew, Josephus, who thus paraphrased 
 
 the passage : iv <*g%X SXTHTM o 0fo? rov ovg&vov xt 
 Tif\v yw' Taurus AE uV o\^w oux tg%o[Atvris 9 aXXot (3a0 
 
 pw K^u7TTOjtAj/n? (rxoTfi, &c. " In the beginning 
 " God created the heaven and the earth; but, 
 " the latter not coming into view, but being 
 " hidden in profound darkness," &c. In the 
 same manner we find it in the Chaldee para- 
 phrase ; which, in the Latin, is rendered thus : 
 " In principio creavit Deus coelum et terram : 
 " terra autem erat," &c. The old Latin version 
 renders the conjunction in the same manner: 
 *' Terra autem, &c. ;" and so likewise does 
 the Vulgate, translated by St. Jerom on the 
 
146 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 . 
 
 PART II. Hebrew original, with the aid of the most 
 learned Rabbin of his time. And, of modern 
 commentators, the eminently learned Vatablus, 
 Drusius, Fagius, and Grotius, understand it 
 with the sense of autem but, as in the Vul- 
 gate; with which same signification, this particle 
 occurs above five hundred times in the Hebrew 
 Scriptures 1 . We here learn, how it was under- 
 stood, in this particular place, by those who knew 
 how to connect it, " ex serie sermonis, rerumque 
 " antecedent ium et posteriorum naturis, ac relatione 
 " ad se invicem" This, then, it is evident, was 
 the interpretation collected, by the rule of the 
 language, in the ancient Jewish church. And 
 it must be self-evident, to every scholarly 
 mind; that this particle, repeatedybwrfeew times 
 in this short paragraph, could not each time 
 be limited to the unvarying sense which pertains 
 to our English conjunction, and; or even to the 
 senses of the Latin et, and the Greek *<**, which 
 have somewhat a wider latitude of signification. 
 But the truth is, that^the Hebrew language did 
 not possess, and therefore could not command, 
 the diversity of particles which those languages 
 enjoyed ; and, therefore, it was constrained al- 
 ways to repeat the same particle i; the proper 
 
 NOLDIUS, p.JSOl. 
 
MINEKAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 147 
 
 actual sense of which was impressed in the PART II. 
 mind of the auditor, or reader, by the purport 
 of the discourse and the tendency of the argu- 
 ment. 
 
 But it is plain, that there must have been 
 some dialectical, or critical reason, for this uni- 
 formity in all the earliest interpretations, of the 
 sense, ft autem but, in this place. How, the 
 principle upon which the disjunctive sense was 
 in them affixed to the particle in this place, and 
 not the copulative, which we have adopted, 
 will reveal itself on an attentive examina- 
 tion. The proposition M God created the 
 " heaven and the earth ; and the earth was 
 '* invisible: 77 would seem to imply, that such 
 was the design, in its creation -*- viz. that 
 it should be invisible: Whereas, the propo- 
 sition "God created the heaven and the 
 " earth; but the earth was invisible:" carries 
 a contrary implication, and excites an expecta- 
 tion of that which immediately follows ; namely, 
 the formation of light, by means of which the 
 invisibility of the earth was to be remedied* 
 *' God created the heaven and the earth: but, 
 M the earth was invisible, and darkness was 
 " upon the face of the deep: therefore, God 
 " said, Let there be Light T The repetition of 
 the conjunction % in this last place, which is 
 still rendered by and, in our version, gives 
 
148 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. it the proper force of wherefore, therefore 
 quare, quamobrem, itaque 1 ; with which sense 
 it occurs, in more than two hundred and fifty 
 places in the Scriptures; and this force accrues, 
 consequentially, from the sense of <^, but, in the 
 preceding clause. And thus, the mutual relation 
 and dependence of the three clauses, is clear and 
 distinct, and their connexion, necessary and indis- 
 soluble. Josephus plainly shows, that he under- 
 stood the three clauses with this intimate 
 relation and correspondence : w a^xy tx.Ti<rtv o 
 
 Gf TOV OVp&VQV X&l T*)V yl/* TfltUT*]? AE uV O^/IV OUK 
 
 *pYO|Ui/y)f, aXAa (SaGft ftiv xpUTTTOjU^nif erxorfi, IINET- 
 MATOS AE aurnv EniQEONTOS, 
 
 That we are to understand but, not and, 
 in the passage we are examining, is therefore 
 confirmed; both by the authority of all the 
 earliest interpreters, and by the natural import 
 of the text critically ratifying that authority. 
 This intimate relation of the sentences, will be 
 found a very material point for the reader to 
 hold in recollection. 
 
 2. The criticisms which have been exer- 
 cised upon the word >ra 2 , created, are very 
 trifling: viz. that it does not denote, productio 
 
 NOLDIUS, p. 297. 2 MICHAELIS, SuppL ad Lex. Hcb. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 149 
 
 W nihilo production out of nothing; but, pro- PART II. 
 ductio ems quod antea non extitit production of ~~ 
 
 ' M \ I . ill* 
 
 that which before did not exist. It is difficult to > s- ^ v -^ / 
 find the difference intended between the two ; 
 which, however, resolves itself into this, that 
 " the former idea is too metaphysical and ab- 
 " stract for man in his primitive state." But, 
 this will not prevent the latter from signifying 
 exactly the same thing as the former; which it 
 must necessarily do, when it relates to the pro- 
 duction w oigxfl, or ihejirst production, of a world, 
 which could not have existed before it was 
 produced. 
 
 3. The celebrated phrase, imi inn, tohu 
 vabohu, on which fancy and system have so 
 largely and so unsubstantially built, and which 
 our version, conforming to the later translators, 
 has rendered, " without form, and void;" is ren- 
 dered by the oldest Jewish interpreters, the 
 LXX, Koparos, xal axaTac-HEuaro? ; unapparent or in- 
 visible, and unfurnished or unprovided. So also it 
 was interpreted by the learned Jew, Philo 1 ; and 
 that Josephus, whom Jerom calls " vir Hebrausj 
 " et ab infant ia sacris litter is eruditus*" under- 
 stood the first of these words in the sense of 
 aoparo?, invisible, is manifest from his paraphrasing 
 it, uV otyiv oux /)^o/xj/r) not coming into view. 
 
 1 T. i. p. 5. ii. pp. 491, 610. 2 Ep. MAGNO. Orat. Rom. 
 
150 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. So likewise the oldest Latin version renders 
 in. t ne WOI> ds. And Jerom evidently regarded this 
 as the established interpretation; for, in his 
 commentary on the 40th chapter of Isaiah, he 
 says : " In the beginning of Genesis, where it 
 " is written, ' But the earth was invisible, andun- 
 " furnished '; the other interpreters (i.e. the later; 
 " sc. Aquila and Theodotion,) have translated, 
 (f ( But the earth was void, and nothing' in 
 " principio Geneseos, ubi scriptum est, ' Terra 
 " autem erat invisibilis, et mcomposita: cteteri 
 " transtulerunt, ' Terra autem erat inane, et 
 " nihil" It is, therefore, very questionable, 
 whether the present reading of the Vulgate, in 
 this place, is that of Jerom. Tertullian, Her- 
 mogenes, Ambrose, and Augustin, employ the 
 interpretation, invisibilis, et mcomposita. 
 
 When, therefore, we find this passage ren- 
 dered with the sense of confusus, as in the 
 passage above quoted from Bacon, we are 
 to understand it only with relation to vision, 
 not to the subject itself; as, confusus, indistinctus, 
 and obscurus, are used indifferently with rela- 
 tion to perception. Thus, Statius designates a 
 covered and darkened sky, " confusus Olympus" It 
 is also certain, that where the same phrase occurs 
 in Jeremiah, iv. 23, the character which accom- 
 panies it, is darkness: " I beheld the earth, and 
 " lo, it was tohu vabohu ; and the heavens, and 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 151 
 
 " they had no light." So in Isaiah, xxxiv. 11, PART II. 
 where we read the menace upon Babylon ; " He 
 
 CHAP III 
 
 " shall stretch oukupon it the line of tohu, and 
 " the stones of bohu ;" the local testimony, of its 
 ejfacement from view, by its ruins being covered 
 over with accumulated soil and vegetation, sup- 
 ports the ancient interpretation of the passage 
 in Genesis ; that it intended to express obscurity, 
 and exclusion from sight. All those most ancient 
 authorities, confirmed by the subject matter of 
 the text, concur to give a determining weight to 
 the primitive interpretation of aopc&Io?, invisible, 
 above any other which modern oriental philo- 
 logy can maintain : " terra enim vere invisibilis 
 " fuit, voragine aquarum obducta 1 ." And, 
 since the surviving dialects of Arabia and 
 Syria possess no words of the same ele- 
 ments with tohu, and bohu, which signify 
 aoparo?, and axarao-xfurof ; it will be critical to 
 apply to those two words, the judgment given 
 by Michaelis upon the word Vro: " soli linguae 
 " Hebraicse proprium, sed antiquum; reliquis 
 " linguis orientalibus omnibus, ipsi adeo Rab- 
 " bino-Chaldaico, ' ignotum. Ergo, aut reliquis 
 *' linguis orientalibus plane periit, aut, quod 
 " potius reor, est exoticum, jam ante Mosen 
 " ex alia lingua, non cognita, in Hebraicam in 
 " vectum 2 ." Theodoret thus explains the pas- 
 
 1 ROSENMULLER, Jun. in Genes, p. 9. 2 Suppl. ad Lex. Heb. 
 
152 A COMPARATIVE 'ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. sage : " aoparo?, invisible, on account of the water 
 " which covered it ; and ajtarao-xf uao-ro? unfur- 
 " nished, because it was unadorned with herbs, 
 " or meadows, or groves, or fields." Again : 
 " aoparos invisible, because darkness was over 
 " the abyss 1 ." 
 
 4. The "spirit of God" - errftK nn osupa 0ou, 
 has been expounded by some commentators, from 
 the earliest ages of the Christian Church, to sig- 
 nify the air, or wind; and by others, to denote the 
 divine person of the Holy Spirit. " Some," says 
 Theodoret, " think that it signifies the All-holy 
 " Spirit, vivifying the nature of the waters 
 " but I think that the true interpretation is, 
 " that Moses, by the word spirit, intended 
 " the air 2 ." " It is an ambiguous phrase," 
 says Drusius : " for it signifies both a wind, 
 (( and the Holy Spirit 3 " It is strange, that a 
 third interpretation did not prevent all am- 
 biguity among the Christian commentators ; 
 since it w r as evidently that of the ancient 
 Jewish church, in its purest state. It is plain, 
 in the passage just quoted from Josephus, that 
 the clause in which it occurs was not taken 
 separately, as a proposition by itself; but, in 
 connexion with that which follows : " The spirit 
 " of God went forth upon the face of the waters, 
 
 Quant, in Genes* r. * Qucest. viii. * Critici Sacri, in loc. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 153 
 
 c< and God said:" as where we read "he PART II. 
 " opened his mouth, and said: he lifted up 
 " his voice, and said." The "spirit of God" CHAP - m - 
 will thus signify, the "breath of the word of 
 " God," by the effusion of which He pronounced 
 His mandate, " Let there be light /" So R. Sa- 
 lomon interpreted it : " spiritum oris, et verbum 
 " seu mandatum ejus the breath of His mouth, 
 <( that is, His word or mandate 1 " Thus we 
 read in the book of Job, " by His spirit He 
 " hath garnished the h'eavens 2 :" which is ex- 
 plained in the Psalms 3 ; " by the WORD of the 
 " Lord, (or, the VOICE of His word*), were the 
 " heavens made, and all the host of them by the 
 " BREATH OF His MOUTH." This paraphrase 
 of the Psalmist, gives critical determination to 
 this passage of Genesis ; for, the Hebrew word 
 rendered spirit, by our English translators, in 
 Job, and breath in the Psalms, is in both places 
 the same identical word, nn, which is employed 
 by Moses in this passage; and in each it re- 
 lates to " the WORD," by which God pronounced 
 thejfatf of creation. If, therefore, we consider 
 this anthropopathical form of speech with a doc- 
 trinal reference, it will plainly respect the 
 
 divine AOFO2, $C ou -araj/Ta tytviTOy xai %&V>i? ou 
 
 " the WORD, by whom all 
 
 l Crit.Sac. s Job. xxvi. 13. * Ps. xxx. 6. * Ps. ciii. 20. 
 
154 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " things were made, and without whom was 
 " not any thing made that was made;" and of 
 
 CHAP. III. , Ti T , rr J 
 
 whom we likewise read: " He BREATHED ana 
 " SAID 1 ." The new geology has proposed art 
 entirely new sense; which, however, we cannot 
 accept: "Spirit," it says, "here denotes an 
 " invisible elastic fluid, viz. the great evaporation 
 " that took place soon after the creation 2 ." 
 
 5. The verb norno, expressing the action 
 of that spirit or breath; which our version 
 renders, " moved upon the face of the waters;" 
 is interpreted by the Alexandrian Jews, fTr^spsro 
 bore itself, or was conveyed upon. Michaelis 
 renders it, delapsus est, descendebat went or came 
 down. The Chaldee paraphrase, gives it the 
 sense of insufflabat blew upon. In all these 
 senses, it properly connects itself with the action 
 which immediately follows ; forming but one pro- 
 position " the SPIRIT, or BREATH of GOD, went 
 " forth upon the face of the waters, and GOD 
 " SAID," &c. This interpretation is undeniably 
 more natural, more intelligible, more congenial 
 to the Scriptural style, and more consonant 
 to the recorded impressions of the early Scrip- 
 tural writers ; than either the action of a violent 
 wind, before physical agents existed, or the in- 
 cubation of the divine person of the Holy Spirit, 
 which conveys no real sense to the mind. 
 
 1 John, xx. 22. * KIRWAN'S Geol. Essays, p. 49. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 155 
 
 6. The oinn, deep or abyss, covering the PART IL 
 whole globe, is well observed by Rosenmuller 
 
 J _ CHAP. IIL 
 
 to be the same as the tza'orr, waters, mentioned 
 in the following sentence ; which, by being 
 afterwards collected and confined in one place, 
 became the tzrn> or sea. For, the Greek aj3u<r<ro?, 
 abyss ; by which the Alexandrian Jews render 
 the former word; only denotes the unlimited 
 extent of the aqueous surface* Hesychius ex- 
 plains it, by JJara awe*/ia, awcaraAwra, Trspaf oux 
 sXpvroL " waters, without bound or limit ^ 
 
 II. Having thus determined the inter- 
 pretation of the terms of the article, let us 
 next consider the instruction which it conveys 
 to us. 
 
 In this first sublime and comprehensive 
 article, the sacred historian summarily com- 
 prises the history, of the jirst formation of the 
 entire mineral substance constituting the body 
 of this globe; produced "at the beginning," 
 {as Newton speaks) and "in one moment of 
 time," (as Bacon speaks) by the mode of " crea- 
 " tion; and with the size, figure, properties, and 
 " proportion to space, which most conduced to the 
 " end for which God created it." We hear of 
 no further operation, or process, concerning 
 the first formation of the mineral part of the 
 globe. It was created entire and complete, as to its 
 
156 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART n. form and texture ; although it was enveloped by 
 CHAp~in a se P arate mar e fluid, resting upon, and flow- 
 ing over, every part of its compacted surface, 
 which formed, for a very short time, the bed 
 or bottom of an universal sea. There was 
 no intermixture of that water with the particles 
 composing the hard and solid body beneath, 
 no confusion of the two elements; but, the saline 
 fluid was totally distinct from the terrene solid, 
 and did not continue long enough upon a 
 considerable portion of it, to penetrate far 
 into its internal substance. That solid body 
 was concealed by the cloak of waters, and total 
 darkness encompassed that cloak ; so that the 
 spheroid, speaking relatively and optically, was 
 invisible or unapparent; and, being a mere mi- 
 neral mass, it was barren of all external pro- 
 duction, and it was therefore unfurnished or 
 ungarnished. 
 
 But, it was the design of God, first, to ren- 
 der it visible ; and next, to furnish it. He, 
 therefore, first of all, commanded the existence 
 of light ; and immediately, there was light ! At 
 the same time, He divided the light and the 
 darkness ; that is, He established, and gave first 
 operation to, the laws of proportion and succes- 
 sion between the measures of the two ; and, 
 having given origin and action to those laws, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 157 
 
 they accomplished, in their due course, the PART II. 
 
 In this brief, but pregnant description of 
 effects, the historian records, by implication, 
 the history of the commencement of time, by the 
 ordination of the instrumental causes which were 
 to produce the first diurnal measure, and succes- 
 sion, of darkness and light; for time, as Philo truly 
 remarks, signifies nothing else but " the succes- 
 " sive distances of days and nights, effected by the. 
 " motions of the heavenly bodies :" o-u^Tra 
 
 ypspwv x<x,i I/UXTWV e<m ^ao-m/xo. J '. and again, 
 
 Tf TOU oupavou xi]>ri<rew<; <TTII/ o p^poi/o? 2 . The historian 
 
 relates, that God first produced the effect of 
 light ; which 'effect following the darkness, and 
 these succeeding to each other, from thence- 
 forth, in regular diurnal alternations, show that 
 the instrumental causes, which were to perpetuate 
 the effect, were then first put in action. As he 
 describes optically, and solely with a view 
 to the practical and sensible apprehension of the 
 facts which he relates, his description is con- 
 fined to effects ; but it is for the common know- 
 ledge and experience of his readers, to refer 
 those effects to their plain and obvious causes. 
 And so his ancient Hebrew readers referred 
 them ; who needed not that he should tell them, 
 
 Tom. i. p. 44. a Ib. p. 4. 
 
158 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. that the light of which he spoke, proceeded 
 from the same physical cause from which 
 they derived their daily light; and they 
 accordingly understood, as of course, that it 
 proceeded from the solar fountain of light, 
 though not expressly named. Ignorance, on 
 the one hand, and system and hypothesis on 
 the other, have variously contrived to perplex, 
 or pervert, this simple recital ; but sound learn- 
 ing, sound criticism, and sound philosophy, 
 will receive and apprehend it according to the 
 simplicity of description in which it is de- 
 livered. This subject we shall have occasion to 
 examine more particularly, when we come to 
 consider the historian's record of the transactions 
 of the fourth day of creation ; on which day, the 
 sun and moon were first revealed in their relative 
 functions, of ruling the day and the night. 
 
 The sublimity of the clause in which the 
 creation of light is related by Moses, has long 
 been a subject of critical remark and admira- 
 tion; and the more that amazing operation is 
 contemplated, the more will the mind be af- 
 fected by a sense of that sublimity. The recent 
 enlargement of the sphere of our acquaintance 
 with the solar body, obtained by the disco- 
 veries of Sir William Herschel, contributes 
 greatly to augment the force of that sentiment, 
 by the distinctness which it imparts to the con- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 159 
 
 ception. That illustrious astronomer has dis- PART II. 
 covered, that the body of the sun is an opaque 
 
 CHAP III 
 
 substance; and that the splendid matter which 
 dispenses to the world light and heat, is a 
 luminous atmosphere l attached to its surface, 
 figuratively, though not physically, as flame 
 is attached to the wick of a lamp or a torch. 
 So that the creation of the sun, as a part of 
 " the host of heaven" does not necessarily 
 imply, the creation of light ; and, conversely, 
 the creation of light, does not necessarily im- 
 ply, the creation of the body of the sun. In 
 the first creation of " the heaven and the 
 " earth," therefore, not the planetary orbs 
 only, but the solar orb itself, was created in 
 darkness; awaiting the light, which, by one 
 simple divine operation, was to be communi- 
 cated at once to all. When then the Almighty 
 Word, in commanding light, commanded the 
 first illumination of the solar atmosphere, its 
 new light was immediately caught, and reflected 
 throughout space, by all the members of the 
 planetary system. And well may we imagine, 
 that, in thfttjErrf, sudden, and magnificent illumi- 
 nation of the universe, " The morning stars sang 
 (( together, and the Sons of God shouted for joy*! " 
 
 1 Job, xxxviii. 7. 
 
 f Phil. Trans, fur 1795, p. 46; and for 1801, p. 265. 
 
160 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. But, that great cause of light, though physi- 
 cally co-existent with its effect, was optically 
 non-existent, with relation to the earth covered 
 by the waters ; and, being at the same time the 
 cause of heat, its new power, exercised upon 
 the universal aqueous surface, necessarily ex- 
 haled an universal vapour, enveloping the whole 
 globe, through which the light transmitted 
 subsisted only in its effect; and thus light, 
 without a manifested cause, was diffused over 
 the globular surface, in the mode which we 
 ourselves experience, during the prevalence of 
 dense fogs. Nevertheless, the effects, of light 
 and of the alternation of darkness and light, re- 
 corded by the historian, carry with them, virtu- 
 ally, the record also of the proper natural causes, 
 which were newly ordained to produce them; and 
 they inform us, that in this Jirst day of creation, 
 both the solar fountain of light was opened in 
 the heavens, and this earth received its first 
 impulse of rotation, on its axis and in its orbit. 
 And, since we perceive, by the intimate connexion, 
 mutual dependence, and necessary sequence, of the 
 clauses in this article, which has been minutely 
 shown, that all these great transactions were 
 included within that Jirst day, or first entire 
 revolution of the new globe ; we perceive also, 
 that time, which only exists by reference to 
 that revolution, began with the creation of the 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 161 
 
 globe, and the commencement of its revolution, PART II. 
 in darkness ; and, that the creation of light 
 succeeded at that proportion of distance in 
 time, which was thenceforth to constitute the 
 perpetual diurnal divisions of the two. So that 
 darkness, in its relative character of night, 
 commenced from the moment that the earth 
 was created and revolved ; and day commenced, 
 from the moment when light succeeded, at the 
 distance ordained for their division. And hence 
 it was, that in the Hebrew computation of days, 
 the diurnal measure of darkness always pre- 
 ceded the diurnal measure of light ; perpetu- 
 ating a commemoration of the transactions of 
 ihdit first day. 
 
 An unlearned question has been raised, by 
 some compacters of systems, with respect to 
 the sense in which we are to understand the 
 word day,, in this recital. This question has 
 been chiefly moved by persons profound, per- 
 haps, in physical science, but not equally so in 
 learning and in moral philosophy; and it has 
 been suggested to their minds, not by any real 
 obscurity in the record, but merely by the 
 opposition of the terms of the record to certain 
 preconceived notions and speculations into 
 which they have drawn their own judgments, or 
 into which they have suffered their judgments to 
 be drawn. Those persons constitute chiefly that 
 
 M 
 
162 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. class of speculators, who resort to the schemes 
 of compromise and concession to which I have 
 already adverted. Their theories, oblige them 
 to seek for much larger measures of time than 
 the historian supplies; they must, therefore, 
 either accept, or reject, his testimony in toto, 
 neither of which they can venture to do ; or, 
 they must compel his language to bend and 
 conform itself to their speculations, which they 
 vainly flatter themselves they are able to do. 
 But, why did they need any other sense than 
 that which the text literally imports ? Only 
 because they did not conclude with Newton, 
 that " God, in the beginning, formed, and set in 
 " order, all material things by the counsels of 
 " His intelligence," nor admit, with Bacon, 
 that " the earth was created in one moment of 
 " time ;" but maintained, in opposition to 
 both, " that it rose out of a confused assem- 
 " blage of elements, or chaotic ocean, by mere 
 " laws of Nature," which demanded a length of 
 time proportioned to the supposed operation; and 
 therefore, they must obtain that length of time, 
 somehow or other, from the text of Moses. 
 
 But, Newton and Bacon were in no such 
 dilemma; their conclusions went directly to 
 the point of the literal statement of the record, 
 and therefore, the time assigned by Moses 
 amply supplied all their demands. Since, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 163 
 
 then, such a violation of the record is only PART II. 
 needed by those who advocate a geological 
 system, which we have shown to be funda- 
 mentally erroneous, by showing it to be funda- 
 mentally contradictory to the philosophy of 
 Newton; it remains for us to conclude with 
 Rosenmuller, upon every ground of sound learn- 
 ing, criticism, and philosophy : " Dies intelli- 
 " gendi sunt naturales, quorum unusquisque ab 
 " una vespera incipiens, altera terminate ; quo 
 " modo Judaei, et multi alii antiquissimi po- 
 " puli, dies numerarunt 1 . That we are to under- 
 " stand natural days ; each of which, commenc- 
 " ing from one evening, is terminated by the 
 " next; in which manner the Jews, and many 
 " others of the most ancient nations, reckoned 
 " days" In the first of these natural days, the 
 whole mineral fabric of this globe was formed 
 at once, of such size and figure, with such 
 properties, in such proportions to space, and 
 with such arrangement of its materials, as most 
 conduced to the ends for which God created it. 
 In this first, immediate, universal formation, the 
 Almighty Artificer produced effects, analogous 
 to those which were to result from the new 
 causes which He then ordained ; the sensible 
 
 1 P. 47. 
 
164 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. phenomena of which alone, could not reveal, 
 or determine, the mode of their formation, be- 
 
 CHAP. III. . _. . 
 
 cause that mode was in direct contradiction 
 to their sensible indications, and absolutely 
 ai/f^x^ac-To? 1 untraceable, and past Jindin g out 
 by any scrutiny of man. 
 
 III. Let us now consider the principal errors 
 which have resulted, from a defective interpreta- 
 tion of this first important article of the histo- 
 rian, among erudite and genuine scholars. 
 
 It was the phantom of Time, which so much 
 infatuates physical philosophy, that unwarily 
 seduced the upright and learned Rosenmuller 
 into the imagination of a previous earth, and the 
 learned and pious Patrick into the admission of 
 an elemental chaos ; yet, mutually in contradic- 
 tion to each other. Both these commentators 
 fascinated into a belief, that they were bound, 
 in - deference to the mineral geology, to find 
 in the Mosaic record some great interval of 
 time, exceeding any measure of which it truly 
 and really speaks, and unaware, that the 
 power which had lured them into this weak 
 submission, was a mere ignis fatuus; were led to 
 violate the import of the text, the former un- 
 critically, the latter both uncritically and unphi- 
 
 1 Rom. xi. 33. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 165 
 
 losophically. I make this distinction, because, PART II. 
 though both of them forced the text uncriti- 
 
 CHAP III. 
 
 cally, to make it produce the length of time 
 demanded, yet Patrick alone admitted the unphi- 
 losophical doctrine of a chaos, which Rosenmuller 
 sensibly and learnedly condemned. 
 
 To enable himself to discharge his tribute of 
 length of time, the learned German marshalled 
 together all the particles i, van, connecting the 
 clauses of the first three verses ; and, regardless 
 of the caution contained in the sound criticism 
 of Tympius, that this particle takes the place of 
 all the conjunctions according as the sense and 
 sequence of the discourse determines its signifi- 
 cation ; he took upon himself to give to it the 
 new, unsupported, and indefinite signification 
 of posthac afterwards ; not in any particular 
 place, but wherever the reader might choose so 
 to understand it, in three different places of 
 which he gave him the choice. Thus, says he, 
 " we may either read : 
 
 " In the beginning God created the heaven 
 " and the earth. Afterwards, the earth was 
 " desolate," &c. 
 
 Or, " was desolate, and darkness was 
 " upon the face of the waters. Afterwards, the 
 " Spirit of God," &c. 
 
 Or," The Spirit of God blew upon the 
 
166 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " face of the waters. Afterwards, God said, 
 " let there be light 1 ." 
 
 By this method of interpretation, the true 
 and intimate connexion and articulation of the 
 clauses, which has been shown, is violently de- 
 stroyed ; and an hiatus is artificially produced 
 in the sequence of the narrative, which may be 
 converted, ad libitum, into the interval required 
 by the mineral geology ; and may be stretched 
 out into any " epocha of nature" which system 
 and circumstances may demand. 
 
 " Whichsoever of these explications you 
 " adopt, (adds this too compliant expositor,) 
 " it must denote a twofold creation:- 1. The 
 " Jirst production of all things ; 2. The rewoa- 
 " tion of this earth. But, it will be asked, 
 " which of these three interpretations is to be 
 " preferred to the others ? That is a point which 
 " I do not take upon myself to determine: sed 
 " quseritur: utra harum inter pretationum al- 
 " teri sitprteferenda? Ego nihil defmiam* ." And 
 why did this good man lend himself thus to a 
 proceeding, so utterly unworthy of his learning, 
 his judgment, and his piety ? " Because, for- 
 " sooth, those who are skilled in mineralogy have 
 " discovered, in the interior of the earth, many 
 
 > Antiq. Tell. Hist. p. 27. ? Ib. p. 28. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 167 
 
 " vestiges of a very ancient and long-con- PART II. 
 " tinued inundation, which they think must 
 " have preceded the deluge of Noah : depre- 
 " hendunt enim metallicarum rerum periti in 
 " interioribus terrae multa vestigia vetustioris 
 " et diuturnioris cujusdam inundationis, quam 
 " diluvium Noachicum praecessisse putant 1 ." 
 But this, to say the least, is evidently a very 
 uncritical method of exposition; more especially, 
 since, by adhering closely and rigidly to the 
 text as it stands, we shall, in due time, arrive 
 at the true solution of every difficulty. The 
 sense of posthac afterwards, cannot critically 
 or philologically pertain to the particle in any 
 one of the places in question ; but the estimable 
 writer has, too courteously, forced it upon it, 
 in weak submission to the presumptuous de- 
 mands of the mineral geology. 
 
 It was not thus, that Bishop Patrick sought 
 to satisfy the same presumptuous demands. 
 By hastily assuming the tohu vabohu, (which 
 only expressed the unapparent and barren state 
 of the mineral globe, but in no sense the imper- 
 fect condition of its substance,) to signify a state 
 of mingled and confused elements, he deemed it 
 necessary to espouse the doctrine of a chaos, in 
 the most positive and unqualified manner ; hop- 
 
 1 Ib. P . 31. 
 
168 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. ing to save the credit of the sacred historian, 
 CHAP~II ^7 tnus contriving for him an indefinite length of 
 time, which his history absolutely disclaims. 
 He therefore incautiously affirmed ; that Moses, 
 in those two words, gives " a description of that 
 " which the ancients called the CHAOS; wherein 
 " (says he) the seeds and principles of all things 
 " were blended together : which was, indeed, the 
 "first of the works of God; who, as Moses 
 " shows in the sequel, produced this beautiful 
 " world out of this CHAOS. How long all things 
 " continued in mere confusion, after the CHAOS 
 " was created, before this light was extracted 
 " from it, we are not told. It might be (for any 
 " thing that is here revealed,) a great while ; and 
 " all that time the Mighty Spirit was making 
 " such motions in it, as prepared, disposed, and 
 " ripened every part of it for such productions, 
 " as were to appear successively in such spaces 
 " of time as are here and afterwards mentioned by 
 " Moses; who informs us, that after things 
 " were so digested and made ready (by long fer- 
 " mentations, perhaps,) to be wrought into form, 
 " God produced every day, for six DAYS together, 
 " some creature or other, till all was finished ; 
 " of which, light was the very first." The 
 learned Bishop dwells long upon his " CHAOS;" 
 which he exhibits, in capital letters, five several 
 times in the first six pages of his Commentary. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. J 69 
 
 This exposition, was plainly directed with PART II. 
 an eye to a particular object ; namely, to objec- ~~ 
 tions drawn from the visionary conclusions of ^ 
 the mineral geology; and, with the pious desire of 
 precluding those objections, by presenting an 
 unobjectionable statement, in the first instance. 
 But we may here truly say, 
 
 Incidit in Scyllara dum vult vitare Charybdim : 
 
 for, the interpretation is as directly contra- 
 dictory of the sense of the record, as the objec- 
 tions which it was designed to overrule. 
 
 If all those various " creatures," of which 
 " light was the Jirst" were produced in six 
 natural days, then they could not have been 
 produced by the physical operation of any known 
 secondary causes ; and if they were 1 produced, 
 as in that case they must have been, by the 
 immediate act of the First Cause, why was the 
 action of that first cause preceded by " a great 
 " while," during which " things were digesting, 
 " ripening, and making ready by long ferment- 
 " ations." To what end were all those pro- 
 cesses ? Was it, that the First Cause could not 
 act, until secondary causes had " made the 
 " subject matter ready" for Him? Was it, 
 that the Creator found Himself impeded by 
 certain laws which He could not control ; and 
 
170 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. that He was therefore obliged to wait the term 
 of their operation? Or, was it that He first 
 
 CHAP. III. , r , 
 
 created secondary agents to retard an alter- 
 work, which He did not intend to execute 
 by secondary agencies, but by immediate acts 
 of His own divine power? The supposi- 
 tions are all equally in opposition to reason 
 and to the record. If then the after-work was 
 not to be effected by secondary causes, but by 
 God's own immediate causation, which is here 
 granted ; reason directs us to conclude, that no 
 secondary causes were engaged to assist Him, by 
 preparing an antecedent work; but that the truth is, 
 as He Himself has pronounced : " I am the Lord, 
 " who made all things ; who stretched forth the 
 " heavens ALONE, who spread abroad the earth 
 " BY MYSELF l \ who spake, and it was done; 
 " who commanded, and it was corifirmed 2 ." 
 Such also is the doctrine, which the historian 
 here plainly designed to establish. And it is truly 
 astonishing, that consequences thus inevitably 
 and obviously resulting from the hypothesis, 
 should not have exposed themselves to the 
 apprehension of the learned and venerable Pre- 
 late. 
 
 Yet, we find the same visionary hypothesis 
 Heedlessly pursued by a much later writer. " To 
 
 Isaiah, xliv. 24. 2 Psalm xxxiii. 9. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 171 
 
 " the assemblage of these as yet inert elements, PART II. 
 
 " Moses gives the name of abyss; profane 
 
 /7 7 . , A11 CHAP. in. 
 
 ' authors have called it chaos. All seem to 
 
 " mean the same thing ; the chemical laboratory 
 " of universal Nature, the general deposit of the 
 " embryos of all existing natural substances 1 ." 
 Rosenmuller remarks, with just reprobation, 
 upon the preposterous inference of a chaos, from 
 the language of Moses. " It is wonderful," says 
 he, " how so many interpreters could imagine, 
 " that a chaos was described in the words 
 " irai inn tohu vabohu. This notion unques- 
 " tionably took its origin from the fictions of the 
 " Greek and Latin poets ; which were trans- 
 " ferred, by those interpreters, to Moses. But, 
 " to explain Moses by the poets, what is it, but 
 " to transfuse water from a muddy stream into 
 " a clear and limpid fountain?" He then re- 
 cites all the fables of a chaos, from Berosus to 
 Ovid, and concludes thus : " But since these 
 " things are so, it is not so surprising that 
 " many interpreters, when they pass from the 
 " works of the heathen philosophers and poets 
 " to the exposition of Scripture, should ima- 
 " gine that they recognize the same chaos in the 
 " Mosaic history. Yet the Rabbins, who were 
 
 \ HOWARD, on the Structure of this Globe, p. 483. 
 
172 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " not prepossessed with these particular fie- 
 " tions, apprehended the power and meaning 
 " of the original words far more correctly 1 ." 
 The doctrine, of a chaotic mixture of ele- 
 ments or first principles of things, is not more 
 abhorrent to the philosophy of NEWTON, who 
 expressly reprobates it, than it is to the record 
 of MOSES; if the latter be considered without 
 any previous system, and if it be thoroughly and 
 critically understood. The progress of tradi- 
 tion, through ages of darkness and ignorance, 
 may have converted the simple sea, distinctly 
 recorded by Moses, into a compound chaos, 
 characterized by that darkness ; but, to make 
 the chaos, therefore, the rule for interpreting the 
 sea, is to invert the order of rational argument, 
 and to reason ab ignoto ad notum. 
 
 1 Pp. 19 and 23. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 173 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 i 
 
 THE historian proceeds to his Second Article; PART II. 
 in which, he relates the events that dis- 
 tinguished the second diurnal revolution of this 
 globe. 
 
 " And GOD said, Let there be a FIRMAMENT 
 " in the midst of the waters: and let it divide the 
 " waters from the waters. 
 
 " And GOD made the firmament, and divided 
 " the waters which were under the firmament 
 t( from the waters which ivere above the firma- 
 " ment. 
 
 " And it was so: and GOD called the firma- 
 " ment HEAVEN. 
 
 " And the evening and the morning were the 
 
 The word ypn, which our version renders 
 firmament, from the Latin firmamentum, is ren- 
 dered by the Alexandrian interpreters vnpwpot, ; 
 which word denotes a firm and permanent sup- 
 port. This support, was to sustain apart of the 
 waters, which were now to be separated from 
 the waters beneath. 
 
174 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. This article implies ; that there were waters 
 above the aqueous surface of the globe, which 
 
 f HAT* TV 
 
 were separable, though not yet actually separated, 
 from it. It therefore relates ; that the universally 
 incumbent watery vapour, which had been conti- 
 nually in course of exhalation, during the preced- 
 ing day, from the universal watery surface, was 
 now raised to a high elevation above it, by the 
 creation of the aerial atmosphere; so that the 
 vaporous body formed a canopy above the 
 globe, instead of enveloping it, like a cloak, in 
 immediate contact with the water. Rosenmul* 
 ler well applies, to this place, the remark of 
 Pliny : " what can be more wonderful, than waters 
 " stationary in the sky! quid esse mirabilius 
 " potest aquis in ccelo stantibus! 1 " 
 
 The globe was thu&disengaged fromits incum- 
 bent vapour, but still, the effect of light was alone 
 apparent ; for, congregated clouds had succeeded 
 to terrestrial mist, and continued to render 
 the cause of that effect non-apparent, and there- 
 fore, optically non-existent: as we ourselves 
 experience, during the prevalence of similar 
 weather. It is this that the sacred historian 
 describes, when he says ; "for many days 
 " neither sun nor stars appeared" ^n fawv 
 
 octrrpuv sirKpotivovruv fizrt TrAeioi/a? ^fpa? 2 . Homer 
 
 PLIN. Hist. Nat. \. xxxi. 2 Acts, xxvii. 20. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 175 
 
 describes, much in the same manner, the optical PART II. 
 effect of a continued cloud, enveloping two con- 
 tending armies during a day of obstinate con- 
 flict : 
 
 X 
 
 OUTC TTOT* HEAION trooi/ f/*/xfj/ai, cure 2EAHNHN* 
 1 
 
 Around, so dense the murky clouds arise, 
 
 It seem'd, nor sun nor moon possessed the skies. 
 
 The cause of the diversity of day and night, 
 continued therefore to be unapparent, relatively 
 to the earth ; but that cause. was now in course 
 of perpetual operation, and it therefore now 
 completed the Second Day. 
 
 Iliad, xvii. 366. 
 
176 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PART II. THE historian now proceeds to his Third Article, 
 which consists of two parts : 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 " And GOD said ; Let the WATERS UNDER 
 " THE HEAVEN be gathered together unto ONE 
 " PLACE, and let the DRY-LAND appear. And 
 " it was so. 
 
 " And GOD called the dry-land EARTH, and 
 " the gathering together of the waters called He 
 " SEAS. And GOD saw that it was good. 
 
 " And GOD said; Let the EARTH bring forth 
 " grass, the herb yielding seed, and the FRUIT- 
 " TREE yielding fruit after its land, whose seed 
 " is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. 
 
 " And the earth brought forth grass; and 
 " herb yielding seed after its kind: and the 
 " TREE yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, 
 " after its kind: and God saw that it was 
 " good. 
 
 " And the evening and the morning were the 
 
 THIRD DAY." 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 177 
 
 I. In the first part of this article are briefly PART II. 
 related, two vast and wonderful events; of the 
 
 CHAP V 
 
 most essential importance to the science of 
 a true geology: namely, 1. the formation of a 
 bed, or basin, to receive the mass of waters 
 hitherto equally and interminately diffused 
 over the whole solid and compacted surface of 
 the mineral globe ; and, 2. the consequent im- 
 mediate exposure of a large portion of that globe. 
 The second part of the article, relates the first 
 formation of all the vegetable matter, with which 
 that exposed portion was immediately invested. 
 
 We may here again observe, with Rosen- 
 muller 1 ; that nDinn, in the second verse, de- 
 notes the abyss, not in any sense of a chaos, but 
 simply, of the sea flowing without limits, as 
 Hesychius explains ajSuc-c-o? 2 ; for, what is called 
 the abyss, in the second verse, is in the same 
 verse called also, aw, the waters ; and the same 
 a>nn waters, in this verse, become aw, the 
 sea, merely by being congregated in one place, 
 and therefore, being reduced within limits. 
 
 II. Previous to these amazing operations, 
 the globe, disengaged from its cloak of mist in 
 consequence of the ascent of the vapours into 
 the higher regions of the atmosphere, presents to 
 
 1 P. 24, 25. * See above, p. 155. 
 
 N 
 
178 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. the contemplation the appearance of an aqueous 
 ~~ spheroid; its solid parts being as yet concealed 
 beneath the waters. It was now the design of 
 God, to expose a portion of those solid parts, and to 
 reduce the unlimited surface of waters, which con- 
 cealed it, within limited bounds ; thus converting 
 the abyss, into a sea. The record imports ; that 
 the waters, which occasioned the concealment, 
 were to be removed and collected into one place, 
 in order that, nt2n>rr * IN*, that substance which 
 was dry, might be seen, or rendered visible, nN"in 
 c<p9jTw : so that the latter might reveal its nature 
 and actual position, by a change in the place and 
 circumstances of the former. So Josephus re- 
 presents the general operation : TV, T/>*TJ Yi<n rw 
 
 yw, ANAXEA2 w/>* aurnv ryv 3"aAao-(rav " on the 
 
 " third day God established the land, by causing 
 " the re-fusion of the sea around it :" ava^cw, re- 
 fundo. Virgil describes the exposure of the sea- 
 bed, by the retirement of the waters ; and, what 
 in one place he represents as, 
 
 -- undo, dehiscens 
 Terram inter fluctus aperit 
 
 he presently after describes by, 
 
 Stagna refusa vadis. 
 
 The briefness of this clause, and the nature 
 of the subject, has caused it to be little con- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 179 
 
 templated in proportion to its importance ; and PART II. 
 therefore, it has not been observed, that the ~ 
 same sublimity which is universally perceived 
 in the clause Let there be LIGHT : and there was 
 light ; subsists equally in this Let the waters 
 be gathered together unto ONE PLACE, and let the 
 dry-land be seen : and it was so. The sentiment of 
 sublimity in the former clause, results from the 
 contemplation, of an instantaneous transition of 
 the universe from profound darkness to splendid 
 brightness, at the command of God. All men 
 feel the sadness of the former, and the delight 
 of the latter ; and they are therefore instantly 
 sensible, of the glorious nature of the change 
 which was then so suddenly produced. But, 
 the nature of the change which must neces- 
 sarily have taken place, in suddenly rendering 
 visible a part of a solid globe whose surface 
 was universally overflowed, and concealed, by 
 a flood of waters, is not so immediately appre- 
 hended ; the mind, therefore, does not dwell 
 upon it, but is contented with the general 
 statement of the fact, that the sea was formed. 
 
 But it is to the stupendous mode of that 
 formation, that the historian here summons 
 our contemplation. It is self-evident, that if 
 the surface of a globe were entirely covered 
 with a fluid attached to it only by the law 
 of gravitation, and if the whole of that fluid 
 
180 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. were to be afterwards collected in one part 
 only of that globe, so as to render the remaining 
 part of its concealed surface visible, the aqueous 
 accumulation must take place below the level of 
 the latter surface; which effect could only be 
 attained, by the congregated waters acquiring 
 that space in depth, which they had lost in 
 length and breadth : for, accumulation in height 
 is contrary to the law of fluids. In producing, 
 therefore, the effect described in the record, 
 the surface upon which the waters rested must 
 have been suddenly deepened, in all that portion 
 of its extent on which they were to remain; 
 and, to a depth proportionately profound to 
 drain them off from all that other part of the 
 same surface, which was to be exposed and 
 made dry. This is an induction from the pre- 
 mises, which will allow of no objection. 
 
 But, this operation of deepening implies, both 
 a disruption, and a depression of the solid parts 
 which were to be deepened ; and, as the opera- 
 tion was immediate, at the divine command, so 
 must it have been violent. The mineral geology 
 would infer, that " the word ' appear (in this 
 " article) denotes that the disclosure of the earth 
 " was successive, and had not from the beginning 
 "fully and completely taken place 1 ." But the 
 
 1 KIRWAN, GeoL Essays. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 181 
 
 word evidently proves, that the disclosure had PART II. 
 not taken place at all; otherwise, it would already 
 
 CHAP V 
 
 have "appeared" And, that its ultimate appear- 
 ance was not successive, in the sense designed 
 by the criticism, is plain; because it was 
 invested with its vegetation, on the same day on 
 which it did first appear. The mineral geology 
 must keep back its secondary or natural causes 
 from the argument, so long as it is engaged with 
 a period, in which the First Cause had not yet 
 committed His work to their administration. 
 
 In the first production of the mineral globe, 
 no secondary causes could have acted, because 
 secondary causes could not exist, until the 
 first formations in which they were to reside 
 had received existence ; as the laws of matter 
 could not operate, until matter itself was in 
 being. But, as soon as a first formation was 
 produced, its laws received their force; subject 
 always to the control and determination of 
 their divine Author. In the first act of creation, 
 this mineral globe was produced at once, com- 
 pact, solid, and complete, in all its mineral 
 nature, order, and composition ; and, as the 
 first tree received its various successive folds, 
 apparently, but not necessarily or really, in- 
 dicative of succession in time, so the shell of 
 the earth received its various successive primitive 
 ^strata, apparently, but not really, indicative of 
 
182 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. such succession: both being essential to the 
 ~ ends for which they were respectively formed. 
 ^ From that moment, the globe was subjected 
 to its proper laws ; as the vegetable and the 
 animal systems were afterwards subjected to 
 their proper laws, from the moment of their 
 respective creations: for, as Bacon has pro- 
 nounced, " the laws which we call of nature, 
 " are nothing but the laws of the creation" 
 
 In causing, therefore, the violent disruption 
 and depression of that part of the solid surface 
 which was to form " a place" for the reception 
 of the congregated waters ; that is, a bed for 
 the new sea; the new laws and agencies of 
 the mineral globe were rendered operative by 
 their Almighty Creator, but by the rule of 
 his own creative plan. The solid " frame- 
 " work, or skeleton' of the globe, was there- 
 fore burst, fractured, and subverted, by those 
 agencies and according to those laws, at the 
 will of the Legislator, in all those parts where 
 ' depression was to produce the profundity ; and 
 it carried down with it, in apparent confusion, 
 vast and extensive portions of the materials or 
 soils which had been regularly disposed and 
 compacted upon it; leaving other portions par- 
 tially dislocated, and variously distorted from 
 their primitive positions. So that the order of 
 the materials of the globe; which, in the reserved. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 183 
 
 unaltered, and exposed portion, retained their PART II. 
 first positions and arrangement; were broken, 
 displaced, and apparently confounded in the 
 other portion, which was to receive within 
 it the accumulated waters. 
 
 Among the secondary agencies, either em- 
 ployed in producing, or necessarily accom- 
 panying, this tremendous primitive revolution 
 of the mineral globe, we may assume the 
 power and agency of volcanic expansion and 
 explosion ; by which, acting with extraordinary 
 and extensive effect, a vast portion of the crust 
 of the solid sphere would have become sud- 
 denly transformed from its native state, into a 
 condition of laceration and apparent ruin. We 
 know, that the admission of water to the sub- 
 terraneous fires which are constituent within 
 the system of this earth, produces volcanic 
 action, as a physical consequence; and the 
 fiat of God, which, by disruption, gave ex- 
 tensive admission for the incumbent waters 
 into the interior of the newly constituted 
 earth, would have been followed by volcanic 
 explosion equally extensive, in consequence 
 of the provisions of His own laws. 
 
 Thus, then, was formed that "ONE PLACE, 
 " into which all the waters under the heaven 
 " were .to be gathered together." The primitive 
 mineral formations were thus early interrupted 
 
184 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. and disordered in their continuity, even upon 
 
 CHAPV creation, and therefore, 
 
 anterior to the existence of any organized 
 beings; and the new sides and surfaces of 
 those primitive mineral masses, produced 
 by the breaches which they then sustained, 
 became thenceforth exposed to the continual 
 action of the waters ; while the innumer- 
 able smaller fragments, lay subjected to per- 
 petual trituration in their bed. 
 
 This stupendous revolution of the globe, is 
 commemorated by the great poet of the He- 
 brews, in these words : " O Lord, my God, 
 " Thou art clothed with honour and majesty ! 
 " Who laidest the foundations of the earth, 
 " that it should not be removed for ever. Thou 
 " cover edst it with the deep, as with a garment; 
 " the waters stood above the mountains. At 
 " Thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of Thy thun- 
 " ders they hasted away ; they went over the 
 " mountains, they went down by the valleys, unto 
 " THE PLACE which thou didst found for them. 
 " Thou didst set a bound which they should not 
 " pass over." We have here a poetical com- 
 mentary upon this passage of the record ; 
 which shows, how it was understood in the 
 traditionary history of the ancient Jewish 
 church. That violent and turbulent, though 
 brief operation, by which a bed was suddenly 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 1 85 
 
 opened for the waters to retire into from off a PART II. 
 portion of the solid globe, is here represented, 
 as " the waters flying from the rebuke and 
 " thunder of God, down to a place opened be- 
 " neath for their reception;" and the borders 
 of the solid portion which was converted into 
 a dry land, are described as " a bound" fixed 
 by God to the further diffusion of the waters. 
 "The rebuke" and the "thunders" manifestly 
 imply a crisis of stupendous and terrific con- 
 vulsion. 
 
 But, that water, as we have seen, was not 
 " a vast chaotic ocean, very different in its che- 
 " mical properties from our actual seas, and 
 " containing the elements of the primitive earth; 1 
 an ocean, which never existed out of the 
 imagination of the Neptunian geology: it was 
 the true briny ocean, and (as far as we may 
 speak of identity of water) the identical ocean 
 that we now witness; which, after dwelling 
 upon the entire surface of the solid globe for 
 the space of two entire days, was, upon the 
 third day, drained off from it into a new and 
 deeper bed. It was denominated the abyss, so 
 long as it flowed unlimitedly, and relatively 
 to that illimitation ; but, as soon as it was 
 reduced within a limit, it ceased to be an 
 abyss, and became the sea. These words, 
 
186 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 ; PART H. therefore, as has before been shown, do not 
 denote any differences in the nature or quality, 
 
 CHAP. V. . 
 
 but solely in the extent and circumstances of 
 the fluid ; and thus, at the first creation of 
 this globe, its mineral substance was so far 
 from being in a fluid state ; that is, its mineral 
 particles, or molecules, forming a species of 
 mud, or paste, by commixture with the water; 
 that it existed a separate, hard, and solid 
 body, upon which the ocean rested only super- 
 ficially, and on which it had rested only two 
 days, when it was suddenly withdrawn from 
 one portion of it, leaving that portion perfect, 
 firm, and compact. 
 
 This was the flrst revolution, which the 
 mineral substance of this globe experienced ; 
 directed by the immediate intervention of the 
 Creator ; and it will be very material to the 
 sequel of our inquiry, that the reader should 
 dwell, with minute contemplation, on the de- 
 tails of the formation, and the consequent 
 condition, of the sea bed thus constructed, and 
 consisting of the fractured, and apparently 
 ruined surface, of a portion of the globe. 
 
 When this great work was accomplished, and 
 when the reserved portion was exposed to the 
 action of light and of air, that portion exhibited 
 a mere mineral surface, brute and barren. But 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 187 
 
 it pleased God to employ it immediately to the PART II. 
 end for which He had formed it, and for which 
 He had disengaged it from the waters ; and to 
 invest it, at once, with an universal covering of 
 vegetation, formed to maintain, by the laws of 
 decay and reproduction, a perpetual succession 
 and increase of vegetable matter, to clothe and 
 incase the mineral. The same immediate act of 
 God, which, on the first day, gave instantaneous 
 and perfect existence to His mineral system, and 
 established its laws ; gave instantaneous and 
 perfect existence also, on the third day, to His 
 vegetable system, and established its proper laws, 
 in all the individuals composing it. The first 
 tree and its wood, like the first rock and its grain, 
 were produced by a mode in which no secondary 
 causes could possibly have a share ; and though 
 the tree was afterwards to produce seed, in 
 which a process of lignification should originate, 
 yet itself was formed without the intervention 
 of that process. And, although it would wear 
 the appearance of that process, yet the same 
 reason which tells us that it would wear that 
 appearance, tells us, at the same time, that the 
 appearance alone would be no indication of the 
 reality of the process ; so that it could exercise 
 no delusion, upon any sane and advised in- 
 tellect. 
 
 Thus, then, the earth was at once invested 
 
188 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. with the maturity of vegetation ; not only " with 
 " the herb yielding seed," but also " with 
 
 CHAP V. 
 
 " the TREE yielding fruit, after its kind." In 
 the meantime, the clouded atmosphere still 
 continuing, light continued to exist only as an 
 effect unconnected with its cause. Its course, 
 however, still proceeding, the evening and the 
 morning completed the Third Day. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 189 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE historian at length arrives at his Fourth PART II. 
 Article, and at the great and signal facts which 
 it reveals. He relates : 
 
 " And GOD said, Let the LIGHTS in thejirma- 
 " ment of Heaven, for dividing the day from the 
 " night, be for SIGNS, and for SEASONS, and for 
 " DAYS and YEARS ; and let them be, in thejirma- 
 " ment of Heaven, for LIGHTS TO GIVE LIGHT 
 " UPON THE EARTH \ And it ivas so. 
 
 " And GOD made the TWO great lights, 
 
 " (that is,) THE GREATER LIGHT, to RULE the 
 " DAY, and THE LESSER LIGHT, tO RULE the 
 
 " NIGHT, together with the stars. And GOD dis- 
 " posed them in thejirmament of Heaven TO GIVE 
 
 " LIGHT UPON THE EARTH, and to RULE OVer 
 
 " the DAY and over the NIGHT. And GOD saw 
 " that it was good. 
 
 " And the evening and the morning were the 
 
 " FOURTH DAY." 
 
 1 . The declaration of this important article, 
 is of the utmost consequence to all the pre- 
 
190 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. ceding exposition; because, it proves and esta- 
 ~~ Wishes its correctness. 
 
 VJL 
 
 It is truly and excellently remarked by 
 Rosenmuller ; that " if any one, who is con- 
 " versant with the genius of the Hebrew, and 
 " free from any previous bias of his judgment, 
 " will read the words of this article in their 
 " natural connexion, he will immediately per- 
 " ceive, that they import the direction, or deter- 
 " initiation of the heavenly bodies, to certain uses 
 " which they were to supply to the earth. The 
 " words m^D >rv are not to be separated from 
 " the rest, or to be rendered, jiant luminaria, 
 " let there be lights ; i. e. let lights be made ; but 
 " rather, let lights be, that is, serve, in the tx- 
 " panse of Heaven- inserviant in expanso calorum 
 " -for distinguishing between day and night ; and 
 " let them be, or serve, for signs, &c. For we 
 " are to observe, that the verb n>n, to be, in 
 " construction with the prefix b, for, is gene- 
 " rally employed to express the direction or 
 " determination of a thing to an end; and not the 
 66 production of the thing : e. g. Num. x. 31, 
 " Zech. viii. 19, and in many other places." 
 This consideration is most just and sound ; and 
 it is indispensably necessary, for the true appre- 
 hension of the passage before us. 
 
 2. The word mND lights, signifies, apparent 
 luminaries: as, in common language, we call light 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 191 
 
 -n, that which is diffused as an effect, without PART II. 
 referring to the cause ; but we call lights mno, CH ~ VI 
 the sources of that light, as lamps, or candles. The 
 same distinction, between a sensible effect and a 
 sensible cause, is found in the different significa- 
 tions of these words, "IIK and rnN. The sen- 
 sible effect, was produced on the first day ; the 
 sensible cause, is to be revealed on this fourth 
 day. 
 
 3. The Hebrew word which we render " to 
 " rule," is te'D; a word, whose primitive and 
 radical sense is not to be traced by means of 
 any of the surviving dialects of the East ; from 
 whence Michaelis conjectured, that it was either 
 an Hebrew word which early became obsolete, 
 or that it was an exotic word, anciently adopted 
 into the Hebrew. Its general signification, is 
 known to be dominari, imperare to rule ; but a 
 question arises, in what sense were those lights 
 to rule? since the lunar light is not constant 
 through all the nights of the year, as the solar 
 is through all the days. The Greek has ren- 
 dered it by apxtw 5 which word has the double 
 sense, of imperare and inchoare. Now, the old 
 Latin Version enables us to determine, in what 
 sense the *?% of the Greek was understood, 
 by rendering it inchoare, ad inchoationem ; which 
 fixes the sense of imperare, to that of ducere 
 to rule by leading : for, though imperator and 
 
192 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. dux have a general sense in common, yet, 
 each has a special and peculiar sense. To 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 rule, in the sense of ducere, implies the pre- 
 cedency of a ruler at the head of his host; 
 where he is, both " dux et princeps, dux 
 " et prafectus ;" titles, which are often so 
 united in the same individual. In this sense, 
 as the day was to be led, or ushered in, by the 
 solar orb, as its ruler, so was the night to be led, 
 or ushered in, by the lunar; which further im- 
 plies, that the moon displayed its orb upon the 
 fourth evening, at tli time when that of the sun 
 disappeared, and that it thus introduced the night. 
 4. But, the difference between the singular 
 >r\> and the plural vm, in the 14th verse, de- 
 mands a corresponding difference in the inter- 
 pretation ; and therefore, if we would make 
 that difference literally apparent, we must thus 
 literally interpret : " FIAT, luminaria in ftrma- 
 " mento cceli ad dividendum inter diem et noctem, 
 " UT SINT in signa, et iempora, et in dies, et man- 
 " nos; ET SINT ad illummandum super terrain:" 
 i. e. " Fiat, ut luminaria sint in signa, &c. et ad 
 " illummandum," c. The particle i, signifies ut, 
 in upwards of 300 passages ; and vm, signifies ut 
 sint, in several of these 1 . This interpretation, 
 therefore, will yield this literal sense in our 
 
 1 NOLDIUS, Concord. Heb. p. 307, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 193 
 
 " language: LET IT BE, that the lights in the PART II. 
 ' ' jirmament of Heaven for dividing between the day 
 " and the night, BE/br signs, and for seasons, and 
 " for solemn days, and years," 8tc. i.e. "LET THE 
 " LIGHTS, &c., BE for signs, &c.:" so just and 
 important is Rosenmuller's induction from the 
 construction of this passage ; " de determina- 
 " tione astrorum ad certos quosdam usus orbi 
 " terrarum prsestandos, esse sermonem non 
 " de eorum product ione V 
 
 II. In this article, the historian relates; 
 that after that portion of the mineral surface 
 of the globe, which had been extricated from 
 the waters, and which, when it appeared, 
 was axaTa<rxua<rrof ungarnished, had received 
 its universal garniture of vegetation; this new 
 order of matter was, upon this fourth day, to 
 experience the immediate and unobstructed in- 
 fluence of the cause of light and of heat. Upon 
 this day, therefore, the clouds, which had 
 hitherto loaded the atmosphere, and which had 
 excluded the heavenly luminaries, were, for the 
 first time, to be dispelled; and those splendid 
 bodies were to acquire their first optical ex- 
 istence, with relation to this earth. Wherefore, 
 the learned commentator here recalls to the 
 
 1 ROSEKMULLER, Sen. p. 61, 2. 
 o 
 
194 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. mind of his reader, his second canon of inter- 
 pretation: " Loquitur secundum veritatem opti- 
 cam, non physicam : nee mirum, cum vulgus 
 altiora non capiat nam historia captui vulgi 
 " est accommodata. The historian speaks ac- 
 " cording to optical, not physical truth; nor is 
 " it surprising, since the common mass of man- 
 " kind look no higher; and the history is 
 " adapted to their apprehension." The amaz- 
 ing Calendar of the Heavens, ordained to serve 
 for the notation of time in all human concerns, 
 civil and religious, so long as time and man 
 should continue, was therefore to be now first 
 unfolded to the earth, with all the visible 
 indices of time by which its measures were 
 thereafter to be marked, distinguished, and 
 computed ; and the splendid cause, which had 
 hitherto issued its effect of light through an 
 interposed medium, was to dispense that light 
 to the earth immediately, in the full mani- 
 festation of its effulgence. 
 
 And let us now direct our very particular 
 attention to one signal circumstance, in the 
 allotment of this Fourth Day for this especial 
 purpose, " the determination of the heavenly 
 " bodies to the uses to which they were severally 
 " designed to conduce, as indications of time;" a 
 circumstance of internal evidence, which con- 
 firms and fixes the truth of this interpreta- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 195 
 
 tion. It is this : that the particular luminary, PART II. 
 which was to lead on, and so to rule, the night, and CH r^T~ VI 
 to become the most familiar and most import- 
 ant natural index for the measurement and divi- 
 sion of time, viz. " the MOON, the faithful witness 
 " in heaven," does not acquire optical existence, 
 that is, does not become decidedly apparent to 
 the earth, by the laws of nature, that is, <( ofthe 
 " creation," until the third evening of its revolu- 
 tion, according to our common computation, 
 which answers to the fourth evening of the 
 ancient Mosaical day, or nycthemeron ; our com- 
 putation connecting the evening with the pre- 
 ceding day-light, but the Mosaical computation 
 with the succeeding day-light. 
 
 The fact, of this coincidence, is indeed 
 most remarkable and surprising. It shows, 
 that the Creator reserved the exposure of His 
 heavenly calendar, for the day when the planet, 
 which, by His own laws, was to rule the night, 
 had acquired, by those same laws, the position 
 which first enabled it to display its domina- 
 tion. From this wonderful correspondence 
 and coincidence, of the day of Creation in 
 which the sun and moon were first exhibited as 
 " ruling the day and the night," with the day 
 of the lunar revolution, in which, by the laws 
 of creation, the moon is first able to acquire 
 
196 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. its ruling character in the heavens, we derive 
 a very extraordinary and unlocked for confirm- 
 ation of the soundness of our interpretation; 
 and from hence we may, logically and philo- 
 sophically, further infer; that when, in the 
 beginning, " God created the heaven and the 
 " earth," when He gave to the earth its first 
 impulse of rotation, and when He first illumined 
 the solar atmosphere by His Word, therein giv- 
 ing origin to Time ; the two presiding luminaries 
 were in that particular relation to the earth,which 
 astronomy calls inferior conjunction ; and that, in 
 the third diurnal revolution of the earth, they first 
 acquired, by their separation, that relative aspect, 
 which qualified them to be manifested together 
 as the two great indices of annual and menstrual 
 time, but, for which manifestation, both would 
 not have been prepared on an earlier day. And 
 the new moon, being thus in the third day of its 
 revolution (according to our vulgar computa- 
 tion), that is, of its first quarter, it would 
 necessarily appear at the setting of the sun, 
 and would thus be ready, inchoare, ducere, and 
 therefore, imperare noctem to begin, lead on, 
 and so, rule the night. The number of the day, 
 together with the senses of apx ftj/ inchoare et 
 imperare, tend thus reciprocally to support each 
 other ; and to show, that the first day of crea- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 197 
 
 tion, was both the Jirst day of the first year, PART II. 
 according to solar computation, and the Jirst 
 day of the first month, according to lunar com- 
 putation. 
 
 The light, which caused the Jirst three days, 
 and the light, which caused the last three days, 
 of the He.raemeron, being thus easily and 
 naturally referrible to one and the same cause, 
 it is unphilosophical, unreasonable, and un- 
 learned, to assign them to distinct and different 
 causes. It is unphilosophical, because it is con- 
 trary to those rules of universal science, which 
 enjoin, 1. " Not to admit more causes of natural 
 " things than are sufficient to explain their 
 " phenomena ; 2. To assign, as far as it can 
 " be done, the same cause to natural effects of 
 " the same kind." It is unreasonable, because 
 we know of no other light in the creation, 
 besides that of the sun, to which we can ascribe 
 the light of day ; and because we are not any 
 where informed, that God has caused to cease 
 any mode of light which He had previously 
 ordained. And it is, moreover, unlearned, be- 
 cause it betrays an ignorance of that which 
 moderate learning would have imparted ; that 
 the supposition, of two different causes of light, 
 was a late unskilful hypothesis, unknown to the 
 fellow-countrymen of the historian, who un- 
 derstood him to record, only one cause. " Ac- 
 
198 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " cording to the opinions of the Latins and 
 " Greeks, says the learned Vatablus l , the sun 
 
 CHAP VI. 
 
 " was created on the fourth day; but the 
 Hebrews say, that both the sun and moon 
 " were created on the first day : they under- 
 " stood the Jirst light to be that of the sun, 
 " because the sun is the source and fountain 
 " of all light 2 ." It is very singular, that the 
 learned Grotius rejects this interpretation upon 
 the very principle which ought to have induced 
 him to embrace it ; namely, simplicity of inter- 
 pretation. " Some of the Rabbins," says he, 
 " understand that first light to have been the 
 " light of the sun; and that the sun is therefore 
 " said to have been created on the fourth day, 
 " because it then exercised its influence for the 
 "first time upon vegetation. But, to me it 
 " appears more consonant to the simplicity of 
 " the Scripture to suppose ; that the light 
 " which was created on the first day, was 
 " different from that of the sun, which was 
 " produced on the fourth day 3 ." We might 
 
 1 " VATABLE, professeur de lalangue He'braique, florissoit 
 " sous le regne de Francois I. II avoit une si grande con- 
 " noissance de la langue Hebraique, que les Juifs meme, qui 
 " assistoient souvent a ses lemons publiques, ne le pouvoient 
 " assez admirer.** Diet, de MORERI. Ed. Amst. 
 3 Critici Sacri, in loc. 3 It). 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 199 
 
 venture to affirm; that this illustrious scholar PART II. 
 would have changed his notions of simplicity, if ~ 
 he had lived to witness the revolution in the 
 sciences perfected in Newton, and to reflect 
 upon his Regulce Philosophandi. It is true, that 
 Philo, amongst his other allegories, allegorized 
 also the first light, so as to render it something 
 distinct from the sun ; but then, he did not con- 
 sider it as a part of the material creation. 
 Josephus does not distinctly show his opinion; 
 further, than that he assigns the production of 
 light to the first day, and the ordination of the 
 heavenly bodies to their respective functions, 
 to the fourth day. " On the fourth day, (says 
 " he), God decorated the heaven with the sun, 
 " and moon, and the other luminaries; as- 
 " signing to them motions and courses by 
 " which the revolutions of times and seasons 
 " might be manifestly marked out" u>pw vt^o^an 
 (pavtp&i O^/A a it/o i I/TO V 
 
 But, a critical and philosophical considera- 
 tion of the recital of the sacred historian, added 
 to the remarkable coincidence, of the day of the 
 moon's first natural appearance in her orbit with 
 the day assigned for her first assuming the pre- 
 sidency of the night in the Hexaemeron, confirms 
 
 Antiq. Jud. 1. i. c. 2. 
 
200 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. the interpretation founded upon optical descrip- 
 tion ; which Rosenmuller has judiciously en- 
 
 CHAP VI 
 
 forced. " This exposition, (adds this learned 
 " commentator,) which is perfectly conform- 
 " able to the genius of the Hebrew tongue, 
 " removes all difficulties ; and it is surprising 
 " that this passage of the history, which alone 
 " opens a way to a true interpretation, should 
 " have led interpreters astray in every direc- 
 " tipn, and have given origin to so many mon- 
 " strous hypotheses. For, any one who will 
 " read this passage attentively, and without 
 " any previous bias of his judgment, must 
 " perceive ; that Moses presupposes, as a cer- 
 " tain and unquestioned truth, that the hea- 
 " venly bodies were already in existence, but 
 " that they now began, by the will of the 
 " Creator, to exercise those offices towards the 
 " earth which they still exercise; and I doubt, if 
 " any one of the Israelites understood Moses 
 " in any other sense 1 . And it would be 
 <( absurd, (he observes,) for any one here to 
 " object, that the sacred Scriptures thus lead 
 " men into error; this objection could have no 
 " weight, unless it was the design of those 
 " Scriptures to instruct mankind in Astronomy ; 
 " which no one will readily suppose 2 ." 
 
 1 P. 64. 2 P,63, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 201 
 
 III. 1. The only error to be rectified in this PART II. 
 learned commentator, results from his hypo- 
 thesis before mentioned l ; into which he suf- 
 fered himself to be seduced, and by which he de- 
 prived himself of the full benefit of his own lucid 
 principle of interpretation. By the artificial in- 
 terval of time which he forced into the record ; 
 confessedly without any authority from the 
 text, (for he knew not where to place it,) but 
 solely in compliance with the requisition of the 
 mineral geology ; he deserted the guidance of his 
 own principle. Having once fatally admitted 
 that false and indefinite interval, he was at a 
 loss to assign the particular physical character 
 which distinguished the fourth day; and he asked, 
 " What was done on this day, if we look for the 
 " physical truth ? for, we have hitherto only 
 " followed Moses with reference to the optical 
 " truth Quid hoc die sit factum, si secundum 
 " veritatem physicam res consideretur ? hactenus 
 " enim secundum veritatem opticam, Mosen 
 " ducem secuti, rem consideravimus V 
 
 He failed to perceive the true origin of the 
 world at the period which the record declares, 
 and he therefore was unable to trace the simpli- 
 city and order of its progress to the fourth day ; 
 and, having thus left himself without the aids 
 
 1 See above, p. 164. ' P. 65, 
 
202 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. both of reason and criticism to determine the 
 CHAR vi. question, he resorted to the dubious conjecture ; 
 either, that the earth then received its first im- 
 pulse in its or bit, having before only revolved 
 " upon its axis; or, that the moon was then Jirst 
 " made a satellite of this earth." In the latter of 
 these alternatives, he was not very far from the 
 truth. But, if he had given himself time to dis- 
 cover how unreasonable were those demands of 
 the mineral geology to which he paid such hasty 
 submission, and, that the text needed not, but 
 protested against, the breach which he made in 
 it to accommodate that science; he would have 
 traced the progress of creation during the first 
 three days, in the order related by the histo- 
 rian, and would have found, that the manifesta- 
 tion of the heavenly luminaries, and the appear- 
 ance of the moon, by the operation of the new 
 planetary laws, on the fourth day of its revolu- 
 tion, fully reveal the physical fact which dis- 
 tinguished this particular day of the Hexae- 
 meron. 
 
 2. The errors of De Luc in this question, 
 are of a much graver and more reprehensible 
 nature. In his pernicious scheme of compro- 
 mise and concession, he has the temerity to 
 discourse thus upon this article. " The opera- 
 " tions which took place, between the great 
 " epochaof the creation of light, and the origin 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLO.GIES. 203 
 
 " of man, recited in the first chapter of Gene- PART II. 
 " sis, are there divided into six periods, called 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 " days in our translation; and it is upon the 
 " undefined interpretation of this word day, 
 " that unbelievers have founded their most 
 " specious attacks against revelation. For it 
 " was easy, with only a very slight knowledge 
 " f g eo lgy> to oppose many phenomena to a 
 " succession of such events in the compass of 
 " six of our days of twenty -four hours. But, 
 " it is evident from the text itself, that this in- 
 " terpretation is erroneous; for it is obvious, 
 " that days of twenty-four hours are measured 
 " by revolutions of the earth in the presence of 
 " the sun illuminating it, whereas the sun does 
 " not appear in this recital until the fourth of the 
 " days in question : consequently par const- 
 " quent these are not days of twenty -four hours, 
 " but periods of undetermined length. And for a 
 " long time ancient interpreters have remarked, 
 " that the same word of the text is employed 
 " in this latter sense in other parts of Genesis, 
 " where the word morning denotes the begin* 
 " ning, and the word evening the end, of some 
 " period. This is the only manner in which WE 
 " can understand that description of each of those 
 " days, ' And the evening and the morning 
 " ' were the first day :' and the same of all the 
 " others. For, as the interval between even- 
 
204 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " ing and morning is only a part of a day of 
 " twenty- four hours, and not one of those 
 " days complete, whereas the beginning and 
 " end of a period render it complete, WE see 
 " clearly, by this difference, what must be the 
 " seme of the words employed here by Moses. 
 " This is the only remark which I have to make 
 " upon the text 1 " 
 
 It is difficult to give a name to this attempt, 
 to dogmatize in scriptural interpretation (with 
 which he here trifles like an infant with fire), 
 in total destitution even of the elements 
 of the sacred learning, by which alone his 
 argument could either be confirmed or con- 
 futed. For, there is no tiro in biblical learning 
 who does not know ; that it is utterly untrue, 
 that the Hebrew my, signifying evening, and 
 npn, signifying morning, are used in any one 
 instance, in any one part of the book of Genesis, 
 to signify the beginning and end of a period of 
 undetermined length ; as he here asserts, with an 
 hardihood totally unaccountable : that it is ut- 
 terly untrue, that " ancient interpreters have for a 
 " long time remarked depuis long- terns les 
 " interpretes antiques ont remarqu6 any such 
 " thing : and, that it is equally untrue, that the 
 
 1 Lcttrcs Gsologiques, p. 95 97. 
 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 205 
 
 word CDV a day, is any where employed by PART II. 
 Moses, or by any other sacred writer, with the 
 particular latitude which he here endeavours to 
 affix to it, not by any rule or sufferance of the 
 language, but merely to carry a point of sys- 
 tem. His " wish, was the wanton father of his 
 " thought;' not his thought, the legitimate off- 
 spring of his knowledge. By such a mode of 
 interpretation, any thing may be converted into 
 every thing; and it would therefore be far more 
 reasonable to deny the record, than thus to 
 compel it to falsify itself. 
 
 The snare which drew him into this un- 
 reputable experiment, was the popular assump- 
 tion, of the certainty of the interpretation which 
 ascribed the creation of the sun to the fourth 
 day; and a total unconsciousness, that there 
 existed any evidence to show that the popular 
 assumption was erroneous. Yet, upon this 
 single foundation, he has ventured to erect the 
 whole of that part of his geology which respects 
 the mode of the Jirst formation of this habitable 
 globe ; and which he has confidently offered, as 
 a confirmation of the Mosaic veracity : thus, taking 
 a conspicuous lead among those philosophers 
 of whom Rosenmuller has well observed ; " eo 
 " delapsi sunt, ut systemata recentiorum phy- 
 " sicorum in Mose quaererent, et verba miserc 
 " ad opiniones suas prseconceptas detorque- 
 
206 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. rent 1 ." But, let it only be shown (as it 
 nas been shown,) upon sound principles of 
 critical interpretation and of Newtonian phi- 
 losophy, that it is more probable that the light 
 of the first day was derived from the same 
 identical cause as the light of the fourth day, 
 than that it was a latent chemical principle, 
 (as he would suggest,) unknown to all man- 
 kind until the reformed chemistry of the 
 eighteenth Christian century found it in a 
 laboratory at Paris ; and the whole of his 
 " Lettres Geologiques" becomes at once waste 
 paper, and subsists only as a type of that 
 " confused assemblage of elements' from which 
 he would derive this earth. 
 
 And what is the motive, which he sets forth 
 to allure our will to his fantastical interpreta- 
 tion ? for it is not our reason that he addresses, 
 but our will. It is, to conciliate unbelievers. To 
 conciliate unbelievers, by supplying them with 
 every needful means of light for discerning the 
 truths which they do not apprehend or recog- 
 nise, is doubtless a high moral and Christian 
 duty; but, to strive to conciliate them by a 
 surrender of any particle of truth, to modify 
 or change it, to cut and fashion it to the 
 
 P. 14. 
 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 207 
 
 measure and mode of their disposition to con- PART II. 
 viction, is a breach of trust of the same 
 
 CHAP. VI 
 
 kind, as to bid our master's debtor " take 
 66 his bill, and write down fifty measures of 
 " wheat," when " an hundred measures" is the 
 just amount of the score. We are not in- 
 trusted with any latitude, or discretion, for 
 thus negotiating the good will of infidelity, in 
 the article of revealed truth. We must take 
 care, to present it pure and genuine ; and un- 
 believers must then take it as it is, or they 
 must leave it ; but, those who attempt a com- 
 promise, by any unauthorized concession, are 
 not the champions, but the betrayers of that 
 truth: non tali amilio 1 , &c. 
 
 1 Of the peculiarly untoward turn of this estimable person's 
 mind, as a professed defender of revelation, a competent sample 
 is afforded in the following note ; which he subjoins to his 
 assertion, that " we read of no miracle in which there was 
 " any new creation" " The multiplication of loaves, (says he), 
 " will perhaps be objected to me ; and I shall certainly not 
 " do what I disapprove in many divines reply by an 
 " explanation. But, it is easy to conceive that this provision 
 " of bread might come there in many different ways ; not indeed 
 " without a miracle, but without a new creation." (Leltrcs 
 sur I'Hist. de la Terrc, torn. i. p. 236, note). He does not 
 impart his conceptions to his reader, they are so easy of 
 apprehension. But, would he have found the same facility in 
 conceiving the manner in which the barrel of meal, and the cruse 
 of oil, supplied the widow of Sarepta, without any waste of 
 
 
208 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART n. It is not without sincere pain, that I feel 
 myself compelled thus strongly to censure this 
 " particular work of the able and amiable De 
 Luc ; but, in so sacred a cause, there may 
 be no complimentary reservation from man 
 to man. He has himself rendered it indis- 
 pensably necessary, that a strong and effectual 
 caution should accompany his writings ; be- 
 cause, they tend to dissolve the foundations of 
 the edifice which they officiously offer to secure. 
 They are calculated, therefore, to praduce an 
 evil which no hostile assault could effect ; for, 
 they are calculated to attract a confidence, 
 which an hostile demonstration would repel. De 
 Luc designed friendship; but, unfortunately, the 
 execution of his friendly design is real hostility. 
 He was eminently distinguished, and his me- 
 mory is deservedly honoured, in the department 
 of physics; he was great also, in showing the 
 concord of many natural phenomena with the 
 Mosaic record of the deluge; but there was 
 
 their quantities ? Until we can comprehend the essence of mat- 
 ter, it is as uriphilosophical as it is impious to dogmatize on 
 the laws of its creation. There was another course, besides that 
 which he rejected, and that which he adopted ; which was, not 
 to attempt an easy conception of what cannot be conceired. 
 It is this easy conception of Jirst formations, which has en- 
 gendered the monstrous system of the modern chaotic geology. 
 See above, p. 83, 84. 
 
 
MINERAL 4D MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 209 
 
 the limit of his true geology. As soon as he PART II. 
 attempted to proceed further, and to argue 
 the mode of the first formation of this globe, 
 his mind lost its guide ; he had strayed ultra 
 crepidam ; and he brought himself into the 
 same predicament with those whom he had 
 before refuted and condemned in the article 
 of the deluge. The measures of time which he 
 had philosophically denied to them, he now 
 unphilosophically and inconsistently demanded 
 for himself: they could not explain the revolution 
 of this earthly system, without the aid of exor- 
 bitant measures of time which the Mosaical 
 record refused them; and he himself could 
 not understand the Mosaical description of 
 the creation of this system, without exacting 
 measures equally exorbitant, and equally re- 
 fused by the record. The natural days, asserted 
 by Moses, were therefore to be turned into 
 such successive periods of ages, as, in his 
 calculation, would allow of a chemical pre- 
 cipitation and crystallization of the globe ; the 
 evening and the morning of those days, were 
 to be perverted into the beginnings and ends 
 of those imagined periods; and the light of 
 the first day, was to be transformed into an 
 universal chemical substance; "not proceeding 
 " from any luminous body, like the sun, but 
 " intermixed with the mass of terrene ele- 
 
210 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " ments; in order, 1. to penetrate that mass; 
 " 2. to produce jire, by its union with apar- 
 " ticular element; 3. to cause the liquefac- 
 " tion of water by its union with fire; and 
 " lastly, to effect different chemical combina- 
 " tions of light with the other elements V 
 All this was to be done; not because the 
 text of Moses stood in any need of these 
 fantastical contrivances, but, " because (says 
 " De Luc) it is the only manner in which WE 
 " can understand the Mosaic description of those 
 " days" And therefore, because the mode 
 illustrated by this obscurity is the only mode 
 in which "WE can understand it," the text 
 of Moses is to be interpreted by no other rule 
 than our incapacity to understand it; although 
 that incapacity proceeds, solely, from our de- 
 ficiency in the knowledge requisite for under- 
 standing it. Let this principle be applied to 
 any other object of research, and its absurdity 
 will be at once manifest ; to say nothing of 
 its necessary consequence, with respect to 
 truth. " Take heed, that the LIGHT that is in 
 " thee be not DARKNESS," is a caution, which 
 the mineral system of geology would do well 
 to observe, with respect to its own science. 
 
 1 Lett ret Geologiquei, p. 1Q1, &c. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 211 
 
 Dolomieu acutely remarked to De Luc; "that PART ii. 
 " though light might produce fire, and fire 
 
 /^IJ \ T> \YT 
 
 " water, yet no progress would thereby be 
 " made in the problem to be solved ; be- 
 " cause, the simple liquidity of water would 
 " be inoperative, without the accession of some 
 " principle of activity which does not essentially 
 " pertain to it 1 ." To this forcible observation, 
 which paralyzed the primum mobile of his 
 chemical chaos, De Luc replied, as was usual 
 with him on similar occasions, by referring 
 to an answer in a future work; so sturdily 
 did he now stickle for time. 
 
 Timej is the great fascinator of all unbe- 
 lievers, semi-believers, and conditional and 
 systematical believers ; and equally sagacious 
 are the various ways in which they seek to 
 extend it. Professor Meinars, argued the 
 length of time which must have been necessary 
 for the gradual discovery of the great truth, of 
 a One, supreme, Creator and Governor of the 
 world. Bailly, argued the same, respecting 
 other important principles of natural religion 
 and morality. But, by the more philosophical 
 supposition, which the Mosaic record confirms ; 
 that the Intelligent Creator endowed His intel- 
 
 1 Lettrcs Gcologiqucs, p. 95, Note. 
 
212 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. ligent creature with these principles at his first 
 formation, in order to render him " conducive 
 
 C-rlAlr. VI. 
 
 " to the end for which he formed him ;" those 
 unnecessary and unphilosophical measures, are 
 at once abscinded from the true computation 
 of time. The same error has sought the same 
 measures, in imagining the time requisite for 
 making and collecting the various celestial 
 observations, by which man could arrive at 
 a knowledge of the heavenly bodies, their 
 movements, and indications, and apply them 
 to the computation of time. But, the same 
 philosophical principle will dispel the error in 
 this case, as in the former ; and the Mosaical 
 record expressly acquaints us, in the article 
 we have been now considering, that the Creator, 
 on this fourth day, disposed His celestial calen- 
 dar in its first sensible and complete order of 
 indications, and appointed it to serve " for 
 " signs, and for seasons, and for days, and 
 " years" preparatory to the proximate crea- 
 tion of MAN ; to whom it was to be imparted, 
 and for whom alone it was to be conducive 
 to those relative ends. 
 
 Thus, then, it is sufficiently manifest, from 
 the concurring authorities of learning and phi- 
 losophy ; that the solar light, which, upon the 
 fourth day of creation, was transmitted imme-* 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 213 
 
 diately and optically from the solar orb, was PART II. 
 the same light that, during the three preceding 
 days, had been transmitted through a nebulous 
 medium, interposed between it and the earth : 
 pr>Tt iAjou, ju>]T arpwv fTnpauwrwv <c neither sun 
 " nor stars having been apparent," during that 
 covered and clouded period. 
 
214 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PART II. THE sacred historian goes on to his Fifth 
 Article, and relates : 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 " And GOD said. Let the waters bring forth 
 " abundantly the moving creature that hath life, 
 " and fowl that may fly above the earth in the 
 " open firmament of heaven. 
 
 " And GOD created GREAT WHALES, and 
 " every living creature that moveth, which the 
 " waters brought forth abundantly after their 
 " kind; and every winged fowl after its kind. 
 <( And GOD saw that it was good. 
 
 " And GOD blessed them, saying : Be fruitful 
 " and multiply, and FILL THE WATERS IN THE 
 " SEAS ; and let fowl multiply in the earth. 
 
 " And the evening and the morning were 
 
 " the FIFTH DAY." 
 
 The word mttf', which our version renders 
 " bring forth abundantly," is rendered by the 
 Greek interpreters, ^a-yaysro, which simply 
 expresses " bring forth," without the qualifica- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 215 
 
 tioti of " abundantly." The same qualification is PART TT. 
 absent also in the Latin version of the Chaldee 
 paraphrase. Yet the Hebrew verb implies 
 abundance ; its proper sense being that of 
 scaturivit, progenuit abunde, as it is rendered 
 by Castell; i. e. to breed, or produce abundantly. 
 In this article is related, the jirst formation 
 of animal matter by the immediate act of Al- 
 mighty Power, i. e. by the, mode of Creation; a 
 mode, which appears to constitute the great 
 tormentum of the mineral geology; from the 
 constraint of which it is ever labouring to 
 extricate its science, but from which it never 
 can emancipate it. This amazing operation it 
 states thus : " au bout d'un certain terns, ce 
 " liquide fut peuple d'animaux^ at the end of 
 " a certain time, this (chemical) liquid was 
 " peopled with animals." It does not tell us 
 how, but observes; " c'est un trop grand sujet* 
 " this is too great a subject, to treat iu de- 
 " tail;" in order to maintain its spurious dis- 
 tinction, between the modes of mineral, and 
 animal, Jirst formations. NQT does it seem to 
 be so much amazed at its being peopled then, 
 as that it was not peopled before: "What is 
 " astonishing, it says, and not less certain, there 
 " have not been always living creatures on the 
 
 Lue, Lett. Geol. p. 77. Ibid. p. 320. 
 
216 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART ii. " earth*!" Unless it supposes that the earth 
 CHAP' vi alwa y s listed, it is difficult to understand the 
 * ground of its astonishment. For, if it supposes 
 the earth to have had a beginning, the produc- 
 tion of animals, on ihejifth day of its forma- 
 tion, was early enough to have satisfied it. 
 
 The same immediate operation of God, 
 which, on the^zr^ day, gave perfect existence 
 to His mineral system, and, on the third day, to 
 His vegetable system; gave perfect existence, 
 on this fifth day, to that first created part 
 of His animal system, which comprehended 
 every kind of marine and winged animal, 
 in all the individuals pertaining to its first 
 formation. These were formed in full maturity 
 of structure, in all their component parts, by 
 a mode disclaiming all secondary operation. 
 And, though the bones of the first " whales" 
 unquestionably bore the appearance of an ossi- 
 fying process, as the textures of the first rock 
 and of the first tree severally bore the appear- 
 ances of a crystallising and of a lignifying pro- 
 cess; yet, that appearance was no indication 
 to reason, that they were produced by such a 
 process ; because reason perceives, that they 
 acquired their ossified substance, and 
 
 CUVIER, T/t. oftJie Earth, \ 6. p. 38. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 217 
 
 before any process of ossification had begun to PART II. 
 take place. 
 
 rru 7 f 1 J / CHAP ' VIL 
 
 JLhus, marine animals of every kind, from 
 the largest to the minutest, were produced 
 " in abundance;' and swarmed in the depths 
 of that sea, into which the general mass of 
 waters had been drawn from off the surface 
 of the globe which was now clothed with 
 vegetable matter, and whose bed had been 
 formed by the disruption and subsidence of 
 the other portion of that same surface. Let 
 us again carry our thoughts into the struc- 
 ture of that bed, and into its apparently dis- 
 ordered and ruinous depths and recesses ; I 
 say apparently disordered, because the circum- 
 stances of its alteration were as much directed 
 by the Divine Wisdom, as the regularity of 
 its first formation. The mineral materials, 
 which retained their primitive order and posi- 
 tion in the undisturbed dry-land, were here 
 fractured, severed, and dispersed, or in various 
 ways disturbed; and the soils, which had at 
 first rested on their rocky bases, were neces- 
 sarily displaced by the rupture of those bases, 
 and being precipitated into the new profundity, 
 together with the innumerable fragments of the 
 broken rocks, formed the slimy or the shingly 
 bottom of the new sea. On that bottom, and 
 * in all the varieties of its parts, whether in its 
 
218 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. lowest depths, or upon the submerged masses 
 ~~~~ which lay upon it, marine matter of every 
 kind, vegetable and animal, was produced in 
 abundance, with the power of perpetual repro- 
 duction ; and it continued to increase in quan- 
 tity, in a multiple ratio, during many ages. 
 This is a fact, of the utmost concernment to 
 a true geology ; and which it will therefore 
 behove the reader to impress deeply, and to 
 
 retain fixedly, in his mind. 
 
 ' 
 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 219 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE historian at length arrives at his Sixth PART II. 
 Article; which is the last, in the history of the " 
 Creation of the constituent parts of this earthly 
 system. 
 
 " And GOD said; Let the earth bring forth 
 " the living creature after its kind, cattle, and 
 " creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its 
 " kind. And it was so. 
 
 " And GOD made the beast of the earth after 
 " its kind, and cattle after their kind, and every 
 " thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind. 
 " And GOD saw that it was good. 
 
 " And GOD said; Let us make MAN in OUR 
 " IMAGE, after OUR, LIKENESS ; and let them 
 " have DOMINION over the fish of the sea, and 
 " over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, 
 " and over all the earth, and over every creeping 
 " thing that moveth upon the earth. 
 
 " So GOD created MAN in HIS OWN IMAGE, 
 " in the IMAGE OF GOD created He him: male 
 " and female created he them. 
 
 " And GOD blessed them, and GOD said unto 
 
220 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish 
 
 " the earth, and subdue it : and have DOMINION 
 
 .^^'^^^ " over the Jish of the sea, and over the fowl of 
 
 " the air, and over every living thing that moveth 
 
 " upon the earth. 
 
 " And GOD said; Behold, I have given you 
 " every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face. 
 " of all the earth, and every tree in the which is 
 " the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it 
 " shall be for meat ; and to every beast of the earth, 
 " and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing 
 " that moveth upon the earth wherein there is life, 
 " every green herb for meat. And it was so. 
 <Vi " And GOD saw every thing that HE HAD 
 " MADE, and behold it was VERY GOOD. 
 
 " And the evening and the morning were the 
 
 SIXTH DAY." 
 
 The creation of MAN "in the mage and like- 
 
 " ness of GOD" xar' jxoi/a xat xaO' opoiua-iv 0*ou, 
 
 relates, and can only relate, to the intellectual, 
 moral, and immortal nature, with which the 
 infinite goodness of God was pleased to invest 
 him ; these are the only points of his nature, 
 in which the most distant analogy can be traced 
 to the nature of his infinite CREATOR. And 
 the " DOMINION," with which God was further 
 pleased to endow him, " over all the earth" 
 which He had now completed, showed, that all 
 that terrestrial creation was designed to be subor- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 221 
 
 dinate to the END, for which He had placed within PART II. 
 
 it that INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, and IMMORTAL 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 BEING. 
 
 In this concluding article of creation, we 
 are instructed ; Jirst, that this sixth day 
 was marked by a vast enlargement of the 
 sphere of animal matter, completing the uni- 
 versal animal system, by the formation of 
 every kind of animated being which was to in- 
 habit and occupy the surface of the earth now 
 provided with every variety of vegetable pro- 
 duction. But we are informed, secondly, that the 
 last animal structure of this creation, was that 
 which God on this same day assigned to MAX, 
 and into which He " breathed a LIVING SOUL:" 
 thus uniting in his being, a nature which bore 
 analogy to His own divine nature, and a frame 
 analogous, in its general laws, to the animal 
 natures of the earth, though furnished with 
 many excellencies above them ; of which, the 
 faculty of speech, for communicating intelligence, 
 and the conformation of the hands, for executing 
 the purposes of intelligence, are chief and pre- 
 eminent. Thus man, by his animal nature, 
 was linked to the system of this globe ; but, by 
 his moral nature, and by the unperishing essence 
 of that nature, he demonstrated a disparity 
 to that system, and a relation to a different 
 and a far more exalted one. This mineral globe 
 
222 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. was formed, and assigned, for the temporary 
 CHAP~"VIII ^eatre of his being ; and with the purpose, of 
 sustaining and serving the animal and vegetable 
 systems, but chiefly, to supply the necessities 
 of the human resident, and to exercise the 
 various powers, moral and physical, with which 
 his mind, and his frame, were severally endowed. 
 To him, therefore, the Creator was pleased to 
 assign the " DOMINION" over His new-created 
 earth. 
 
 And here it becomes necessary to notice 
 the effect, continually resulting from the prac- 
 tice to which I have already adverted *, of 
 pursuing physics as a branch of science com- 
 plete in itself, and not necessarily requiring 
 an association with morals : a practice, common 
 among those who are immersed in the studies 
 of the natural sciences,, who appear to conduct 
 them under a jealousy of morals, and under a 
 settled principle, that the spheres of the two 
 philosophies are distinct and independent of 
 each other ; so that any interference of morals 
 in the sphere of physics, is an usurpation, and 
 an infringement of the rights of the latter. 
 By this melancholy estrangement, the due 
 and natural subordination of the latter to the 
 
 \ See above, p. 109. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 223 
 
 former, which Newton inculcated and which PART II. 
 right reason asserts, becomes in a great degree CH ^T~vin. 
 dissolved ; and physics, confidently advancing 
 alone in a state of misguidance, become steri- 
 lized of their noblest and richest fruits. This 
 must be the case, when God is not habitually 
 regarded as the Jirst physical principle, as He 
 was regarded by Newton ; but only as the first 
 moral principle, and therefore pertaining more 
 peculiarly to another branch of mental con- 
 templation. In this mutilated condition of the 
 mind, the moral feelings which aite sometimes 
 roused, and as it were compelled, into action, 
 in the physical contemplator, by the grandeur 
 and sublimity of the objects which he witnesses, 
 are vague, confused, and undigested ; and the 
 terms in which they are enounced, betray the 
 defects of the conceptions from which they 
 emanate. I shall illustrate the case to which 
 I allude, by producing an example of this semi- 
 moral sentiment ; which, though it is common 
 even to common-place among physical philoso- 
 phers, I select, because it is the expression of 
 one of the ablest and most deservedly cele- 
 brated mineralogists of our time. 
 
 " If, in the midst of such meditations, (says 
 " this eminent naturalist,) the idea of the little 
 *' beings which crawl upon the surface of this 
 " globe presents itself to the mind; if it com- 
 
224 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " pares their duration with the great epochas of 
 r " nature, how will it be astonished, that, occupy- 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 w " ing so small a place both in space and time, 
 " they could believe that they were the sole 
 " end of the creation and of the universe ? It 
 " is here (he exclaims, namely, on the summit of 
 " jEtna, which inspired these reflections,) that 
 *' the philosopher ought to build the Temple of 
 " Wisdom ; to say, with the Chanter of Nature 1 , 
 
 " Suave mari magno, Sfc.* " i. e. 
 
 'Tis pleasant, when the seas are rough, to stand 
 And see another's danger, safe at land. 
 Not 'cause he's troubled, but 'tis sweet to see 
 Those cares and fears from which ourselves are free ! 
 
 CREECH. 
 
 We plainly perceive, whither this physico- 
 morality tends. And, indeed, how is it possible 
 that the "philosopher" should suppose, that the 
 " DOMINION" over the vast theatre which he 
 beholds from jEtna, was consigned in all for- 
 mality, by its Creator, to the " little crawling 
 " beings" which he surveys in the landscape 
 below; while his "ivisdom" is engaged in chant- 
 ing with the " Chanter of Nature" who only 
 chants that he may disclaim an intelligent 
 and governing Creator of that theatre? Why the 
 
 1 SAUSSURE, Voyages dans Ics Alpes, torn. i. Disc. Prcl. p. 6, 7. 
 8 LUCRETIUS, ii. 1. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 225 
 
 animated mineralogist should have pitched upon PART II. 
 that particular stave, does not very clearly ap- 
 pear. That the adventurous traveller, who, 
 after much toil and hazard, has reached a place 
 of refuge upon the summit, should sing it, we 
 might perhaps comprehend ; but, why the 
 philosopher is to sing it in the temple of Wisdom, 
 I must protest, for one, that I cannot in the least 
 comprehend. 
 
 There may possibly, however, appear to 
 some minds, on the first perusal of this reflec- 
 tion, a mixed character of sublimity and 
 humility, of profound thought, and of devout 
 sentiment; but, upon a nearer inspection, 
 and upon an accurate analysis, all these 
 characters will dissolve, and disappear. It may 
 therefore not be amiss, to pursue the analysis. 
 
 Though the author uses the words creation 
 and universe, yet it is evident, from the context, 
 that his mind intended no more by those terms 
 than the expanse of earth, exposed to his con- 
 templation from the crests of the loftiest moun- 
 tains ; upon which, it is certain that the spiritual 
 affections of the soul experience instinctively an 
 ascending tendency, which is presently counter- 
 acted and depressed in the sensitive affections, 
 by a consciousness of weakness and inferiority. 
 The reflection conveys a censure upon all those 
 who think, that the little being can be the chief 
 
 Q 
 
226 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 .PART II. object, with a view to which this earthly system 
 '~~ r of creation was originally framed : for, no one 
 j ever yet imagined that he was the chief object 
 of the entire creation, and unbounded universe ; 
 and it founds that censure, exclusively, upon 
 the relative 'magnitudes and durations, of the 
 vast features of the globe, and of the small 
 human beings who inhabit, or as he expresses 
 himself, who " crawl" upon it. Now, the vast 
 magnitudes are mountains, and the small mag- 
 nitudes are men; and it argues, that the dis- 
 parity of those magnitudes and of their dura- 
 tions is so excessively great, that it is irrational 
 and stupid to suppose, that the larger can be 
 subservient to the ends of the smaller. But if 
 there is - any sense or virtue in this reflection, 
 it must consist in duly estimating the relative 
 importance of the two magnitudes and durations ; 
 and in concluding logically, the comparative 
 insignificancy of the smaller. And it will then 
 necessarily follow, that the insignificancy of 
 the smaller would lessen, in the same proportion 
 in which it might increase in bulk. If the little 
 beings therefore were to be magnified in the 
 proportions of 2, 3, 4, &c., their insignificancy, 
 relatively to the great features of the globe, 
 would necessarily diminish in the same ratio. 
 The smaller the disproportion between the man 
 and the mountain, the less would be the relative 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAlCAL GEOLOGIES. 227 
 
 insignificance of the former ; and although the PART II. 
 increase of magnitude in the smaller object be 
 
 . J , CHAP. VIII. 
 
 ever so inconsiderable, yet if it is positive and 
 real, its dignity must be proportionately in- 
 creased in the true nature of things : the bigger 
 the being that crawls upon the surface of this 
 globe, the less absurd would be the supposition 
 that he is the final object of this terrestrial 
 creation. The Irish giant, therefore, whose 
 altitude exceeded the measure of eight feet, 
 would exceed in relative dignity, by the same 
 proportion, Bacon and Newton, whose height 
 did' not attain to six feet. The Brobdignag, 
 would far excel the Irish giant ; while, on the 
 other hand, that diminutive race of illustrious 
 men, which, by Lord Clarendon's relation, dis- 
 tinguished the unhappy times in which he 
 lived 1 , would sink into extreme insignificance, 
 compared with a magnitude so considerable 
 and respectable as that of the Brobdignag. If 
 this is nonsense, then must that also be nonsense 
 from which it is the genuine conclusion : viz. 
 that the material magnitudes of the little beings, 
 or their duration upon the earth on which they 
 " crawl," determines, in any manner, their im- 
 portance in the creation, relatively to the pri- 
 
 1 Life, p. 28, fol.Irf. Falkland, Hales, Chilling-worth, &c. 
 
228 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. mordial mountains which arise above it, or to 
 
 CHAP~VIII ^ e extent f tne regions which may be sur- 
 veyed from their summits. For, if the same 
 physically small beings possess another magnitude, 
 which can be brought to another and a different 
 scale of computation from that of physical or 
 material magnitude ; a scale, infinitely surpass- 
 ing in importance the greatest measures of that 
 magnitude ; then, there will be nothing asto- 
 nishing or irrational in the supposition, that the 
 highest mountains, and the widest regions, and 
 the entire system to which they pertain, may 
 be subservient to the ends of those beings, and to 
 that other system to which they pertain ; which 
 latter will thus be found superior in importance 
 to the former. Such a scale is that, by which 
 the intelligent, moral, and immortal nature of 
 MAST is to be measured, and which the sacred 
 historian calls, a formation " after the image 
 " and likeness of GOD :" a scale, so little taken 
 into the contemplation of the science of mere 
 physics. As soon, however, as that moral scale 
 of magnitude once supersedes the physical scale 
 in the apprehension of the mind; as soon as 
 the mind perceives, that the duration of that 
 intelligent moral nature infinitely exceeds the 
 vastest " epocha of Nature' which the imagi- 
 nation of the mineral geology can represent to 
 itself, and that, though the physical nature of 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAlCAL GEOLOGIES. 229 
 
 man is limited to a very small measure of time, PART II. 
 yet his moral nature is unlimited in time, and 
 
 CHAP VIII 
 
 will outlast all the mountains of the globe ; it 
 then perceives, at the same moment, the 
 counterfeit quality of the reflection, which at 
 first appeared so sublime and so humble, so 
 profound and so devout. The sublimity and 
 humility, betray themselves to be the disparage- 
 ment and degradation of our nature; the 
 profundity, is found to be mere surface, and 
 the devotion to be a retrocession from the light 
 of revelation. 
 
 But, if we would find the principle of this 
 crude and abortive reflection brought to its full 
 birth, and delivered forth in all the perfection 
 of its symmetry ; we shall find it ready to our 
 hand, not indeed in the " Chanter of Nature" 
 but, in the " Psalmist of God ;" not in the sphere 
 of physical inspiration only, but where moral 
 inspiration exalted the mind to the immediate 
 presence of the Great First Cause, as the final 
 scope to which universal existence, both moral 
 and physical, invariably and immediately tends. 
 It will then assume this exalted form : " When I 
 ' ' consider THY Heavens, the workofTn yjingers ; 
 6 ' the moon and the stars which THOU hast ordained ; 
 " what is MAN, that THOU art mindful of him, or 
 " the son of MAN, that THOU visitest him! For 9 
 " THOU hast made him but a little lower than the 
 
230 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " angels, and hast crowned him with glory and 
 CHAP~VIII " honour. THOU madest him to have DOMINION 
 " over the works of THY hands; THOU hast put 
 " all things in subjection under his feet /" 
 
 Here, we trace the aerial soar of the eagle, 
 instead of the heavy ground-flight of the earth 
 fowl ; we perceive the aspiring sublimity of 
 revelation, instead of the flatulency of a terrene 
 philosophy; we discern the true humiliation 
 of religious gratitude, instead of an affected 
 depreciation of our highly favoured nature; 
 and we become practically sensible of the 
 infinite disparity of the effect wrought in the 
 soul, by contemplating the chaotic precipitations 
 of the mineral geology, or the creative fiat of 
 the MosaicaL 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 231 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LET us now return to the record, which is thus PART II. 
 concluded by the historian : CHAP" ix 
 
 " Thus the HEAVENS and the EARTH were 
 " finished, and all the host of them. And on the 
 " SEVENTH DAY GOD ended his work which HE 
 16 had made, and HE rested on the seventh day 
 " from all His ivork which HE had made. 
 
 " And GOD blessed the SEVENTH DAY, and 
 " SANCTIFIED it; because that in it HE had 
 " ceased from all His work, which GOD created 
 " and made." 
 
 " Thus, in the distribution of the days," ob- 
 serves Bacon, " we see, that the day on which 
 " God rested and contemplated His works, was 
 " blessed above all the days during which the 
 " fabric of the universe was created and ar- 
 " ranged 1 ." 
 
 This concluding article presents much 
 matter for our serious consideration. 
 
 Great and inestimable have been the ends 
 
 1 De Aug. Scient. v. iv. 1. i. p. 37. 
 
232 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. attained by that sacred ordinance, which ap- 
 CHAP~IX P omte d a M ti me to proceed by perpetually re- 
 current measures of seven days. For, while 
 God provided in the heavens, on the fourth 
 day, a perpetual natural calendar of time 
 divided into large measures, which attracted 
 the attention of the mind to natural and material 
 objects ; He provided, by the sanctification of the 
 seventh day, an entirely distinct, moral calen- 
 dar, subdividing those large measures into 
 smaller and more convenient measures, and 
 directing the attention perpetually, and imme- 
 diately, to HIMSELF ; and which was founded 
 upon a principle, and proceeded by a ratio, 
 that prevented the possibility of its ever be- 
 coming confounded with, or lost in, the former. 
 For, although some physical philosophers of the 
 last century perversely attempted to ascribe 
 the hebdomadal computation, or computation by 
 weeks, to the quarters of the moon as marked by 
 its different phases, in order to invalidate the 
 divine origin of that computation ; yet, a child 
 in calculation is able to show, that the ratios of 
 the two computations are so essentially and 
 perpetually at variance with each other, that 
 though they can always be adjusted by equation, 
 yet they can never fall into each other ; but 
 their diversity must have been apparent at the 
 end of the first month, and would have con- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 233 
 
 tinued more and more to manifest itself as time PART II. 
 continued to advance: the hebdomadal month 
 consisting exactly of 28 days, but the lunar 
 
 We thus perceive, that the inchoations of all 
 the three computations of time, solar, lunar, 
 and sabbatical (if described according to their 
 indications)-, or, annual, menstrual, and heb- 
 domadal (if described according to their mea- 
 sures), were concurrent. That, the first day of 
 creation, was the commencement of the first 
 year and first month, testified by the phenomena 
 of the fourth day; and the commencement of 
 the first week, testified by the sanctification of 
 the seventh day. We thus apprehend the 
 order in which the new creation and system of 
 time began, by the counsel and disposal of God; 
 which order has proceeded uniformly and with- 
 out interruption from that period, and will con- 
 tinue so to proceed, until the conclusion of 
 time, which will be no other than the cessation 
 of the stupendous machine of this planetary 
 system. If we could look back through all 
 history, we should find a precise concurring 
 date of year, month, week, and day, affixed to 
 every event which has occurred in time; which 
 consideration will make us sensible, that what 
 we are apt to term the obscurity of time, is no 
 other than the obscurity of our own knowledge, 
 
234 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. with respect to past time. But, by thus con- 
 templating it in itself, and in its general nature, 
 ' we shall be sensible how admirably its com- 
 pound relations have been preserved from its 
 commencement. It presents to the thoughts a 
 perfect, minutely noted calendar, whose leaves 
 are blank to our intelligence, where history has 
 not rilled them up ; so that our confusion of 
 early history does not result from the want of 
 a precise date to affix to events, but from 
 our incapacity to apply the events to the 
 dates which properly and perpetually pertain 
 to them. 
 
 What renders it material to impress this 
 fact upon the mind is, that the mode which 
 learning and science have adopted to facili- 
 tate the arrangement of historical events, is, 
 unfortunately, founded upon a principle, which, 
 though it may serve a purpose of history, pro- 
 duces radical confusion in contemplating chro- 
 nology. For, since chronology is the science of 
 time, and since time signifies nothing else than 
 the succession of the diurnal revolutions of the 
 earth, collected into annual revolutions, and these 
 multiplied by 100, and 1000; our general view 
 of time ought to commence with the fast revo- 
 lution of the earth. This is its true origin, or 
 epocha, with respect to fact. But, .instead of 
 this true epocha, an imaginary scheme of time, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 235 
 
 having its commencement 532 years, or one PART II. 
 entire Victorian, or Dionysian, cycle, before 
 time actually did commence, has been substi- 
 tuted ; by which means, our retrospective 
 view of that admirable system is, by man's 
 artifice, contrived to terminate in obscurity and 
 nothing. A distinct apprehension of that sys- 
 tem, demands a distinct perception of itsjirst 
 procession and succeeding progress ; but, by fixing 
 that first procession by a rule of hypothesis, and 
 not of reality, we adapt historical facts to an 
 imaginary and not to a trite scale of time. Such 
 is the celebrated JULIAN PERIOD, invented by 
 the learned Julius Scaliger in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury ; which was presently adopted by all the 
 learned world, and still remains the most general 
 scale to which the events of ancient history are 
 referred. That eminent scholar conceived the 
 idea, of multiplying into each other the numbers, 
 of the solar cycle, 28; of the lunar cycle, 19; and 
 of the indiction, 15; which yielded him the 
 number, 7980. Of this number, he made a scale 
 of years ; fixing the year of the Creation, to the 
 year 533 of his scale. It is manifest, therefore, 
 that the 532 years preceding the year assigned 
 to the creation, are mere arithmetical fictions ; 
 having no more relation to reality than the 
 chaotic ages, or epochas of Nature, of the mineral 
 
236 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. geology. The mind, thus habituated to refer 
 the course of time to an origin which has no 
 reference to historical fact, but merely to thejirst 
 term of an artificial arithmetical calculation, views 
 it falsely in principle, and without any character 
 of its true nature. Instead of tracing it to its 
 real commencement, and perceiving both time 
 and history to proceed from thence in parallel 
 and equal courses, and with exact and per- 
 petual correspondence between all their parts, 
 it is taught to leave history and creation be- 
 hind, and to fix its view upon an imaginary 
 point in unreality and non-existence. And 
 from thus considering time without any real 
 origin, a notion of obscurity is necessarily 
 excited, and combined with the notion of past 
 time ; and thus, man's artifice defeats the 
 gracious purpose of God, which was, to impart 
 to him a distinct and clear idea of the origin and 
 progress of time. 
 
 To recover the benefit thus wantonly lost, 
 was the object of the meritorious labours of a 
 learned German of the middle of the last century; 
 who was justly sensible, both of the evil of the 
 prevailing system, and of the value of that which 
 was so inconsiderately neglected. In introduc- 
 ing his new scheme, he thus expressed himself: 
 *' Many, and almost innumerable, systems of 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 237 
 
 " chronology are before the learned world, of PART II. 
 " which, if we may venture to speak the truth, 
 
 CHAP IX 
 
 " not one has hitherto been proposed which is 
 " free from doubt and uncertainty ; the reason 
 " of which is the want of a fundamental chrono- 
 " lgy 9 m which the Jirst year of the world and 
 " all the succeeding years might be accu- 
 " rately described according to the courses 
 " of the sun and moon. This, Scaliger in- 
 " tended to effect by means of the Julian 
 " Period. But, since that period does not 
 " begin with the creation of the world, but 
 " very long before it ; since it does not consist of 
 " complete solar years, but merely of Julian 
 " years ; and since it is not historical, but merely 
 " hypothetical; it is evident, that it cannot serve 
 " for a basis of chronology . In this uncertainty, 
 " I perceived the means of obtaining a true 
 " fundamental chronology in the golden period 
 " of the Jubilee, which God Himself has shown 
 " us in the sacred Scripture. However sur- 
 " prising this may appear, it will nevertheless 
 " be clearly demonstrated, in the following 
 " pages ; that this period begins with thejirst 
 " year of the world ; that it proceeds equally 
 " by the courses of the sun and moon; and, 
 " that, by means of epacts which it most 
 " accurately describes, it indicates the new 
 " and full moons through all the ages of the 
 
238 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. " world, and therefore constitutes a foundation 
 ~~~ " for universal chronology 1 ." 
 
 .L.X.* 
 
 Without inquiring into the success of this 
 learned writer's important undertaking, it is 
 quite evident; that, whether our intellectual 
 efforts are or are not able to discover the rela- 
 tions of past events with those distinct charac- 
 ters of time, yet time itself has ever pro- 
 ceeded with those distinct characters, and in 
 the constant order here described by the 
 learned and laborious German. 
 
 1 " PR^ELUSIO CHRONOLOGIC FUNDAMENTALIS, qua 
 " omnes anni ad soils et lunce cursum accurat^ dcscribi, et 
 " nomlunia d primordio mundi ad nostra usque ternpora et 
 " amplius ope epactarum dcsignari possunt : in CYCLO IOBELEO 
 " BIBLICO detectce, et ad Chronologiam tarn Sacram quam 
 " Profanam applicatce" a IOHANNE GEORGIO FRANK, &c. 
 Goettingce, 1774. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 239 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LET us now review this " revealed history of the PART II. 
 " creation'' to which Bacon introduced us, 
 
 CH4P X 
 
 with relation to the mode of first formations ; by 
 the standard of Newton's conclusions on the 
 one hand, and by the conclusions of the mineral 
 geology on the other. 
 
 This history records; 1. That all the first 
 formations of mineral, vegetable, and animal 
 matter, were severally effected, in order of suc- 
 cession, by a mode uninvestigable by any scheme 
 or science of man, namely, the mode of CREA- 
 TION by GOD. 2. That each of those opera- 
 tions was immediate; the formations resulting 
 in their full perfection, without any instrumental 
 mediation, from the actual exercise of the 
 divine wisdom, will, and power. 3. That 
 although the Divine Intelligence thought fit to 
 create and set in order His first formations in 
 successive moments of time, yet He produced 
 them without any agency of time. 4. That, by 
 His Almighty " Fiat" He caused \hejirst for- 
 mations, and disposition, of all the mineral matter 
 of this globe, in one immediate simultaneous 
 
240 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. operation, commencing at the same moment its 
 Jirst diurnal revolution, in which operation, the 
 solid body of the earth was formed and consti- 
 tuted in all its parts distinct from the body of 
 waters, which were diffused over its whole super- 
 ficies. 5. That, on the third day, by a similar 
 simultaneous operation, He caused the Jirst 
 formations of all vegetable matter, in their full 
 maturity ; and, 6. That on the fifth and sixth 
 days, He in a similar manner caused the Jirst 
 formations of all animal matter. 
 
 We thus find, in the Mosaical geology, 
 the three kingdoms of matter equally con- 
 nected with their common Intelligent Cause; 
 by whom they were both " created, and set in 
 " order, in such sizes and figures, in such pro- 
 " portions to space, and with such other proper- 
 " ties, as most conduced to the end for which 
 " He formed them ; and therefore, that none of 
 " them rose out of a chaos, by the mere laws of 
 " nature" 
 
 But, this is the very induction of Newton 
 himself, derived from universal analysis. Which 
 induction, therefore, being in perfect concord 
 with the Mosaical geology, but in total discord 
 with the mineral geology, decides the question 
 with which we set out, namely, the MODE of 
 first formations. For, both the geologies appealed 
 to Newton; and, upon this appeal, Newton 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 241 
 
 determines, without hesitation, in favour of PART II. 
 the Mosaical, and formally affixes to the con- 
 
 CHAP. X 
 
 elusions of the mineral, the stigma of unphiloso- 
 phical. 
 
 Bacon's philosophy, no less decidedly dis- 
 claims all chaotic formation, together with the 
 periods of time to which it lays claim. He ac- 
 knowledges no other agency, either in the act of 
 power which created, or in the act of wisdom 
 which arranged this globe, than the hand of God 
 Himself: the former, in " one moment of time* the 
 latter, in " six days," natural and consecutive; 
 and he could discern no true, philosophical objec- 
 tion, to the admission of those facts. He calls 
 the first formation " confusa," in deference to the 
 text of the received versions, and attempts no 
 critical explanation of the word; but we have 
 seen, that it is to be understood with relation only 
 to vision, and not to the subject l . He allows of no 
 " fermenting, digesting, and preparing ;" of no 
 " dissolution, precipitation, or crystallization ;" of 
 no " creative seeds or elements;" of no other actor 
 in arrangement, than God Himself, and of no 
 other mode of his action, than immediate ; and 
 he pronounces all those laws, which physical 
 philosophy denominates laws of nature, and to 
 
 1 See above, p. 132 and 150. 
 R 
 
242 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART II. which the mineral geology would ascribe the 
 arrangement of first formations, to be no other 
 than the laws of the Creation; which did not, 
 and could not, begin to operate, until God had 
 called this mineral globe into being, in one 
 moment of time, and had finished the perfect 
 arrangement of every thing pertaining to its 
 system. And he thus professes his belief: 
 
 " I believe, that God created heaven and 
 " earth; and gave unto them constant and 
 " perpetual laws, which we call of Nature; 
 " which is nothing but the laws of the Creation : 
 " that the laws of nature, which now remain, 
 " and govern inviolably till the end of the 
 " world, began to be in force when God rested 
 " from His work : that, notwithstanding God 
 " hath rested from creating, since the first 
 " sabbath, yet, nevertheless, He doth accom- 
 " plish and fulfil His divine will in all things, 
 " great and small, general and particular, as full 
 " and exactly by providence, as He could do by 
 " miracle and new creation; though His working 
 " be not immediate and direct, but by com- 
 " pass ; not violating nature, which is His own 
 " laws, upon his creatures V 
 
 1 Coiifession of faith. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 243 
 
 PART III. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IT is now decided, upon a comparison of the PART III. 
 two geologies with the philosophy of Bacon 
 and Newton respecting the FIRST great object 
 of our inquiry, viz. The MODE of First Forma- 
 tions ; that philosophy and truth lie exclusively 
 with the Mosaical It remains for us, to in- 
 stitute a similar comparison with respect to 
 the SECOND great object; viz. the MODE of 
 the universal Changes, or Revolutions, which 
 the mineral substances of the earth have since 
 undergone. 
 
 But, a question here arises, with respect to 
 the course by which this ulterior object ought 
 to be pursued. In the former part of this 
 disquisition, we began our investigation by 
 examining the pretensions of the mineral geo- 
 logy; in order to bring it into a comparison 
 with the Mosaical, and to try the validity of 
 each by a common test. This object we have 
 
244 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART ill. accomplished, with respect to the first question ; 
 and the result has been, a clear demonstration 
 
 T 
 
 of the validity of the latter, by the rule of that 
 test, and the invalidity of the former. This 
 issue of our examination, appears to render it 
 reasonable, that we should now alter our course ; 
 and that, continuing to pursue the thread of 
 the record thus far confirmed, we should apply 
 our close attention to what it relates concerning 
 an Universal Revolution, effected in the substance 
 of this globe by the intervention of the same 
 Power, who alone acted in the work of Crea- 
 tion ; carefully examining, whether the evidences 
 of revolution, which the earth reveals, correspond 
 with the statements of the record, and are 
 sufficiently accounted for by it ; or, whether 
 the mineral geology has discovered the evidence 
 and the statements to be at variance, or has 
 found evidences of revolution which are not 
 reducible to those stated in the record; for, 
 if they are so reducible, it will be equally con- 
 trary to philosophy and logic, to assume any 
 others upon a ground of mere conjecture. 
 
 But, there is another reason why this course 
 is to be preferred for this latter part of our in- 
 quiry, besides the superiority which the record 
 has already acquired from the decision of the 
 test, which is this : physical philosophy, for a 
 long time past, had taken upon itself to deny 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 245 
 
 the truth of the Mosaical geology, and with PART III. 
 much sarcasm, because it assigned a date of 
 not more than about four thousand years ago for 
 the period of a revolution, which was able 
 to cause marine substances to be imbedded 
 in all parts of this habitable earth; even in 
 places the most remote from the sea, and in 
 elevations very considerably above its level. 
 But, the progress of physical research, during 
 the last few years; conducted by naturalists 
 of acute, sober, and honest minds ; has at last 
 terminated in so signal a concession to the 
 testimony of the Mosaical record in this par- 
 ticular, that, added to the authority of Bacon's 
 and Newton's philosophy, it renders that testi- 
 mony paramount, as the rule by which all 
 inquiries, concerning revolutions general to the 
 globe, ought henceforth to be conducted. For, 
 the mineral geology has been brought at length, 
 by physical phenomena alone, to this conclu- 
 sion ; " that the soils of all the plains were de- 
 " posited in the bosom of a tranquil water ; that 
 " their actual order is only to be dated from 
 " the period of the retreat of that water ; and 
 " that the date of that period is not very an- 
 " dent 1 ." Dolomieu, Saussure, De Luc, Cuvier, 
 
 1 D'AuBUissoN, i. 252. 
 
246 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. and the most distinguished naturalists of the 
 age, have coincided in this conclusion, to which 
 they have been led by the evidence of various 
 monuments, and natural chronometers, which the 
 earth exhibits ; and which remain perpetual 
 vouchers for the veracity of the Mosaical chro- 
 nology, with respect to the epocha of the re- 
 volution which the Mosaical history relates. 
 Let us, therefore, prosecute the thread of that 
 history, until it brings us to the relation of 
 the Revolution in question. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 247 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE first act of Almighty God, after the work PART III. 
 of Creation was completed; and when, by the 
 formation of a female, he had provided for 
 the perpetuation of the raee of man, under 
 the sacred bond of matrimonial union; was 
 to prescribe a moral rule to those highly fa- 
 voured beings, whom His goodness had called to 
 a happy existence, and to whom He had granted 
 the " DOMINION" over his earthly system, 
 in subordination only to His OWN SUPREMACY. 
 For that purpose, and in perpetual evidence of 
 that subordination, He reserved and prohibited 
 one, and only one object, out of the universal 
 grant ; the reservation and prohibition of which, 
 though trivial in itself, was amply sufficient for 
 the end designed, which was, to prove whether 
 the moral being, thus bountifully endowed, acted 
 with a due sense of his subjection ; or whether 
 he aimed to act in chief, and without respect 
 to his divine Sovereign and Benefactor. That 
 slight and solitary privation, was imposed upon 
 the declared principle of divine judgment: 
 " He ivho is faithful in that which is LEAST, 
 
248 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART HI. " is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust 
 CHAIP~II " m ^ e LEAST > ^ un just also in much." Under 
 that trial, MAN failed ; he was found " unfaith- 
 " ful in that which was LEAST ;" he was, there- 
 fore, ejected from the state of happiness, of 
 which a perfect obedience was rendered the in- 
 dispensable condition ; he fell, and in his fall 
 brought down a curse upon the new earth, from 
 its offended Creator. 
 
 After a period of 1656 years, the principle 
 of disobedience, which had been introduced by 
 the first, created man, had spread its destruc- 
 tive influence through the whole of his de- 
 scendants, one family alone excepted ; and 
 this enormous disproportion between obedience 
 and disobedience, by which " God saw that the 
 " wickedness of man was great in the earth, and 
 " that the imagination of his heart was only 
 " evil continually," caused Him " to repent that 
 " He had made man," and to determine upon 
 his " destruction" Therefore, God said to Noah, 
 who alone had " found favour in His sight; 
 " I will destroy MAN, whom I have created, from 
 " the face of the earth ; both MAN, and BEAST, 
 " and the creeping thing, and the fowl of the air; 
 " for it repenteth ME that I have made them. 
 " The END OF ALL FLESH is come before ME : 
 ' ' because THE EARTH is filled with violence th rough 
 " them, behold, I will destroy THEM, TOGETHER 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 249 
 
 " WITH THE EARTH!" xaipo? -Trai/ro? ai/OpcjTrou yxu PART III. 
 
 svotvriov uot>" on 7rA?i<r9n 'H FH aJWta? a?r 
 
 CHAP IT 
 
 i Jou sw xaraOfiw ATTOT2 KAI THN THN. 
 
 The execution of this tremendous threat, pro- 
 duced that universal revolution of the globe 
 which the historian proceeds to relate ; it is 
 therefore of the utmost consequence, that we 
 should understand, correctly, the import of the 
 threat, before we proceed to investigate the 
 details of its execution. 
 
 The climax of the threat, is awfully re- 
 markable : "I will destroy man : I will de- 
 " stroy man and beast: I will destroy all flesh: 
 " I will destroy all flesh, together with the eartkF 
 But, the reason of this conclusion will be found 
 declared in the text, if it be correctly rendered, 
 and punctuated : " because the earth is replete 
 " with wickedness through them, (therefore) I 
 " will destroy them together with the earth" The 
 construction of the original is exactly the same 
 as in chap. iii. 14 and 17, " because thou hast done 
 " this, (therefore) thou art cursed above all 
 " cattle : because thou hast eaten of the 
 " tree, (therefore} cursed is the ground." 
 
 The sum of the threat, is comprised in the 
 last clause, pNn nx nanTOQ >:nn " I will destroy 
 " THEM, (i. e. all flesh} together with THE EARTH :" 
 the correct interpretation of which important 
 passage, depends entirely upon the true and 
 
250 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART Hi. and proper sense of the Hebrew particle HK. 
 If we look into the Concordance of the Hebrew 
 
 CHAP II. 
 
 Particles, we shall perceive, by a general view, 
 that its most frequent signification is that of 
 cum, una cum with, together with. In this 
 sense it was understood here by the earliest 
 interpreters, who render it, eyu xaraptapw avTou? 
 KAI rw yw " I will destroy them, and the 
 " earth ;" " and the earth," being equivalent 
 to " with the earth," and confirming and en- 
 forcing the conjunctive signification : as in the 
 Latin, the preposition cum is often used for 
 the conjunction et 1 . The Chaldee paraphrase, 
 and both the Targums, likewise interpret it 
 in the same sense : " ego disperdam eos cum 
 " terra I will destroy them, with the earth ;" 
 which interpretation Aben Ezra thus lucidly 
 paraphrases, " perdam eos, et perdam terram 
 " I will destroy them, and J will destroy the 
 " earth" This, therefore, was the established 
 interpretation of the passage in the ancient 
 Jewish church. 4 
 
 There must have been a sufficient cause for 
 this uniformity of interpretation, of the par- 
 ticle rN, by the ancient Hebrews ; which 
 cause, could be no other than the traditional 
 sense with which the passage was trans- 
 
 - 
 
 1 See GESNER'S Thes. eol. 1309, 10. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 251 
 
 mitted through their generations. What that PART III. 
 traditional sense was, is distinctly declared by 
 the apostle St. Peter ; who, adverting in his se- 
 cond epistle l , to the catastrophe of the deluge, 
 expressly affirms, that " the world which then 
 " was, being overflowed with water, perished o 
 
 fe TOTE XO<TY/,O, uJaTJ xaTaxAiKrOfK, a-rrwAETO." To 
 
 which TOTE XOOY-OOS- world which then was, he 
 opposes, YI m yv the earth which now is; and 
 he proceeds to declare, that " the earth which 
 " now is, is reserved for destruction byjre," 
 as the earth which then was, sustained de- 
 struction by water. He thus enables us to 
 judge of the extent of the destruction of the 
 former, by affirming the destruction of both to be 
 equal ; and therefore, rendering them rules for 
 mutually explaining each other. Of the latter, 
 we are apprized, that its destruction byjftre will 
 be final ; and we are therefore, in consistency, 
 to infer of the former, that its destruction by 
 water was also final : the instruments of de- 
 struction are different, but their effects are 
 co-extensive, according to the diversity of their 
 natures. So that the sense in which the old 
 interpreters understood the words, viz. " and, or 
 " with, the earth" is thus both expounded, 
 and confirmed, by the highest authority in 
 the Christian church. 
 
 Chap. iii. 6, 7, 
 
252 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. We have another, very ancient and very 
 remarkable, testimony to the same point of 
 
 CHAP II. 
 
 '^ traditionary evidence, in the book of Job ; 
 
 where we read " Hast thou marked the old 
 " way which wicked men have trod, who were 
 " cut down before their time, whose founda- 
 ./ '/ tion was destroyed by a flood of waters 1 ?" 
 Vatablus here comments : " hoc est ; visne tueri 
 " opinionem illam antiquorum qui perierunt 
 " tempore Diluvii ? wilt thou follow the opi- 
 " nion of that ancient race, which perished in 
 " the time of the Deluge?" The Greek in- 
 terpreters, in varying the import, tend to 
 increase its force; for they render it, " their 
 " foundations (are become) an overflowing flood" 
 iroTOipot; nripptuv ol Os^gAioi aural/. To the same 
 point is the rendering of the old Latin version : 
 " fluminis decurrentis fundamenta eorum/' The 
 original of this notable passage, DTID> pin* nm, 
 Michaelis interprets, " fluvius eluit fundamenta 
 " ipsorum a flood obliterated their foundations ;" 
 and he subjoins this observation : <J The thread 
 " of the discourse, appears to demand this inter- 
 " pretation; which indeed the Vulgate has anti- 
 " cipated, by rendering the passage, 'fluvius 
 " subvert it fundamentum eorum a flood overturned 
 " their foundation. 9 This authority is not to be 
 " slighted ; since Jerom, when he translated 
 
 1 Chap. xxii. 16. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 253 
 
 " the book of Job, followed the guidance of PART HI. 
 " his Rabbin of Lydda ; who, as he affirms in 
 
 CHAP II 
 
 " his preface, was accounted the first among *^^^^^/ 
 " the Hebrew scholars 1 ." 
 
 The word "im, which is here rendered 
 fluvius -flood, denotes, not only great rivers, as 
 the Tigris and Euphrates, but likewise the col- 
 lective mass or flood of the sea. So it is used in 
 the Psalms : " The earth is the Lord's : He 
 " hath founded it upon the seas, He hath 
 " established it upon the floods nnm." So also 
 in the prayer of Jonah : " Thou hast cast me 
 " into the deep, into the heart of the seas; and 
 " thefloods enm compassed me about." The 
 word *TD>, denotes the lowest base of support 
 necessary to sustentation : we thus read, " the 
 " foundations of the earth, HDID, do shake, the 
 " earth is utterly broken down." With regard 
 to the sense of the verb p*, Michaelis defers 
 altogether to Jerom's learned Rabbin ; who has 
 expounded it to signify, subvert it overthrew, 
 destroyed. The author of the book of Job, 
 therefore, affirms; that the waters of the FLOOD 
 destroyed, not only the wicked race themselves, but 
 also the FOUNDATION of the dwelling on which they 
 had existed. And such also in the proper in- 
 terpretation of that other passage of St. Peter, 
 
 a<r|3wi/ 7raa? " bringing a 
 
 1 Suppl. ad Lex. Hel. No. 1036. 
 
254 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " deluge upon the world of the wicked * ;" as 
 his declaration, before recited, fully confirms. 
 
 The same ancient author adverts point- 
 edly, in another place, to the two vast opera- 
 tions; by which, God first made dry the 
 earth, and afterwards submerged it. Speaking 
 of the irresistible power and wisdom of the 
 Almighty, he appeals to facts : "Behold, He 
 " withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; also, 
 " He sendeth them forth, and they destroy the 
 " earth*" or, as the Greek renders it: If 
 " He restrain the water, it maketh the earth 
 " dry ; if He impel it, it returneth and destroy eth 
 " it." This passage cannot be critically ex- 
 plained, otherwise than by reference to those two 
 great historical facts. It is against all just criti- 
 cism, to generalize from one particular; and 
 there is only one instance upon record, of God 
 having made the earth dry, by withdrawing the 
 waters, and having destroyed it, by bringing 
 them back. And, since the same author, as we 
 have just seen, has cited the latter event in ano- 
 ther place, the passage before us ought to be 
 received with allusion to the same. 
 
 From not having looked thoroughly into 
 
 2 Peter, ii. 5. The apostle, in both these places, employs 
 the world, in the same sense as Philo, to signify the 
 earth, in its state of complete order and adornment; according 
 to its etymon. 
 * Job,xii. 15. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 255 
 
 this subject, most modern commentators have PART III. 
 revolted at the primitive interpretation; and, 
 
 i L ,.! r * j CHAP. II. 
 
 without inquiring into the cause ot its adop- 
 tion, have only endeavoured to give to the pass- 
 age, a sense which should be clear of the import 
 that perplexed and offended them ; but, sound 
 criticism does not consist in giving a sense, 
 but in receiving a sense. " The moderns," 
 says the learned Drusius, " read, a, e, de 
 " from, or off from;" but, I conceive, incorrectly 
 " dubito an bene" and with good reason, 
 for it is a forced interpretation ; the particle nx 
 occurring only once in each of those significa- 
 tions in the book of Genesis, but about fifty 
 times in its familiar sense of cum, una cum 
 with, together with; in which sense it is em- 
 ployed above two hundred and fifty times in the 
 Hebrew volume. The very learned annotator on 
 Noldius, from not having apprized himself of the 
 true state of the question, objects to the sense 
 of cum with, upon the ground of its not being 
 applicable for expressing the destruction of the 
 mere productions of the earth; for, says he 
 " terra diluvio non fuit perdita quoad sub- 
 " stantiam, sicut homo the earth was not 
 " destroyed by the deluge with respect to its 
 " substance, as man was V But, in this remark 
 
 ; Not. Tympii, p. 797, n. 599. 
 
256 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. he only shows that he was unaware of the fact, 
 which we have ascertained; that the ancient 
 Jewish church understood the reverse of what 
 he assumes ; namely, that the substance not 
 only of man, but also of the earth, perished in 
 the deluge, as the same is expressly declared and 
 confirmed by the apostolical authority of St. 
 Peter. Drusius, from the same cause, reduces 
 himself to the same perplexity : " an ille alius 
 " mundus ab eo qui nunc est ? Quoad mbstantiam 
 " unus et idem est, quoad quaUtatem fortasse 
 " aliqua est diversitas." But, the true import of 
 the terms stands confirmed by every consistency 
 of criticism; and can only be rejected upon a 
 ground of inconsiderate and preconceived hy- 
 pothesis. Not only did God, before the flood, 
 pronounce, " 1 will destroy them, together with 
 the earth;" but, after the flood, He declared ;, 
 " neither shall ALL FLESH be cut off any more 
 " by the waters of a flood; neither shall there 
 " any more be a flood to destroy THE EARTH :" 
 thus emphatically marking and distinguishing 
 the destruction of each. And the last mysterious 
 clause of that divine assurance is unfolded in 
 the inspired declaration of St. Peter; " the 
 ' ' earth which now is, is reserved unto^/zre." 
 
 Such being the consentient understanding 
 of all those principal Hebrew authorities, it 
 establishes the terms of the threat, to signify ; 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 257 
 
 the destruction, not of man only, and of all the PART III. 
 animals which co-existed with him, but likewise, of 
 the very EARTH ITSELF which they had hitherto 
 inhabited. 
 
 Nor ought this interpretation to embar- 
 rass, or in any way to surprise us ; for, let 
 us remember that the earth had received the 
 curse of God, from the moment of the first act 
 of disobedience committed upon it; and, " that 
 " which is CURSED of Him shall be CUT OFF." 
 For it is to be noticed, that the curse was not 
 pronounced upon man; but, upon the earth, 
 on his account. And although its productions 
 were immediately affected, yet the full conse- 
 quence of the curse does not appear to have 
 been limited to that immediate and actual 
 affection. Even at the birth of Noah, that male- 
 diction seems to have carried forward the 
 minds of the pious to some crisis, by which it 
 was to be terminated. On that occasion, his 
 father was led (no doubt by some inspired 
 warning) to exclaim : " This child shall com- 
 " fort us concerning our work and toil of our 
 " hands, because of the earth, which the Lord 
 " hath cursed:" so our common version; but 
 the Alexandrian interpreters render it with a 
 very observable difference, and with a closer 
 conformity to the Hebrew: "This child shall 
 " relieve us, from our toil, and from the distress 
 
 s 
 
258 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART in. " of our hands, and from THE EARTH which the 
 " Lord hath cursed /" In which word " us," we 
 are not to understand themselves, personally, but 
 their race. And, after the retreat of the waters 
 of the deluge, God did not revoke the curse 
 which He had formerly pronounced, because 
 it had been fully executed in " cutting off the 
 " cursed thing f but He declared, that He 
 would not again pronounce a curse, i. e. pro- 
 nounce a second curse, upon the earth ; that is, 
 upon the new earth, which He had provided to 
 succeed that which had been cursed, and cut 
 
 off: on TrpocrGww ETI xarapao-Oat ryv yw. " lion 
 
 " addam maledicere rursus terram:" which im- 
 plies, that the curse was terminated by the 
 deluge. Neither is there any mention in 
 Scripture of a general curse upon the earth, 
 except, 1 . When it was originally pronounced 
 to Adam; and finally commemorated at the 
 birth of Noah. 2. When God, after the flood, 
 declared that He would not curse the earth a 
 second time. 3. When a warning is given in 
 Malachi, not to provoke a curse upon the 
 earth. 
 
 But, if that Jirst earth, which had been 
 produced on the third day of the creation by the 
 removal of the waters that covered it, perished 
 indeed, according to the menace of God ; what 
 was that second earth, upon which the Ark was 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 259 
 
 brought to its rest by His favour and provi- PART III. 
 dence, and which has continued to be the 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 abode of the generations of mankind, from the 
 time of Noah to the present day ? From whence 
 did it acquire its origin ? 
 
 And can we find any difficulty in resolving 
 this question to ourselves, who have the record 
 open before us, and who have seen how that 
 jlrst habitable earth was brought to light? 
 We cannot fail to perceive, that a repetition 
 of the same process, a renewal of the same 
 divine operation, which produced the former 
 earth, was alone requisite to bring to light 
 another earth to replace it, now that the coun- 
 sels of its Creator had determined to remove 
 it. We have already seen, that a violent 
 disruption and subsidence of the solid surface 
 of one portion of the subaqueous globe, pro- 
 duced at first a bed, or basin, to receive the 
 diffusive waters ; and that those waters, drawn 
 into that bed from off the other portion of 
 the same globe, left it exposed, and fitted for 
 the reception of vegetation, and for the habi- 
 tation of man. That exposed portion was now, 
 in its turn, to sink and disappear. By a 
 similar disruption and subsidence of its sur- 
 face, which should depress it below the level 
 of the first depressed part, or basin of the 
 sea, the waters, flowing into a still lower level, 
 
260 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III would leave their basin empty, exposed, and 
 dry; and thus, by a similar operation, render 
 
 CHAP.JI. - t - n j tg turn an habitable earth, applicable 
 to all the same uses as the former, which 
 had been obtained by a similar drainage of the 
 waters. We are enjoined by sound philosophy, 
 to refer similar effects to similar causes; and 
 the effects which we are considering, being 
 in both cases similar, we are to refer them 
 to similar causes. And, since the record con- 
 tains nothing which opposes the application 
 of this principle to the case in question, we 
 are authorized by reason to conclude ; that 
 the production of a second earth, was effected 
 by means exactly corresponding to those, which 
 had given origin to the Jirst earth. The evi- 
 dence which the mind is able to discern, of 
 the means by which that^r^ earth was pro- 
 duced, becomes evidence to the reason, that 
 a second earth might be produced by similar 
 means; and therefore, it directs us to look 
 to those means for its production. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 261 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THUS, then, from the terms of the divine PART III. 
 menace, and from the concurring testimony 
 of the ancient Jewish church, we are to con- 
 clude by critical induction, antecedently to 
 all investigation of monuments or phenomena ; 
 that it was the determination of Almighty God, 
 to destroy, not only man and every living crea- 
 ture, but likewise, THE EARTH ITSELF; that 
 earth, upon which He had pronounced His 
 curse. To give effect to that tremendous design 
 of His counsels, the order of things which He 
 had established was to undergo a temporary 
 suspension and alteration; and His Almighty 
 agency was to reassume an immediate opera- 
 tion, in the works of His terrestrial creation. 
 
 By a new exercise of His incomprehen- 
 sible power, and by a new direction of the 
 instruments and agencies which He had pro- 
 vided, He caused the irruption of violent in- 
 undations, sufficient to commence the work 
 of destruction, and, at the same time, to 
 raise and float the Ark, from the station on 
 which it had been constructed ; the direction 
 
262 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. of which fabric, was thenceforth taken under 
 the immediate care of His own divine provi- 
 dence. Vast causes were put in action, and 
 vast effects produced, which are expressed in 
 the record by " the fountains of the great 
 " deep being broken up" and " the windows of 
 " heaven being opened ;" phrases, which plainly 
 imply, the inroad of the sea upon the land, and 
 the descent of violent rains from the heavens. 
 
 But, here it is asked ; " to what purpose a 
 " rain of forty days, to overwhelm a continent, 
 " that was to be immersed under a whole ocean 1 ?" 
 Doubtless, if the immersion of a continent 
 under an ocean, as a mere physical effect, 
 was the whole design of the revolution of 
 the deluge, a rain of forty days was a very 
 superfluous agent. But, since the chief end 
 to be attained by the operation, was not a 
 physical, but a moral end ; and since the 
 physical effect was wholly subservient to that 
 moral end ; the rain of forty days was a neces- 
 sary, and a most efficient agent. The con- 
 demned race of mankind, was to witness the 
 progress of the vast scheme of destruction 
 which their wickedness had provoked. They 
 were to be taught, experimentally, that their 
 
 'S Geol. Essays, p. 63. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 263 
 
 place of habitation was passing away from PART III. 
 them, and was no longer to remain a dwelling 
 accommodated for the service of animal life; 
 that it was at length to receive the consum- 
 mation of the curse, pronounced at the disobe- 
 dience of their first parent, and confirmed by 
 their own incorrigible wickedness. They were 
 to be terrified by the sight of the various instru- 
 ments of vengeance, by which the power of God 
 could execute His curse ; and they were to fore- 
 taste destruction in every stage of its advance, 
 until its actual and ultimate arrival. They were 
 " to call upon the mountains to cover them, and 
 " upon the hills to fall on them!" Great, there- 
 fore, was the purpose, and equal must have 
 been the effect, of the terrific prelude of a 
 rain of forty days, and of all the accom- 
 paniments of horror which attended it ; which 
 are thus awfully represented by the learned 
 Jew Philo, either by reasonable inference, or 
 from national tradition. " The vast ocean 
 " (says this writer) being raised to an height 
 " which it had never before attained, rushed 
 " with a sudden inroad upon the islands 
 " and continents. The springs, rivers, and 
 " cataracts, confusedly mingling their streams, 
 " contributed to elevate the waters. Neither 
 " was the air quiet ; dense and continuous clouds 
 " covered the whole heavens ; violent hurricanes, 
 
264 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART in. " thunders, and lightnings, were blended with 
 CHAP" m " unintermitting torrents of rain; so that it 
 " seemed as if all parts of the universe 
 " were resolving themselves into the single 
 " element of water : until, the fluid mass 
 " having at length accumulated from the waters 
 " from above and from below, not only the 
 " lower lands, but even the summits of the 
 " highest mountains, were submerged, and dis- 
 " appeared. For, every part of the earth 
 " sunk beneath the water E^U xaO' JJWo? and 
 " the entire and perfect system of the world 
 " o H.oG'y.Qq o TTOLvrsXris K&i oAojtArjpof -= became 
 *' (what it is not lawful either to speak or 
 " to think) mutilated, and deformed by a vast 
 ' ' amputation /" 
 
 But, (it has been asked,) what was the imme- 
 diate cause which first put these powerful agents 
 in motion ? " If we would discover the cause of 
 " this catastrophe, (says the mineral geology,) 
 " we must look for a cause foreign to our globe, 
 " foreign to the whole solar system, capable of 
 ''$*: inundating continents, and giving to the waters 
 '* of the deep unexampled impetuosity'' This is 
 most truly observed ; but, wherefore does it 
 
 de Abrahamo, p. 7, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. ' 265 
 
 subjoin "this is a point on which I forbear to PART III. 
 " give any opinion*" Is it upon the same prin- 
 ciple on which De Luc would abstain from 
 introducing the mention of creation in a treatise 
 of physics 2 ? The opinion which Newton would 
 have given, without an instant's hesitation, re- 
 specting such a cause as is here described, is fully 
 evidenced by the general tenour of his argu- 
 ments in his Letters to Bent ley. Since he as- 
 cribed the natural tendency of the sea towards 
 the equator, to the laws of planetary motion; 
 and since he ascribed the first impulse of that 
 planetary motion, to the " Divine Power the 
 " Divine Arm," immediately 3 ; he would have 
 deemed it unphilosophical, and irrational, to 
 ascribe the Jirst impulse determining that pre- 
 ternatural action of the waters, to any other 
 cause, than the same " Divine Power" the 
 same " Divine Arm." And since we see no 
 reason whatever for supposing, that a similar 
 catastrophe will ever occur by the operation 
 of any known laws of nature ; and since we 
 are assured, by the Author of those law^ 
 that it never will occur again; Newton would 
 not have wasted a moment in searching for 
 
 1 GREENOUGH'S Geology, p. 196, 8. 
 
 2 See above, p. 53. *' Letters to BENTLEY, 1, 2, and 4, 
 
266 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. the cause by which it was produced; but would 
 CHAP. in. k ave concluded: "certainly, that which can 
 never be hereafter without a supernatural 
 power, could never be before without a 
 " supernatural power 1 ." 
 
 An eminent French mathematician, however, 
 deprives himself of this consolation, by choosing 
 to doubt of " the nature of the stability of equili- 
 " brium in the sea;' and propounds, " that there 
 " is reason to fear, that some extraordinary cause 
 " may communicate to the sea a concussion, 
 " which, though inconsiderable at first, may in- 
 " crease more and more, and raise it above the 
 " highest mountains ; which (he observes) would 
 " explain many phenomena of natural history*" 
 Until, however, he shows reason for doubting the 
 stability of equilibrium, we certainly have no 
 reason to fear that calamity ; and Moses and 
 Newton concur to relieve us from all doubt. 
 Neither need we wait for that event, to enable 
 us to explain the phenomena of natural history to 
 which he so plainly alludes ; for we have already 
 ascertained the extraordinary cause which alone 
 could effect such a revolution of the sea, and 
 also, the nature of the revolution which was 
 actually effected by that cause ; and, therefore, 
 
 1 Fourth Letter to BENTLEY. 
 
 2 LA PLACE, Systcme du Monde, c. ii. p. 265. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 267 
 
 we are already possessed of the means for PART III. 
 explaining the phenomena which were oc- 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 casioned by that revolution. 
 
 By the continued action of the powerful 
 agents thus employed by God, His awful 
 purpose was at length fully effected ; namely, 
 the destruction of " every living thing of all 
 "flesh, clean and unclean" excepting only 
 those few individuals which were destined 
 to keep seed alive upon the face of all the 
 earth "together with THE EARTH ITSELF," 
 on which they had subsisted. Meanwhile, 
 the ark and its inhabitants, guided throughout 
 all this period of devastation by the particular 
 providence of God, obtained at length a lodg- 
 ment upon a solid base ; which, after the 
 waters had entirely subsided, and were a se^ 
 cond time, "gathered together into ONE PLACE," 
 proved to be the summit of a mountain on 
 the new earth, which was afterwards deno* 
 minated Ararat, in the region of ARMENIA. 
 
 The time allotted for the completion of this 
 amazing revolution, was twelve months ; during 
 which period, as Josephus speaks, " God changed 
 " the continent into sea" $ OaAao-o-ai/ rw wrzipov 
 H*gTEj3x. But, that the transfer of the waters 
 from the old into a new bed, was not immediate 
 or instantaneous; on the contrary, that it was 
 
268 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 .PART III. conducted with much gradation and calculable 
 CHAR IIL succession; is evident, both from the time em- 
 ployed in the process, and from the description 
 of the record. And here we must observe; that 
 the historian, having notified, in the divine 
 threat, the fact of the destruction of the earthy 
 proceeds, as in his narration of the Creation, 
 to describe the progress of the catastrophe 
 practically and optically, as the events would 
 appear to the eye of the spectator; and 
 it is for us to refer those events to their 
 causes, by principles of reason exercised upon 
 their appearances, as in the former case ; and to 
 deduce from them such conclusions, as that 
 optical description is justly qualified to yield. 
 The record points out the period, when 
 the waters, having diffused themselves a se- 
 cond time over the globular surface by the 
 subsidence of the former continents, began 
 to abandon their ancient bed; from which 
 they continued to descend, until they left it, 
 %np<x,, a dry-land, as the former earth had been 
 rendered, fypu, a dry-land, by the retirement 
 of the waters. That period, was at the end 
 of one hundred and fifty days, or Jive months, 
 from the commencement of the flood. As long- 
 as there remained any of the ancient lands 
 to repel the action of the sea, its superficial 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 269 
 
 agitations and reflux continued ; but when the PART til. 
 
 last land disappeared, those effects ceased 
 
 rr(1 CHAP. in. 
 
 also. Ihe waters then became " assuaged 
 
 x.o7TK<re TO u7w>; and, as its new bed deepened 
 more and more, its transfusion became more 
 and more apparent. At the moment when 
 this latter operation was about to commence, 
 the divine Providence grounded the ark, which 
 would otherwise have been carried forward 
 by the general deflux ; whereas, by being 
 arrested on the mountains, the waters retired 
 from beneath it, leaving it to possess the 
 surface of the earth first exposed and rendered 
 dry. 
 
 But, though the waters then began their 
 descent, yet even the tops of the mountains 
 were not disengaged from them until after 
 seventy-three days, or nearly two months and a half 
 more; and they were not entirely drained off 
 from the new earth, until after sixty days, 
 or two additional months : so gradual was 
 the transfer of their mass. Nevertheless, con- 
 tinually diminishing in depth in their Jirst bed,, 
 and labouring for their final discharge, they were 
 acting with enormous power upon the yielding 
 materials of their basin, and producing exca- 
 vations and accumulations, which must have 
 generally altered its surface from the state in 
 
270 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART in. which it subsisted, during the long period of 
 
 CHAP" their stationary occupancy. 
 
 Had the former continents sunk all at once, 
 the immediate and violent influx of the great 
 body of the ocean, to fill the vacuum thereby 
 created, must have hurried the ark into its 
 enormous vortex, and have caused it to be 
 presently ingulfed ; whereas, the record re- 
 presents the ark, like an ordinary vessel, riding 
 securely upon the surface of the ocean. " The 
 " ark went upon the face of the waters ;" or, as 
 the Alexandrian Jews render the passage 
 
 7T<p/>TO V\ XljSwTOS 1 7Tai/W TOU U^aTOff W(IS bOD1 t OY 
 
 carried along upon the water : so also the Chaldee 
 paraphrase, t( ferebatur area super faciem aqua- 
 rum;" which would not have been the case, 
 had not the operation been conducted by a 
 rule that should leave underanged the esta- 
 blished nature of the sea. The transfer of the 
 waters was therefore gradual and progressive, 
 like that of the waters of a lock, in which a 
 vessel descends imperceptibly from a higher to 
 a lower level ; which implies, gradual and suc- 
 cessive subsidences of the former earth, admit- 
 ting of proportionate advances of the water. 
 So that the inhabitant of the ark was insensible 
 of the operation ; and when, after the entire 
 loss of land, he found it again at the depth 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 271 
 
 of fifteen cubits, it seemed as the inundated PART III. 
 heights of the land which he had left, and 
 which had been only temporarily submerged 
 by the flood. Mineral geologists, who acknow- 
 ledge that the sea once covered our present 
 continents, dispute whether its retreat was 
 sudden or gradual. Sudden, and gradual, 
 are relative terms ; and that which is sudden 
 by one comparison, may be gradual by ano- 
 ther. A retreat of the entire ocean, effected 
 in the space of twelve months, will be a sudden 
 operation, compared with that imperceptible 
 mutation of its bed, proceeding through an un- 
 assignable number of ages, which has been en- 
 gendered in the imagination of some phy- 
 sical geologists ; but it will be gradual, com- 
 pared with that immediate and instantaneous 
 operation, by which the diffusive waters were 
 reduced within the bed of the primitive sea, 
 within the third day of the Creation. 
 
 Thus, then, we discern two principal stages 
 of this vast revolution : 1. That of the gradual 
 subsidence of the primitive land, until the sur- 
 face of the primitive sea, again diffused over it, 
 was lowered to the level of fifteen cubits above 
 its highest internal eminences. 2. That of the 
 further subsidences of that primitive land, until 
 all the remaining waters were entirely drawn 
 out from their^r^ bed, into the deeper bed formed 
 
272 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 *- 
 
 PART III. by those subsidences. And thus, the DRY 
 ~~" LAND, provided by the counsels of God, in 
 this revolution, to receive the new generations of 
 mankind, was no longer the same, on which the 
 former generations had subsisted during a course 
 of 1656 years. 
 
 This true interpretation of the threat pro- 
 nounced by God, was perceived by Catcott, in 
 his treatise on the Deluge ; but it availed him 
 little, since it was presently smothered in a 
 wilderness of ingenious but untenable hypo- 
 theses. King 1 , and Hollmann 2 , severally conj ec - 
 tured the result of the threat, namely, the submer* 
 sion of a former earth, and the evacuation of the 
 primitive sea-bed, as physical inductions from phe- 
 nomena ; but, without reference to the history. 
 De Luc, both recognized those physical results, 
 and duly connected them with the terms of the 
 threat; but, as he subjected the history to the 
 rule of his own opinion, instead of endeavouring 
 to form his opinion by the rule of the history, 
 he necessarily deviated from the guidance of 
 the history in many particulars, and was con- 
 sequently led astray, by his conjectures, into 
 many contradictions to it. 
 
 Thus, he denied the universality of the 
 
 1 Phil. Trans, vol.lviii. p. 44. 
 
 3 ROZIER, Ohs.surh Phys. torn. ii. p. 118. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 273 
 
 deluge ; of which, Mr. Greenough justly re- PART III. 
 marks, that " a general view of the structure 
 
 TTT 
 
 of our globe, if taken with accuracy, would 
 " tend to convince us of the universal opera* 
 " tion of the deluge 1 :" " that the universal 
 "' occurrence of mountains and valleys, and 
 " the symmetry which pervades their several 
 " branches and inosculations, are further 
 " proofs, not only that a deluge has swept over 
 " every part of the globe, but probably the 
 " same deluge 2 .' 1 To maintain his own hypothe- 
 sis, De Luc indulged himself in many salvos, 
 evasions, and ingenuities. Thus, he affirmed, 
 that the summits of the higher mountains, and 
 of Ararat itself, were islands in the primitive 
 sea, which continued to be fertile during all 
 the period of devastation; in direct contra- 
 diction to the declaration of the record, which 
 expressly relates, that the summits of the 
 highest mountains were fifteen cubits below the 
 aqueous surface: making the history bend, in every 
 particular, to a rule drawn from his own pre- 
 conceived opinions. Nevertheless, the general 
 discernment and assertion of the great fact of the 
 Deluge was the bright point in his geology. So 
 long as his view was confined to the contempla- 
 
 1 P. 153. * P. 155, 
 
 T 
 
274 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. tion and exposition of that fact, his mind was 
 CHAP. in. c M ectec l and concentred 1 . When he quitted 
 it, to put himself in search of the mode by 
 which secondary causes produced first fo7*mations, 
 it became perplexed and bewildered 2 . So long 
 as he confined himself to the defence of that 
 strong post, he evinced great skill, conduct, and 
 resolution ; but, when he once began to parley 
 with the enemy, and suffered them to draw 
 him out of his fort, he fell into their hands, and 
 became convertible to their uses. They were 
 able to neutralize all his objections to their chro- 
 nology; by objecting to him his own, and 
 showing him, that if he would not concede to 
 them an anti-Mosaical chronology in the article 
 of the deluge, he conceded it most liberally in 
 the article of the creation; which would equally 
 serve their purpose. Thus much it has been 
 indispensably necessary to expose as a caution- 
 ary distinction, and to insist upon, relative to 
 this well-intentioned but dangerous instructor ; 
 lest his success in the one argument, should 
 oecome a snare to draw his readers into his 
 own failure in the other. 
 
 Many naturalists seem to have granted the 
 Mosaical statement of the deluge, as by a sort of 
 compromise ; that they might be free to contro- 
 
 Lettres sur I'Hist. de la Terre. * Lett res Geologiqucs. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 275 
 
 vert, or, at least, to twist and bend to their own PART III. 
 fancies, the Mosaical statement of the creation. 
 They appear to have thought, that the con- 
 cession of the former was a full discharge from 
 the necessity of submitting their judgments to 
 the authority of the latter ; and that nothing but 
 theological bigotry and intolerance, could im- 
 pose such a restraint upon their speculations. 
 But, sound philosophy, learning, and criticism, 
 unite to restrict the naturalist, equally in his 
 speculations on the creation as on the deluge; 
 and to demand the assent of his reason, in both, 
 to the precise statements of the Mosaical 
 record. 
 
276 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PART III. BVT, if this was truly the case ; if the earth 
 ~ which we now inhabit, is not that same " dry 
 land" which was first brought out of the 
 waters, after their incumbency for only two 
 days ; but, another, and a different earthy brought 
 out of the waters after their incumbency for 
 1656 years; which new earth, during all that 
 long period, constituted the SEA-BED formed by 
 that universal process of disruption and depres- 
 sion which we traced and contemplated in the 
 .events of the third day of creation ; if this was 
 truly the case, we shall reasonably look, and it 
 will be our bounden duty diligently and indus- 
 triously to search for, evidences testifying to so 
 amazing a fact. And, in such research, we 
 shall naturally, 
 
 First, take a general view around us of the 
 earth, as it lies exposed to our common obser- 
 vation and experience ; and we shall inquire ; 
 Whether it bears, universally, any appearance of 
 having been, at any period, subjected, for so long an 
 interval of time as more than a millenary and a 
 half of ages, to the presence and perpetual occu- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 277 
 
 pancy of the SEA ; and therefore, of having been, PART III. 
 during all that time, the dwelling of the marine ~ 
 
 \>WAJt AV. 
 
 portion of the creation ? And, if it should bear 
 such appearance, we shall then further inquire ; 
 Whether it offers any evidence, that the removal of 
 those waters was effected no longer ago, than the 
 period assigned by the record for its removal? We 
 shall reasonably insist upon these testimonies ; 
 which must necessarily exist, if the fact averred 
 in the record be really and historically true. 
 
 We commit this research altogether to the 
 mineral geology ; and are content to abide by its 
 decision. And, in truth, it thus reports : "It 
 " is unnecessary to stop to prove that our con- 
 " tinents have formed the bed of the sea; there is 
 " no longer any division of opinion among 
 " naturalists upon this point 1 ." " In fact, 
 " philosophers are only agreed in this one point, 
 " that the sea has changed its bed 2 ." " In ex- 
 " amining the mineral masses of the earth, 
 " every thing concurs to indicate, that this our 
 " habitation has undergone great changes and 
 " great revolutions; the sea-shells, incrusted in 
 " the masses of mountains, present irrefutable 
 " testimony to our eyes, that the sea anciently 
 " subsisted upon our present continents; and, 
 
 1 DE Luc, Lett. Glol. p. 301. 
 
 * CUVIER, Th. of the Earth, $ 23. p. 70. 
 
278 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " that animals inhabited those shells before the 
 
 " mineral masses, in which they are imbedded, 
 
 " were formed: it will be manifest to our eyes, 
 
 " that those masses could not always have been 
 
 " solid 1 . Every thing also concurs to indicate, 
 
 " that the plains of the earth, such as those of 
 
 " Alsace, Holland, Lombardy, &c. were not 
 
 " deposited by the present rivers, but in the 
 
 " bosom, or bed, of a tranquil water; that 
 
 " the actual order of the earth dates only from 
 
 41 the. retreat of that water ; and, that the date is 
 
 " NOT VERY ANCIENT 2 ." 
 
 " The lowest and most level parts of the 
 " earth, when penetrated to a very great 
 " depth, exhibit nothing but horizontal strata, 
 " composed of various substances, and con- 
 " taining, almost all of them, innumerable ma- 
 " rine productions. Similar strata, with the 
 " same kind of productions, compose the hills, 
 " even to a great height. Sometimes the shells 
 " are so numerous as to constitute the entire 
 " body of the stratum. They are almost 
 " every where in such a state of preservation, 
 " that even the smallest of them retain their 
 " most delicate parts, their sharpest edges, 
 " and their finest and tenderest processes. 
 
 1 D'AuBUissoN, torn. i. p. 8. * Ib. p. 252. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 279 
 
 " They are found in elevations far above the PART III. 
 
 " level of every part of the ocean, and in places 
 
 " to which the sea could not be conveyed by 
 
 " any existing cause. They are not only en- 
 
 " closed in loose sand, but often incrusted and 
 
 " penetrated on all sides by the hardest stones. 
 
 " Every part of the earth, every hemisphere, 
 
 " every continent, every island of any size, 
 
 " exhibits the same phenomena. They have, 
 
 " therefore, once lived in the sea, and have been 
 
 " deposited by it; the sea, consequently, must have 
 
 " rested in the places where the deposit has taken 
 
 " place. We are, therefore, forcibly led to 
 
 " believe, not only that the sea has at one period 
 
 " covered all our plains, but that it must have re- 
 
 " mained there for a long time, and in a state of 
 
 " tranquillity; which circumstance was neces- 
 
 " sary for the formation of deposits so exten- 
 
 " sive, so thick, in part so solid, and containing 
 
 " exuvia so perfectly preserved. Hence, it is 
 
 " evident, that the basin, or reservoir containing 
 
 " the sea, has undergone some change, at least, 
 
 " either in extent, or in situation, or in both. 
 
 " Such is the result of the very first search, and 
 
 " of the most superficial examination 1 " 
 
 Thus the mineral geology reports, in an- 
 
 1 CUVIER, Theory of the Earth, 4. p. 31, 32, 
 
280 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. swer to our first questions, respecting the fact, 
 of the sea having- at some period occupied the 
 
 CHAP IV 
 
 present continents, and the time of its departure 
 from them ; and we find, that, although it has 
 prosecuted the inquiry with considerable in- 
 dustry and caution, and with no little jealousy 
 of the Mosaic record, it is nevertheless con- 
 strained, by the evidence of phenomena, to 
 testify in confirmation of the conclusions which 
 we deduced from the statements of that record, 
 in these particulars. 
 
 We shall, therefore, be anxious to inquire, 
 in the next place ; Whether we canjind monuments 
 equally evident of the great PRIMEVAL CONVUL- 
 SION, ivhich, according to our induction from the 
 record, must have attended the formation of the bed 
 or basin of the departed sea, now converted into this 
 habitable earth; in which convulsion, that bed or 
 basin was violently deepened to receive the congre- 
 gated waters, by means of a vast disruption and 
 depression of the solid frame-work, and softer 
 materials, of a part of the subaqueous globe ? . If 
 that bed was really formed by a process so 
 extensively destructive, and if we actually oc- 
 cupy that bed, we must, in all necessity, find 
 abundant monuments of that destruction. 
 
 In this inquiry, the mineral geology, indeed, 
 anticipates our question; by exclaiming : " Are 
 " not all those pointed pyramids, which detach 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. , 281 
 
 " themselves, as it were, from the bodies of the PART III. 
 " mountains, and shoot up into the air; all 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 " those bare needles, which rise like pinnacles 
 " from the Alps ; eloquent witnesses of the destruc- 
 " t ion of the soils which once encompassed them, 
 " and of which they formed a part ? All the pro- 
 " jecting points of rocks, which jut out of moun- 
 " tainous masses, are of a similar character ; and 
 " further prove, the destruction of the surrounding 
 " soils." " However strong a partisan I am of 
 " crystallization, (exclaimed Saussure,) it seems 
 " to me impossible to believe, that such obelisks 
 " were originally so formed by the hand of nature : 
 " all the substance which they now want, has been 
 " broken off and swept away ; for we can discern 
 " nothing around them but other summits, whose 
 " bases are equally rooted in the soil; and whose 
 " sides, equally fractured, indicate immense ruins." 
 " The numerous blocks of rock which are 
 " frequently found in certain soils, especially 
 " those of granite; and which are shown, 
 " by every indication, to be lying near the 
 " places where they were first broken; is a 
 " manifest effect, and therefore proof, of the 
 " depression of the soil. The consideration of 
 " insulated mountains, often offers to the geolo- 
 " gist many subjects for meditation upon the 
 " revolutions which our globe has undergone, and 
 
282 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " upon the very considerable depression of its 
 
 " wi/* 1 " 
 CHAP. IV. S US ' 
 
 " Some geologists have thought, that the 
 " intermediate, or transition class of soils, might 
 " be suppressed; but I am very far from 
 " agreeing with them : the idea of Werner, in 
 " establishing it, was very happy ; for, it leaves 
 '" in all their purity, if I may so speak, the two 
 " other classes, of crystalline and sedimentary 
 " formations. It relates to an epocha, when the 
 " mixture of those two kinds of formations began 
 " to be produced ; and when a revolution took 
 " place in nature, which, from the numerous 
 " indications that we witness, is, perhaps, the 
 " most violent of all those which occurred during 
 " the formation of the mineral shell of the 
 16 globe 2 /' 
 
 Thus far, then, the mineral geology concurs 
 to substantiate proofs also of that primeval 
 convulsion, that first " most violent revolution," 
 which we have deduced from the record. 
 
 But, what agencies are there, which, by the 
 laws of nature, i. e. the laws of the creation, have 
 principal power to produce the effect of ruin, in 
 the substance of the earth ? The most powerful 
 
 1 D'AuBuissoN, t. i. p. 230. s Ib. 199. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 283 
 
 are, unquestionably, volcano and earthquake. PART III. 
 Let us then consider the nature and operation 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 of these two agents. 
 
 " Earthquakes," says the mineral geology, 
 " are most frequent in the midst, or in the 
 " neighbourhood of, volcanos ; so that there is 
 " an intimate connexion between them, showing 
 " them to be, in all probability, effects of the 
 " same cause; namely, subterraneous fiery agents. 
 " The most common and best attested effects 
 " of earthquakes, are cracks or crevices wrought 
 " in the mineral strata, when they experience 
 " a great concussion. When the concussions 
 " are sufficiently violent to fracture the vaults 
 " beneath, either primordial, or formed by the 
 " conjunctions of the lavas, or to burst the 
 " pillars by which they are sustained, those 
 " mountains and soils fall back* into the gulf 
 " from which they had arisen. It was thus, 
 " that, in the earthquake at Jamaica, in 1692, 
 " the highest mountain of the island was 
 " swallowed up, and was replaced by a lake : 
 " that, in Iceland, a mountain of a considerable 
 " height was buried in one night by an earth- 
 " quake, and its place occupied by a very 
 " deep lake: that, upon the llth of August, 
 " 1772, the largest volcano of Java, the circuit 
 " of whose base was upwards of twenty miles, 
 " suddenly sunk, after a short and violent 
 
284 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 PART III. " eruption, carrying down with it forty vil- 
 lages, and two thousand inhabitants : that, 
 in 1638, the volcano of the Peak, in the 
 Molucca islands, which was visible at sea at 
 " a distance of thirty miles, and which com- 
 " monly served as a beacon or light-house, 
 " totally disappeared in the middle of a violent 
 " eruption; and its place is filled by a lake at 
 " the present day. We are indebted to M. de 
 " Humboldt for the knowledge of many facts 
 " of the same nature : we have seen the Car- 
 " guairazo, in 1698, crumble away, and over- 
 " whelm the neighbouring districts with its 
 " mud. And ancient tradition relates, that 
 " the volcano of the Altar de los Collanes, in 
 " Peru, the height of which, it is said, sur- 
 " 'passed that of the Chimboraco, sunk down 
 " after eight years of continual eruption ; and 
 " its inclining eminences only exhibit, at the 
 " present day, traces of its destruction. In 
 " the soils occupied by extinct volcanos, we 
 " still perceive indications of sinkings or de- 
 " pressions, particularly lakes, which are pre- 
 '* sumed to be the ancient sites of craters or 
 " volcanic mountains : such are those of Laach, 
 " near the abbey of the same name, a few 
 " leagues from Andernach ; such also is the 
 " little lake, perfectly circular, of Paven in 
 " Auvergne. And besides volcanic soils, we 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GKOIAKJIES. 285 
 
 *' meet with many sorts of mountains, espe- PART III. 
 " cially those which are of a calcareous 
 
 v IvJrlAJr. IV. 
 
 " or gypseous nature, which contain great 
 " caverns and cavities; and it is very natural 
 4< to think, that the concussions of earthquakes, 
 " when the i/ are violent, may occasion the rupture 
 " and downfal of the masses which are above 
 " them" 
 
 But what is the immediate cause which gives 
 action to these powerful agencies ? " We have 
 " seen that the volcanos which are in activity, 
 66 are situated in islands, or on coasts not far 
 " from the sea. Those which we find in the 
 " interior countries of the earth, are all extinct. 
 " These observations naturally lead us to con- 
 " elude; that the vicinitij of the sea is a con- 
 " dition essential to the existence of volcanos: 
 " they further lead us to think, that the water 
 " of the sea, penetrating into the volcanic cavities, 
 " is a cause of eruptions. But how should 
 " water penetrate into volcanic cavities? If 
 <; it penetrates in great quantity, (and it would 
 " seem that it cannot be otherwise of the sea- 
 " water,} would it not rather tend to extinguish 
 " the volcanic fire, than to increase its action? 
 " This certainly is a question, the solution of 
 " which is difficult; but, though it may be 
 " much complicated, its solution is not im- 
 " practicable. I shall not enter into any details 
 
286 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " upon this subject ; but I shall confine myself 
 " to the statement of the known fact, that the 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 ' presence of water, and in great quantity, is 
 " incontestable in volcanic phenomena. We know 
 " the astonishing power of this fluid, when 
 " reduced to vapour ; but, our steam-engines can 
 " hardly convey to us an idea of the power 
 " which it is capable of acquiring in caverns 
 " whose sides are several thousand yards in 
 " thickness, and which sustain the mountains of 
 " JEtna and Chimboraco : heat may extend its 
 "'elasticity to a point of which it is difficult to 
 " form any idea. Nor is water reduced to 
 " vapour the only elastic fluid which exercises 
 " a power in volcanic foci 1 " 
 
 And what evidence do we discover, of the 
 ancient actioy of volcanic power? " In con- 
 " sidering the different volcanic soils, with 
 " relation to their different epochas, we dis- 
 " tinguish, among the productions of extinct 
 " volcanos, some which, speaking by geological 
 " comparison, are of a recent epocha; since they 
 " are of a date posterior to the excavation of 
 " valleys. But we discover others of a much 
 " more ancient epocha, since they are anterior 
 " to the formation of valleys ; these are lodged 
 
 1 D'AuBuissox, torn. i. p. 213 5. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 287 
 
 " upon the summits, while the former rest PART III. 
 
 " upon the low ground 1 " Those of the most CH ~ IV 
 
 " ancient epocha, are almost entirely composed 
 
 " of basalt". This substance was emitted from 
 
 " the earth in the form of streams of matter in 
 
 " a state of fusion, which ran and spread them- 
 
 " selves upon a soil already existing. These 
 
 " flowing masses, sometimes of several leagues 
 
 " in length, and of more than a league in 
 
 " breadth, often assumed the form of layers, 
 
 " or beds, one above the other. The basaltic 
 
 " matter, in cooling, experienced condensation 
 
 " or contraction; it separated ; and the crevices 
 
 " being perpendicular to its surface, as must 
 
 " have been the case, divided it into prisms 
 
 " more or less regular. The most celebrated 
 
 " assemblage of the columnar prisms of basalt, 
 
 " is that which is seen on the north coast of 
 
 ' ( Ireland, and which is known by the name of the 
 
 " Giant's Causeway. The volcanic soil which 
 
 " forms the north of Ireland, constitutes also 
 
 " the soil of the Hebrides ; in one of which 
 
 " islands, that of Staff a, is the celebrated grotto 
 
 " of Fingal, the finest basaltic monument 
 
 " known, according to M. Faujas de St. 
 
 " Font 3 ." 
 
 Powerful, however, as these tremendous 
 
 1 D'AuuuissoN, torn. ii. p. 516. 
 
 2 Ib. p. 553. * Ib. p. 570, I. 
 
288 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. agents are, some eminent geologists 1 have 
 undertaken to pronounce them unequal to the 
 
 V 
 
 production of effects so vast as those which we 
 are investigating. But then they have drawn 
 their conclusion from the limited effects of 
 the conical volcanos, now operative upon the 
 globe. It is one thing, to compute the power 
 of a volcano, and another thing, to compute 
 the power of volcanic action; to compute the 
 actual effects of an individual volcano, whose 
 focus is limited to one point, and which from 
 that point has effected perpendicularly a chan- 
 nel of discharge ; and to compute the possible 
 effects of volcanic power ', rendered general within 
 the globe, and acting simultaneously against its 
 solid crusts, without any regular vent to deter- 
 mine its issue. No sound inference can be 
 drawn from the former, to limit the power of 
 the latter ; on the contrary, the former fur- 
 nishes a datum, by which we are enabled to 
 form a judgment of the multiplied power of 
 the latter. The former, exhibits a particular 
 application of the latter; but the latter, in 
 its principle, is the proper subject of our 
 inquiry. We may securely pronounce, that 
 the power \ or principle of action, which we con- 
 template in an eruption of ^Etna or Vesuvius, is 
 
 1 CUVIER, . 17. p. 53. D'AuBtnssoN,i.p.254 267. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 289 
 
 physically capable of being extended as much be- PART III. 
 yond the effects which we witness in that erup- CH ^" IV 
 tion, as the principle of action which blasts a rock, 
 or blows up a fortress, is extended beyond the 
 action which we witness in the spou tings of a 
 gerbe, or a Roman candle. We cannot therefore, 
 philosophically, limit the general question of 
 volcanic action to the measure of the action 
 exercised in the particular case proposed. And, 
 of the insufficiency of the rule, we have experi- 
 mental evidence ; because, we are utterly unable 
 to form an estimate, by the action of any exist- 
 ing volcano, of the amazing primaeval operation 
 which discharged the Giants Causeway and the 
 Island of Staffa. Those immense fusions of 
 basalt, demonstrate a remote period of volcanic 
 effort in the interior of the earth, totally different 
 in circumstance from the ordinary phaenomena 
 of conical volcanos ; and of which we have no 
 experience whatever, except in those effects. 
 And, if we super add to the indefinite extent of 
 volcanic power, the ordination and direction of 
 its agency to a particular purpose, by its Divine 
 Author; we shall at once perceive, that it was an 
 instrument, calculated by its laws to operate to 
 the fullest extent of the effects which we here 
 ascribe to them. 
 
 The eminent naturalists, who raised this 
 objection, carried their conclusions much too 
 
 u 
 
290 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. far. Their first object, was to refute those 
 speculators who would ascribe the formation of 
 
 CHAP IV 
 
 mountains to volcanic action. This they have 
 effectually done, by demonstrating* the extent 
 of volcanic power in mineral formations. But, 
 they wished to make their argument doubly 
 sure; and extended it, beyond the virtue of its 
 premises, to limit the possible extent of that 
 power in mineral ruin; in this however they 
 have totally failed. 
 
 We collect, therefore, from all that has 
 been said, the following general facts : 
 
 1. That the face of this earth exhibits vast 
 monuments of derangement and ruin of its gene- 
 ral fra me- wor k; the parts of which, at first united, 
 have, by some cause, been violently severed, 
 fractured, and scattered ; and the surrounding 
 and subjacent soils ruptured and depressed: 
 2. That the most powerful known agent of 
 mineral ruin, is volcanic action: 3. That volcanic 
 action is produced by the admission of the sea 
 water to the subterraneous jires constituted in 
 the interior of the globe : 4. That evidences 
 of volcanic action previous to the formation 
 of valleys, that is, previous to the depressions of the 
 terrestrial surf ace, still appear : 5. That earthquake 
 is intimately connected with volcano, showing 
 them to be in all probability effects of the same 
 cause : 6. That the concussions of earthquakes 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 291 
 
 may occasion the rupture, and downfal of the PART III. 
 superior masses into cavities beneath them : 
 7. That the effect to be produced, was the 
 rupture and downfal of a vast portion of the 
 surface of the solid globe ; sufficient to pro- 
 duce, for the universal waters, that space in depth, 
 which they were to lose in length and breadth 
 by being collected into one place: 8. That this 
 was the end designed, and directed, by the same 
 Power who established the laws of volcanic 
 action. 
 
 If we now combine all these several parti- 
 culars, we shall perceive ; that, since the admis- 
 sion of water within the earth, at the commence- 
 ment of a concussion tending to depress 
 generally a considerable portion of its surface, 
 must have given violent and proportionably 
 extensive action to volcanic energy, as a power- 
 ful accessary, if not as a principal agency ; 
 since the vicinity of the sea appears to be a 
 condition essential to the action of volcano, 
 and since the sea, previous to the depression 
 of that surface, was in equal vicinity, nay, in 
 immediate contact with every point of it, so that 
 the admission of the water, at one and the 
 same moment, beneath a considerable extent of 
 it, was able, by the new laws of volcanic action 
 directed by their Author, to cause, at one and 
 the same moment, an equally extensive dis- 
 
 
292 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. ruption and consequent depression of that 
 sur f ace ; an d since we see monuments of primi- 
 tive disruption and downfal in all the primordial 
 mountains, of depression and subsidence in all the 
 valleys, of displacement and disorder in all the 
 primitive strata, and of volcanic action, coeval 
 with the origin of all this ruin ; we may reason- 
 ably conclude, that we behold in our continents 
 the monuments of that great PRIMAEVAL CONVUL- 
 SION, which formed the basin, or reservoir, of the 
 primitive sea. 
 
 The chains of the highest mountains, which 
 resisted that convulsion, remain in the positions 
 where their substance was jirst formed; and 
 exhibit unperishing examples of their Jirst for- 
 mation. While the distribution and outspread- 
 ing of the depressed parts, into plains and 
 valleys; the trituration of the fractured rocks 
 in every dimension, of stone, pebble, and 
 sand, " which, it is well known, is only 
 " an assemblage of very minute grains, re- 
 " suiting from the destruction of ancient rocks, 
 " chiefly of quartz, and sometimes constituting 
 " soils of immense extent, as the great desert 
 " of Barbary 1 " &c. ; and the enormous quan- 
 tities of marine organic matter, which are 
 found below the surface of the plains, and in 
 
 1 D'AUBUISSON, torn. ii. p. 465. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 293 
 
 elevations far above the level of the present PART III. 
 sea; exhibit positive proofs, of THE SEA having 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 occupied for a long time this portion of the globe, 
 which has been rendered the habitation of mankind, 
 by the departure of that sea. 
 
 Thus far, then, the general result of the re- 
 searches of the mineral geology, seems to coincide 
 exactly with the declarations of the record, 
 respecting the primseval history of this earth; and 
 establishes, conformably to that record, T wo great 
 revolutions of its substance, subsequent to its first 
 perfect formation: the FIRST, anterior to the 
 production of animal or vegetable matter ; the SE- 
 COND, posterior to the production of both. The 
 jirst producing, by the violent action of mecha- 
 nical agencies directed by the Supreme Will, 
 a bed to receive the waters previously diffused 
 over the whole sphere of the earth ; the second 
 producing, under the same direction, and by 
 a repetition of the same operation, a new bed, 
 into which the waters were transfused from their 
 former bed. It moreover establishes the fact, 
 of the sea having occupied that former bed 
 during the entire compass of time intervening 
 between those two revolutions; and finally, of 
 that former bed being now the earth on which 
 we inhabit. The causes employed in effecting 
 thejirst revolution, those which were in action 
 during the succeeding interval, and those which 
 
294 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. operated in accomplishing the second revolu- 
 CH\P~IV ** on ' com P re b^nd all the causes of general revo- 
 lution of which the earth exhibits any phae- 
 nomena. 
 
 We can thus proceed, with full confidence, 
 by the guidance of the record. We know, and 
 are sure, that no revolution general to the 
 globe, has taken place since the last of those two ; 
 we know also, that no general revolution can 
 have preceded that which Jirst interrupted and 
 altered the primitive continuity of the solid 
 surface of the globe, to open a basin for the 
 primitive sea ; and we have no reason to 
 imagine, that any general revolution occurred 
 between the two. There have, therefore, been 
 TWO, and only TWO, general revolutions in the 
 substance and circumstances of this globe ; so 
 that all effects discoverable, or appearances 
 discernible, which are truly attributable to 
 general revolution, must find their physical 
 causes in one or other of those, or in the 
 period of time intervening between them ; and 
 they are amply competent to supply every 
 requisition of reason and philosophy, in the 
 inquiry after those causes. By this historical 
 guidance, we are able to reduce them to their 
 true order in time ; and to determine their 
 periods with security, and with sufficient ac- 
 curacy. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 295 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BUT, if the researches of the mineral geology PART III. 
 have really produced monumental evidences of 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 these great facts ; and if it has so powerfully 
 enforced the attestation of those evidences as 
 to demonstrate the exact correspondence of 
 the facts with the statements of the Mosaical 
 geology; why are not the two geologies one 
 and the same, at least in the second question, 
 viz. : the revolutions which this earth has ex- 
 perienced ? in what do they differ ? 
 
 They differ in this : that whereas the latter 
 geology alleges two, and only two, general re- 
 volutions of the globe, the former affirms, 
 " that the revolutions have been numerous 1 ;" and, 
 therefore, in explaining the phenomena, it as- 
 cribes them to various causes, entirely different 
 from those to which, according to those two 
 revolutions, they ought to be ascribed. Thus, 
 the low levels, or plains, between chains of moun- 
 tains, it ascribes to the hand of time ; which, with 
 the aid of atmospheric agents, has gradually and 
 
 1 CUTIER, Th. of the Earth, % 5. p. 34. 
 
296 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. imperceptibly eroded, and wasted away 1 , all the 
 immense mass of matter which once filled up 
 
 V 
 
 the void now existing, between the level of the 
 mountainous summits, and that of the low sur- 
 face beneath ; leaving the mountains themselves 
 untouched ; 
 
 Sed qu< corpora decedant in tempore quoque, 
 Invida praeclusit speciem Natura videndi 2 : 
 
 but how, or when, this mighty waste took place, 
 Invidious Nature grants us not to trace : 
 
 no reason however is assigned, why the moun- 
 tains, which are composed of the same materials 
 with the substance eroded and wasted, chanced to 
 be spared. So that time and the atmosphere must 
 have been unceasingly and capriciously at work, 
 during a lapse of ages to which the remotest 
 date of the Mosaical chronology is, by com- 
 parison, only as yesterday. 
 
 But, upon what authority does it ground 
 this contradiction of the record? Is it upon 
 some other record which it can produce, and 
 which it can show to be deserving of mm*e 
 credit than that of Moses ? for the question, 
 is entirely a question of historical fact. No ! 
 it can produce no historical testimony whatso- 
 
 p. 231. 2 LUCRETIUS, i. 321. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 297 
 
 ever ; it grounds its contradiction, wholly and PART III. 
 absolutely, upon the same mode of argument 
 
 L>xi.4\L . \ . 
 
 and induction, by which, in the first part of 
 this inquiry, it concluded the formation of this 
 earth from an elementary chaos; and, with the 
 same philosophy and logic with which it there 
 contradicted Newton, it here contradicts Moses. 
 This multiplication of revolutions, is no other 
 than a multiplication of causes ; a procedure, 
 always suspicious in philosophy, because it 
 always wears, primd facie, a character of de- 
 ficiency, either of * judgment or inquiry. For, true 
 philosophy abhors a multiplication of causes ; 
 and always seeks to reduce effects to the fewest 
 causes that reason will permit. Its " rule of 
 " philosophizing" is, to refer effects of the same 
 kind to the same cause, " quantum fieri potest 
 " as much as it is possible*" Whereas, the mi- 
 neral geology, far from making the effort which 
 this precept supposes, seeks for a new cause, 
 that is, a new revolution, upon the occurrence 
 of every new difficulty ; so that its multiplied 
 causes are, in fact, not proofs that the effects 
 required the causes, but merely, evidences that 
 it. could not reconcile the effects to its own con- 
 ceptions, without supposing those causes. But, 
 since causes imply facts, the supposition of the 
 
 I See p. 44. 
 
298 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. former, is a supposition of the latter; soth&tsup- 
 CHAP" v posititiou* facts become the basis of its science ; 
 and when it would assign dates to those facts, 
 it is manifest, that its whole system must be 
 a compound of supposititious history, and suppo- 
 sititious chronology. Thus it is, that the mineral 
 geologists of Germany, as we are assured, have 
 gravely determined, upon the pretended au- 
 thority of Werner's principles, that four differ- 
 ent seas have successively, and at distant periods, 
 covered the whole of this globe 1 : 
 
 Nor less, not more, but just/owr seas. 
 
 Thus also it is, that Cuvier affirms, that the 
 " revolutions of the earth have been numerous;" 
 that "it has frequently happened, that different 
 " parts of our continent have risen from the 
 " basin of the sea, and that they have been 
 " again covered by the water 2 ." And such 
 is the mode in which the mineral geology 
 reasons in general, upon the revolutionary phe- 
 nomena of the earth. 
 
 1 " Dans les ouvrages de geognosie dernierement publies 
 * en Allemagne, d'apres les principes de WERNER, on re- 
 *' garde les diverses formations minerales comme le produit 
 ft de quatres grandes mers successives." D'AuBuissoN, i. 
 p. 357. 
 
 2 1 5. . 36. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 299 
 
 In the midst of these aberrations, it is with no PART III. 
 small pleasure that I find myself able to oppose 
 to such incautious and unphilosophical specu- 
 lations, the high authority of Werner himself. 
 " I shall observe (says his able and upright 
 " disciple, M. D'Aubuisson), that Werner was 
 " very cautious on the question of deluges and 
 " revolutions of nature ; he never declared him- 
 " self in a positive manner; probably, because 
 " he had not established a definitive opinion 
 " upon those matters ; but, perhaps also, his 
 " respect for the SACRED WRITINGS made him 
 " apprehend, that the opinion he might express 
 " would be misunderstood 1 .' 9 Here is an example, 
 deserving of the serious attention and close 
 imitation of the mineral geology; but, from 
 which it so greatly deviates. We receive from 
 the hands of the disciple, and with peculiar 
 gratification contribute to record, this faithful 
 testimony of his eminent master's mind. We 
 reverence the geological teacher, who held his 
 science under the control of that high para- 
 mount authority ; and we honour the disciple, 
 who has rendered this justice to his memory. 
 And we the more regret, that he did not so di- 
 rect his general studies, as to enable himself to 
 trace out, and to expose, the direct correspondence, 
 
 1 Tom. i. p. 3.69. 
 
300 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. between the phenomena which he contem- 
 CHAP~V P^tedj an d that authority; and thus prevent 
 the union of his name with a doctrine of 
 "four successive seas" which so pointedly con- 
 tradicts those sacred writings which he duly 
 respected. But, his attention having been 
 principally and ardently devoted to mineralogy, 
 he had not provided himself with the other 
 branches of knowledge, which were indispen- 
 sably requisite for enabling him to establish 
 that important correspondence. He has, how- 
 ever, bequeathed to us a caution in this recorded 
 sentiment; which is of virtue sufficient to curb 
 the precipitancy of physical conjecture, in every 
 mind in which intellectual acuteness is not 
 deserted by moral ingenuousness. 
 
 By the sure guidance of the Sacred Record, 
 we are able to reduce, to their true chronological 
 order, the various effects, or phenomena, which 
 the mineral geology arranges confusedly and 
 anachronically, through neglect of the historical 
 rule ; arbitrarily and fancifully creating facts 
 and dates, by multiplying revolutions. For, let us 
 examine what general phenomena the earth pre- 
 sents, which may not be philosophically re- 
 ferred ; either, to the first formation, or creation, 
 of the general frame- work and mineral substance 
 of the earth ; or to thejirst revolution, which form- 
 ed the basin of the primitive sea; or, to the long 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 301 
 
 period which succeeded, during which, that sea re- PART III. 
 mained in its primitive basin ; or, lastly, to the 
 second and last revolution, in which the sea was 
 transfused from that basin into a new bed, formed 
 by the depression of the primitive continents. To 
 the Jirst of these, are plainly to be referred the 
 sensible characters, and diversities, of all primitive 
 rocks and soils ; to the second, are to be referred 
 the universal characters, of dislocation and sub- 
 version, of downfal and ruin, of disunion, frac- 
 ture, and dispersion, in those rocks and soils ; 
 of subsidences, in valleys, plains, and lakes; 
 of primitive volcanic eruption and fusion ; all 
 which, mark the Jirst period of change from the 
 first perfect condition of the mineral sphere. 
 To the third, are as plainly to be referred, the 
 triturated character of all the fractured parts of 
 those rooks, in their larger and smaller frag- 
 ments ; the moulding of the loose soils over 
 their solid substrata, displaying the evidence 
 of watery action as plainly, as the surface of a 
 stuccoed edifice displays evidence of the action 
 of the artists trowel ; likewise, those many ex- 
 tinct volcanos, whose vestiges are found on the 
 lower levels of the earth, and in mediterraneous 
 regions, remote from the sea ; and which are 
 therefore extinct, because their former activity 
 resulted from a communication with the waters, 
 which have been removed from them. To 
 
302 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. this interval are also to be referred, the incre- 
 dibly numerous accumulations of marine sub- 
 
 CHAP. v. . . 
 
 stances, existing both in loose and in compact 
 
 soils ; and in levels far above the surface of 
 the present ocean. To the fourth and last of 
 these periods are to be referred, with equal 
 evidence, the excavation of valleys in secondary 
 soils, leaving other parts undisturbed, of different 
 altitudes; the aggeration of marine mineral 
 masses ; the exposure, exsiccation, and indura- 
 tion of those masses, now exhibiting secondary 
 mountains, hills, and rocks; also, various pecu- 
 liarities of form and disposition, caused, from 
 local circumstances, by the mass of waters in the 
 progress of their retreat ; and finally, the con- 
 fused mixture of organic terrestrial fragments, 
 animal and vegetable, previously constituting 
 a part of the furniture of the perished earth ; 
 which are every where found in soils into 
 which they were precipitated, while those 
 soils formed the soft and yielding bottom of 
 the retiring sea. 
 
 We thus clearly perceive the fallacy under 
 which the composers of the first French Ency- 
 clopedic reasoned, when they pronounced those 
 phenomena to be wholly irrelative to the cata- 
 strophe of the universal deluge. " It is & truth, 
 " (said they,) now recognized by the most en- 
 " lightened naturalists, that the sea, in the most 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 303 
 
 " remote times, occupied the greater part of the PART III. 
 " continents which we inhabit; it is to its resi- 
 
 CHAP. V 
 
 " dence, that is owing the prodigious quantity of 
 " shells, of skeletons of fishes, and of other 
 " bodies, which we find in the mountains and 
 " strata of the earth, in places often very 
 " distant from the bed which the sea actually 
 " occupies. In vain would any one attribute 
 " these phenomena to the Universal Deluge ; we 
 " have shown, under the article * FOSSILS,' that 
 " that revolution, having been merely transient, 
 " could not have produced all the effects which 
 " the greater part of naturalists have attributed 
 " to it. Whereas, in supposing the residence of 
 " the sea upon our earth, nothing will be more 
 " easy than to form to oneself a clear idea 
 " of the formation of the strata (i. e. the se- 
 " condary strata) of the earth ; and to conceive, 
 " how so great a number of marine bodies are 
 " found in a soil which the sea has abandoned V 
 Those writers were little aware, that they were 
 urging the very statement of the record ; and 
 that what they so authoritatively opposed, 
 was, in fact, not the record itself, but the mis- 
 interpretation of the record. 
 
 With the clear and satisfactory authority of 
 this historical clue, to guide our reason in in- 
 
 1 Tom. x. art. MER, p. 359. Ed.foL 1765. 
 
304 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF TILE 
 
 PART in. vestigating the various phenomena of the earth^ 
 one would have thought that adequate causes 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 were assigned, and in rich abundance, to 
 account generally for every phenomenon that 
 can occupy the attention of geology ; for, the 
 mineral geology itself does not presume to 
 account for every particular effect ; but is con- 
 strained to refer many of them to " causes 
 " which are unknown" or, to " causes which 
 " have ceased to act." 
 
 Yet, those causes are not sufficient to satisfy 
 the mineral geology, even where it is led to 
 -infer the very same four periods in the history 
 of the earth. For, thus it likewise states : 
 " The epocha, in which we perceive that so 
 " great a quantity of brescia, sand-stone, coal, 
 " c. were produced, differs so entirely from 
 " that which preceded it, and from that 
 " which followed it, that one would be tempt- 
 " ed to discern in it a real change, rather 
 " than a mere oscillation, in the course of na- 
 " ture. It proves to us, a time of destruction ; 
 " it indicates a violent and almost sudden action, 
 " between the tranquil formation of primitive 
 " rocks, and information, generally tranquil, of 
 " calcareous soils 1 ." We here perceive a re- 
 markable approximation, by the acuteness of 
 
 N, i. p. 361. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 305 
 
 observation alone, to the true order of events as PART III. 
 they are reported in the record. The able ob- 
 
 CHAP. V 
 
 server perceives, 1 . a primitive period, in which 
 primitive rocks were tranquilly/bmed; 2. a period 
 of violent and sudden destruction; 3. a long inter- 
 val, in which the calcareous formations were more 
 or less tranquilly deposited in the sea; And, 4. he 
 has elsewhere noted the retreat of that sea 1 . 
 Here, then, are all the true periods, which the 
 Mosaical record enables us to arrange in their 
 proper order, and to assign to their proper 
 dates. But, through neglect of that guide, 
 imagination interferes ; and the periods, thus 
 correctly stated, are afterwards multiplied by 
 the insertion of conjectural revolutions, in order 
 to account for the variety of effects, which 
 those four periods, in fact, alone produced. 
 
 Let us, therefore, proceed to examine, with 
 some attention, the reasons which have prompt- 
 ed those conjectural insertions; and to investi- 
 gate, in their detail, the principal phenomena, 
 which have seduced the mineral geology to 
 require more revolutions, than it can be sup- 
 plied with from the Mosaical. 
 
 But, first of all, it must consent to renounce, 
 and for ever to relinquish, all those revolutions, 
 which it had invented merely to contrive 
 
 1 See above, p. 277, 8. 
 X 
 
30G A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART ill. formation, or primitive composition, of the mineral 
 system of the earth, by the chemical modes of 
 
 CHAP V 
 
 dissolution, precipitation, and crystallization, 
 in an elementary Chaos; such process being 
 absolutely denied, disclaimed, and derided, 
 by true philosophy, and flatly contradicted in 
 history, by adequate witness of the fact, as 
 has been fully shown in the two preceding 
 parts of this disquisition. Our inquiry con- 
 cerning revolutions, must be exclusively limited 
 to such phenomena as bear unequivocal cha- 
 racters of mechanical action, or, if of chemical, 
 of such as has been exercised in the decompo- 
 sition of first-formed or created substances, or 
 in their recomposition ; it cannot extend to any 
 thing but that, in which alteration or real 
 revolution, of parts or place, is distinctly and 
 incontestably manifested. 
 
 
MINERAL AND MOSALCAi. GEOLOGIES. 307 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 41 
 
 THE first great difficulty, which the mineral PART III. 
 geology has created for itself, occurs in that C HAP~VI 
 amazing and principal phenomenon, the re- 
 mains of animals of all species and climates, 
 which are discovered in exhaustless quan- 
 tities in the interior of the earth ; so that the 
 exuvicE of animal species now subsisting only 
 within the torrid zone, and those of species 
 which no longer exist at all, are found con- 
 fusedly huddled together in the soils of the 
 most northerly latitudes. " In examining the 
 " mineral masses in the interior of the earth, 
 " says the mineral geology, the observer is 
 " astonished at the prodigous quantity of the 
 " fragments of animals and vegetables which it 
 " contains. He will recollect the order, in 
 " which organic beings are distributed upon 
 " the surface of the globe ; some, can only live 
 " in the bosom of the sea, others, m fresh-water ; 
 1 *' some, are only to be found within the torrid zone, 
 " while there are others, which would perish 
 " the moment they should be removed from the 
 " frigid zone > m a word, each species appears as 
 
308 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART Hf. " if it were fixed to an element, or climate, pro- 
 " per and peculiar to it. Whereas, in the strata 
 
 CHAP VI 
 
 "of the earth, every thing is dislocated; the 
 remains of animals which can exist only in 
 " the depths of the ocean, are found kneaded 
 " into rocks which form the summits of moun- 
 " tains; the bones of those which can live only 
 " in the torrid zone, are found buried in the 
 " frozen soil of the polar regions. Almost every 
 " where he will find relics of animals and 
 " vegetables, different from those which now 
 " exist. Every thing will indicate to him, 
 " that the place of his habitation has under- 
 " gone great changes and great revolutions 1 ." 
 
 The mineral geology, contemplating these 
 relics, and reflecting upon the places in which 
 they are found, immediately demands a revolu- 
 tion different and distinct from either of those 
 intimated by Moses, in order to account for 
 their presence in the places where they now lie. 
 But why does it need that other revolution? 
 solely, because it reasons thus upon the evi- 
 dence before it: These exuvicz of equatorial 
 animals, are found in northern latitudes ; there- 
 fore, their ancient owners must have, died in 
 those latitudes ; therefore, they must have, lived 
 
 \ D'AuBuissoN, torn. i. p. 8. 
 
. 
 MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 309 
 
 in those latitudes 1 . And yet, they could not PART III. 
 have lived in those latitudes, unless a revolution 
 has taken place, either in the nature of the 
 species, or in the climates of the earth. But, no 
 such revolution is shown in the Mosaical record, 
 or can accord with its recital, therefore, other 
 revolutions, in one or other of these, must be 
 assumed, to supply the chasm in the Mosaical 
 record. 
 
 Thus it reasons ; in perversion of all logic, 
 and in exclusion of the true explication of the 
 phenomenon. For, unless there is no such thing 
 as change of place, and unless the exuvice of all 
 the game consumed in London, are proof that the 
 grouse and hares died there, and therefore that 
 they lived there ; the mere presence of the fossil 
 exuvitf, is no evidence whatever that the ani- 
 mals owning them died where they are found ; 
 consequently, it is no evidence whatever that 
 they lived where they are found: and, if that is 
 the case, all the rest of the argument, which 
 was devised only to account for their living there, 
 vanishes at once into air. 
 
 The first, simple idea, which the phaenome- 
 non in question raises in a plain understanding, 
 untinctured with system, is an idea of disorder 
 and confusion, not one of order ; and it would 
 
 'CuviER's Gcol. Disc. JAMESON, p. 258. Ed. N.York. 
 D'AUBUISSON, torn. ii. p. 513. 
 
310 , A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. therefore first ask, how came all those varieties 
 ~~~ yl and disparities of animals to be jumbled together 
 there? not, how came they all to live and die 
 there ? For, their being jumbled together there, is 
 an unquestionable fact; but their living and dying 
 there, is a very questionable one. And since we 
 know, that an entire earth perished, and that its 
 whole furniture of animal and vegetable life, of 
 every climate, perished also in the sea which ab- 
 sorbed that earth ; it is certainly much more 
 reasonable to assume, in the first instance, that 
 the vast accumulations of animal fragments, 
 which are found mingled together indiscrimi- 
 nately in all parts of the present earth, were 
 part of the ancient furniture of animal life, 
 pertaining to the earth which was destroyed. 
 For we know, that such animals existed ; that 
 they were indiscriminately destroyed ; and that 
 they were absorbed indiscriminately into the 
 mass of waters by which their destruction was 
 effected. If, then, it was physically possible, that 
 they should have been transported by those 
 waters from the surface of the former earth 
 into the bed of the former sea, and if that bed 
 is now become our habitable earth, it was 
 highly probable that we should discover such 
 remnants of them as have not entirely mould- 
 ered away ; and it will be much more philoso- 
 phical to resort to that possible cause, than to 
 violate by our conjectures the laws established, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 311 
 
 % - ; 
 
 either for the nature of animals or for the PART III. 
 climates of the globe. Now we shall find, that CH ~ VI 
 the second revolution of the record comprehends 
 such a cause, and therefore, the proper cause to 
 which we ought to ascribe the phenomenon ; 
 and it will then be unphilosophical, to seek for 
 any other cause in order to explain it. 
 
 But, observes a respectable writer, " in this 
 " hypothesis, the ancient continents must have 
 " existed in those tracts now covered by the 
 " Atlantic and Pacific oceans ; if so, I do not sec, 
 " how elephants could have been brought into 
 " Siberia, or a rhinoceros be found in it. For, 
 " Siberia being then the bottom of some ocean, 
 " the sea must have moved from it, to cover the 
 " sinking continents, instead of moving towards it, 
 " to strew over it their spoils V " There seems no 
 " reason, observes another respectable writer, 
 " why the current should have taken a northern, 
 " rather than a southern direction 2 ." 
 
 These are indeed intelligible and tangible ob- 
 jections, and which place the question upon a dis- 
 tinct, philosophical ground ; they therefore claim 
 a full and minute consideration. The question 
 then is ; by what known law could the sea, in 
 moving from its bed, carry backward, and deposit 
 within its bed, the spoils that it absorbed from the 
 
 1 Km WAN'S Gcol. Essays, p. 62. 
 a GREENOUGH'* Geel. p. 153. 
 
312 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. continents which it had moved forward to submerge? 
 and, if there exists any such known law ; why 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 should the current have taken a northern direction? 
 I have endeavoured to put the question as 
 pointedly, and as forcibly, as I am able. 
 
 This question, though not of difficult solution 
 in itself, will not be of easy apprehension, unless 
 we will expand our thoughts to the full measure 
 and magnitude of the subject; and unless we 
 will combine within them, the agents acting 
 generally over the entire surface of the globe. 
 But, if we will only do this, we shall find the 
 solution both simple, and obvious to our appre- 
 hension; for, the actions to be explained, are 
 the necessary consequences of the fact admitted 
 in the objection. 
 
 We have perceived, by rational induction, 
 that, in this vast revolution, the transfer of the 
 mass of waters could not have been immediate 
 or instantaneous; but, that it must have been 
 conducted with much gradation and calculable 
 succession, proceeding through several months, 
 and proportionate to gradual and successive 
 subsidences of the primitive earth 1 . That gra- 
 duality, left the aqueous surface subject to 
 the ordinary operations of winds and currents. 
 The limits, or coasts, which circumscribed the 
 
 1 See above, p. 267270. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 313 
 
 sea, gradually receded in those subsidences ; PART III. 
 but, its violence, continually discharged against 
 succeeding limits, was followed by the same com- 
 mon effect, of reaction and recession of its waters, 
 which universally attends it. Though the first 
 " bars and gates' which resisted its fury were 
 thrown back, yet they were succeeded by 
 others, against which, for a time, it " raged and 
 swelled" in vain, and which prescribed its 
 bound, until another subsidence permitted it 
 another measured progress : which process con- 
 tinued, until at length the whole became sub- 
 merged. But, whatever was the actual barrier 
 against which its waves at any time broke, 
 those waves, after breaking against that barrier, 
 receded, and yielded their place to the waves 
 which immediately followed, in unintermitting 
 succession ; and they thus formed retiring cur- 
 rents, retrograding as the flux advanced. 
 
 This natural and necessary operation, will 
 be best illustrated by considering the manner 
 in which the sea actually operates, upon a coast 
 against which it is continually discharging its 
 wares. " Whilst we see the general phseno- 
 " mena of the flow and ebb of the sea modified 
 f< by particular circumstances, we also recog- 
 " nize, (says De la Lande,) an important and 
 " general effect of the same phenomena : that is, 
 " the common motion of the sea from east to 
 " west; which forms a very sensible current 
 
314 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " between Africa and America. It is affirmed, 
 " that there is always an higher elevation of the 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 ' waters upon the eastern coast ot America, than 
 upon the western coast. Both of these are 
 " a consequence of the tides ; for, the aqueous 
 " spheroid, carried towards the west by the 
 " diurnal motion of the earth, is stopped by, 
 " and accumulated against, the eastern coast of 
 " America; from whence it can only return 
 " partially, and very slowly, by an opposite 
 " current, which probably takes place in the 
 " bottom of the sea; while the water of the 
 " surface returns to wash the western coasts of 
 " Africa and Europe by the natural weight of the 
 " waters, which recoil after having struck the 
 " coasts of America. It is the same in the South 
 " Sea ; its waters, stopped by the continent of 
 " Asia, fall back naturally to the coasts of 
 " Chili, Peru, and Mexico 1 ." 
 
 Without inquiring here, whether that great 
 equatorial current is caused by the diurnal motion 
 of the earth, according to De la Lande, or rather, 
 by the trade winds, according to the explanation 
 of La Place ; the fact is undeniable, that the 
 body of the sea, at the equator, constantly moves 
 towards the eastern coasts of Asia, and of America ; 
 and that it returns to the western coasts of America, 
 
 I lux ct Reflux dc la Mcr, torn. iv. p. 305. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 315 
 
 in the first case, find to those of Europe, and PART III. 
 of Africa, in the second. CH ~ vj 
 
 This is the great law of equilibrium ; which 
 governs the motion of the sea, antecedently to 
 the cooperating or counteracting agencies of 
 winds and tides. The great Atlantic flood, 
 which flows to the eastward ; and of which a part 
 is received into the Bay of Biscay, and being 
 stopped by the west coast of France, and con- 
 fined by the north coast of Spain, escapes to 
 the north-westward, and pursues its course 
 partly into St. George's Channel, and partly 
 along the western side of Ireland, " continually 
 " casting up articles of various kinds, known 
 " to have come from the southward and south- 
 " east, in Galway Bay 1 ;" is no other than the 
 reflux of the oceanic waters cast by the great 
 equatorial current on the eastern' coasts of Ame- 
 rica ; which current, perpetually propelling its 
 northern branch, along the coast of Brasil, into 
 the gulf of Mexico, and occasioning the reple- 
 tion of that gulf, obliges it to seek a discharge 
 for part of its mass of waters through the 
 straits of Bahama, thus producing the Gulf- 
 stream ; while the general mass falls back to the 
 eastward, by the common law of equilibrium. 
 
 1 RENNELL'S Observations on a Current W. of Stilly, 
 p, 67. Note. 
 
316 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. By this law, easily apprehended, it is evi- 
 CHAP~VI ^ en ^ ' * na t as the waves of the sea, which strike 
 an opposing coast, are constantly following each 
 other, the preceding waves, which can advance 
 no further, must always effect for themselves 
 a retreat, in proportion as the succeeding waves 
 attain the coast. And thus, a general reflux is 
 the necessary and inevitable consequence of the 
 sea's progress, against a limit disappointing 
 that progress, and repelling the action of its 
 waters. 
 
 Let us then suppose, that the eastern coast 
 of America were to yield to the sea by succes- 
 sive subsidences of its land, yet leaving after 
 each subsidence a new resisting coast, suffi- 
 cient to repel the waves ; the reflux must still 
 be the same as if the continent remained 
 entire, and the retiring current must equally 
 make its way back to the coasts of Africa and 
 Europe. Let us further suppose, that, in the 
 progress of those subsidences, half the continent 
 of South America were to be successively sub- 
 merged; and that half its surface of vegetation, 
 together with the millions of its animal inhabit- 
 ants, were to be received and floated off by 
 the waters. It is manifest, that a considerable 
 portion of this accumulated ruin would con- 
 tinue to float, for a considerable time, and be 
 carried, by the back current, in a direction 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 317 
 
 tmvards the coasts of Africa and Europe ; and, PART III. 
 although at first taken up by an advancing sea, 
 would be transported to different distances, 
 and there be deposited, by the same sea retiring. 
 It is thus manifest; that the waters, which 
 would be the first to enter a bed whose mouth 
 should be unobstructed, would, if an obstruction 
 of temporary duration were opposed, be com- 
 pelled to retire into the rear of their mass, and so 
 be the last to enter that bed. As then the sea, 
 which moves westward from Africa and Europe, is 
 compelled, by the reaction of the American coast, 
 to move eastward, towards the same regions again, 
 and so in repeated successions; by which returns 
 it is capable of transporting, and has actually 
 transported, floating bodies to the shores of Eu- 
 rope ; we easily perceive, " how the sea, receiv- 
 " ing an extraordinary impulse which should 
 " cause it to move from its northern bed, in 
 " Siberia, to cover continents gradually sink- 
 " ing in the southern ocean, might nevertheless 
 " move towards that bed, and strew over it the 
 " spoils which those continents had successively 
 " delivered over to the action of its waters." 
 
 Let us now follow this operation, with 
 some minute detail, in its application to the 
 waters of the deluge. 
 
 By the inundation of the earth, from the 
 incessant cataracts of rain and the consequent 
 
318 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. overflow of the rivers during forty days, the 
 whole of its superior surface, or moveable soils, 
 
 CHAP VI 
 
 ^ WOU ^ h ave become drenched, supersaturated 
 with moisture, and loosened from their imme- 
 diate base ; and they would thus have been 
 rendered capable of being taken up in dissolu- 
 tion by the waters of the sea, on the first failure 
 of that base, and have been fitted for preci- 
 pitation on whatever new surface they might 
 afterwards be deposited. But, with the super- 
 ficies thus disunited and separated from its 
 base, and by the failure of that base, the entire 
 investiture of vegetation, all its plants and 
 herbs, all its woods and forests, together with 
 the whole animal creation, would have become 
 successively a prey to the waters, and would 
 have been carried off, and floated away, by the 
 reflux. But, they would not have been imme- 
 diately submerged in the places where they were 
 first seized, in consequence of the gradual pro- 
 cedure of the operation ; they would have 
 floated for a longer or a shorter time, and would 
 have been driven by winds and currents in 
 vast accumulated masses, and in various direc- 
 tions. How/flr they could have been transported 
 .before they sunk, and how distantly they might 
 have sunk from the places of their first capture, 
 are questions which must depend, 1. upon 
 .the length of time bodies can float without 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 319 
 
 sinking, which again must greatly depend upon PART III. 
 
 their bulk, and the texture of their substance 
 
 CHAP. vi. 
 and integuments ; and 2. on the power 01 
 
 tides, currents, and winds, for wafting and pro- 
 pelling floating bodies. We know, that some 
 bodies, impervious to water, have floated from 
 the West Indies to the coast of Europe ; these 
 were brought to an eastern land by the very sea 
 which had moved to the westward, and it was 
 the return of that great western flood, that, 
 in seeking its equilibrium, brought them to our 
 shores. 
 
 Let us then suppose, (what must have been 
 the case,) all the woods and forests of the former 
 earth, of every latitude, uprooted, entangled to- 
 gether, and floating upon the bosom of the ocean ; 
 let us further suppose, all the races of animals, of 
 all climates, crowded confusedly in close contact 
 and in numberless masses, implicated in those 
 floating forests, and buoyant upon the face of the 
 waters ; and let us suppose all these, while 
 buoyant, to be operated upon by the impulsory 
 powers of retiring currents, tides, and winds. It is 
 impossible to deny, that such immense conjoined 
 masses, presenting in their cohesion vast surfaces 
 to the winds and retreating waters, would be 
 driven before them to very great distances, be- 
 fore all would be submerged. If the continents 
 from which they came, were south of the sea-bed, 
 and if the sea flowed to the southward, they 
 
320 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. would then be transported in a northerly direc- 
 CHAP vi * lon >' J us t as * ne waters of the equatorial current, 
 which fall against a western land, retrograde to 
 an eastern sea. In the antediluvian sphere, the 
 space now almost entirely possessed by that 
 great central current, must have been in a great 
 part occupied by the former equatorial continents. 
 The subsidences of the external borders, or ad- 
 vanced lines, of those continents, would not 
 have prevented the advancing waters from being 
 repelled by the new lines successively opposing 
 themselves to its fury ; and, the general move- 
 ment of the FLOW being towards the EQUATOR 1 , 
 and consequently, the general direction of the RE- 
 FLUX being towards the POLES, the latter would, 
 in this our hemisphere, have conveyed what- 
 ever its surface might sustain, in a northern 
 direction; so long as there remained any por- 
 tion of those equatorial continents to disappoint 
 and repel the progress of the waters. And 
 thus, the spoils successively gathered from those 
 continents, would have been transported to, 
 and driven over, the northern parts of the pri- 
 mitive sea; would have been sunk upon different 
 parts of its bed ; and would ultimately have be- 
 come buried in its soils. And, if a great moral 
 end was capable of being effected by the opera- 
 
 1 See above, p. 34, and 264, 5. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 321 
 
 tion ; a fact, which the present argument PART III. 
 renders wholly indisputable ; the direction of 
 
 . _ CHAP. VI. 
 
 those amazing monuments, to their actual sta- 
 tions, by the instrumentality of the natural 
 agent, was in every respect consistent with 
 the intelligence and the power of Him, 
 who afterwards " caused a wind to pass 
 " over the earth, that the waters might be 
 " assuaged V Upon what calculation Mr. 
 Greenough affirms, that those bodies must 
 have moved over an extent of thirty-Mx thou- 
 sand miles, from the Indian to the Frozen 
 Ocean 2 , I am at a loss to understand. For, 
 the whole circumference of the globe is not 
 quite twenty-jive thousand miles; and, if we 
 suppose the former continents to have existed 
 in the Atlantic, or Pacific Ocean, we need only 
 deduct from that circumference the distance 
 from the equator to the pole, as an extreme 
 average measure; which will be only a fourth 
 part of that extent, or about six thousand two 
 hundred miles. Over this extent they would 
 have moved in direct lines, northward, and 
 without finding any lands to obstruct their 
 progress. 
 
 A vessel, which sailed from Halifax, in 
 Nova Scotia, on the morning of the 12th of 
 
 1 Gen. viii. 1. 2 Geology, p. 153. 
 
322 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. last December, 1821, came to an anchor at 
 S pithead on the morning of Christmas day 1 ; 
 having traversed a space of three thousand 
 miles, in thirteen days. Had it not been for 
 an interruption of forty-eight hours, occasioned 
 by foul winds encountered in the passage, the 
 course would have been run in eleven days. 
 As the wind blew almost a continued hurri- 
 cane, very little sail was carried. The average 
 of progress, was therefore two hundred and 
 seventy-three miles in the twenty-four hours. 
 On one day, the vessel actually ran ninety- 
 six leagues, or two hundred and eighty-eight 
 miles. Now, the distance from the equator 
 to Tobolsk, in Siberia, is four thousand miles ; 
 so that with the same velocity, uninterrupted, 
 a floating mass might have been propelled from 
 the former to the latter parallel in fifteen days. 
 The mouth of the river Lena, is in the parallel 
 nine hundred miles north of Tobolsk ; or, four 
 days further, with the same velocity of pro- 
 gress. 
 
 As we have thus found a law, by which an 
 advancing sea may float and convey bodies into 
 the rear of its waters ; and as w r e can there- 
 fore now " see, how elephants could have been 
 " brought into Siberia" and " why the current 
 " should have taken a northern direction ;" let 
 
 1 The NEWCASTLE, 60 guns, Captain FANSHAWE. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 32.3 
 
 us next consider, the natural consequence of PART III. 
 such transport to the bodies, when brought, 
 and at length deposited upon its bottom. 
 
 That bottom, consisting of the loose or frac- 
 tured materials of the parts which had been 
 depressed to form the bed, and which, during 
 1656 years, had been subjected to the mecha- 
 nical and chemical action of the superincum- 
 bent sea, was in most parts penetrated deeply 
 by its water, and formed a yielding paste or 
 mud. Many bodies would be buried in that 
 mud, by their own weight, or by the weight and 
 ordinary action of the waters rolling over them. 
 Others, would become profoundly immersed, 
 by the peculiar power of the sea in the latter 
 stages of its retreat, when the violent action 
 of its surface would have been more strongly 
 communicated to its bottom, in consequence of 
 the increased and increasing shaliowness of its 
 depth ; with diversity of circumstances, arising 
 from various and unassignable local causes. 
 To form a judgment of the amazing force of 
 the sea while in violent action, and of its 
 tendency and power to bury large bodies 
 deeply in its bottom, we have a very applicable 
 example in the Bore, or extraordinary high tide, 
 experienced at the mouth of the Amazon, and 
 other rivers of the east coast of America ; of 
 which potent agency, Condamine has given the 
 
324 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. following account from his own experience on 
 the spot. 
 
 " Between Macapa and the North Cape, 
 " in the place where the great canal of the 
 " Amazon river is most confined by the is- 
 " lands, the tides present a singular phse- 
 " nomenon. During the three days nearest 
 " the full and new moons (the times of the 
 " high tides), the sea, instead of employing 
 " nearly six hours to rise, attains its highest 
 " elevation in the space of one or two minutes. 
 " It may be supposed, that this is not effected 
 " very quietly : one hears, at the distance 
 " of one or two leagues, a terrific noise which 
 " announces the For or oca (Barre, or Bore); 
 " such is the name which the Indians of the 
 " district give to this terrible tide. In pro- 
 " portion as it advances, the noise increases, 
 " and presently one beholds a promontory of 
 " water from twelve to fifteen feet in height; 
 " then a second, then a third, and often a 
 " fourth ; which follow close upon each other, 
 " and which occupy the whole breadth of the 
 " canal. This surge advances with a prodigious 
 " rapidity, breaking down, and shaving clean 
 16 away, every thing that opposes it. I have, 
 " in some places, seen an extensive tract of 
 " soil carried away by the For or oca, trees 
 " of very large dimensions uprooted, and 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 325 
 
 " devastations of every description. Wherever PART III. 
 
 " it passes, the coast is laid as smooth as if it 
 
 " had been intentionally and carefully swept 1 ." v cl ' y 
 
 Of the astonishing power of this aqueous 
 agent to imbed large bodies, I hold the fol- 
 lowing instance from an eye-witness : " At 
 " the mouth of a river in Nova Scotia, a 
 " schooner of thirty-two tons, laden with live- 
 " stock, was lying with her side to the tide 
 " at the influx of the Bore; which was then 
 " about ten feet in perpendicular height. No 
 " sooner had this mass of water reached the 
 " vessel, than that great body was instantly 
 " .turned over and over, like a common barrel, 
 " and presently disappeared. After the tide had 
 " ebbed, the schooner was so totally absorbed 
 " into the sand and ouze, that the taffel, or 
 " upper rail of the deck, was alone visible." 
 
 Thus, then, we find in the established 
 order of things, physical powers capable, 1. 
 of transporting the bodies of elephants, rhino- 
 ceroses, &c., from the torrid zone to the north 
 of Europe ; and, 2. of imbedding them at all the 
 various depths in which they are now found, 
 in England or in Siberia : and this, without re- 
 quiring any change, either in the natures of the 
 species, or in the climates of the earth. The 
 
 1 Voyage de la Riviere des Amazoncs, p. 189, 91 
 
326 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. certain knowledge, that an entire animal creation 
 was once overwhelmed and destroyed by an ad- 
 
 CHAP. VI. J 
 
 vancing ocean, which, by its reflux, was able to 
 transport, in a contrary direction, individuals of 
 that creation of every climate, indiscriminately 
 mingled together ; accounts satisfactorily to the 
 reason, for the discovery of the confused frag- 
 ments of animals, of all climates, in the strata 
 of our earth ; and evinces the incongruity of the 
 assumption, that those animals must necessarily 
 have died where their exuvia are found ; and 
 therefore, the further incongruity, of specu- 
 lating how they could all have lived there ? 
 
 But Cuvier, under the bias of his own in- 
 genious but fallacious theory, denies the fact 
 of the transport of those bodies, on the following 
 argument ; which does not appear eminent, 
 either for the correctness of its logic, or for its 
 consistency. 
 
 " Those bones, he says, are almost every 
 " where found in beds nearly similar; namely, 
 " of moveable soil, as sand or marl, and not 
 " very far beneath the surface. We have no 
 " authentic account, that they are ever covered 
 " by regular layers of stone, containing sea- 
 " shells; as if the sea had continued long upon 
 " them, in a settled and tranquil state. The 
 " catastrophe which sunk them, was therefore 
 *' a great but transient inundation of the sea. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 327 
 
 " The bones, are neither rolled and triturated, PART III. 
 " nor united in entire skeletons, but dispersed, 
 " and partly broken; they have therefore not 
 " been brought by an inundation from a dis- 
 " tance, but were found by it on the places 
 " where it covered them; as must have been 
 " the case, if the animals to which they per- 
 " tained had inhabited those places, and had died 
 " in them. Before this catastrophe, therefore, 
 " those animals lived in the climates where their 
 " bones are now dug up ; the northern parts of 
 " the globe, therefore, once nourished animals of 
 " the species of the elephant, hippopotamus, &c. *" 
 Let us examine these several positions, and 
 the conclusions. 1. " They have not been tri- 
 " titrated, therefore they have not been trans- 
 " ported" But, if the animals had been trans- 
 ported by water, and had been deposited and 
 immersed in a deep bed of sand, or other soft 
 and conservative substance, they would have 
 remained there incased, and would have been 
 protected against trlturation ; this character, is 
 therefore no proof whatever against transport. 
 2. " They have not been collected together in 
 " entire skeletons, but are scattered and broken; 
 11 therefore they have not been transported." 
 
 1 CUVIER'S Geol.Disc. JAMESON, p. 258. D'AusuissoN, 
 torn. ii. p. 513. 
 
328 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. Wherever those animals died, they must have 
 7 f died with their entire skeletons ; and if parts 
 only of those skeletons are found, the other 
 parts must have mouldered away. But, would 
 there have been any difference in this respect, 
 whether they had died where they are found, 
 or whether their bodies had been transported 
 thither, and there deposited ? This statement, is 
 much too equivocal and systematic, to yield the 
 extensive conclusion which Cuvier wishes to 
 establish by it. In the case of the American 
 mastodon exhibited in London a few years ago, 
 most parts of the skeleton were found lying in the 
 same place ; but the other parts had mouldered 
 and perished. At Tonna, in Thuringia, the entire 
 skeleton of an elephant was found, at a depth of 
 fifty feet; whilst near the small town of 
 Canstadt, in the kingdom of Wirtemberg, an 
 immense quantity of the bones of elephants, 
 rhinoceroses, hyenas, &c. were discovered lying 
 mixedly and confusedly together 1 . The rhi- 
 noceros found in the banks of the Vilhoui, and 
 the elephant discovered near the mouth of the 
 Lena, which Cuvier particularly notices, had 
 their entire skeletons 2 . The latter had, more- 
 over, all its flesfi and hide, being preserved ,by 
 the polar ice into which it was incorporated. The 
 
 D'AUBUISSON, ii. 504, 5. 3 6. p. 37. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 329 
 
 mere circumstance, that only parts of skeletons PART III. 
 are occasionally found, can prove nothing, one 
 way or the other, with respect to transport. But, 
 let us consider the difference of the two explica- 
 tions, with relation to the ulterior inferences 
 which they require. Both suppose a preterna- 
 tural action of the sea. But, in the case of trans- 
 port, nothing need be altered in the established 
 constitution of the globe ; whereas, in the other 
 case, we must proceed to speculate further, how 
 animals of the torrid zone could live in a northern 
 latitude; and we must invent an hypothesis, and 
 assume a revolution, in order to assign a cause. 
 The simplicity of the former solution, is there- 
 fore philosophical evidence of its truth. 
 
 But it has happened, that the circumstances 
 opposition of these animal exuvice are very dif- 
 ferent. Some are separately and deeply buried 
 in sandy, calcareous, or argillaceous soils; 
 while others are found in multitudinous masses 
 in caverns, as in Germany and Hungary l . The 
 mineral geology must therefore have different 
 revolutions, to account for this diversity of posi- 
 tions. But, let us recollect; that when the 
 countless numbers of the brute creation, which 
 were transported by the waters, were finally 
 
 * P'AUBUISSON, ii. p. 383. 
 
330 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. Deposited, they would have found different 
 bottoms. The bodies which were lodged upon 
 beds of sand, clay, or other loose soils, would 
 sink within them, and become encompassed by 
 them; while those which fell upon a rocky 
 bottom, in which were cavities and caverns, 
 would not be imbedded, but would be gradually 
 rolled, propelled, or drawn into those cavities, 
 by the action of the water, continually entering 
 and returning ; for, the returning water would 
 not have equal power upon the bodies with the 
 entering water, which moved with the weight 
 of the whole mass. So that where the soil was 
 not sufficiently soft to receive them, they would 
 be driven forward, and finally urged into the 
 inmost recesses of the caverns; where they 
 would afterwards be found, in confused, mul- 
 titudinous, and exposed masses, with all the 
 circumstances \vhich they now exhibit. And 
 because they would have been fixedly lodged 
 before their skeletons were stripped of their 
 integuments, and because the sea presently 
 abandoned them, no appearance of trituration 
 would be discoverable in their bones ; which is 
 a phenomenon that much embarrasses the 
 mineral geology. This diversity of position, 
 would be the necessary consequence of one 
 and the same revolution, in different localities. It 
 is therefore quite unnecessary to resort, with 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 331 
 
 De Luc, to two different revolutions ; or to PART I1L 
 embrace his whimsical conclusion, that " these rv 7IT- r 
 
 t-/ JtT A lr V X* 
 
 " ancient caverns were comme des cimetieres 
 " pour les animaux a sort of bury ing-place in 
 " ancient islands for sick animals, which retired 
 " thither to die ; and which, he says, can alone 
 " account for the prodigious quantity of their 
 " bones, heaped together, and incrusted with 
 " stalactites 1 ." 
 
 Thus, then, every thing concurs to testify; 
 that the bodies of equatorial animals, found in 
 northern soils, were transported thither by the 
 great agent which we have ascertained ; and 
 thus we perceive, that the phenomenon of their 
 presence in those soils, is amply accounted for by 
 the second revolution reported in the Mosaic re- 
 cord. 
 
 Lettres Geologiqucs, p. 219. 
 
332 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PART III. THERE is a phenomenon, intimately connected 
 CHApTvu. w ^ tn ^ e Preceding, which will demand our 
 very particular consideration. 
 
 The Mosaical record asserts, that the cata- 
 strophe which caused the universal destruction 
 of the brute creation, caused likewise that of 
 the whole human race; one family alone ex- 
 cepted. But, if the human creation perished 
 at the same time with the brute, we naturally 
 expect to find human exuviae, as well as brute 
 exuvice ; whereas, " it is very remarkable, ob- 
 " serves the mineral geology, that in all the 
 " extensive moveable soils in which we find 
 " the bones of these large quadrupeds, and 
 " in which we find also bones perfectly 
 66 similar to those of our horses, oxen, 
 " dogs, &c. no human bones are ever found. 
 " And yet, these bones are as durable as those 
 " of the brute species, if placed in similar cir- 
 " cumstances. Every thing, therefore, induces 
 " us to believe, that the human race did not 
 " exist at the period when those fossil bones 
 " were buried, and in the countries where they 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 333 
 
 " are found, although they may have existed PART III. 
 " elsewhere. The establishment of man in 
 
 v^HAlr. VII. 
 
 ' these regions, that is, in a great part of Europe, 
 " Asia, and America, must necessarily have 
 " been posterior, not only to the revolution which 
 " imbedded those bones, but also, to that which 
 " exposed the soils enclosing them : which re- 
 " volutions, are the last that our globe has sus- 
 " tained. In examining, attentively, all that 
 " has passed on the surface of the earth since 
 " it was rendered dry for the last time ; we see 
 " clearly, that this last revolution, and conse- 
 " quently the establishment of the actual so- 
 " cieties of nations, cannot be very ancient. This 
 " is one of the results the best proved, and the 
 " least expected, of sound geology ; a result the 
 " more valuable, as it connects, by an uninter- 
 " rupted chain, natural history and civil his- 
 " tory 1 " 
 
 This is, indeed, an important remark of the 
 mineral geology ; but there is yet a step or two 
 for it to take, before it can become " sound 
 " geology." We find here many valuable con- 
 cessions to the Mosaical geology ; viz. " that 
 " mankind did not inhabit our present continents, 
 " until after the revolution which imbedded 
 " that confused multitude of bones within their 
 
 1 D'AUBUISSON, torn. ii. p. 514, 5. 
 
334 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " soils : that they never occupied the regions 
 ~ " in which those bones are found, prior to the 
 
 revolution which buried them : that the 
 " human race may have existed elsewhere: 
 " that the revolution which exposed the soils 
 " containing those bones, is the last which our 
 " globe has sustained : and, that this last revo- 
 " lution, and consequently the establishment of 
 " the actual societies of nations in Europe, Asia, 
 " and America, cannot be very ancient. 7 ' 
 
 These are, indeed, remarkable concessions ; 
 but we find them associated with the con- 
 stant error, of multiplying revolutions without 
 any reason ; which must necessarily falsify both 
 history and chronology. This able writer 
 assumes, gratuitously, that the revolution which 
 exposed the soils containing the fossil exuviae, 
 was different from, and posterior to, that which 
 imbedded them ; and different again from that, 
 which gave origin to the actual societies of nations ; 
 consequently, that all the three took place in 
 different periods of time. Whereas, we must 
 perceive, by the record, that all were effects 
 of one and the same revolution; and where one 
 cause accounts simply, and with high proba- 
 bility, for two or more effects, it is improbable 
 to reason that they should be the effects of 
 different causes. The mineral geology, how- 
 ever, does not draw any inference, from the 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES, 335 
 
 absence of human cxuvia, against the Mosaical PART III. 
 
 declaration, that both man and beast perished 
 
 in the same revolution ; because it perceives, 
 
 that " the place which man then inhabited may 
 
 " have sunk into the abyss, and that the bones 
 
 " of that destroyed race may yet remain buried 
 
 " under the bottom of some actual seas: all, 
 
 " except a small number of individuals, who 
 
 " were destined to continue the species 1 ." The 
 
 justness of this inference, I shall endeavour to 
 
 render manifest. 
 
 If we carry back our thoughts to that great 
 period, and if we contemplate it in all its parti- 
 culars, it will be evident ; that there must have 
 been an extreme difference in the condition of 
 the two orders of beings, brute and human, 
 .under the circumstances of that tremendous 
 catastrophe. The brute creation, devoid of 
 reflection and forethought, in any new and 
 strange circumstance of nature which excites 
 in them the sense of alarm, are prompted by 
 their instinct merely to seek each other, and 
 to congregate together; where they await, in 
 trepidation, the unknown evil against which 
 their natures are unprovided with any means 
 of preservation. These, therefore, surprised by 
 
 1 CUVIKR, 32. p. 133. 
 
336 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. the sudden subsidences of land on the spots 
 CHAP" vn where they chanced to be assembled, would 
 have been taken off by the inundation in its suc- 
 cessive progresses, would have been launched 
 upon the surface of its waters, and have been 
 carried away by the reflux. Whereas, the 
 human population, endowed with observation 
 and reflection, and strongly actuated by the 
 passions of fear and hope, would have watch- 
 fully and anxiously retreated from the waters 
 gradually advancing towards them on all sides ; 
 and would have drawn themselves more and 
 more towards the centre of the circumference 
 continually diminishing. Until, at length, as- 
 sembled in a multitudinous mass in the nar- 
 rowed central interior, they would not have been 
 washed into the waters and carried away by 
 any reflux; because they would have been 
 absorbed into the vortex created by the conflux 
 of the two seas meeting from the opposite 
 hemispheres, on the subsidence of the last 
 intervening land; and would thus have been 
 immediately carried downward with violence, 
 into the profundity of the new sea. 
 
 If we contemplate the event in its detail, 
 without any bias of prepossession, we must be 
 sensible, that such would have been the most 
 probable course of things. And if we add to 
 this natural consideration, the moral reflection ; 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 337 
 
 that this catastrophe was designed to act with PART III. 
 particular efficacy upon the moral feelings of 
 the condemned race; we shall find reason to 
 believe, that while it was a matter of indif- 
 ference how speedily the brute creation en- 
 countered their destruction, it was essential to 
 the dispensation that the moral sufferings of 
 the human, in the prospect of destruction, 
 should be protracted and extended until it 
 had worked its destined effect. Nor is this 
 reflection in any way affected by f he divine 
 declaration, that the hardened race w ^re wholly 
 without concern " until the day when Noah 
 " entered into the ark, and the flood came AND 
 " destroyed them all;" because, the Greek 
 scholar will know, that the last and, x*i, in this 
 passage, is equivalent in import to the pronoun 
 which : '* until the flood came, which destroyed 
 " them all." It was not, therefore, the de- 
 struction, that came suddenly upon them, 
 but, the proof of the reality and certainty of 
 the destruction; the denunciation of which 
 they had slighted and derided ; by the entrance 
 of Noah into the ark, and by the actual com- 
 mencement of that disorder in the elements 
 which was to produce it. The human popula- 
 tion, would therefore not have been suddenly 
 entrapped in the early stages of the inundation, 
 like the unintelligent part of the creation; but 
 
 z 
 
338 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. would have prolonged their own miserable 
 duration, by their endeavours to escape from 
 
 ffTA'P VFT 
 
 * the catastrophe. For, the gradual progress of 
 the waters would have allowed measures of 
 time for reasoning and acting, according to the 
 circumstances which they witnessed, and the 
 dangers which threatened them. And thus it 
 would happen, in one and the same revolution ; 
 that, while the brute creation was successively 
 carried away by the reflux from the first com- 
 mencement of the flood, and transported and 
 deposited in the distant regions where we now 
 find their remains in great abundance, the 
 human population would be suddenly and simul- 
 taneously immersed in the centre of the new 
 sea, as the last term of their destruction ; 
 where their exuv'uz must remain for ever, un- 
 investigable by man. 
 
 We cannot, therefore, by any means, concede 
 the point which an ingenious follower of Cuvier 
 would confidently convert into an axiom : 
 " hence," says he, " it may be considered as an 
 " axiom, that man, whose bones are not found 
 " intermixed (with those of other animals), did 
 " not co-exist in time and place 1 ;" because we 
 plainly see, that their separation in death, is 
 
 1 Phil Transact, vol. civ. p. 110. Letter from C. Konig, 
 Esq. to Sir Joseph Banks. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 339 
 
 perfectly reconcilable with their co-existence PART III. 
 
 in life, both in time and place. And certainly, 
 
 it is a great evidence of the consistency of 
 
 the moral part of the geology of the record ; 
 
 that, while a vast proportion of the brute race 
 
 were scattered over the surface which was to 
 
 constitute the new earth, the moral race, which 
 
 had provoked the revolution, should have 
 
 perished in the same locality with the ancient 
 
 earth, on which their immorality had ratified 
 
 the curse. 
 
 The human skeleton discovered in a calca- 
 reous rock forming a part of the coast of the 
 island of Guadaloupe l , and which is to be 
 seen in the British Museum, does not furnish 
 sufficient data to authorize any inference bearing 
 upon the present question. 
 
 We now perceive, how perfectly the secure 
 and simple thread of the Mosaic history enables 
 us to arrange, and to adjust in their due order of 
 time and succession, the conclusions which the 
 mineral geology has been led to deduce, in part 
 correctly, but in general confusedly, from the 
 phenomena. We find, 1. " That mankind did 
 " not inhabit the continents of Europe, Asia, 
 " and America, until after the revolution which 
 
 1 Phil. Trans, vol. civ. p. 107. 
 
340 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " imbedded animal exuvia in their soils," be- 
 cause, that revolution gave the first sensible ex- 
 
 VTT 
 
 istence to those continents: that is, 2. " That 
 they did not inhabit the regions in which 
 " those exwvia are found," because, those regions 
 then formed the basin of the primitive sea: 
 3. " That they existed elsewhere,'" because, they 
 existed upon an earth which was submerged by 
 that revolution: 4. " That human bones are 
 " not found in the bed of the ancient sea," 
 because, the human race perished in the bed 
 of the new sea: 5. we are able to deter- 
 mine, That " the last revolution of the mineral 
 " geology, from which is to be dated the 
 " establishment of the societies of the present 
 " race of mankind, and which cannot be very 
 " ancient;" is the identical revolution in which 
 God executed his menace of destroying all 
 the former race of mankind, excepting only 
 those individuals who should become the pro- 
 genitors of a new race : and we thus perceive, 
 6. That these results of physical investigation, 
 not only " connect, by an uninterrupted chain, 
 " natural history and civil history ;" but, when 
 duly rectified by the rule of the Mosaical re- 
 cord, that they moreover connect both these 
 with Sacred History. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 341 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BUT, there is still a phenomenon, connected PART III. 
 with those which we have examined, for the 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 explanation of which the mineral geology 
 requires more revolutions; and that is, the dis- 
 covery of the exuviae, of animals whose species no 
 longer exist. This phenomenon appears to the 
 mineral geology, to be incapable of a reason- 
 able reference to the revolution reported by 
 Moses. 
 
 This is indeed a phenomenon well cal- 
 culated to perplex a science which neglects 
 Newton's inculcation, of combining morals with 
 physics, and subjecting the latter to the former ; 
 and which excludes all inquiry into the mode 
 of the Jirst formation of the animal and vegetable 
 structures, confining its speculation to one in- 
 animate member of the creation, and to chemical 
 and mechanical agencies. There is no mere phy- 
 sical principle, that will serve to explain this 
 phenomenon; nor can it be expounded, unless 
 by reference to the principle which explains 
 the mode of the Jirst animal formations, namely, 
 Creative Power. 
 
342 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. But, the Mosaical geology, which is founded 
 upon that principle, and which therein accords 
 with the philosophy of Newton, guides us to a 
 solution of this mysterious problem. The sole 
 author of the last great revolution of the globe, 
 was its Creator, who also caused itsjirst great 
 revolution ; and, evidences of that identity were 
 of great moral concernment. When God made 
 known to Noah the animal species which He 
 designed to preserve, "to keep seed alive upon the 
 earth ;" it is manifest, from the testimony which 
 we are here considering, that He was pleased to 
 except some from that preservation 1 . We know, 
 that the formidable animal, the carnivorous z ele- 
 phant, to which science has given the name of 
 Mastodon, and others, to which the names of 
 Paltfotherium, &c. have been assigned, have not 
 been perpetuated, but were ordained to perish 
 altogether. He who planned and regulated the 
 creation of the earth, unquestionably planned 
 
 1 See after, CHAP. xiii. 
 
 9 CUVIER has described this animal as kerbivoro*9, but 
 this description appears to be altogether arbitrary and theore- 
 tical. We can judge of its nature, only by its remains; and, 
 as the most striking character of those remains is found in the 
 enormous grinding teeth, resembling those of carnivorous ani- 
 mals, whereas those of the elephant, known to be herbivorous, 
 are very differently formed, it is difficult not to entertain a 
 strong persuasion, that the difference of those organs, evinces 
 a difference in the nature of the food of the two species. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 343 
 
 and regulated also its renovation; and the PART III. 
 extinction of certain animal species, which ex- 
 
 f*H AT* VTT 
 
 isted prior to that last revolution, is proved, by 
 their exuvice, to have been a part of His plan in 
 the renovation. 
 
 It is wisely remarked, in a passage cited 
 from Camper by a writer whom I have lately 
 quoted; " that it was not contrary to the 
 " Divine Wisdom to ordain the cessation of 
 " animal species, when they had entirely ful- 
 " filled the purpose for which they had been 
 " created, although that purpose is unknown to 
 " us : Sapiential Divines non repugnare legem, 
 " qua res illas vel animalia ilia desinere jubeat, 
 " simulac scopo primario, nobis incognito, satis- 
 '/ feceruntpenitus 1 " That those species existed 
 then, is manifest ; but there is no evidence 
 whatever, that they have existed since. What 
 more probable physical cause can be assigned 
 for the extinction of their races, than that uni- 
 versal revolution ? What more probable moral 
 cause, than the will and design of their Creator, 
 the sole Author and Manager of the revolution ? 
 To our preserved progenitors, who were eye- 
 witnesses of all its details, the extinction of 
 those several species, must have been a sub- 
 ject of devout contemplation ; not of that co!4 
 
 Phil. Trans, toi. civ. p. 108. 
 
344 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. speculating sentiment, which their fossil re- 
 CHAP~VIII mams now produce in the cabinets of mere 
 physical curiosity. Moral argument, can alone 
 reach this question; mere physical reasoning 
 can no more attain to it, than the rule of simple 
 addition can resolve a problem in trigonometry. 
 
 By ascending to the first moral and physical 
 cause of Newton, we obtain a direct and intel- 
 ligible solution of the question; but, with the 
 utmost labour of search among the secondary 
 causes of the mineral geology, we can never ob- 
 tain it ; we only encounter the same perplexity, 
 resulting from the same imperfection of analysis, 
 that we witnessed in our inquiry concerning 
 Jirst formations. From that^/zrvtf cause alone 
 it has happened, or can have happened ; that 
 <c races have become extinct, and have left no 
 " memorial of themselves, except some small 
 " fragments, which the NATURALIST (magnus 
 " Apollo !) can scarcely recognize V The evi- 
 dence, of extinct species and of changes in the 
 forms of organized beings, demonstrates, to 
 rational thought, the intervention of the same 
 intelligent power who gave origin and primitive 
 order to the general system ; and exhibits, for 
 the apprehension of the intellect, as it were, the 
 Sign- Manual of the Creator. 
 
 1 CUVIER, 6. p. 38. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 345 
 
 A difficulty, which some of these extinct PART III. 
 species occasion to this geology, arises from the CH ^T VIII 
 circumstance of their not being found in the same 
 places, or the same strata, with those animals 
 whose species have been preserved. Hence, it 
 concludes, that they cannot have co-existed, 
 but must have perished in different revolutions. 
 Assuming the fact alleged to be universally 
 confirmed, which is not the case ; yet, the > 
 resort to different revolutions, is as unreasonable 
 in this case as in all the preceding. For, 
 suppose that the palce.otheria and elephants did 
 not inhabit the same regions of the submerged 
 continents, as the camelopard and the kanguroo 
 do not inhabit the same regions in the present 
 .continents, and that they were therefore not 
 congregated in the same places, which is 
 not only possible, but highly probable ; and 
 suppose that their races perished in dif- 
 ferent subsidences of land, and at different 
 periods of the inundation, which is equally 
 probable; then, they would not have been 
 carried off by the same currents, at the same 
 times, and in the same directions ; and then, they 
 would not have been deposited in the same 
 places. Or, if the one was deposited before 
 the other, with an interval of time sufficient 
 to allow the continually agitated bottom of the 
 sea to cast up and accumulate vast masses 
 
346 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. of its moveable soils above it, before the other 
 7~ was brought and deposited; then, although 
 they had co-existed, yet the one would become 
 imbedded in deeper strata than the other ; and 
 thus, the hypothesis of different revolutions is 
 not required, nor sustained, by the phenomena. 
 It is not, therefore, by endeavouring to de- 
 duce geological theories from fossil remains, that 
 the eminent naturalist, who has devoted so 
 much ingenuity and zeal to the examination 
 of them, will serve the cause of true know- 
 ledge ; it is r by applying his anatomical and 
 zoological skill and experience to discriminate 
 between the extinct and the preserved species, 
 and thus, to bring us acquainted with those 
 animal races, which the Author of creation thought 
 Jit to exclude from His renovated earth. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 347 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AGAIN, the mineral geology demands more revo- PART III, 
 
 lutions, to enable itself to unriddle a phaenome- 
 
 non which is presented to it in penetrating the 
 
 different strata of the globe. " If," it says, "we 
 
 " examine 'with greater care these remains of 
 
 " organized bodies, we shall discover in the 
 
 " midst even of the most ancient secondary 
 
 " strata, other strata that are crowded with 
 
 " animal or vegetable productions which belong 
 
 *" to land and fresh water; and amongst the 
 
 " most recent strata, that is, the strata which 
 
 " are nearest to the surface, there are some of 
 
 " them in which land animals are buried under 
 
 " heaps of marine productions. Thus, the various 
 
 " catastrophes of our planet have not only 
 
 " caused the different parts of our continent to 
 
 " rise by degrees from the basin of the sea, but 
 
 " it has also frequently happened, that lands 
 
 " which had been laid dry have been again 
 
 " covered by the water, in consequence either 
 
 " of these lands sinking down below the level of 
 
 " the sea, or of the sea being raised above the 
 
 " level of the lands. The particular portions 
 
348 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART in. " of the earth also, which the sea has aban- 
 ~ " doned by its last retreat, had been laid dry 
 ' once before, and had at that time produced 
 " quadrupeds, birds, plants, and all kinds of ter- 
 " restrial productions; it had, then, been inun- 
 " dated by the sea, which has since retired from 
 " it, and left it to be occupied by its own 
 " proper inhabitants. The changes which have 
 " taken place in the productions of the shelly 
 " strata have not, therefore, been entirely 
 " owing to a gradual and general retreat of the 
 " waters, but to successive irruptions and re- 
 " treats; the final result of which, however, has 
 " been an universal depression of t/ie level of 
 " the sea 1 ." 
 
 We here plainly perceive the consequence, 
 of navigating an unknown ocean without card and 
 compass. Had the ingenious geologist piloted 
 his course by the Mosaical card, he would have 
 pursued a direct and simple track, conducting 
 him to the haven which he sought ; but, having 
 left his card behind him, he traverses and coun- 
 ter-traverses the same ocean in all directions ; 
 sees the same head-lands over and over again ; 
 and imagines that he is making a steady pro- 
 gress, and that all those head-lands follow each 
 other in regular order of succession. Because 
 
 1 CUVIER, . p. 3. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 349 
 
 animal and vegetable relics are found buried in PART III. 
 the midst of soils which are too confidently pro- CH 7T~ IX 
 nounced^e most ancient secondary strata, and be- 
 cause land animals are found buried under heaps of 
 marine productions, Cuvier at once assumes, that 
 the various positions of these relics constitute evi- 
 dences of as many different terrestrial surfaces, 
 successively overwhelmed in the order in which 
 they present themselves ; and that they there- 
 fore indicate, so many different revolutions. And 
 this might be inferred, with some plausibility, 
 if there were no such thing in the world as 
 mixture and confusion, and if all substances 
 existed, necessarily and always, in a state of 
 unchangeable order and regularity. But, if that 
 is not the case, the ground of the argument at 
 once disappears. 
 
 It is surprising that it should not have oc- 
 curred to this able naturalist, before he con- 
 cluded, that every stratum in which animal exuvitf 
 are found, must have been once a permanent upper 
 surface of the globe, on which the animals dwelt 
 and were nourished; to examine, whether those 
 strata reveal any characters betokening such sur- 
 faces, which characters could not have been 
 totally obliterated. But, no such characters per- 
 tain to the soils in which the fossil exuvice of 
 terrestrial animals are found; on the contrary, 
 
350 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. these lie in the heart of a mere mineral mass, 
 the same above, below, and on every side ; like 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 a stone thrust into a lump of thick mortar, or 
 inclosed within coatings of a more fluid. Hence, 
 then, there can be no reason for supposing the 
 strata in which they lie to have once "pro- 
 duced quadrupeds, birds, plants, &c. ;" and con- 
 sequently, none for supposing, that they were 
 there " inundated by the sea, which has since 
 " retired from it" 
 
 But, as the characters of the phenomena in 
 question plainly betoken a condition of dis- 
 order and confusion, we can easily explain it 
 from the data of the Mosaical geology. We 
 have seen ; that innumerable land animals, per- 
 taining to the submerged continents, were trans- 
 ported and precipitated indiscriminately into 
 the sandy, or slimy, bottom of the primitive 
 sea, and were sunk deeply within it. Now, 
 if a cause can be found that might, in the same 
 revolution, cover the bed in which those land 
 animals were thus inclosed, with a fresh mass 
 containing marine productions, the whole dif- 
 ficulty will be removed. And need we seek 
 far to find such a cause, when we reflect 
 upon the powerful agency which was in un- 
 ceasing operation during the whole of that tur- 
 bulent and destructive crisis ? Can we fail to 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 351 
 
 perceive, that after terrestrial substances had PART III. 
 been successively transported, at different mo- 
 ments, from different parts of the subsiding 
 continents, and had been deposited ; violent and 
 particular agitations of the restless sea within 
 its basin, especially in the latter stages of its 
 draining, might have dislodged, ploughed up, 
 and put in motion, enormous masses of its loose 
 soils, and have driven them, loaded with marine 
 substances, upon the beds into which the ter- 
 restrial animals had been previously sunk? 
 Repeated instances of similar confusion may, 
 and must, have occurred in the depths of the 
 ocean, during that disorderly and tumultuous 
 crisis ; producing various alternations, diversified 
 by local circumstances, and reducible to no 
 rule of regularity and order. And these, being 
 eventually exposed to the observation of man 
 by the removal of the waters, must be found 
 to retain all the characters of disorder and 
 confusion which accompanied their forma- 
 tion. To trace, in their detail, all and each 
 of the particular local effects produced, and 
 to assign them severally to their respective 
 immediate causes, is a task beyond the ability 
 of man, whether he adopts the Mosaical or the 
 Mineral scheme of geology ; and we may 
 therefore refer those effects, generally, and with 
 far better title than the latter geology, to " des 
 
352 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " causes qui nous sont inconnues 1 causes which 
 " are unknown to us" And thus, the one, last 
 
 f~* FT A T* T Y 
 
 revolution of the Mosaical record, will be found 
 amply sufficient to account generally for the 
 whole of this particular class of phenomena; 
 from which the mineral geology would infer, 
 " various catastrophes of our planet," and " sue- 
 " cessive irruptions and retreats of the sea" 
 
 The fresh-water shells alleged to be found 
 in some of these accumulations, are inade- 
 quate to sustain the objections which the 
 mineral geology would ground upon them ; 
 
 1. because, in the subsidence of the ancient 
 continents, the contents of all the river-beds 
 must have become absorbed by the sea, and 
 it is impossible to fix a limit to the trans- 
 port of such light and buoyant articles, in 
 so turbulent and active a state of the ocean : 
 
 2. because a very just and pertinent doubt is 
 raised by Mr. Greenough ; Whether the dis- 
 tinction between fresh-water shells and sea shells 
 is so certainly and securely ascertained, as to 
 allow of a conclusive argument founded upon 
 that distinction? 
 
 Another plea for requiring a concession of 
 more revolutions and more time than are supplied 
 
 D'AUBUISSON, t. i. p. 271. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 353 
 
 by the Mosaical record, is to account for a PART III. 
 phenomenon affirmed to have been lately dis- ~ 
 
 v/JrlfVJr* 1 -V 
 
 covered in Norway 1 ; namely, a granite forma- 
 tion resting upon a base of shell limestone 
 calcaire coquillier. Now, (argues the mineral 
 geology,) shell limestone is unquestionably a 
 secondary formation; yet here is granite formed 
 upon it, and therefore, posterior to it in date ; 
 because, that which supports, must always 
 be more ancient than that which is sup- 
 ported. Here then is a proof, of the actual 
 crystallization of a recent granite ; which virtu- 
 ally confirms the doctrine, of the crystallization 
 of primitive granite in a chaotic fluid. Both 
 required the time, necessary for the operation 
 of their production; and they will therefore 
 concur to prove, a period irreconcilable with 
 the Mosaic chronology. 
 
 To this argument, influenced entirely as it 
 is by a devotion to the Neptunian geology, I may 
 oppose a question addressed by the same geo- 
 logy, to an argument, urged with equal zeal 
 in support of the opposite, or the Plutonian: 
 " Est-elle un fait posit if ? est-elle en realite ce 
 " qu'elle est en apparence? On pourroit en 
 " douter" This cautionary question may 
 
 , ii. p. 197, 226. 
 A A 
 
354 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. be confidently asked, when it is affirmed by the 
 same writer, that " we have only this one direct 
 " example of such a superposition V 
 
 The fact to be explained, is simply, the 
 appearance of a granite formation upon a limestone 
 base; which appearance, must be investigated, 
 before we can treat it as a reality. Yet the 
 Neptunian geology instantly assumes it for a 
 reality, and that the cause is certainly chemical ; 
 and, upon that assumption, it proceeds to argue 
 the mode and time of its formation. But, if the 
 true cause should chance to be mechanical, and 
 not chemical, then, all the chemical argument 
 must fall to the ground. 
 
 Now, supposing the fact of the super- 
 position to be well proved ; one of two me- 
 chanical operations, may have been sufficient 
 to cause the effect apparent in the sensible 
 phenomenon. 1. If a mass of displaced pri- 
 mitive granite had been so stationed, in the 
 Jirst Mosaical revolution, as to leave cavities 
 or recesses under any of its sides, those cavities 
 or recesses might, during the second Mosaical 
 revolution, or during the interval between the 
 two, have become entirely filled with marine 
 matter, calcareous, siliceous, or argillaceous; 
 
 1 D'AuuuissoN, ii. p. 226. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 355 
 
 and, during the ages which have elapsed PART HI. 
 since that last revolution, that marine matter 
 
 CHAP IX 
 
 might have become moulded in close ad- 
 hesion to the upper mass, and have become 
 hardened into rock of one or other of those 
 species; presenting the appearance of a bed, 
 on which the granite has more recently been 
 formed. Thus, the superposition of the granite, 
 would turn out to be, the mbposition of the 
 secondary rock; and the phenomenon would 
 fail to prove, what the chemical argument would 
 endeavour to prove by it. 
 
 Or, 2. if, in the violent circumstances at- 
 tending, or concluding, the second revolution, any 
 vast dislocations of the " rude frame-work of 
 " the globe" took place, as they did in thejirst 
 revolution ; the overthrow and projection of a 
 granite mass or masses on the bed of the sea, 
 abundant in marine matter and organic produc- 
 tions, would produce the same sensible appear- 
 ance at the present day; and we know, that 
 shell limestone constitutes the soil of parts of 
 the Scandinavian peninsula 1 . Thus, then, 
 mechanical causes were capable of producing 
 the sensible effect, which the Neptunian geo- 
 
 JAMESOX'S Mineralogy. Ind. Shell limestone. 
 
356 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. logy determines arbitrarily and precipitately to 
 chemical; and in so far they nullify its induction. 
 And it is the more surprising, that the possi- 
 bility of this mechanical cause did not suggest 
 itself to our able mineralogist; because he 
 himself reports, that immense masses or frag- 
 ments of primitive rock, of double the bulk of 
 the Norwegian granite 1 , are found in the valleys 
 of the Alps, which have been disunited from 
 the parent mass, and have been " evidently 
 " transported" to a bed of secondary formation. 
 This fact, the Mosaical geology guides us to in- 
 terpret. The mineral geology is forced to ascribe 
 all such transports to the agency of water; 
 because it can find no other impulsive force of 
 equal power. Now, if in the first Mosaical 
 revolution, by which the primitive sea was 
 formed, the convulsions which caused so general 
 a breach and depression of rocks and soils had 
 shattered and separated some masses of primitive 
 rock, without dislodging them from their base ; 
 and if, in the agitations of the ocean in the 
 second revolution, when it was draining from its 
 former bed, its violence at length displaced 
 those separated portions from their base, and 
 
 1 Comp. D'AuuuissoN, i. p. 232, andii. p. 228. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 357 
 
 projected them into the sea-bed in which PART III. 
 secondary formations had been in course of 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 production for 1656 years; then, the result 
 must have exhibited the general phenomenon 
 which is to be explained, whether in Norway, 
 or in the Alps ; varying only in details, equally 
 open to investigation. It will therefore be 
 wise, to observe the caution which the same 
 geologist prudently suggests upon this sub- 
 ject : " Let us wait until a positive and accu- 
 " rate observation has proved, directly or in- 
 <c directly, the superposition of a granite forma- 
 " tion upon strata containing relics of organic 
 " beings ; before we displace it from the class, 
 " to which observation has hitherto assigned 
 " it 1 ." 
 
 1 D'AuBuissoN, torn. ii. p. 199. 
 
358 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PART III. THE forms of valleys exhibit phenomena, which, 
 TT in the view of the mineral geology, suppose 
 physical operations that cannot be limited to the 
 periods of time and the revolutions represented 
 in the Mosaical geology and chronology. It is 
 especially in the formation of valleys, that this 
 science observes; " Time, which has such 
 " narrow limits for us, has none for Nature ; for 
 " her, it is as indefinite as space : both surpass 
 " even the conception of our imagination 1 !" 
 In assigning therefore a cause for those forma- 
 tions, it makes the indefiniteness of time an- 
 swerable for the soundness of its conclusions. 
 To reduce that indefiniteness of time into 
 Jinite parts and smaller measures, it has indeed 
 suggested, for our convenience, what it terms 
 ecliptic days, borrowed from the archives of the 
 old Chaldaic philosophy : " If (it says) the dif- 
 " ferent epochas or revolutions in which our 
 " planet was reduced from a chaotic state to its 
 " present habitable form, be measured by those 
 
 1 See above, p. 24. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 359 
 
 " great ecliptic days, (each consisting of above PART III. 
 " 20,000 years,) sufficient time will be allowed 
 " for the various changes 1 ." This is very 
 accommodating; but, one material thing is 
 here forgotten, which defeats the whole intent ; 
 and that is, to inform us who it is that has 
 authority, either to use that measure, or to 
 make that allowance : for certainly, it is not left 
 ad libitum of the mineral geology. 
 
 There is no article in geology, in which the 
 mineral system betrays more manifestly its need 
 of a guide to conduct it, with relation both to 
 fact and time, than in speculating upon the 
 causes which produced valleys. Let us hear it 
 pronounce its own speculations upon this 
 subject. " The disposition, direction, and 
 " structure of valleys, their form, the stratifica- 
 " tion of the mountains which border them, 
 " are indications of their origin. Every body 
 " has remarked the manner in which rain-water, 
 " especially after a violent thunder-shower, 
 " furrows the surface of hillocks, or any ground 
 " presenting a sloping surface. In the disposi- 
 " tion of these minute ravines relatively to the 
 " declivity on which they occur, in the 
 " sinuosities, and deviations of their directions, 
 " in their ramifications, in the form of the 
 
 1 BAKEWELL, Elem. ofGeol. p. 429. 
 
360 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " portions of soil enclosed between them, &c. 
 CHAP x " we P ossess the most faithful representation of 
 the facts of the same kind, which are presented 
 by valleys and mountains. In examining in 
 " our cabinets the models in relief of mountain- 
 " ous chains, we seem to behold some of those 
 " very hillocks furrowed in the manner which 
 " has been described. At the sight of this 
 " singular disposition and ramification of 
 " valleys, we cannot but acknowledge, with 
 " Mr. Play fair, ' that it is the blows of the same 
 " ' Instrument often repeated, which has engraved 
 " ' these characters so deeply on the surface of the 
 ft 'globe;' and this is, above all things, the 
 " erosive and decomposing force of water. With 
 " respect to myself, it is impossible for me to 
 <r doubt it, when, stationed in a chain of moun- 
 " tains, I consider all these characters, that is 
 " to say, the valleys of different orders and 
 " their gorges ; and when I see them all, even 
 " to their last ramifications, directed according 
 " to the line of the greatest declivity of the 
 " sides of the mountains. For, in fact, the 
 " waters are capable of producing the effect; 
 " they tend to produce the effect; and every 
 " thing is as if they had actually produced it 1 " 
 
 1 D'AuBUissoN, torn. i. p. 245, 6. 
 
^ 
 MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 361 
 
 There is nothing more fallacious, or against PART III. 
 which reason ought habitually to guard itself 
 with more vigilant circumspection, than general 
 and superficial resemblances which tend " na- 
 " turally to lead us to infer identity." We have 
 exposed this fallacious principle, in the first 
 part of this disquisition ; and, perhaps, few more 
 striking examples to confirm the importance 
 of the remark could be found, than this which 
 this able mineralogist here inadvertently af- 
 fords us. 
 
 It is evident, that in this scheme of geology, 
 the origin of valleys and of the beds of rivers 
 must be ascribed to one and the same cause; 
 namely, the action of water, eroding and exca- 
 vating " avec le terns 1 with the aid of time" both 
 the valleys and the river-beds. For, the exca- 
 vation of river-beds, must have been a continua- 
 tion of the effect of the excavation of the valleys 
 from which their waters proceeded; and the 
 erosion of the valleys must therefore, according 
 to this hypothesis, have been accompanied by 
 the erosion of the channels which carried off 
 the waters that are supposed to have formed 
 the valleys ; so that the river-beds, equally with 
 the valleys, will answer to the minute ravines fur- 
 rowed by the erosive and decomposing power of 
 
 1 D'AuBinssoN, torn. i. p. 238. 
 
362 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. the rain-water. The question therefore proceeds, 
 from the power of water to erode and excavate, 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 generally; but it terminates, in its power to erode 
 and excavate the channels of rivers, in particular. 
 
 Let us then consider this supposed opera- 
 tion in the latter case, with some attention ; 
 because, if physics and sound reasoning should 
 find that it is an operation impracticable in the 
 latter case, it will go to determine the proba- 
 bility of the operation in the f owner case. Now, 
 it will be plain to reflection : 1 . That there is 
 no known power, or law, in what we denomi- 
 nate nature, by the operation of which the 
 waters of a river could form for themselves a 
 bed, such as are the actual beds of rivers, in a 
 surface originally compact, extended, and 
 nearly horizontal. 2. That the waters of rivers 
 would never have reached the distant points 
 at which they now discharge themselves into 
 the sea, if beds leading to those points had not 
 previously been opened to conduct them thither. 
 3. That there would, consequently, have been 
 no rivers on the globe, if river beds had not 
 been provided> anterior to the procession of 
 their waters. 
 
 1. It is granted, that a mass of waters 
 descending from a mountainous ridge, through 
 a passage determining the first diameter of its 
 bulk, would form a column of water whose 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 363 
 
 weight and force would make a breach in the PART III. 
 surface that should receive it; and, that the 
 descending waters, while laterally confined, 
 would, by the same mechanical action, extend 
 the breach, and plough up the soil, to a certain 
 extent and within a certain angle of declivity. 
 It might, also, by the same power, and by its 
 erosive quality, enlarge an aperture into which 
 it should be directed by an existing channel; as in 
 the particular case adduced by M. D'Aubuisson 
 to prove the universal power of water for 
 originally excavating beds of rivers : where, 
 near the sources of the Ardeche in the high 
 Vivarais, a stream, whose granite bed had been 
 choked by an ancient volcano, had worked 
 itself a new bed, not in the upper surface of the 
 lava, but, between the lava and the granite x . 
 
 But, let us suppose a flood of waters to 
 descend, for the jirst time, from a mountainous 
 source, and to arrive, for the Jirst time, at an 
 horizontal, compacted, expanded, and unchan- 
 nelled surface of plain, propelled by the waters 
 continually following with equal and unremit- 
 ting violence and rapidity, and diverging by 
 the expansion of the lowest valley ; and what 
 would be the necessary consequence ? If the 
 Jirst head of those waters found no bed ready to 
 
 J Tom. i. p. 241, 
 
364 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. receive and confine them, and to guide their 
 CHAP" x course > they would diffuse themselves laterally, 
 and equally, in all directions, over the hori- 
 zontal surface; and, flowing in a state of 
 wide and uncontrolled inundation, they would 
 follow the first and nearest declinations. How 
 could they possibly form for themselves, in the 
 first Instance, a narrow and confined channel 
 below that horizontal surface, and between up- 
 right banks continuously paralleled, as by an 
 artist's line ? Let any one, for instance, survey 
 the course of the Rhine from the tower of 
 Godesberg, and see that majestic river journey- 
 ing for upwards of thirty miles, from the Seven 
 Mountains to Cologne, through a vast and level 
 plain, and in a bed whose uniform breadth ap- 
 pears in the distance like an azure ribbon drawn 
 along that plain ; and he will be sensible, that 
 no operation of wild and diffusive waters could 
 ever have reduced them within the particular 
 line of soil, in which he sees the flood of that 
 river now necessitated to flow. Such diffusive 
 waters might have formed a lake, or a morass, 
 but they never could have formed such a bed 
 or channel. 
 
 For, let us only consider, with some atten- 
 tion, what the bed of a river is, abstracting the 
 water. It is a vast and extensive trench, pre- 
 serving general proportion in its width. We 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAtCAL GEOLOGIES. 365 
 
 know how a trench must be made : the soil PART III. 
 must be dislodged, between two corresponding 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 lines, by beginning at one end, and successively 
 displacing the matter which is to be removed. 
 If we will suppose that trench to be formed, at 
 first, by the waters of a river, we must not 
 content ourselves with an indolent and general 
 cast of the imagination ; we must submit to the 
 pains of tracing the operation, so as to satisfy 
 the demands of the reason. Let us then sup- 
 pose the sources, whose confluence produces 
 the Danube, discharging their waters for the 
 jirst time; and let us follow those collected 
 waters, until thej jirst attained an horizontal 
 surface, in which was no bed or channel to 
 receive them. If we suppose them to begin 
 the work of excavating a measured trench at 
 that point, we must first determine, whether 
 the operation was mechanical, or chemical; whe- 
 ther the waters acted upon the materials to be 
 removed by the impulse of weight, or by the 
 decomposition of erosion. Whichever process 
 we fix upon, we must at the same time suppose, 
 that all the waters in the rear were kept back 
 and suspended in their flow during that tardy 
 operation ; and that they were only permitted 
 to advance, in proportion as the pioneers in front 
 proceeded in opening the trench. We must 
 suppose, that they worked with a previous 
 
366 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART in. design to conduct the trench to the point of the 
 CHAP" x Black Sea, at a distance of seven hundred leagues, 
 w and often through a level country; that the 
 waters filed successively and orderly into the 
 trench in proportion as it was opened for them ; 
 and that the parent sources did not deliver out 
 all their stores, in unrestrained measures, until 
 the trench had been perfectly conducted to its 
 outlet at that sea. All this we must suppose, 
 and suppose some unknown process, by which 
 water can bore without overflowing its channel, 
 if we suppose the first waters of the Danube to 
 have worked out that bed in which they now 
 journey to the Black Sea. 
 
 But, as this supposition would be manifestly 
 absurd ; let us consider, what would really have 
 been the case. If the head of the Danube, on its 
 first reaching a compacted and plain surface, 
 came with any power, chemical or mechanical, 
 tending to displace the soil which it there first 
 encountered, the violent, rapid, and multitu- 
 dinous mass of waters immediately and con- 
 tinually succeeding, would have allowed it no 
 time to indulge the tendency of either of those 
 powers ; but would have overruled them both, 
 and have frustrated the operation, by compelling 
 the first waters to advance, and obliging them 
 to diverge with equal force on all sides; and 
 thus gain their equilibrium upon the surface. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGTRS. 367 
 
 by the laws of hydrostatics, before any pro- PART III. 
 srress could have been made in the process of 
 
 CHAP X. 
 
 boring or furrowing a trench within it. 
 
 The case of a river already confined between 
 banks, and by its concentrated weight propel- 
 ling in the same plane loose alluvial soils, and 
 thereby changing the direction of its course ; 
 can afford no analogy whatever to a mass of 
 tumultuous and rapid waters, flowing forward 
 perpetually, and without any confinement, over 
 an expanded and closely compacted surface. 
 
 * But, if the trenches in which rivers flow 
 were their own work ; if their beds are the 
 consequence of " the blows of the same instru- 
 " ment often repeated ;" how has it happened, 
 that since the instrument supposed has been 
 always striking its blows, and is still striking 
 them, it has not proportionately extended its 
 work? for, though the erosion of valleys has 
 ceased, the erosion of river-beds which are only 
 the processes of the valleys, and their erosion 
 the continuation of that of the valleys, is still 
 going on. If such then was truly the cause, 
 the beds of all rivers ought now to be of pre- 
 cipitous depths ; because a cleft always grows 
 deeper at each successive blow upon the wedge. 
 Whereas, we have no reason to believe, that the 
 
 Rhine is wider or deeper now than it was in the 
 time of Caesar, or the Euphrates than it was in 
 
368 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. the time of Cyrus. This then could not have 
 CHAP. x. been the cause which originally gave to those 
 rivers their beds, otherwise it would have con- 
 stantly and uniformly increased its effect. In 
 truth, we might with equal reason suppose, 
 that the sea eroded its present bed in the surface 
 of the globe, as that rivers eroded their beds 
 in the same surface. 
 
 2. It follows then, that the waters of the 
 earth, flowing originally without confinement, 
 would follow the nearest declivities. The 
 sources of the Danube, discharging their waters 
 on an untrenched surface, would never have 
 had any relation with the particular remote 
 point of the Black Sea; because, many inter- 
 vening passages and declensions, from which 
 those waters are now precluded by the restraint 
 of their banks, would have drawn them in 
 other directions. And, the same is to be said 
 of all other rivers ; which would never have 
 reached the particular points, to which the con- 
 finement and artifice of their beds now conduct 
 them. 
 
 3. Consequently, there would have been no 
 rivers on the globe ; but the earth would have 
 presented a surface exposed to, and unprotected 
 against, an universal inundation of its waters, 
 continually accumulating. 
 
 Since then the mere action of water could 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 369 
 
 not, either chemically or mechanically, have PART III. 
 eroded or excavated the beds of rivers; and "" 
 since the erosion and excavation of river-beds, 
 must have been the sequel and continuation of 
 the erosion and excavation of valleys, if these 
 had been really formed by either of those 
 operations ; we are directed by reason to con- 
 clude, that the cause thus shown to be in- 
 adequate for effecting the latter part of the 
 system, could not have been the true cause of 
 the former part ; especially, since we can dis- 
 cern an adequate cause, common to the formation 
 both of valleys and river-beds, and resting 
 upon far more solid ground of evidence than 
 any which mere physical speculation is able 
 to adduce. 
 
 The systems of valleys and mountains are 
 evidently co-ordinate and correlative; and mu^ 
 tually suppose each other ; a mountain, signifies 
 nothing but an elevation above a valley ; and a 
 valley, nothing but a depression below a mountain ; 
 and, as valleys signify narrow depressions be- 
 tween mountains, so plains signify extensive 
 depressions between chains of mountains. The 
 surface of our earth is thus always described by 
 relative comparisons of height within itself. 
 This diversity of surface, we have traced in 
 the preceding discussion to two causes: 
 
 B B 
 
370 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. 1 . To a primitive violent depression of parts 
 of the terrestrial surface, leaving other parts 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 stationary, on their primitive bases ; the latter, 
 are the primordial mountains of the globe, the 
 former, are its Jirst order of valleys and plains. 
 This great operation was effected by the im- 
 mediate power of God, in the FIRST REVOLU- 
 TION of the globe; with the proximate design, 
 of the formation of a bed to contain the pri- 
 mitive sea. 
 
 2. To a vast displacement of the soils of 
 that primitive sea : partly, while it continued 
 permanent; and partly, during its retreat in 
 the SECOND REVOLUTION, when, diminished 
 in quantity, and bearing its turbulent mass 
 towards its new bed, its latter billows ploughed 
 up and propelled immense portions of its 
 ancient bed, thereby excavating deep and irre- 
 gular hollows, and raising vast accumulations. 
 For, as the mineral geology truly observes; 
 " the immense floods of the sea must have 
 " produced, upon the soils on which they 
 " acted, effects proportioned to their mass and 
 " rapidity. Currents, which displace sand- 
 " banks, undermine rocks, and open straits, 
 " are able to transport materials deposited 
 " on the bottom of the sea; to furrow a soil 
 " devoid of consistence ; and to excavate sub- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 371 
 
 " marine valleys 1 ." By these mighty agents, PART III. 
 were produced those valleys or plains, which 
 intersect heights of secondary formation whose 
 strata correspond to each other ; the substance of 
 which, though now compact and solid, was soft 
 and incohesive when the oceanic currents 
 violently displaced and expelled the interme- 
 diate portions of their masses. These form the 
 second order of high and low levels, which we 
 witness upon the terrestrial surface. 
 
 But, although the formation of a bed for the 
 primitive sea was the immediate object of the 
 divine plan in thejirst revolution, yet, the same 
 intelligent and provident Agent had an ulterior 
 and more important end in view; namely, that 
 that bed should become, at a future period, the 
 habitation of the principal generations of man- 
 kind, and the theatre of the chief moral trans- 
 actions for which He had created their race. 
 When we contemplate the stupendous opera- 
 tion, by which He first opened a receptacle for 
 the universal waters ; when we trace in thought, 
 the immediate effects of the disruption and infall 
 of a portion of the continuous surface on which 
 they rested ; when we reflect, upon the sudden 
 breaches thus made in its regularly arranged 
 
 1 D'AUBUISSON, torn, i. p. 220. 
 
372 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. materials and general frame-work, upon its 
 fractured and crumbled parts, and its loose soils 
 
 CHAP X 
 
 discharged and scattered over its lowest bed in 
 all directions ; the mind, at first, perceives 
 nothing but a scene of ruin and devastation of a 
 work just before created in perfect order and 
 regularity ; and it is confounded by the appear- 
 ance of a contrast so extreme, as the work of 
 destruction and the wisdom of the Artificer. But, 
 when it proceeds to the consideration, that this 
 operation of apparent destruction was governed 
 by the same Wisdom, " whose ways are not 
 " as our ways, neither His thoughts as our 
 " thoughts*" and that it was directed with a 
 view to a future purpose, which it has so ad- 
 mirably attained, and for which it was so per- 
 fectly adapted; that it was contrived with the 
 design, that the bed of the primitive sea should 
 eventually become the theatre of a second human 
 race, as the bed of the primitive abyss had been 
 made the theatre of thejirst human race; and 
 consequently, that the apparent ruin was con- 
 ducted on a plan which should produce the best 
 means of supply ing the wants and accommodating 
 the subsistence of that race; that the breaches 
 then made were effected in such a manner as 
 
 1 Isaiah, Iv. 9. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEO 373 
 
 should, among other ends to be attained, con- PART III. 
 stitute an universal and perfect system, for sup- 
 plying the surface of the future earth with the 
 waters indispensably necessary to sustain animal 
 and vegetable life; for facilitating intercourse 
 between its future inhabitants; and for pro- 
 ducing every kind of culture requisite for 
 their necessities, by various and different in- 
 clinations of the terrestrial surface; it con- 
 templates that first revolution with amazement, 
 when it reflects upon the providential skill 
 which it discerns in the jinal results. When 
 we examine the innumerable monuments of that 
 primeval ruin amongst the highest mountains 
 of the globe, we find their very forms essen- 
 tially necessary (to borrow the language of the 
 mineral geology) " for separating the beds of 
 " rivers from one another; and serving, by 
 " means of their eternal snows, as reservoirs 
 " for feeding the springs V 
 
 When we consider these objects by the 
 rule of the Mosaical geology, we can find no 
 difficulty in solving the problem, of the origin 
 of valleys and the beds of rivers. " By what 
 " miracle (exclaims the mineral geology) have 
 " the depressions, which are supposed to have 
 
 See above, pp. 70, 71. 
 
374 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " produced the transverse valleys, been made 
 " perpendicular to the mountainous chains or 
 
 f HAP "V 
 
 < ridges, and with a view to that chain ? How 
 ' have the depressions of the secondary valleys 
 " been made perpendicular to the branches of 
 " the chain, and with relation to their summits? 
 " How did those depressions produce all the 
 " ramifications by which the valleys lose them- 
 " selves at last in those ridges and those sum- 
 " mits 1 ?" That is, in other words, " by what 
 " miracle, has such correspondence of parts been 
 " observed in the depressions?''' I answer, 
 according to the philosophy of Newton, by no 
 miracle; but, by the operation of the jirst phy- 
 sical principle of all things, the intelligence and 
 power of the Creator. Whence is it, that this 
 jftrst principle is so constantly and habitually 
 overlooked ? Is it, that the object itself is too 
 small, or too remote, for the mental eye to per- 
 ceive it ? Or, is it rather, that the mental eye is 
 become too dim, through want of exercise, to 
 perceive it? The term miracle, is properly 
 applicable to those acts only which the Creator 
 may think fit to exercise in His physical world, 
 in opposition to, in suspension of, or without 
 the ministry of, the laws which He ordained for 
 
 , torn. i. p. 249. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 375 
 
 its continuance, after He had created and com- PART III. 
 pleted it; not those which He exercised in 
 creating and completing it. For, the combined 
 action of His intelligence and power is as 
 necessarily the first principle in universal physics, 
 as the attraction of gravitation is the first 
 principle in a subordinate branch of physics; 
 which last resolves itself into the former. And, 
 however admirable and amazing to our con- 
 templation the exercise of those combined at- 
 tributes may be, yet it is not miraculous, ac- 
 cording to the proper use of the term ; because, 
 we cannot apprehend the origin of any thing 
 without recognizing it. 
 
 The varied system of valleys, and their in- 
 timate and direct relations both to mountains 
 and rivers, which the mineral geology per- 
 ceives, but for which it is at a loss to account, 
 are referrible to, and can only be explained 
 by, that great first principle. Why then is it 
 at any loss ? Because, in taking a view from 
 the crests of mountains, it traces a superficial 
 and illusive resemblance, between the direc- 
 tions of valleys and the streams which they 
 send forth, and the furrows fantastically drawn 
 by rain water upon the surface of a declivity 
 after a thunder-shower. But if, instead of 
 thus surrendering the rational faculty to the 
 first importunities of the imaginative; and, in- 
 
376 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. stead of confining the thoughts to the model 
 in relief of any particular system of valleys 
 and their streams, it had surveyed the uni- 
 versal system as it is delineated upon a globe, 
 or map of the whole earth ; and if, instead of 
 comparing that delineation with the rambling 
 furrows of the thunder-shower, it had com- 
 pared it with an anatomical delineation of the 
 vascular system, by which the fluids necessary 
 to animal and vegetable life are transmitted to 
 every part and extremity of the animal and 
 vegetable structures ; it would have found 
 another resemblance, disclosing another principle 
 of analogy by which to argue ; and which 
 would have caused it to reject, at once, the 
 inadequate argument grounded upon the de- 
 lusive resemblance of the rain farrows. 
 
 It would then have found, that those rea- 
 soned with most philosophy, who anciently drew 
 their conclusions from the Mosaical geology. 
 The position, " when the waters gushed out, the 
 " streams overflowed 1 ," is undeniable in physics. 
 That " every thing 'shall live, whither the river 
 " cometh 2 ," is equally undeniable in physics. 
 But, if " the streams had overflowed," without 
 confinement and direction, many things, and 
 
 : P^alm Ixxviii. 20. 2 Ezek. xlvii. 9. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 377 
 
 many portions of the earth, must have perished, PART III. 
 because, " the river would not have come to 
 " them;' because, the unconfined waters would 
 have stagnated in inundation, or have pursued 
 the nearest declivities tending to the sea. 
 Therefore, that " GOD CUT OUT THE RIVERS 
 " among the rocks 1 and sent the springs into 
 " the valleys' 2 ;' that " HE CLEFT THE EARTH 
 " with rivers 3 ;" was the inevitable conclusion 
 which those who were taught by the geology 
 of Moses deduced from his principles, in exact 
 coincidence with the philosophy of Bacon and 
 Newton. 
 
 Nor did the consequence, and therefore the 
 end of this admirable arrangement, escape their 
 discernment ; for, " all the rivers run into 
 " the sea; yet, the sea is not full; from 
 " the place from whence the rivers come, 
 " thither they return again 4 ." The first direc- 
 tion of the waters, from their sources into the 
 valleys ; their process from the valleys along 
 the plains, and below the surface of the plains 
 to their respective seas; from which general 
 receptacle they are again raised by evaporation 
 into clouds, which are returned by the winds 
 
 1 Job, xxviii. 10. 2 Psalm civ. 10. 
 
 Habak. iii. 9. 4 Eccles. i. 7. 
 
378 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. to the mountainous chains, and, in the form 
 CHAP x ^ ra * n 9 or stiow, continually replenish the 
 sources, in perpetual circulation ; constitute a 
 system so profoundly stamped with the cha- 
 racters of intelligence and power, that they can 
 never be attributed by any one, whose mind 
 is in the smallest degree imbued with Bacon's 
 or Newton's philosophy, to any other cause, 
 than that which originally caused the universal 
 system of animal and vegetable life which that 
 circulation of waters is destined to sustain ; and 
 which likewise contrived the ducts and chan- 
 nels, in which the circulating fluids of the first 
 animal and vegetable structures were con- 
 ducted throughout their respective systems : 
 so intimate and inseparable was the mode of 
 first formation, in all the three kingdoms of 
 terrestrial matter. If, therefore, the mineral 
 geology asks, what was the mode of the first 
 formation of the fluvial circulating system; I 
 reply, that it was the same as that of the first 
 formation of the vascular circulating system; if 
 it will name to me that mode, I will also 
 name to it the mode of the former. If it hesi- 
 tates, or replies, oux odapw " we cannot tell:" 
 I also shall reply, after the highest example 
 cu& iyw Af-yw J/*iv " neither tell / youT 
 
 Is it not astonishing, that the author of so 
 masterly a work as the section " of mountains 
 
MIKERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 379 
 
 " and chains of mountains" in the Traite de PART III. 
 Geognosie, should conclude, by ascribing the 
 admirable and stupendous fluvial system to 
 the same blind cause which furrows a sloping 
 footpath after a violent shower; rather than 
 to the Intelligent Cause, which contrived 
 and executed the vascular system in created 
 animals and vegetables ? especially, since he 
 dwells much upon the rules for forming a 
 correct chart of that fluvial system, namely, 
 the rivers of the globe 1 ? How could such a 
 delineation combine itself in his superior mind 
 with that of the fortuitous rain-furrows, and 
 form no combination at all with the delineation 
 of the arterial and venal conduits, to which they 
 bear so much sounder and more philosophical 
 an analogy ? From whence can have proceeded 
 so strange an oversight in a writer, than whom 
 no one has displayed more ability, acuteness, 
 general circumspection, and integrity ? It has 
 arisen, solely, from the seduction of SENSIBLE 
 PHENOMENA, in physics ; and from a neglect to 
 inquire, philosophically, into their real compe- 
 tency to reveal the MODE of FIRST FORMATIONS. 
 However " naturally' the rain-furrows may 
 tend " to lead us to admit an identity of cause' 
 
 * D'AuEuissoN, torn. i. pp. Ill, 115. 
 
380 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART ill. with the formation of valleys, it is certain, 
 
 CHAP x tnat ** * s * n t ^ 16 hi nest degree unphilosophical, 
 to suffer ourselves to be so led by them. If we 
 view the subject from higher ground, we must 
 at once disclaim the conclusion. This is a 
 case, in which the contradiction of fact and 
 phenomena, is easily detected. If we had no- 
 thing else to consider, but how the earth's 
 surface might be furrowed by streams of water 
 having no reason for their course, it would be 
 of minor consequence to contest the analogy, 
 or to point out its deficiencies. But, there 
 is an essential disparity in the effect ; and, 
 therefore, there must be an equal disparity 
 in the cause, of the two operations. The rain- 
 water, which runs down a sloping footpath, 
 works its way at random; it is a matter of 
 indifference, every inch it moves, whether it 
 travels on this side or on that side, in this direc- 
 tion or in that direction. But, how widely 
 different are the directions of the streams and 
 rivers which flow over the surface of the 
 earth, from their sources to their mouths ! 
 These are all so skilfully and so equally dis- 
 tributed over that whole surface, for the neces- 
 sary service of the animal and vegetable crea- 
 tions ; so artfully diverted, in many places, 
 from the nearest seas, and conducted through 
 extensive inland regions, as the Danube in Eu- 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 381 
 
 rope, the Ganges in Asia, the Nile in Africa, PART III. 
 and the Amazon in America; that they dis- ~ 
 
 CM A I . A.. 
 
 close an irresistible evidence of uniformity of \ 
 plan and contrivance. The direction of all 
 these rivers is determined, in the first instance, 
 by the direction of the valleys in which they 
 commence their course ; the first formation 
 of those valleys must, therefore, in sound 
 philosophy, be ascribed to the Designer and 
 Artificer of the general system so manifestly 
 intended for irrigating the whole surface of 
 the globe ; and without which system of irriga- 
 tion, the entire system of vegetation must 
 necessarily have perished. And, if the vege- 
 table system is to be ascribed to the divine 
 intelligence ; how much more rational and 
 philosophical is it to suppose that the corre- 
 lative irrigating system, to which the formation 
 and direction of valleys and river-beds was as 
 necessary as the formation of arteries and veins 
 to the animal frame, was a corresponding part 
 of the same intelligent ordinance ; than that 
 it was effected by the mechanical chance, by 
 which rain trickles down a footway ; and that 
 it was by that chance alone, that the vegetable 
 system, created by intelligence, was prevented 
 from perishing through a lack of providence I 
 
382 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PART III. TH-E formation of coal, is a problem which still 
 CHAP~~XI en a o es the researches and speculations, not of 
 ^, the mineral geology only, but of pure mineralogy 
 and chemistry. M. D'Aubuisson entertains a 
 philosophical doubt, whether this substance 
 ought to be classed with intermediate, or with 
 secondary formations; and he therefore leaves 
 the point undecided. Upon the nature of 
 coal, he defers to the judgment of Mr. Hatchett; 
 whom he duly designates, as " one of the most 
 " able chemists of our time, and who has 
 " applied himself, more than any other, to the 
 " discovery of the origin of coal 1 " This dis- 
 tinguished chemist pronounces this question to 
 be ." a difficult problem in the natural history 
 " of minerals 2 ." He states the different 
 opinions, which have been propounded with 
 respect to the origin of this substance ; and he 
 then declares his own. 
 
 The different opinions which Mr. Hatchett 
 
 "Tom. ii. p. 298. Note. 
 
 2 Philosoph. Trans, vol. xcvi. p. 135, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 383 
 
 states are these four, of which the first three PART III. 
 are chemical and scientific; the fourth is al- 
 together speculative, and pertains exclusively to 
 the mineral geology, viz. : 
 
 1 . That coal is a mineral substance - an 
 earth, chiefly argillaceous, impregnated with 
 bitumen. 
 
 2. That it is a vegetable substancecon- 
 sisting of vegetable accumulations, mineralized 
 under vast strata of earth. 
 
 3. That it is an animal substance con- 
 sisting of the fat and unctuous matter of marine 
 animals. 
 
 4. That it is derived from the primeval 
 chaotic fluid. 
 
 Mr. Hatchett declares his opinion to coin- 
 cide with the second of these; and he establishes 
 that opinion upon experiments, accurately made 
 and repeated, in which he obtained coal in 
 large proportion by the action of sulphuric acid 
 upon oak saw-dust. These experiments, have 
 determined the opinions of the best naturalists 
 to regard coal as a mass of vegetable matter ; con- 
 verted, by some natural process, into the sub- 
 stance which it now exhibits. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, the success of 
 those experiments, there was always one deficit, 
 rendering the coal imperfect. Mr. Hatchett could 
 
384 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. never obtain bitumen with his coal ; which is 
 CHAP" xi nevertne ^ ess an essential ingredient in true coal; 
 and he therefore refers the production of 
 bitumen to some unknown process of nature. 
 
 But, with the deference so justly due to 
 that eminent chemist, I beg leave to suggest; 
 that it would seem to be time enough to resort 
 to that ultimate principle, when all previous 
 research shall have been exhausted ; which does 
 not yet appear to be the case. Experiments have 
 indeed been skilfully made on vegetable matter ', 
 but it has hitherto been, only on terrestrial 
 vegetable matter. It seems to have been for- 
 gotten, in these investigations, that terrestrial 
 vegetation is only one part of universal vegetation; 
 and that immense tracts of marine vegetation 
 flourish in all parts of the bed of the sea. We 
 may judge, from the vast quantity offuci, and 
 other marine plants vulgarly united under the 
 general denomination of sea-weeds, which are oc- 
 casionally cast upon some of our coasts, and 
 which are commonly used for fuel in the islands 
 of Jersey and Guernsey, of the immense quan- 
 tities of these tribes of vegetation which must be 
 contained in the different basins and depths of 
 the sea. 
 
 No w> since " all naturalists are agreed in 
 " this one point, that our present continents 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 385 
 
 " were heretofore the bed of the sea 1 -," since PART III. 
 beds of coals are found to lie in " concavities 
 
 v>xi/\. JL *v J. . 
 
 " varying greatly in extent, from a few to many 
 " miles, and containing numerous strata of coal 
 " alternating with sand-stone, clay, &c. 2 ," which 
 describes a formation analogous to an ancient 
 sea-bed; since marine substances are found in 
 the adjoining strata 3 ; and since " numerous 
 " sea-shells, and even bones of marine animals, 
 " are found in imperfect coal, as in that of 
 " Pomiers in Dauphiny 4 ," although none remain 
 recognizable in perfect coal 5 ; a strong argu- 
 ment of probability seems to arise, that if the 
 substance of coal is of vegetable origin, we are 
 
 1 See above, p. 277. 
 
 * BRANDE, Manual of Chemistry y vol. iii. p. 291. 
 
 * DE Luc, Lett. Geol. p. 196. 
 
 4 D'AUBUISSON, torn. ii. p. 299. 
 
 * M. D'AUBUISSON subjoins the following note to his 
 discussion of Coal, torn. ii. p. 294. " M. PROUST concludes, 
 " from his chemical observations on coal, that its matter per- 
 " tained to organized substances; and, after having remarked, 
 " that it yields a much greater quantity of carbon and bitumen 
 " than our vegetables, he says ; ' If coal is the result of 
 " organic productions similar to ours, its imbedment in "the 
 " earth has not only annihilated every vestige of organization, 
 " but has entirely dissolved and recomposed its elements, so 
 " as to convert them into these fossil masses.' " Journal dt 
 Physique t tom. Ixii. 
 
 C C 
 
386 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. to seek for that origin in marine vegetation, and 
 not in terrestrial ; that the beds of coals, in their 
 
 CHAP. XI. . . . 
 
 extensive concavities, were perhaps immense ac- 
 cumulations offuci, &c., loaded with the various 
 animal substances which shelter among them ; 
 and which were overwhelmed by vast agge- 
 rations of the loose soils of the sea in the course 
 of its retreat, and were left for decomposition 
 by the chemical action of the marine fluid which 
 they contained, and with which the enclosing and 
 compressing soils were saturated. In this class of 
 vegetation, so circumstanced, it is perhaps possible, 
 that the ingredient may yet be found which was 
 uniformly wanting in the carbonization of wood of 
 earthly growth. At all events, there would seem 
 to remain an higher probability, if coal be a 
 vegetable substance, that such immense, con- 
 tinuous masses of that substance pertained to 
 the sea-bed in which they are found collected, 
 than that they were transported thither from a 
 distant continent; especially, since so vast a 
 proportion of the vegetable creation, as that 
 peculiar to the sea, could not have been al- 
 together annihilated, and remains to be ac- 
 counted for. 
 
 And this may guide us to a final explanation 
 of the phenomena which caused M. D'Aubuisson 
 to doubt, whether he ought to connect coal 
 with intermediate, or with secondary formations ; 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 387 
 
 in the statement of which doubt, he approxi- PART III. 
 
 mates so nearly to the Mosaical geology. " The 
 
 " intermediate class (he observes, with Werner), 
 
 " pertains to an epocha, when a revolution took 
 
 " place in nature, which, according to the 
 
 " evidence of the numerous indications which 
 
 " we see, was perhaps the most violent of those 
 
 " that happened during the formation of the 
 
 " mineral crust of the globe. There is, indeed, 
 
 " great uncertainty in fixing the limits between 
 
 " this class and those which adjoin it; but, I 
 
 "think that they will be assigned with suf- 
 
 " ficient exactness, if we say; that the inter- 
 
 " mediate class is composed of the same rocks as 
 
 " the primitive, but alternating with some others 
 
 " containing relics of organic beings, and a 
 
 " particular sand-stone. We may, perhaps, 
 
 " further say; that the intermediate soils are 
 
 " those which succeed, in the order of time, from 
 
 " coal-beds to the first appearance of organized 
 
 " beings. I purposely avoid affirming, in this 
 
 " definition, whether or not the coal pertains to 
 
 " the intermediate class 1 ." 
 
 But, if coal be marine vegetation, originally 
 produced in a bed which must have been of 
 the earliest intermediate formation, since it was 
 
 * Tom. ii. p. 199. 
 
388 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. formed by the Jirst disruption and depression of 
 primitive formations, according to the Mosaical 
 geology ; then it will naturally be found at the 
 point, at which the definition of M. D'Aubuisson 
 supposes ; and it will have been subsequently 
 buried under the accumulations of secondary 
 formations which are now found above it, and 
 which will have taken place during the agita- 
 tions and struggles of the departing ocean. 
 
 It would be gratifying to learn, that the 
 eminent chemist who has already applied his 
 mind to this inquiry, or his able and dis- 
 tinguished friend the author of the Manual of 
 Chemistry, have been disposed to lend the benefit 
 of their skill and science to the examination, 
 at least, of the subject, which is here, with 
 great deference, suggested for their consider- 
 ation, 
 moil ta/nii^q.isL'io.-sdj iii - 
 
 ftVU^ 
 
 0r l>9':m hotq 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 389 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ^>j Of 
 
 I SHALL now beg leave, in my turn, to propose PART III. 
 a problem to the mineral geology, relative to 
 
 CHAP. XII- 
 
 its assumption ; that the revolution which oc- 
 casioned the destruction of the animal races of 
 which we discover fossil exuvice, was different 
 from that which established the progenitors of 
 the present human race in Asia. And I shall 
 propose my problem in the words of a writer, 
 of whom the mineral geology can entertain 
 no mistrust, as writing under too strong an 
 influence of the Mosaical geology. 
 
 " The Camel" says Buffon, " is more com- 
 " pletely a slave than any other of the domestic 
 " animals; because, in all the other species, 
 " such as the horse, the dog, the ox, the sheep, 
 " the swine, &c. we find some individuals in a 
 " state of nature ; animals of the same species 
 " which are wild, and which man has never 
 " brought under his subjection. Whereas, in 
 " camels, the entire species is enslaved; it is no 
 " where found in its primitive state of independence 
 " and liberty 1 .'" Now, the domesticity of an 
 
 1 Hist. Nat. du Chameau, torn. iv. p. 338. 4to. 
 
390 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART in. entire race of animals, is assuredly a pheno- 
 menon as well worthy of investigation, as the 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 extinction of an entire race ; and it must have a 
 cause equally specific and distinct. 
 
 This general assertion of BufFon, however, 
 requires to be qualified, and to be reduced to 
 its exact measure of truth. It is true only of 
 the Arabian camel, or the camel with one hunch; 
 for, of the Bactrian camel, with two hunches, we 
 know that the race exists in a wild state in 
 Tartary 1 , (where was the ancient Bactria,} 
 and in the north of China. " Both the 
 " wild and tame camels," says Duhalde, 
 " are found in the countries which border 
 " upon the north side of China; at present, 
 " the wild ones are only to be met with in the 
 " country which lies north-east of China. 
 " Chi Tchin gives the following account of 
 " this animal. ' The camel has very much 
 " the resemblance of an horse in its body, 
 " and has a head like a sheep; it has a 
 " long neck, and ears that hang down ; it has 
 " three joints to its legs, and two bunches of flesh 
 " on its back, which form as it were a kind 
 " of saddle". 9 " This is the Bactrian camel. Of 
 the Arabian camel, the assertion of Buffon re- 
 
 1 Nouveati Diet, (f Hist. Nat. art. CHAMEAU. 
 * History uf China, vol. iv. p. 33, 8vo. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 391 
 
 mains true, in all its extent ; this animal alone PART III. 
 exists not in a wild state, but only in a state of 
 domesticity. Cuvier has inadvertently af- 
 firmed, that " the dog is the animal which man 
 " has reduced most completely under subjec- 
 " tion 1 ." We know that this is not the 
 case, for the dog is found in a wild state ; but, 
 the Arabian camel exists no where in a wild 
 state. This singular animal, from the earliest 
 periods of Asiatic history, has constituted a 
 principal part of the wealth of the regions in 
 which it is possessed. Buffon's ridiculous con- 
 ceit, that the Bactrian camel had originally but 
 one hunch, and that it acquired its two hunches 
 from the condition of servitude to which the 
 race has been subjected, is confuted by the two 
 facts ; 1 . That the only species of camel which 
 exists in a free, or native state, is that with 
 two hunches ; which alone could endure the 
 climates of the high latitudes in which it is 
 found in that state. 2. That the continuance 
 in servitude of the Arabian camel, has never 
 discovered any tendency to produce such an 
 alteration in its conformation. This hypo- 
 thetical whim of Buffon, is rejected by all 
 the best and latest naturalists 2 . 
 
 That the Arabian camel does not exist in a 
 
 1 Theory of the Earth, 30. p. 124. 
 
 2 Nouveau Diet. d'Hist. Nat. art. CHAMEAU. 
 
A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. state of nature, but only in a state of domesticity, 
 . is a fact thoroughly ascertained. Nor can it be 
 suggested, that it may hereafter be discovered 
 in a natural state ; for, the remark of Cuvier, 
 concerning a research for the extinct species, is 
 equally applicable to that of this species of 
 camel in a state of nature. " If there still 
 " remained any great continent to be dis- 
 " covered," says he, " we might perhaps expect 
 " to find them ; but it is sufficient merely to 
 " glance the eye over a map of the world, and to 
 " observe the innumerable directions in which 
 " navigators have traversed the ocean, to be 
 " satisfied, that there does not remain any 
 " large land to be discovered; unless it may 
 " be situated toward the Antarctic pole, where 
 " eternal ice necessarily forbids the existence 
 " of animal life 1 ." Throughout the entire 
 globe, now so well known to us, this camel 
 exists only as a property of man. 
 
 Now, to what cause are we to attribute this 
 most extraordinary fact ? There are but two 
 causes imaginable, in the nature of things : 
 either, that the entire race, after having spread 
 itself, like all other brute races, in free range 
 over the globe, had at some period been chased, 
 collected, caught, and secured by the con- 
 
 * Theory of the Earth, 25. p. 76. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 393 
 
 federated efforts of mankind ; and so success- PART III. 
 
 fully, that not a single pair escaped in any of 
 
 the solitudes of the earth to reproduce a free 
 
 race : or, that at some period the whole of that 
 
 race was, by some cause to be assigned, reduced 
 
 and placed within the power of man, from which 
 
 it never afterwards escaped. 
 
 The first of these cases, every sound under- 
 standing will discern to be morally impossible. 
 We might as well account for the extinction of 
 the race of the mastodon, by a similar con- 
 federacy ; which the wildest speculator has 
 never yet imagined. The last case, therefore, 
 can alone be true. But, what cause can physics 
 assign, for the reduction of this race of camels, 
 at any period or epocha of nature, so entirely 
 within the power of man, that it never again 
 acquired its original freedom ? Is it not amazing, 
 that a naturalist of pre-eminent celebrity, who 
 has been designated, by excellence, the Historian 
 of Nature; and whom physical adulation has 
 even entitled " majestati Natures par ingeniumf 
 is it not amazing, that he should have stated 
 thus forcibly so extraordinary a fact of natural 
 history, and yet should not have given himself 
 the concern even to make an attempt to 
 assign its cause ? 
 
 But, the Mosaical record enables a child to 
 assign the cause ; for it relates, that this race of 
 
394 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. camels perished, with all other animals, in the 
 catastrophe of the deluge, excepting only one 
 ' pair 1 , reserved " to keep seed alive upon the 
 " earth;" and that thus, the entire race, 
 diminished in number to two individuals, became 
 actually reduced and placed within the power of 
 man. And, when their possessors, quitting the 
 ark, commenced their new establishment in 
 Asia, these valuable animals, formed to render 
 such important services in those regions, were 
 carefully preserved, as they increased and mul- 
 tiplied with the generations of mankind, and 
 were never suffered to escape from domesticity, 
 like individuals of every other species; and 
 therefore, they alone never recovered their "pri- 
 " mitive state of independence and liberty." Hence, 
 they were always accounted a race pertaining to 
 Arabia 2 ; in which region they have been trans- 
 mitted, in a direct line, from the patriarch who 
 introduced them, as a reserved property of one 
 branch of his descendants. And the same care, 
 
 1 The camel (Levit. xi. 4) was classed among the unclean 
 beasts; of which, God instructed Noah to take only " two, 
 " the male and his female." 
 
 2 0,1 Kcctji^ot a.fAQoTtgct.1, ct,\ Baxrgtctvcti, xcu 0.1 Agot(3iat,i. 
 ARISTOT. Hist. Animal. L. ii. c. 1. " Camel&s inter armenta 
 " pascit Oriens, Bactrice et Arabice." PLIN. Nat. Hist. L. viii. 
 c. 26. Hardouin. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 395 
 
 which prevented their escape to freedom in the PART III. 
 first age of the renovated globe, is still notoriously " 
 
 t_>i~it'\A .X. 1 1 * 
 
 exercised, in their preservation. It is equally 
 notorious, that the Arabs, to this day, hold 
 their camel in peculiar veneration, accounting it 
 a sacred animal, a gift of God to man; the origin 
 of which traditionary sentiment, may reasonably 
 be referred to the origin of this postdiluvian race. 
 Thus, then, a cause is incidentally found 
 in the record, which perfectly explains, and 
 which alone can explain, a phenomenon in 
 natural history ; which the professed Historian 
 of Nature had not, either the skill to detect, 
 or the frankness to avow. And, what was it 
 that so warped his mind, as to cause him, either 
 to overlook or to withhold this obvious cause ? 
 His geological prepossessions : for, hqw should 
 the framer and propounder of a theory, which 
 maintained, that this earth was originally a 
 lump of matter knocked off from the body of 
 the sun by some rude and awkward comet, 
 which struck against it in the eccentricity 
 of its orbit, resort for the cause of the domes- 
 ticity of an entire race of animals to the au- 
 thority of a record, which contradicts and exposes 
 his false and lunatic theory ? 
 
 It may be advisable to notice here a very 
 material error, in a work professedly designed 
 for the instruction of youth in natural history. 
 
396 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. In this work, treating of the Arabian camel, 
 the author states : " the Arabian camel is chiefly 
 
 CHAP XII 
 
 " found in a wild state in the deserts of Arabia 
 " and Africa, and in the temperate parts of 
 " Asia. It is that with a single hunch on its 
 " back. In many parts of the East it is 
 " domesticated 1 ." The whole of this statement 
 is in direct contradiction to the fact. The author 
 omits all mention of the Bactrian camel, with 
 two hunches, which alone exists in a wild state ; 
 and that, in no other part of the globe but 
 in Chinese Tartary, and the regions contiguous 
 to it. But, the Arabian camel exists not in a wild 
 state, either in Asia or in Africa ; and the in- 
 dividuals of that species are not domesticated, 
 but the entire race is born domestic. By this 
 statement, therefore, this important fact of 
 natural history is corrupted, and a most in- 
 structive truth is withheld from the knowledge 
 of the juvenile reader. 
 
 The translator of Nordens Travels has fallen 
 into a ridiculous mistake, which also may here be 
 rectified. He thus renders his author: "We 
 " saw that day (on the Nile) abundance of 
 " camels; but they did not come near enough 
 " for us to shoot them." And he adds in a 
 
 1 Animal Biography, yol. ii. 2. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 397 
 
 note: " In the original it is chameaux d'eau; PART III. 
 
 " whether they are a particular species of camel, 
 
 " or a different kind of animal, I do not know V 
 
 These chameaux d'eau, or de la riviere, are the 
 
 Gemel el Bahr of the Arabians, which is no 
 
 other than the pelican ; of which Buifon gives 
 
 this notice : " the Egyptians have denominated 
 
 " this great bird the river-camel, with allusion 
 
 " to the manner in which it retains the water 
 
 " in its pouch *" 
 
 The domesticity of the entire race of this 
 peculiar species of camel, is therefore a living 
 and perpetual evidence, both of the revolution 
 in which the whole animal creation perished 
 excepting a reserved few, and of that also in 
 which the human race was first established 
 on the continent of Asia; and it is therefore 
 evidence, that those revolutions, supposed by 
 the mineral geology to be different and dis- 
 tinct, were, in fact and truth, one and the same. 
 Bishop Watson remarked, that he never saw 
 a Jew, but he beheld in him a living testimony 
 of the truth of the Old Testament. In the same 
 manner, we never see a camel of this species, but 
 we may behold in it a living testimony of the 
 
 P. 11, fol. a Oiseaux, torn. viii. p. 296, 4to. 
 
398 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. truth and unity of the revolution, which both 
 loaded the soils of northern Europe with 
 animal spoils from the perished earth, and 
 fixed the progenitors of the present race of 
 mankind in the western regions of Asia. 
 
 air 
 o) " 
 ffi '* 
 
 5 gfiikffifewb 
 
 i . 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 399 
 
 *RW Ji '> slflio .in T 
 
 ftgn&dt iHB4fii ; 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 How far the Creative Power was exercised upon PART III. 
 the wew e#r^, is a point on which we are 
 not informed ; although we are left to deduce 
 the assurance of its exercise, with respect to 
 vegetation. Where we cannot look for opera- 
 tion in secondary causes, we must necessarily 
 resort to the first principle of universal physics, 
 the intelligence and power of God. The vegeta- 
 tion which invested the mineral surface ren- 
 dered dry by the second revolution, cannot 
 be ascribed to any other cause than that, which 
 invested with vegetation the mineral surface 
 rendered dry by the Jirst revolution : this is 
 an induction, which reason does not merely 
 allow, but positively demands. It is saying 
 nothing, to say with the mineral geology, 
 " after the deluge, vegetation quickly ensued." 
 How did it ensue ? Had the same earth . re- 
 mained, vegetation could not have ensued by 
 virtue of any known law of what we term 
 nature; for, the universal lodgment of the sea 
 upon its surface, for nearly ten months, must, 
 by those laws, have extinguished every prin- 
 
400 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. ciple of germinating life. But, it was not the 
 CHAP" in same eartn > but a new, brute, marine surface, 
 in which the seeds of terrestrial vegetation had 
 never been sown. It must, therefore, have been 
 called into that vegetation by the same creative 
 word, which called into vegetation the surface 
 of the former earth, when it was first extricated 
 from the waters of the abyss. 
 
 Again; we are told, that the summits of 
 the highest mountains appeared above the 
 aqueous surface, only on the first day of the 
 tenth month, from which level the waters de- 
 scended gradually for forty days ; and yet, 
 after seven other days, or on the seventeenth 
 day of the twelfth month, we find, in this marine 
 soil, an olive tree in full foliage. This vegetable 
 production cannot, with any assent of reason, 
 be referred to any other cause than the same 
 divine jiat which at first commanded, " Let 
 " the earth bring forth the TREE yielding fruit ?> 
 and which, long afterwards, caused " a gourd 
 " to come up in a night" and to form a shelter 
 impervious to the inclemency of an Assyrian 
 sun 1 . 
 
 With respect to the animal creation, we 
 are equally left without any positive informa- 
 
 Jonah, iv. 6, 1 0. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 401 
 
 tion. Yet, the abundant monumental evidence, PART III. 
 which we possess of animal species entirely with- 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 drawn from the earth in that revolution, esta- 
 blishes a strong argument of moral probability, 
 of other animal species having been subsequently 
 produced, to supply their place in the sphere 
 of animal life. And this brings us to the 
 consideration of a question, which has beeft 
 raised ; not upon a speculative, but upon a 
 critical ground ; respecting the portion of the 
 animal creation which was contained in the 
 ark. 
 
 The ground of the question, is this : The 
 record relates, that God commanded Noah, 
 " of every living thing, of all flesh, pairs of 
 " every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to 
 " keep seed alive with thee." Now, it has 
 been urged; that, although the terms of this 
 command are universal, yet the scriptural 
 style so often employs universal terms with 
 limited significations, that the universality of 
 the terms will not necessarily prove that 
 an universal sense was intended, unless it be 
 otherwise circumstantially fixed. And this 
 is undeniably true, in very many instances ; 
 upon which account Dr. Hammond, in his 
 notes on 1 Cor. xiii. 7, has been led to re- 
 mark: " the word KMTO, all things, though 
 "it be an universal, is not to be taken in 
 
 D D 
 
402 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. " the utmost extent ; but, according to the use 
 " in like phrases in all languages, wherein 
 
 CHAP XIII 
 
 ' " the universal sign affixed, either to persons, 
 " or times, or places, or things, signifies only 
 " a greater number, but not all without ex- 
 " ception." Schleusner likewise observes : 
 " that the word TT? all> every, is often em- 
 " ployed in Scripture, indefinitely, to signify 
 " various, of different kinds ; and often also, 
 " to denote many, a great number V Michaelis 
 remarks to the same purpose : " The Jews 
 " have well observed, that ^, all, every, is 
 " not to be understood, on all occasions, with 
 " the mathematical sense of all; because, it 
 " is also used to signify many. Thus in Isaiah, 
 " xxiv. 10, where we read, ' every house is shut 
 " up, 9 Kimchi most truly observes : ' though 
 " he says, every house, he only means many; 
 " as it is said, all countries came into Egypt.' 
 " I quote the judgment of a Jew, rather than 
 <c of a Christian, that I may not be mistrusted. 
 " But, if we reflect upon our own native 
 " tongues, we shall find, that we often use 
 " the term all, for many, or most 2 .' 9 It is 
 thus, that in the vision of St. Peter, in which 
 it is related by the historian, that he beheld 
 
 -31 QiJ&'ii ! f!0 
 
 } Lex. Gr. in N. Test. * Suppl. ad Lex. Heb. No. 1158. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 403 
 
 a large vessel containing " KMTO. roc nrponroSix, PART III. 
 -OK yr\s l all the four-footed beasts of the 
 
 CHAP. XHI. 
 
 " earth, &c. it is not necessary to suppose that 
 they were, zoologically and numerically, all 
 the quadrupeds of the creation ; but, only a num- 
 ber and a variety sufficiently great, first, for 
 the selection which St. Peter was called upon 
 to make between clean and unclean ; and next, 
 to prove to him how extensively those distinc- 
 tions were now done away by God. Accord- 
 ingly, the passage is rendered by Schleusner, 
 " varii generis quadrupedes quadrupeds of various 
 " kinds;' and it is paraphrased by Pyle, 
 " abundance of beasts" And with good reason ; 
 for, where St. Peter himself afterwards relates 
 the vision to the apostles, he omits the word 
 
 Travra <c all" and says Only, roc, riTp<x,Tro$<x,* 
 
 " four-footed beasts" We have a remarkable 
 example of this strong mode of speech in 1 Kings, 
 xviii. 10; where Obadiah affirms thus forcibly 
 and solemnly to Elijah: "as the Lord thy 
 " God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom 
 " whither my Lord hath not sent to seek thee 3 ." 
 Which affirmation, though universal in its terms, 
 was evidently not designed to be universal 
 in its signification; and innumerable instances 
 of the same mode of speech, are to be found 
 
 )? ; 30*rt iif^'ufd v. iijj3oir 
 
 1 Acts, x. 12. 9 Ibid. xi. 6. 3 1 Kings, xviii. 10. 
 
404 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. in the sacred writings. In the same manner, it 
 is alleged, we are to understand with limitation 
 
 CHAP. XIII. , r ., .. . _ , . , 
 
 the terms of the record in the passage which 
 we are considering ; there being nothing in 
 the history to controvert such an interpreta- 
 tion, which other considerations tend to render 
 probable, namely, the correspondence between 
 the dimensions which are given of the capacity 
 of the ark, and our present extended know- 
 ledge of the varieties of the animal creation. 
 For, the calculations of numbers and capacity 
 exhibited by Prideaux, Pole, and some other 
 pious foreign divines of a former age, are more 
 ingenious than they are truly available. 
 
 And, indeed, there is nothing in this ac- 
 ceptation of the history which is not perfectly 
 consistent with the text ; considering, that 
 universal terms are often to be taken in Scrip- 
 ture with limitation, and, that the text contains 
 nothing to define and fix the signification in the 
 instance which we are considering: for, the 
 words " all flesh? are here only equivalent to 
 the words " clean, and unclean," in the succeed- 
 ing chapter. And if such is its sense, that 
 only a numerous selected portion of the animal 
 species were preserved in the ark ; then it 
 would seem, that the divine purpose in that 
 partial preservation was, first, the preservation 
 of the progenitors of a new human race ; se- 
 condly, the preservation of a number of animal 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 405 
 
 pecies sufficiently great to provide an impres- PART III. 
 sive memorial, of the faith of Noah and of the 
 
 CHAP 5CTTT 
 
 fact of that fearful catastrophe, to be trans- 
 mitted circumstantially by tradition to suc- 
 ceeding generations ; and thus to constitute 
 TUTTOI/, a type, of divine deliverance, of which St. 
 Peter has pointed out UVTITVTTOV, an antitype 1 . For, 
 we are certainly not to understand, that God 
 could not have had animals to inhabit His earth, 
 unless He had taken a provident care of those 
 which He then had alive. 
 
 But, this determination of the question gives 
 immediate rise to another question, viz. from 
 whence then proceeded all those other species 
 of animals now existing upon the earth, of 
 which none were contained in the ark ? Hypo- 
 thesis and system are at once ready with their 
 answer. But, before we admit of any answer, 
 we must lay down two indispensable conditions, 
 to which that answer must submit ; J . It must 
 not contradict the history : 2. It must be in 
 consistency and harmony with the history. Every 
 judgment exercised to reasoning, will admit 
 the justness of these two preliminary; con- 
 ditions. And these being admitted, we can 
 by no means allow the explanation proposed 
 by De Luc; that those species subsisted, 
 during the deluge, upon certain islands in the 
 
 1 Peter, iii. 21. 
 
406 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. ancient sea, which, as the sea retired, became 
 the summits of mountains on the new continents. 
 L 1. Because this explanation, however ingenious 
 it may appear, is plainly a mere shift and contri- 
 vance of the invention, which betrays its fallacy 
 upon a moment's reflection ; for, as Mr. Kirwan 
 justly observes, " if such islands did exist during 
 " the deluge, it would surely have been more 
 " convenient for Noah, his family, and animals, 
 " to have been transported, at once, to one of 
 " these, than to have remained pent up in the 
 " ark," for upwards of twelve months. But, 2. 
 and principally, because it is so far from being 
 in harmony with the history, that it directly con- 
 tradicts it. For, the history expressly declares, 
 that " every Jiving substance was destroyed, 
 " except Noah, and they that were with 
 " him in the ark." * And, the words "every 
 " living substance," cannot be taken here with 
 limitation, as in the former passage, although 
 the younger Rosenmuller would so interpret 
 them 1 ; because, the universality of their signi- 
 
 1 This learned commentator, seduced by the same error 
 which had seduced his learned father, uncritically contends; 
 that the proposition, ". ALL the high hills and mountains under 
 " the WHOLE HEAVEN were covered" is not to be understood 
 universally, because we find the same phrase, " under the 
 whole heaven" used with limitation in Dent. ii. 25. But, how is 
 it used there, if properly rendered and punctuated ? " This day 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 407 
 
 fication is fired by another passage, which dis- PART III. 
 tinctly states, that the waters were elevated 
 for some months, above the summits of the highest 
 mountains ; so that every part of the earth, 
 
 " will I begin to put the dread of thee, and the fear of thee, 
 " upon THE NATIONS under the whole heaven WHICH SHALL 
 " HEAR of thee; and they shall tremble" Sf-c. Here, the uni- 
 versal term " air is omitted, and is exchanged for the particular 
 restriction, " the nations WHICH SHALL HEAR of thee;" and 
 these are specified in Exod. xv. 14, 15 ? to be the inhabitants 
 of Palestine, Edom, Moab, and Canaan. Whereas, in the 
 passage of Genesis, not only " all the high hills and mountains 
 " under the whole heaven" are without restriction ; but the com- 
 mon law of fluids demonstrates, that the proposition, if true 
 at all, must be universally and equally true of all hills and 
 mountains of the same elevation, over the whole earth. (Schol. 
 in Gen. vi. 24. p. 64, 5.) The four hypothetical and falla- 
 cious arguments, which this expositor is led to adduce in 
 favour of a partial operation of the deluge, are fully refuted 
 in this disquisition : " 1. That God did not design to destroy 
 " all animals, but man only, whose race had not spread 
 " beyond the regions of Tigris and Euphrates. 2. That 
 " the high mountains covered by the waters, were only those 
 " of the countries adjoining those rivers. 3. That all the 
 " waters of the sea and atmosphere would not suffice to in- 
 " undate the whole earth. 4. That the inundation of the flood 
 " could not have conveyed shells and marine animal relics 
 " to the tops of mountains, but that these must have been 
 " the effect of some anterior inundation." (Ibid.) All these 
 suggestions, manifestly proceed from an original misappre- 
 hension of the ^rue nature of that second great revolution 
 of the globe. 
 
408 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART ill. on which animals might have continued to 
 fex ^ s ^ was submerged. If, therefore, we are 
 to understand from the record, that only a 
 selection of animal species was preserved in 
 the ark ; we must necessarily understand also, 
 that all the remaining species, and the entire 
 remainder of the animal creation, perished in 
 the waters. 
 
 But now it will be asked ; from whence then 
 proceeded the first of all the species actually 
 existing, of which there were none, in the ark ? 
 I ask, in reply, from whence proceeded the first 
 of all the species actually existing, of which there 
 were some in the ark ? The solution of the latter 
 question, will be the solution of the former. 
 The renovation of the earth, and its creation, are 
 events which bear so direct and true an ana- 
 logy to- each other, that reason directs us to 
 conclude of the one from the other ; and, in 
 defect of knowledge concerning the one, to 
 deduce it from our knowledge respecting the 
 other. Vegetation, in the new earth, must have 
 been a new creation ; and why should not new 
 creation have extended, in the new earth, to the 
 animal as well as to the vegetable kingdom, if it 
 was the intention of the Creator, that the ark 
 should not contain individuals of every species? 
 That such was His intention, is proved by the 
 multitude of fossil remains of animal species 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 409 
 
 which no longer exist. That it was His intention TART III. 
 that the ark should contain some, is proved, both 
 
 Vv 1 1 .A I j\ 1 i 1 
 
 by the terms of the record, and by the extra- 
 ordinary evidence of the camel of Arabia. In 
 understanding the historian to relate, that only 
 a limited number of species were preserved, 
 and that all the rest perished ; and in inferring, 
 as a necessary consequence, that the Creator 
 replenished His new earth with new species, by 
 His own divine act, after He had brought it to 
 light ; we do not contradict the history, which is 
 altogether silent upon the subject, and we in- 
 terpret consistently with the history, because we 
 interpret in conformity with its declarations in 
 a case analogous. There is no other difficulty 
 whatever in this solution, than that with 
 which mere physical science has always to con- 
 tend, in admitting immediate creation as the 
 true mode of all Jirst formations ; and which 
 urges it to insert as many imaginary causes 
 as it can devise, between all effects and a 
 Jirst cause, even where no secondary cause can 
 possibly have intervened. It has thought fit to 
 assume, gratuitously, that it is unphilosophical to 
 argue, in physics, beyond secondary causes; that 
 we are bound to find the causes of all sensible 
 phenomena, among secondary causes; and, that 
 the mention of creation is not to be admitted 
 in physics. This was the great principle which 
 the materialism and infidelity of the two 
 
410 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. l as t centuries laboured so industriously to 
 CHAP. xui. establish, in order to exclude all moral in- 
 terference, and which physical science so gene- 
 rally and so absurdly conceded : with the 
 vast exceptions, however, of Bacon and New- 
 ton. But, in so doing, it only proved itself 
 to be " unphilosophical;'' and rendered itself 
 incapable of reasoning to " the most general 
 " principle" 
 
 Ti awurrov xputroii Trap'^tj/ 1 " Why should it 
 " be thought a thing incredible with us" that 
 God, who created once, should create more 
 than once ? Is it, that His creative power was 
 exhausted in its first effort ? Is it, that we are 
 in possession of the rule by which alone creative 
 power may be exercised? Or is it, that we 
 are any where told, that God has never exer- 
 cised that power since the first universal crea- 
 tion? When He pronounced the^dtf, " Let the 
 " river bring forth frogs abundantly 2 ," &c. ; it 
 was the same jiat with which He had at first 
 pronounced, ' Let the waters bring forth 
 " abundantly the living creature that hath life." 
 The naturalists and philosophers of Egypt, nay, 
 Moses himself, concluded that this innumerable 
 swarm, " which covered the land, and filled the 
 " villages, and houses, and fields," must have 
 ..toijioilMs"- $4 et "$oir"w $ifoyt> To"' f^i';*m siti 
 
 1 Acte, xxviv-8. ? Exod.viii.3. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 411 
 
 been the natural inhabitants of the Nile ; and PART III. 
 they therefore prayed, " that they might de- 
 
 CHAP. X.II1_ 
 
 ' part, and remain in the river only 1 ." But, 
 when their prayer was heard, those animals 
 were not caused to depart and to remain in the 
 river, of which they were not the natural in- 
 habitants ; for, being only designed as a tempo- 
 rary burthen on creation, " the Lord did, indeed, 
 " according to the word of Moses, but the frogs 
 " died, and they gathered them into heaps V De 
 Luc would " easily conceive, how this produc- 
 " tion might have been contrived ; not indeed 
 " without a miracle, but without a new creation*" 
 But, this is a capricious and irrational distinci- 
 tion ; for, if it was by miracle, that miracle might 
 as probably have been exercised in new creation, 
 as in any other supernatural mode. It is just as 
 easy, to an unsophisticated intelligence, to 
 deduce primitive formation from creative power, as 
 to deduce secondary formation from generative 
 power. It is certain, that if it was by miracle, we 
 are absolutely incapable of determining, of our- 
 selves, what mode it was. All physical probabilities, 
 are here vain and impertinent. 
 
 To determine to refer every effect to a 
 secondary cause, in a crisis in which the First 
 
 1 Exod. viii. 9, 10,11. Mb. 14. 
 
 3 See above, note to p. 207. K o'J 
 
412 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. Cause was in immediate and manifest operation, 
 " TTT is, setting aside all moral considerations, most 
 
 \jtlAr . A. 11 1. 
 
 unskilful and irrational ; and demonstrates an 
 entire alienation from the philosophy of Newton, 
 of which the great principle is, " de DEO ex 
 " phanomenis disserere, ad philosophiam naturalem 
 " pertinet It pertains to natural philosophy, to 
 " reason from phenomena to GOD/' Now, the 
 phenomena which we are considering, neces- 
 sarily lead us to God. 
 
 In the case of the human race, it was es- 
 sential to the moral purpose of God, that the 
 whole race should descend from one and the same 
 first parent ; because, His mysterious scheme for 
 their ultimate destination was founded upon their 
 common relation to th&tjirst parent : " IN ADAM, 
 " ALL DIE 1 :" Therefore, " He made of one and the 
 " same blood, all nations of men 2 ." But, since that 
 purpose did not extend to the brute species, 
 we have no reason whatever for supposing, that 
 it was indispensably necessary that every post- 
 diluvian brute race should descend from an ante- 
 diluvian parent; and physics cannot pretend to 
 assign any law, which can prescribe bounds to 
 the creative power of Him who " killeth and 
 maketh alive 3 , and who will do all His pleasure 4 . 
 
 I conclude, therefore, 1. from the record of 
 
 1 Cor. xv. 22. * Acts, xvii. 26. * 1 Sara. ii. 6. 4 Is. xlri. 10. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 413 
 
 the deluge, that the whole animal creation, ex- PART III. 
 cepting only that selected portion of animal 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 individuals which was preserved in the ark, 
 perished in that catastrophe. I conclude, 2. from 
 the innumerable fragments of extinct species which 
 remain, that individuals of all the antediluvian 
 animal species were not preserved in the ark. 
 And, if there is reason to infer, either from 
 the genius of the historian's language, or from 
 the dimensions of the ark which he has so care- 
 fully and minutely imparted to us, that he 
 does not affirm, that individuals of all the post- 
 diluvian species were contained within that 
 fabric, I then conclude, 3. and finally; that 
 he has left us to infer from his relation of the 
 creation, that the same Almighty Being whose 
 operations he has therein recorded, exercised 
 His creative power in animal, no less than 
 in vegetable formations, in the renovation of 
 His globe ; that " He took away their breath, 
 " and they died, and returned to their dust; that 
 " He sent forth His Spirit, and they were created, 
 " and He renewed the face of the earth V 
 
 It is manifest, from the exuvitz of the extinct 
 species, that the ark excluded many varieties of 
 animals : this is a conclusion from the phano- 
 
 Psalm civ. 29, 30. 
 
414 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. mena, infinitely more sound than any which the 
 CHAIVXIII. speculations of the mineral geology have been 
 able to extort from them. It is therefore pro- 
 bable, that the animals assembled for preserva- 
 tion were collected from only a part of the pri- 
 mitive continents, namely, that part in which the 
 patriarch himself resided ; and it will then be- 
 come further probable, that a new animal crea- 
 tion, of various species, followed the production 
 and exsiccation of the second earth, as the same 
 had followed the production and exsiccation of 
 the first earth. And such must have been 
 the case, if it was the design of the Master 
 and Disposer of this globe so to distribute the 
 habitable surfaces of His new earth, by the inter- 
 position of waters, that the brute races could not, 
 like the human race, pass from the one surface 
 to the other, by the laws which He assigned to 
 their natures. And accordingly, the character- 
 istic peculiarities, which have been so notably 
 and admirably provided to distinguish from 
 each other the animal species of the different 
 continents, testify powerfully in confirmation of 
 this fact, to every mind in which moral reason- 
 ing maintains its due supremacy. 
 .<y> The creation, and renovation of the earth, are 
 co-ordinate events, corresponding by various 
 and true analogies ; and they are both to be 
 referred to the same intelligence and the same 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 415 
 
 power. Whether we consider, the production PART III. 
 of an habitable land by the removal of the 
 
 i_- t, j / .1 i .1 .1 . CHAP. XIII. 
 
 waters which covered it ; or, the clothing that 
 land with universal vegetation ; or, the com- 
 mencement of new human and brute races to 
 inhabit and possess it; the resemblance is so 
 exact, and the correspondence so peculiar, that 
 reason instructs us to employ our knowledge of 
 the former, to guide us to a just apprehension of 
 the latter. " God," says Philo, " thought fit to 
 " make NOAH both the end and the beginning 
 " of our race ; the end of that which was before 
 " the- flood, and the beginning of that which 
 " was after the flood 1 ." So similar, indeed, 
 were the positions of the first parents, of both 
 races, and so intricately did the origins of both 
 races become at length involved in ancient tradi- 
 tion; that we often find the same region, and the 
 same seat, confusedly ascribed to the progeni- 
 tor of each race. 
 
 We may here observe; that as ADAM, the 
 common parent of the first race, was the source 
 from which the knowledge of the important 
 truths imparted to him by his Creator was 
 transmitted to that first race, so NOAH, the 
 common parent of the second race, was the 
 source through which that same knowledge was 
 
 1 De Abraltamo, p. 7. 
 
416 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. extended to the second race. Hence it is, 
 CHAP, xni ^at * n tne ant iquities of the heathen world, we 
 discover such manifest evidence of original iden- 
 tity in principles and traditions. Hence it was, 
 that the learned Thomas Burnet thus contended : 
 " What should hinder us from believing, that 
 " those heads of theology and philosophy, 
 " which are found among the ancient barbaric 
 " nations, descended to his posterity, the per- 
 " sons who lived after the deluge, from THIS 
 
 " FOUNTAIN, this ORIGINAL MAN, whose 
 
 " knowledge extended to both worlds? Noah is 
 " reported to have delivered moral precepts to 
 " his sons and kinsmen, which are usually 
 " called ' the precepts of Noah;' and why not 
 " also doctrines, which may as justly be called, 
 " the doctrines of Noah? For, as those precepts 
 " were not about inconsiderable things, or 
 " duties of little moment, but had a reference 
 " to those which were highly necessary to the 
 " improvement of human life; so, also, these 
 " doctrines respect the principal orders and 
 " most important articles of the natural world ; 
 " as, how it began in what form and structure it 
 " first appeared what changes or violent motions 
 " it has already undergone, or may hereafter 
 " endure whether it is to be dissolved or renewed, 
 " and what is to be the last exit and Jin al con- 
 " elusion of all things. In these general and 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL. GEOLOGIES. 417 
 
 " important heads (if I mistake not) the pri- PART III. 
 
 " maeval wisdom was concerned, or that part 
 
 " of it which had relation to the world and 
 
 " nature. Now, NOAH was the common heir 
 
 " of all: therefore, in my opinion, this IN- 
 
 " HABITANT OF BOTH WORLDS then delivered the 
 
 " lamp of learning from ONE to the OTHER-, and 
 
 " propagated through the universe, together 
 
 " with his offspring and primitive people, some 
 
 " seeds both of natural and moral doctrine. But, 
 
 " in after ages they very much declined ; and I 
 
 " must freely acknowledge, that those seminal 
 
 " doctrines were almost .choked by the pre- 
 
 " vailing tares 1 .' 9 In which vicious crop, we 
 
 know that the doctrine of a CHAOTIC GEOGONY 
 
 was eminently luxuriant. 
 
 1 De Originibus Rerun, P. I. c. 14. Eng. Tr. p. 244. 
 
 E 
 
4 IS A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 ' 
 
 CHAPTER xiv. 
 
 PART III. THERE remains a question, which the proposi- 
 "~~ T tion of the destruction of the ante-diluvian earth, 
 
 C/H AP. XIV . 
 
 will naturally suggest to the mind ; and which 
 ought, therefore, not to be passed over without 
 notice. . It will be asked; if the first earth 
 perished, what are we to understand concerning 
 the description of the livers of Eden, contained 
 in verses 11, 12, 13, and 14, of the second 
 chapter of Genesis ? We cannot cut the knot 
 of this difficulty with so little ceremony as De 
 Luc ; who, without hesitation, affirms that the 
 rivers therein enumerated were not the present 
 Euphrates, &c. but "certain ante-diluvian rivers, 
 " whose names were afterwards transferred to 
 " rivers of the new earth; as is common in 
 " colonies, where new places are called after 
 " the names of the mother-country 1 ." 
 
 This is a question, pertaining to an entirely 
 distinct branch of inquiry ; yet it is very 
 
 1 Lett. Gtol. p. 327, 8. 
 & .7 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 419 
 
 material to the present subject, that it should PART III. 
 be resolved here. 
 
 That this description of rivers constitutes a 
 parenthesis, intersecting the direct thread of the 
 history, and that it has been inserted for 
 the purpose of illustration, is manifest upon 
 the face of the text; but, a critical question 
 arises upon this parenthesis, which those will 
 best apprehend who are most conversant with 
 ancient manuscripts and with the history of 
 their transcriptions: viz. whether this illustra- 
 tive insertion was written by the author of 
 the history, or, whether it is not more pro- 
 bable that it was originally a marginal gloss, 
 which, in process of time, became incorporated 
 into the body of the text? To such glosses, 
 Bishop Lowth has occasion to advert in his notes 
 on Isaiah, and Kennicott has treated of them, 
 more diffusely, in his dissertations on the 
 Hebrew text; and there are few ancient 
 authors whose writings have not, in some 
 degree or other, suffered depravation by similar 
 incorporations. Both the Sacred Testaments are 
 known to have sustained such depravations, in 
 several instances. 
 
 In order to illustrate this subject for those 
 who may not have had experience in this branch 
 of investigation, I shall adduce an example of 
 
420 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. an incorporated gloss in the New Testament, 
 which is but little known, but which is both 
 
 CHAP. XIV* .. 
 
 very important in itself, and very applicable 
 to the case before us. It is remarkable, that 
 Michaelis has passed over it in his criti- 
 cisms on St. John's Gospel: Bishop Marsh, 
 however, has duly remarked it in his notes 
 on that work, and has deduced from it the 
 conclusions which it obviously suggests. 
 
 In the Royal Library at Paris is a remnant 
 of a very ancient Greek MS. of the New Tes- 
 tament, the Codex Ephremi 1 . This valuable 
 relic is pronounced by Wetstein, (in whose 
 enumeration it is marked C,) to be of the 
 same age as the celebrated Alexandrian MS. ; 
 but, the passage which I am about to pro- 
 duce, will certainly not tend to diminish its 
 comparative antiquity. Montfaucon has given a 
 fac-simile* of the first six verses of the 5th 
 chapter of St. John's Gospel, as they stand in 
 this MS. ; in which that portion of the evan- 
 gelical history is thus read : 
 
 sfi 
 
 x<xt avsn o 
 
 1 MICHAELIS* Introd. to the New Testament, by MARSH, 
 vol. ii. p. 258. 
 * Palceograph. Grace, p. 214, 5. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 yap naret- llf If0<ToAiyxa. KTTIV Jf V 
 
 tBtv ivivrt 
 
 epa XU TOJ? IlPOCroXu/XOt? 7Ti T*J -BT40- 
 
 TO r ' f C 
 
 d ow wpoTo? pJXTiXIJ XOXU]Ot|3l8^a, U S7TI- 
 
 TOW 
 tyivirot oo at 
 
 Ttf W ^ 
 
 Xfci OXTW T7| 
 
 cyuv V Ttj atrtfEVfJot ctuTOu. 
 
 V ! TOVTOI/ j^w*' o Ii)rouj xaraxft- 
 
 fttvov XKI ycou? ori, x T. A. 
 
 After this there was a 
 feast of the Jews, and 
 
 For an angel went J C SUS Went Tip to Jettl- 
 
 down at a certain 
 
 season, into the salem. Now, there is 
 
 bath,andtroulj'ed 
 
 the water ; who- a t Jerusalem, by the 
 
 soever then first, 
 
 after the troubling sheep-market, a Datll, 
 
 of the water, step- . _ _ 
 
 ped in, was made which IS Called in 
 
 whole of whatso- __ , 
 
 disease he the Hebrew tongue 
 
 ever 
 
 Bethesda, having five 
 porches. In these lay 
 a great number of im- 
 potent folk, of blind, 
 halt, withered. And a 
 certain man was there, 
 which had an infirmity waters * 
 thirty and eight years 
 
 
A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 When Jesus saw him 
 lie, and knew that, &c. 
 
 In the Greek MS., the text and the marginal 
 sentences, though both are in the uncial cha- 
 racter, are written by different hands ; and it 
 will be evident, from the language, and from 
 the Itacism perceptible in the latter, that these 
 are of a date posterior to the former. It will be 
 equally manifest, that they were marginal notes, 
 annexed with the design of illustrating the 
 popular superstition under which the infirm man 
 was waiting at the bath ; but, at the same time, 
 adopting the superstition, and averring it to 
 be true. The original text, was free from that 
 blemish; and the simplicity and close sequence 
 of the recital, bear internal evidence that those 
 marginal passages are alien to it. The super- 
 stitious clause, therefore, does not pertain to 
 the evangelital historian, but has become incorr 
 porated into his history in the progress of trans- 
 cription. 
 
 Bishop Marsh thus speaks concerning 
 this passage: " The Codex Ephrem has many 
 " marginal notes written in uncial letters, 
 " without accents. This proves what has been 
 " sometimes doubted, that marginal notes were 
 " made in the most ancient MSS., and that 
 *' this practice prevailed in the early ages of 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIUAL GEOLOGIES. 423 
 
 " Christianity. But, these marginal scholia PART III. 
 
 " seem to have been confined to such MSS. as 
 
 " were in the hands of private persons ; while 
 
 " those which have been used for church ser- 
 
 " vice, such as the Codex Beza, are without 
 
 " them. It is likewise remarkable, that in this 
 
 " MS. the disputed, or rather spurious text of 
 
 .*' John, v. 4, is written, not in the text ; but in a 
 
 " marginal seholion. Now, as this verse is 
 
 " totally omitted in the Codex Beza and the 
 
 " Codex Vaticanus, which are the two most 
 
 " ancient MSS. now extant; as it is likewise 
 
 " omitted in the Codex Ephrem (which is in- 
 
 " ferior in age to the Codex Beza), but written 
 
 " in the margin as a seholion ; is written in more 
 
 " modern MSS. in the text, but marked with an 
 
 " asterisk, or obelus, as suspicious; and in MSS. 
 
 " still more modern is written without any 
 
 " mark ; we see the various gradations by which 
 
 " it has acquired its place in our present text ; 
 
 " and have proof positive that the verse was 
 
 " originally nothing more than a marginal scho- 
 
 " lion, and of course spurious. Other passages 
 
 " likewise in the Greek Testament owe their 
 
 " present existence in the printed editions 
 
 " to the same cause 1 ." What the learned 
 
 prelate here affirms of the Greek Testament, 
 
 Introd. to N. T. vol. ii. p. 732, Note 118. 
 
424 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART III. Kennicott has shown to be the case also of the 
 Hebrew. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. . 
 
 In the second chapter of Genesis, there 
 appears an internal critical evidence of an 
 insertion of the llth, 12th, 13th, and 14th 
 verses, similar to this in St. John, consti- 
 tuting, in a similar manner, a parenthesis in- 
 tersecting the thread of the narration ; and in- 
 troduced, solely for the purpose of illustration. 
 It does not wear the character of the simple 
 narrative in which it appears ; but, of a gloss or 
 note of a later age, founded upon the fanciful 
 traditions prevailing with respect to the situa- 
 tion of the ancient Paradise. The reader will 
 find evidence of the unconquered difficulty of 
 reconciling this description with true geo- 
 graphy, if he consults Michaelis' Supplementa 
 ad Lex. Heb. on the names, of Eden, and of the 
 four rivers mentioned in the verses in question. 
 I have therefore long been confirmed, on critical 
 grounds alone, and without any relation to the 
 particular argument of the present treatise, in 
 the persuasion, that those four verses were a 
 gloss of very ancient date ; which became incor- 
 porated into the text, either during the captivity, 
 while the Hebrews were dwelling in the regions 
 bordering upon the Hiddekel (or Tigris) and Eu- 
 phrates, or after their return from that captivity; 
 and that the text, and gloss, stood originally thus ; 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 425 
 
 
 The name ot the 
 Jirst is Pison ; 
 that is it which 
 compasseth the 
 whole land of 
 Havilah, where 
 there i s gold ; 
 and the gold of 
 that land is good : 
 there is bdellium 
 and the onyx- 
 stone. And the 
 name of the se- 
 
 And the Lord God 
 planted a garden east- 
 ward in Eden ; and 
 there he put the man 
 whom he had formed. 
 And out of the ground 
 made the Lord God to 
 grow every tree that is 
 pleasant to the sight 
 and good for food; the 
 tree of life also in the 
 midst of the garden, 
 and the tree of the 
 knowledge of good and 
 evil. And a river went 
 out of Eden to water the 
 garden, and from thence 
 it was parted and be- 
 came into four heads, that encompassed. 
 
 the whole land ot 
 
 And the Lord God took Ethiopia. And 
 
 the name of the 
 
 the man, and put him ir*kifi<*Wj 
 
 1 that is it which 
 
 into the garden of Eden goeth in front of 
 
 Assyria 1 . And 
 
 to dress it, and to keep the fourth river is 
 
 . Euphrates. 
 
 It, &C. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 1 The Hiddekel, or Tigris* runs along the western side of 
 ancient Assyria ; that is, along that front or face of Assyria 
 which looks towards Judea. The word nip, signifies both, 
 ante, antrorsum before, in front of, and, versus Orientem 
 
426 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 PART in. That the illustration intended is unskilful, 
 CHApTxiv. anc ^ does not answer to the text, is manifest ; 
 for, the text describes one river, whereas the 
 gloss assigns four rivers. Michaelis learnedly 
 shows, that CD>W>, heads, denotes sources in all 
 the Oriental languages * ; so that the confluence 
 of four streams, proceeding from the four 
 sources or heads to which the historian traces 
 them, produced the one river related by Moses ; 
 which therefore can have no relation to the 
 four rivers recited in the gloss. The younger 
 Rosenmuller, who interprets " quatuor fluvii 
 " four rivers" is obliged nevertheless to add, 
 " fluvius ille, ex quo quatuor alii orti sunt 
 " hodie frustra quaritur that river, out of 
 " which four other rivers arose, is in vain sought 
 " for at the present day 2 " Nor can we wonder 
 at this ill success, for it is the nature of all 
 rivers to grow by confluence ; no river separates 
 its waters into different rivers, unless at the 
 delta formed of alluvial soil at its mouth by 
 
 towards or on the east; and much error has been oc- 
 casioned by confounding the two significations. In this 
 place, it manifestly signifies in front of, and therefore, on the 
 west of Assyria ; not " towards the east of Assyria," as our 
 version renders it in common with many others. The first 
 interpreters have correctly rendered it, xamam A.?crvp* 
 " in front of Assyria." 
 
 1 SuppL ad Lex. Heb. n. 2300. 3 Sckol. ad Gen. p. 23. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 427 
 
 the perpetual conflict between the sea and its PART III. 
 
 fl00d ' CHA~XIV. 
 
 But, since all the rivers adduced in the 
 Hebrew gloss have their origin in Armenia, the 
 locality alone enables us to perceive, that its 
 author was deeply impressed with the tradi- 
 tions respecting the seat of the renewal of the 
 human race, and that he identified it with that 
 of its origin in Eden ; and that he thus violently 
 applied to the latter, the characters properly 
 and exclusively pertaining to the former. The 
 fluvial description introduced into the four 
 verses, cannot therefore be regarded, critically, 
 as any part of the Mosaical history; and 
 consequently, it can have no weight to affect 
 the strong evidence which has been deduced 
 from that history, and from the sense of the 
 ancient Jewish and Christian churches, of the 
 
 DESTRUCTION of the PRIMITIVE EARTH by the 
 
 waters of the DELUGE. 
 
428 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 CONCLUSION. WE have now considered the principal argu- 
 ments which have induced the mineral geology 
 to assume, that there must have been more 
 general revolutions of this globe than the TWO 
 recorded in the Mosaical history ; and we have 
 found, upon due examination, that the plu- 
 rality thus assumed is the offspring of defective 
 investigation and unregulated fancy, and that 
 the " numerous revolutions" alleged are all re- 
 ducible, in point of fact, to those TWO only, 
 
 In this second question, therefore; relative 
 to the changes which this globe has undergone 
 since itejirst formation, and to the mode by which 
 those changes were effected ; the Mosaical 
 geology has maintained the superiority over 
 the mineral, which it established in the Jirst 
 question, relative to the mode by which that 
 Jirst formation was produced. It has main- 
 tained that superiority by showing, that in 
 
\ 
 
 MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 429 
 
 each question it can endure the most rigid CONCLUSION. 
 trial, by the test of Newton's principles of 
 universal philosophy, and of his method of 
 analysis and induction; whereas, the mineral 
 geology, applied to the same test, is altogether 
 rejected by it in both questions. Having there- 
 fore ascertained what we were originally to 
 seek, viz. which of the two guides it behoves 
 us to follow, as competent to conduct us, 
 with the most perfect security, to a knowledge 
 of those great historical secrets of time and 
 nature which constitute the proper objects of 
 true geology ; let us now collect, and reduce 
 into order, the general principles which we have 
 obtained ; and let us sketch out for ourselves a 
 General Scheme, which may at all times guide 
 our view in contemplating the phenomena ap- 
 parent in the globe, and which may secure us 
 against the fascination of unsubstantial theories, 
 and the seduction of illusive analogies. 
 
 And, 1 . We take our ground upon the con- 
 current principle of MOSES, BACON, and NEW- 
 TON : That GOD, in the beginning, created by 
 His power, and set in order by the counsels of 
 His intelligence, ALL material things; in such 
 sizes and figures, and with such other properties, 
 and in such proportions to space, as most conduced 
 to THE END for which He formed them. This 
 is thejirst principle in sane physics. 
 
430 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION. 2. That all first formations, in all the three 
 kingdoms of terrestrial matter, mineral, vegetable, 
 and animal, were therefore created, at once, 
 equally perfect and complete in their respective 
 structures, compositions, and arrangements. 
 
 3. That, after creation, GOD subjected all 
 those material things to certain laws of His own 
 enactment; by the operation of which, the 
 order, which He alone h&dfirst established^ was 
 to be maintained and continued : which laws, as 
 Bacon inculcates, are the same which vulgarly, 
 and in physics, are called the laws of nature. 
 oo 4. That the Jirst formations, or creations, of all 
 material things, were prepared with relation 
 and correspondence to the laws which were 
 afterwards to obtain in them, and, as it were, in 
 anticipation of their operation ; so that the phe- 
 nomena of * first formations could not indicate the 
 mode by which the formations were really pro- 
 duced, although they might appear to exhibit 
 such indications. 
 
 5. That this globe, so constructed at its 
 origin, has undergone two, and only two, gene- 
 ral changes or revolutions of its substance; 
 eachr of which was caused by the immediate 
 will, intelligence, and power of GOD exercised 
 upon the work which He had formed, and 
 directing the laws or agencies which He had 
 ordained within it. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAIC AL GEOLOGIES. 431 
 
 6. That, by the FIRST change 01 -revolution, CONCLUSION. 
 one portion or division of the surface of the 
 
 globe was suddenly and violently fractured 
 and depressed, in order to form, in the first 
 instance, a receptacle or bed for the waters 
 universally diffused over that surface, and to 
 expose the other portion, that it might become 
 a dwelling for animal life; but yet, with an 
 ulterior design, that the receptacle of the waters 
 should eventually become the chief theatre of 
 animal existence, by the portion first exposed 
 experiencing a similar fracture and depression, 
 and thus becoming, in its turn, the receptacle 
 of the same waters ; which should then be trans- 
 fused into it, leaving their former receptacle void 
 and dry. 
 
 7. That, this FIRST revolution took place 
 before the existence, that is, before the creation, 
 of any organized beings. 
 
 8. That the sea, collected into this vast 
 fractured cavity of the globe's surface, continued 
 to occupy it during 1 656 years ; during which 
 long period of time, its waters acted in various 
 modes, chemical and mechanical, upon the 
 several soils and fragments which formed its 
 bed ; and marine organic matter, animal and 
 vegetable, was generated and accumulated in 
 vast abundance. 
 
 9. That, after the expiration of those 1656 
 
432 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION, years, it pleased GOD, in a SECOND revolution, 
 to execute His ulterior design, by repeating the 
 amazing operation by which HE had exposed the 
 Jirst earth ; and, by the disruption and depres- 
 sion of thatymtf earth below the level of the bed 
 of the Jirst sea, to produce a new bed, into which 
 the waters descended from their former bed, 
 leaving it to become the theatre of the future 
 generations of mankind. t v2> 
 
 10. That THIS PRESENT EARTH, was that 
 
 FORMER BED. 
 
 11. That it must, therefore, necessarily ex- 
 hibit manifest and universal evidences of the 
 vicissitudes which it has undergone ; viz. of the 
 vast apparent ruin occasioned by its first violent 
 disruption and depression : of the presence and 
 operation of the marine fluid during the long 
 interval which succeeded; and, of the action 
 and effects of that fluid in its ultimate retreat. 
 
 Within the limits of this General Scheme, 
 all speculations must be confined which would 
 aspire to the quality of sound geology ; yet, vast 
 and sublime is the field which it lays open, 
 to exercise the intelligence and experience of 
 sober and philosophical mineralogy and che- 
 mistry. Upon this legitimate ground, those many 
 valuable writers, who have unwarily lent their 
 science to uphold and propagate the vicious 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 433 
 
 doctrine of a chaotic geogony, may geologise CONCLUSION. 
 with full security; and may there concur to 
 promote that true advancement of natural phi- 
 losophy, which Newton holds to be insepa- 
 rable from a proportionate advancement of the 
 moral. They may thus at length succeed in 
 perfecting a true philosophical geology ; which 
 never can exist, unless the principle of Newton 
 form the foundation, and the relation of Moses, 
 the working plan. 
 
 Beyond the limit of this Scheme, is the 
 region of shadow and phantasm. What we 
 cannot find within it, is not permitted to 
 the sphere of our real knowledge. Let us 
 not then strive to fill the inevitable voids , in 
 that substantial knowledge, by phantasms col- 
 lected from the region of shadow ; nor enter- 
 tain the pernicious principle, that the presence 
 of fiction is always more desirable than the 
 absence of truth. " Melius est aliquid nescire 
 " secure, quam cum periculo discere." To know 
 that we cannot know certain things, is, in itself, 
 positive knowledge, and a knowledge of the most 
 safe and valuable nature ; and, to abide by that 
 cautionary knowledge, is infinitely more condu- 
 cive to our advancement in truth, than to ex- 
 change it for any quality of conjecture or spe- 
 culation. It is this knowledge, that constitutes 
 our great preservative against error; it is, as 
 
 F F 
 
 fj 
 
 
434 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION, the embargo by which truth would prohibit us 
 from passing its frontier, and by that means se- 
 cure us from the malignant contagion of scep- 
 ticism and infidelity. It, moreover, maintains 
 the reason in health, by not suffering the mind to 
 waste its vigour in the enervating indulgences 
 of the imagination. 
 
 By adhering to the- tried and approved 
 guidance of the Mosaical geology, and by di- 
 recting our view according to the general indi- 
 cation of the Scheme which we have here drawn 
 from it, we shall presently perceive a light 
 diffuse itself over every object of our con- 
 templation; whether it pertains to the physical 
 system, or to the moral. 
 
 When, thus prepared, we journey amidst 
 the sublimities which the face of this globe 
 presents to our admiration ; when, for example, 
 we ascend the upper valleys, and climb the 
 primordial eminences, of the Alps, and survey 
 those awful and magnificent scenes over which 
 the ignorance of mere physical science has 
 so long spread a veil " of gloominess, of clouds 
 " and thick darkness," the favourite repair 
 and refuge of all the evil spirits of infidelity ; 
 we shall, on opening our Scheme, instantly see 
 the darkness dispelled ; the exposed night- 
 birds scared, scattered, and gone ; and a bright 
 and serene effulgence invest and sanctify the 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 435 
 
 universal scene. What before was all perplexity CONCLUSION. 
 and confusion, will become order and dis- 
 tinctness ; uncertainty and anxiety will b'e 
 past for ever ; and we shall find ourselves able 
 to read with fluency, what physical science 
 alone, with all its labour and all its industry, 
 has not been able even to spell. 
 
 When we survey those stupendous chains 
 of granite summits, with their mural sides, 
 whose internal substance and texture are laid 
 open to our inspection, we shall behold with 
 admiration a part of the first formation of this 
 globe ; the mode of which first formation, like 
 that of the bone of the first parent, was 
 creation by the immediate act of God. We 
 shall guard ourselves against the contra- 
 diction, of reasoning from any character 
 apparent in that texture to a secondary cause; 
 because we shall be sure, that no character 
 or appearance in formations by creation, can 
 indicate causes, which did not exist until those 
 formations were produced and perfected. And 
 we shall impress ourselves deeply with a sense 
 of the illogical and absurd quality of all such 
 reasoning, that our senses, or our imagination, 
 may not seduce us into the adoption of it. 
 
 When we contemplate the fractured sides 
 or faces of those granite summits; the vast 
 masses and blocks severed from them, and 
 cast and rolled in various places ; the smaller 
 
436 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION. f ra g men ts, and even the crumbled and pow- 
 dered grains, lying in the vast chasms below, 
 or scattered over the valleys and adjacent 
 plains ; when we observe the depressions of 
 those valleys and plains, until other lines of 
 stationary primordial eminences give notice of 
 a continued alternation of similar relations of 
 height and depth; and when we extend the 
 same characters, in thought, over the whole 
 surface of the globe ; we shall instantly re- 
 cognise the evidence of that tremendous opera- 
 tion, the FIRST REVOLUTION, the source of 
 all the sublimity which the face of this earth 
 displays ; by which, one vast division of the 
 globe was suddenly rent and sunk, to re- 
 ceive the congregated waters, leaving only 
 those parts of that division stationary on their 
 bases, to which we give the name of primordial 
 mountains. We shall reflect, with astonish- 
 ment, that a work of such early apparent 
 disorder and desolation; 
 
 M'-*-A 
 
 Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurl'd, 
 The fragments of an earlier world 
 Hurl'd by primceval earthquake shock, 
 And here in random ruin piled ; 
 
 was destined to produce objects of the grandest 
 beauty, and to become sources of the sublimest 
 sentiment to a future race of mankind ; and, at 
 the same time, to constitute vital organs of a 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 437 
 
 system, by means of which life was to be cir- CONCLUSION. 
 culated to every part of a future earth. But, 
 we shall regulate our thoughts of the mag- 
 nitude of the ruin thus occasioned, by the con- 
 sideration; that the highest of those fractured 
 eminences, so stupendous to our perception, 
 " are no larger, with relation to the mass of 
 " the globe, than the inequalities on the rind 
 " of an orange with relation to the bulk of the 
 " fruit ; and that, on a globe whose diameter 
 " should be four feet, the loftiest of them would 
 " not acquire an elevation of half a line 1 ." 
 
 When, amidst such scenes most distant 
 from the sea, we discover traces of ancient 
 volcanic action where no such agency has been 
 exercised for many ages ; we shall remember, 
 that volcanic action proves the communication 
 of the sea, at some period, with the internal 
 Jires constituent in the globe ; that the breach, 
 which first depressed a portion of the terrestrial 
 crust y must have occasioned an extensive com- 
 munication of the superincumbent waters with 
 those internal Jires ; and, that extensive volcanic 
 action must have ensued, if not as a principal 
 cause of the breach, yet as a necessary con- 
 current. So that the extinct volcanos whose 
 
 . 
 
 D'AunuissoN, torn. i. p. 59. 
 
438 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION, vestiges are apparent in all parts of this 
 present earth ; far from betokening to us some 
 remote epocha of Chaldaic, or pseudo- geological 
 antiquity, overlooked by the Mosaical record ; 
 will be hailed by us as perpetual evidences 
 of that general reception of the external sea 
 into the interior of the globe, which consti- 
 tutes the FIRST REVOLUTION of the MOSAICAL 
 GEOLOGY 1 . 
 
 1 It is only an act of justice, to introduce here the tes- 
 timony of DOLOMIEHJ, little known amongst us, respect- 
 ing the Canon RICUPERQ ; who is represented by BRY- 
 DONE, in his Tour to- Sicily and Malta, as having contested 
 the veracity of the Mosaical history, upon the ground of the 
 volcanic phenomena of ^tna. " The Canon RICUPERO, (says 
 " this distinguished mineralogist,) deserves neither the praises 
 " which have been bestowed upon his science, nor the doubts 
 " which have been raised concerning his orthodoxy. He 
 " died without any other affliction than that, which was 
 " caused to him by the work of Mr. BRYDONE. He could 
 " not conceive, For what purpose this stranger, to whom he 
 " had rendered services, endeavoured to excite suspicions 
 ^ concerning the orthodoxy of his faith. This simple man, 
 '? very religious, and attached to the faith of his forefathers, 
 " was far from admitting, as an evidence against the book 
 " of Genesis, pretended facts which are false ; but from 
 " which, even- if they had been true, nothing could have 
 " been concluded. Vegetable earths between beds of lava, do 
 " not exist; and the argillaceous earths, which are some 
 
MINERAL' AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 431) 
 
 What we have observed of the substance CONCLUSION. 
 and texture of granite, we shall extend to all 
 rocks which are truly of primitive formation ; 
 that is, rocks in which there exists no evi- 
 dence whatever of the recomposition of a 
 substance previously decomposed, but whose 
 grain displays that perfect uniformity and 
 homogeny, which cannot be the effect of any 
 known power or operation of what we term 
 nature. Being certified, by the principles of true 
 philosophy, that jirst formations could not have 
 been produced from a chaos, by any secondary 
 agents or laws of nature, but that they were 
 created, in the beginning, with the properties which 
 most conduced to the ends to which they were to 
 serve ; we shall consider the absence of all evi- 
 dence of secondary causes as demonstration, 
 that we are engaged with a substance whose 
 mode of Jirst formation was DIVINE CREATION. 
 
 " times found between them, may have been disposed there 
 " by causes totally independent of the antiquity of ./Etna. 
 " Jt is not in such facts that we are to trace the age of 
 " that volcano ; the deposits of the sea which cover its lavas, 
 " are much more certain proofs of its antiquity." Memoire 
 sur les Isles Ponces, p. 470, 1. We perceive, in the Mosaical 
 geology, that, as primitive volcanic action must have preceded 
 all marine deposits, so all marine deposits must necessarily 
 have followed the primitive discharge of volcanic matter. 
 
440 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION. Here then, upon this ALPINE SUMMIT; 
 instead of our mind roving with ceaseless 
 uncertainty and increasing perplexity, in spe- 
 culative contemplation of the primaeval ruins 
 'whose awful sublimities surround us on every 
 side; instead of committing ourselves to the 
 blind guidance of the mineral geology under 
 any of its Proteus forms, " prius imperitorum 
 " magistra quam doctorum discipula" or be- 
 traying ourselves to the stratagems of any 
 mode of infidel sophistry, we shall close the 
 eyes and ears of our imagination; and, with 
 the undisturbed illumination of our reason, 
 we shall pause and meditate upon the exalted 
 truths which reveal themselves before us. We 
 shall become perfectly sensible, that if "we 
 " feel after the Creator" of this stupendous 
 fabric, we shall most certainly "Jind HIM ;" 
 for that, " HE is not far from every one of 
 " us M" The idea of Nature, will perish from 
 the thought in the presence of HIM, " the 
 " same yestertfcy, to-day, and FOR EVER." We 
 shall know, that He is still surveying His own 
 glorious work, and pronouncing it to be " very 
 " good T In this presence, we shall feel and 
 exclaim like the apostle, 
 
 Acts, xvii. 27. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSA1CAL GEOLOGIES. 441 
 
 i " it is good for us to be HERE !" And, if CONCLUSION. 
 we here feel a desire, like him, " to make a taber- 
 " nacle," or, like the great mineral geologist, 
 " to build a Temple," we shall dedicate it to 
 " THAT WISDOM which was from everlasting, be- 
 " fore ever the earth was, by which the GREAT 
 " ARTIFICER founded the earth and established 
 " the heavens;" but, we shall assuredly not 
 admit into its ritual the psalter of " the chanter 
 " of nature," nor sing the stave, " Suave man 
 " magno," &c. 
 
 When, turning from the amazing monu- 
 ments of ihztjirst great revolution, and from 
 the contemplation of the providence and skill 
 which converted them into essential requisites 
 for the present earth, we survey the widely 
 extended plains moulded upon their irregular 
 bases, and view them, in thought, stretched^ 
 in succession over the entire surface of the 
 earth; when we observe the irresistible evi- 
 dence of the watery agent, which could alone 
 have spread them out in their continuity ; when 
 we see the interior soils of those plains crowded 
 every where with relics of marine organic for- 
 mations, and observe similar relics in many 
 of the eminences which rise above them ; when 
 the faces of rocks, and all the numberless ac- 
 cumulations of their fragments caused by the 
 Jirst revolution, show, by their smooth ex- 
 
442 A COMP ARATJVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION, teriors, and by the loss of their angles of 
 fracture, a very long and continued state of 
 trituration in a bed of waters; we shall be sen- 
 sible, that we are standing in the BED of a 
 VAST OCEAN, and shall inquire for the ele- 
 ment which once owned it for its " PLACE." 
 We shall plainly recognise the interval of time 
 which succeeded to that j^r^ brief but turbu- 
 lent revolution, and which left the ocean in pos- 
 session of that bed for 1656 years, " to bring 
 " forth abundantly after their kind the living 
 " creature that moveth," and " to Jill the waters 
 " of the sea;" and we shall thus, without any 
 difficulty, explain " the vestiges of that ancient 
 " and long-continued inundation which miner alo- 
 " gists suppose to have preceded that of Noah 1 :'" 
 vestiges, which the mineral geology could not 
 account for, but to account for which never- 
 theless, by the rule of its own ignorance, it 
 demanded the perversion, if not the contra- 
 diction, of the Mosaical record. 
 
 We shall distinctly perceive, that the diluvium, 
 or deluge of waters, took place only upon the earth 
 which was destroyed, according to the declara- 
 tion of the record ; and that the aqueous phe- 
 nomena, which we witness around us on every 
 
 See above, pp. 166, 7. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 
 
 443 
 
 side, exhibit the immediate consequence of that CONCLUSION. 
 diluvium, in the vacuity of the bed from which 
 the waters were transfused to overwhelm and 
 destroy that former earth. 
 
 The successions of the secondary strata, which 
 we perceive in penetrating deeply into this 
 evacuated bed, will demonstrate to us the primi- 
 tive operation of the departed .sea ; when, on 
 being first drawn into it, in the FIRST REVO- 
 LUTION, and rushing impetuously downwards 
 from the encircling boundaries into the new 
 profundity, its concentred violence stirred up, 
 and dissolved with agitation, all the loose 
 or soluble materials of the newly fractured and 
 fallen surface which it there encountered ; and 
 left them, while it regained its own tranquillity, 
 to be precipitated and deposited again upon 
 its bottom, according to the rule of their 
 respective gravities. 
 
 When we inspect hills or mountains whose 
 soils reveal themselves not to be of primi- 
 tive formation, by the recomp&sition of their 
 substances, and by the foreign matter which 
 they contain ; whatever be the hardness of 
 their present texture, or the magnitude of 
 their bulks, we shall recognise in them the 
 action of the sea, during its established 
 occupancy, but more especially, in the strange 
 and violent agitations which attended the last 
 stages of its retreat; agitations, altering and 
 
444 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION, increasing in mode and power, in proportion as 
 its diminished depth enabled it to transmit the 
 action of its surface with greater and greater 
 intensity to the yielding materials of its bed. 
 The rocky hardness which many of those masses 
 have since acquired, will declare to us the mode 
 by which their former plastic nature has be- 
 come fixed and consolidated. As, in the sea- 
 sand on the coast of Messina, near the gulf 
 of Charybdis ; which remains loose and incohe- 
 sive so long as it continues within the sea, 
 but, when driven upon the shore, becomes 
 cemented and indurated, by means of a cal- 
 careous fluid insinuated between its particles, 
 into a sand-stone of which mill-stones are made 1 ; 
 so, in the firmest and hardest of these com- 
 pound rocks, we shall discern evidence of their 
 former softness and pliancy, until the SECOND 
 REVOLUTION transferred the water from the 
 bed which it had so long occupied, and left 
 those aggerated masses of its basin to a 
 similar process of conglutination, exsiccation, 
 and induration. 
 
 We shall be aware, that in many cases 
 the exsiccation of enormous masses originally 
 saturated with the water of the departed sea, 
 must have been followed by vast failures and 
 
 1 D'Ausuissox, torn. i. p. 158 and 381. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 445 
 
 settlements ; by which, the planes of those masses CONCLUSION. 
 would be altered from their first directions in 
 various degrees between horizontal and ver- 
 tical, determinable principally by the surface 
 of the disordered primitive base on which they 
 were deposited, and, in the repeated instances 
 of such declinations occurring to our observa- 
 tion, we shall often see combined, the united 
 effects of the TWO REVOLUTIONS. 
 
 Of those two revolutions, and of the inter- 
 vening period of time, we shall recognise a 
 summary, and irrefutable evidence, in that 
 species of compound rock, which is vulgarly 
 called plum-pudding stone ; composed of con- 
 glutinated fragments of primitive rock, and found 
 in elevations above the level of the present waters 
 of the globe l . The substance of the several 
 fragments, will exhibit to us the grain and 
 texture of the FIRST FORMATION of the rock. 
 The actual fracture and separation of the parts, 
 will testify to the FIRST REVOLUTION ; " being 
 " fragments of ancient rocks, brought together 
 " by some mechanical agent ; and the re- 
 " suits, and therefore the indications, of a 
 " revolution in nature*," by which the primi- 
 
 1 Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. art. POUDINGUE. 
 3 D'AUBUISSON, torn. ii. p. 205. 
 
446 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION, tive continuous mass was violently broken in 
 ^ portions of all sizesj from the largest blocks 
 to the minutest sand l . The rounded forms 
 of the fragments, will bear witness to the 
 LONG SUCCEEDING PERIOD, during which 
 they were subjected to incessant trituration 
 in the sea ; by whose continual action their 
 angles of fracture were gradually worn down, 
 their present surfaces imparted, and themselves 
 finally congregated in a mass of marine cement. 
 Lastly ; the present hardness of that cement, 
 by which they are now become consolidated 
 into one compound mass, will attest to us the 
 SECOND REVOLUTION, in which the departure 
 of the sea left it, like the sea-sand of the Sicilian 
 coast, to the process of exsiccation ; and em- 
 powered the chemical principle to act, which 
 has effected that close and firm cohesion which 
 we witness. In these, therefore, we shall see 
 before our eyes an epitome of the Mosaic record ; 
 which cannot be read, otherwise than as we 
 here read it. Those several processes must 
 have followed each other, and in the order 
 of s-uccession in which they are here arranged ; 
 and they thus correspond to the record, as a 
 general table of contents. They note, exactly, 
 the changes intimated in the record ; and, what 
 
 1 See above, p. 292. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 447 
 
 is very remarkable, they neither note, nor CONCLUSION. 
 will admit the introduction of, any other. The 
 last of which, being acknowledged by the 
 mineral geology to be the last general revo- 
 lution which has taken place in the earth, we 
 need not seek for any later. 
 
 Finally; when we contemplate the dis- 
 charge of the primitive sea to the south- 
 ward of our present continents, and yet en- 
 counter the spoils of the southern continents 
 which it submerged buried in the most northern 
 regions of this its primitive bed ; we shall re- 
 cognise the ordained, and therefore the natural, 
 results of a vast ocean cast against a southern 
 coast, which presented to it resistances succes- 
 sively receding ; which successive recessions 
 caused it, in each succeeding advance, to flow 
 forward with a violence continually increasing ; 
 and, consequently, to return with a propor- 
 tionate reaction, loaded with accumulated spoils 
 animal and vegetable, into the northern regions 
 from which it had proceeded. 
 
 We shall thus contemplate, compare, and 
 reduce into their true order of time, the effects of 
 the two revolutions, and of the intermediate period 
 between the two. To one or other of these, sub- 
 sequently to first formation or creation, we shall 
 refer every revolutionary phenomenon common to 
 the earth ; and we shall account it unscientific, 
 
448 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION, unskilful, and visionary, to suggest any other 
 general revolution, besides these which are so 
 powerfully and so thoroughly authenticated. 
 We shall -be quite sensible, that none preceded 
 the first of these ; that none has followed the last; 
 and further, that none intervened between the 
 two. Where we are absolutely unable to trace 
 particular relations between effects and their 
 immediate causes, we shall consider ourselves 
 to have reached the boundary of our know- 
 ledge; but we shall never consent, much less 
 shall we attempt, to explore beyond that boun- 
 dary under the illusory and desperate guidance 
 of anti-Mosaical theory and hypothesis. " Igno- 
 " ranee," said De Luc, "often differs from what is 
 <f called knowledge, only by a less degree of error. 
 " It ought to be inculcated upon all men, that, 
 " next to the positive knowledge of things 
 " which may be known, the most important science 
 " is to know how to be ignorant.* I dont know,' 
 " ought to be a frequent answer of all teachers 
 " to their pupils, to accustom them to make 
 " the same answer, without feeling ashamed*" 
 A golden maxim! but, which it behoves the 
 teacher to practise, as well as to inculcate. The 
 French have a rude truth in proverbial saying : 
 
 1 Lett, sur FHistoirc de la Terre, torn. i. p. 228. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 449 
 
 _ v'/.j zLd . 
 ' On feroit un gros volume de tout ce que vous CONCLUSION, 
 
 " ne savez pas." Shakspeare speaks to the same 
 point, but with more dignity, when he says ; 
 
 There ate more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy ! 
 
 This is a truth, which bears with its full 
 
 force upon every one of us ; and certainly, not 
 , , ,i i , - in 
 
 least upon the mineral geology. 
 
 It was doubtless through inadvertency, that a 
 recent able and ingenious critic suffered himself 
 to be drawn into the following remark. " From 
 " architecture, the earth derives its moral phy- 
 " siognomy. Inanimate nature forms no part of 
 " human nature ; it is only when we behold 
 " the productions of men, that we connect Her 
 " with the human kind. The naked spires of 
 " primitive granite, losing themselves in the 
 " clouds, the course of the river, the strati/I- 
 " cation of the soil, relate the revolutions of 
 " the globe during successive ages. Tre- 
 " mendous convulsions are indicated by these 
 " tokens ; but, the accidents of inert matter are, 
 " perhaps, of less immediate interest, and cer- 
 " tainly of less immediate importance to us, than 
 " the events which raised the obelisk and the 
 " pyramid, the temple and the tower, the basilic 
 " and the hall. These are the memorials of 
 " human civilization ; marking the progress of 
 
450 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE . 
 
 CONCLUSION. " the mind, attesting man's power, his virtues * 
 " and his crimes 1 ." 
 
 I must frankly confess, that my judgment 
 reverses the whole of this reasoning. But then 
 it is, from denying all the premises : that the 
 spires of primitive granite, the courses of rivers, 
 and the stratification of the soil, can only be 
 contemplated as inert matter; that there is 
 nothing moral, in these features of the earth's 
 physiognomy ; that the revolutions of the globe, 
 have been mere accidents of matter ; and there- 
 fore, that they are certainly of inferior import- 
 ance to us. From denying all these premises, 
 I am obliged to assert ; that those human monu- 
 ments, the obelisk and the pyramid, the temple 
 and the tower, the basilic and the hall, with 
 all their venerable honours of decay, vanish 
 from importance and from thought, in com- 
 parison with the Divine monuments presented, 
 .for the highest moral contemplation, in the spires 
 of granite and the courses of rivers, surveyed 
 by the light of the Mosaical geology. 
 
 The former of those monuments, tell us only 
 of that which is gone by for ever, and from which, 
 therefore, our being can never derive a positive, 
 real, and permanent interest ; whereas the 
 
 ! Quarterly Review, No. 49, p. 1 1 7. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 45 1 
 
 latter, in leading the thoughts by an indissoluble CONCLUSION. 
 chain from what " was" and what " is" to 
 that which " is to come" gives forethought of 
 an interest, most positive, most real, and most 
 permanent. The Mosaical geology, by putting 
 us familiarly in possession of convulsions and 
 revolutions which have actually taken place, 
 capacitates us to adapt our forward view 
 to that revolution which still impends, and which 
 will 'ultimately and certainly take effect. And, 
 while it acquaints us, that the earth which 
 then was being overflowed with water perished, 
 and, " that there shall be no more A FLOOD to 
 destroy the earth;' it brings our mind into an 
 ability to apprehend the reality of that , as- 
 surance of the oracle which pronounces, in 
 exposition of the latter sentence, "the earth 
 " which NOW - is, is reserved for FIRE:" of the 
 existence and presence of which element, as a 
 constituent principle in our globe, we possess 
 evidence as sensible, as constant, and as uni- 
 versal, as that which the first race of mankind 
 possessed of the surrounding watery dement, 
 whose agency was foreshown to them, by the 
 same oracle, as the instrumental means of the 
 destruction of their earth. With this consider- 
 ation, therefore, the thoughts naturally travel 
 forward, in contemplation of another earth, * 
 promised by the same oracle to succeed to 
 
A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION, this ; not figurative or allegorical, but real and 
 actual, though of a very different nature from 
 the present; in which, though " mans virtues" 
 will indeed be admitted, " mans crimes" will 
 for ever be excluded *. 
 
 This is a subject of contemplation well 
 qualified to regulate and adjust our estimate, 
 both of this mineral mass, which so powerfully 
 attracts and engages the energies of the mineral 
 geology, and of the pyramid and basilic, the 
 obelisk and tower, which are wasting to decay 
 upon its surface. It must tend, to turn our 
 
 meditations from too earnest an admiration of 
 
 ' " ' " ~ : ' ' . ' ' 
 
 this xooyxof this material fabric, to a due con- 
 templation of the KOO-/XOTTOIO?, the eternal and 
 almighty Artificer 2 ; whose ulterior purposes 
 with respect to us, are not confined to a 
 structure, of j eld-spat h, mica, and quartz. Thus, 
 the Mosaical geology not only directs our view 
 backward in time, to the origin of the globe, 
 
 but it prompts US to look, <*/*<* Trpoo-trw xat OTTiO-o-w 
 
 not merely back, to the past, but forward also, 
 to the future, the latter of which is, assuredly, 
 arij object not less worthy of philosophical con- 
 templation than the former; since the former, we 
 
 never can witness, but the latter, we most certainly 
 
 > > j 
 
 shall witness. And thus it will be found, that the 
 
 1 2 Pet. iii. 13. * See above, p. 112. 
 
 9$3Ot?r o: flrwj'lO VfCtb'* c '** * v 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES, 453 
 
 earth derives a far sublimer, and more pro- CONCLUSION. 
 foundly stamped moral physiognomy, from its 
 features of " inanimate nature" its " naked spires 
 " of primitive granite" and its awful " tokens. 
 " of convulsions and revolutions;' 9 than it can 
 possibly derive from all the united works which 
 " mans power and his crimes" have been able 
 to achieve in architecture, from thejirst pyramid 
 raised in Egypt, down to the column in the 
 Place Vendome. 
 
 " During a long time," observes M. Cuvier, 
 " two events or epochas only, the CREATION and 
 " the DELUGE, were admitted as comprehend- 
 " ing the changes which have occurred upon 
 " the globe; and all the efforts of geologists 
 " were directed to account for the present 
 " actual state of the earth, by arbitrarily 
 " ascribing to it a certain primitive state, after- 
 " wards changed and modified by the deluge 1 " 
 
 " At that period? observes M. D'Aubuisson, 
 " when all scientific questions were submitted 
 " to the rule of theology, those facts, as manifest 
 " as they were remarkable, (of animal and 
 " vegetable substances found in the midst of 
 " mineral masses,) were ascribed to an universal 
 " deluge; and it was long disputed, how it 
 " could have effected them 2 ." 
 
 Th. of the Eart/i, \ 19. p. 6. * Disc. Prel. p. 4. 
 
454 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 ^ **. 
 
 CONCLUSION. I beg leave, in terminating this disquisition, to 
 tell those two great and valuable naturalists, with 
 all the respect which is personally due to them, 
 and which I sincerely entertain towards them 
 both; that, until they shall " ask for the OLD 
 " PATHS, and walk therein 1 ," until they shall sim- 
 plify their systems, and reduce their " numerous 
 " revolutions" to the " two events or epochas 
 " only, the six DAYS OF CREATIOX and the 
 " DELUGE," they will never "find rest" for 
 their science of mineral geology. The difficulties 
 which have attended, and the errors which 
 have followed, inquiries concerning the fossil 
 phenomena of the earth, are in no manner 
 chargeable upon theology, considered in itself ; 
 but have resulted from two separate causes, 
 unskilfulness of theologists in physics, and un- 
 skilfulness of physical philosophers in theology. 
 
 When I thus use the word theology, I do so 
 only in conformity to the writer last quoted ; for, 
 the question does not relate to theology gene- 
 rally, but, to that part of it alone which respects 
 the sacred history in particular. I should there- 
 fore have said with more propriety, that 
 those errors have resulted from unskilfulness of 
 theologists in physics, and of physical philo- 
 
 Jerem* vi, 16. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 455 
 
 sophers in the. sacred history. The question at CONCLUSION, 
 issue, is a compound question ; it is both physical 
 and historical ; for, it seeks the historical truth 
 of a physical fact. It is therefore indispensably 
 necessary to understand, both the physical fact 
 which is to be accounted for, and the history 
 which undertakes to account for it ; before we can 
 be duly prepared to assert or to deny the con- 
 cord of the history with the fact. Theologians, 
 formerly,were not accurately skilled in physics ; 
 and physical philosophers were very imperfectly 
 instructed in the history, that, is, in, the original 
 document ; and from thence resulted, great and 
 irreconcilable discordancies between them. 
 But, many theologians, at the present day, 
 apply their minds to physics with the same 
 ardour as physical professors ; and, if the latter 
 would apply their minds, with the same -dili- 
 gence and industry, to scrutinize and under- 
 stand the sacred history, the result would pro- 
 bably be, an union of opinions in both, and an 
 ascription of all the general revolutionary phae- 
 nomena of the earth to those two events only, the 
 CREATION and the DELUGE ; that is, to the two 
 revolutions effected in those two great periods, 
 inclusive of the time intervening between. the two: 
 as, I think, has been not unsuccessfully shown 
 in the preceding discussion. 
 
 And here I must freely acknowledge, that if 
 
A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 CONCLUSION, physical science has often betrayed a preci- 
 pitate and irreverent temper, in rejecting the 
 causes assigned from the record, by theological 
 learning, for the mineral phenomena of the 
 globe ; theological learning, on the other hand, 
 has not been sufficiently accurate, in the expo- 
 sition of the record which it has presented to 
 physical science for its acceptance. It has 
 propounded only one universal revolution of the 
 globe, inadequate to all the effects which are 
 so manifestly experienced ; whereas we have 
 seen, that THE RECORD really, and most dis- 
 tinctly, points out to us two revolutions. But, 
 those two sufficiently indicate the causes of all 
 the revolutionary phenomena, for which one 
 revolution was insufficient, and for which more 
 than two are unnecessary. And therefore, it is 
 for the mineral geology now to return from the 
 theoretical excursions into which the insuf- 
 ficiency of that one revolution had driven it; 
 and to conform and adapt its science to so 
 authoritative a document, after that its con- 
 tents have been thoroughly investigated, and 
 accurately ascertained. 
 
 I do not include, in this remark, its chaotic re- 
 volutions, devised for the sole purpose of maintain- 
 ing a chemical mode of mineral first formations, 
 and which pertain to the former parts of this 
 inquiry; all these, like " gorgons, and hydras, 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGlfcS. 
 
 457 
 
 *' and chimeras dire," and all other spawnings of CONCLUSION. 
 a misordered fancy, are to be at once extin- 
 guished upon another account ; their intolerable 
 offence to genuine reason, sound philosophy, and 
 true religion. So long as the mineral geology 
 shall continue to rest its science upon such 
 phantasmata, it will be as remote from the 
 real truth of things as " the chanter of Nature " 
 who likewise taught, $ 
 
 The various molecules of Nature's frame, 
 Of air, of earth, of sea, of liquid flame ; . 
 How, aggregated wide in space, they all 
 Grew from those elements to this fair ball ; 
 How, the moist soil condensing by degrees, 
 Press'd from the hardening mass the exuded seas, 
 Till Earth at length Her perfect form assumed 1 . 
 
 If it be asked, to which particular form 
 of the mineral geology I direct this remark? 
 I answer, to every form. Certainly, there 
 is none which is better entitled to it than 
 -the Protogcea*, or geological hypothesis, of the 
 celebrated Leibnitz ; the great rival, and an- 
 tagonist, of our own superior Newton, whose 
 ch aract eristic principle was , "HYPOTHESES NON 
 
 1 VIRG. Eel. vi. 31. 
 
 fi Acta Erud. Lips. Jan. 1693. p. 40. 
 H H 
 
i 
 
 458 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE 
 
 FINGO I FRAME NO HYPOTHESES 1 ." " / 
 
 " Believe, (professes that bold and fearless 
 " speculator,) that our globe was at one pe- 
 " riod in a state similar to that of a burn- 
 " ing mountain : the rocks, which are as it 
 " were the bones of the earth -Us ossemens de la 
 " terre were the scoria, or vitrifications of that 
 " ancient confusion; the sand, is nothing but the 
 ' ' glass of that vitrification pulverized by motion; 
 " the water of the sea, is a sort of oleum per 
 " deliquium, caused by cooling after calcination. 
 " Here, then, are three materials widely ex- 
 " tended over the surface of our globe, namely, 
 " the sea, the rocks, and the sand, explained 
 " naturally enough by FIRE ; and which it would 
 " not be easy to account for by any other H v PO- 
 " THESIS. This water, at one period covered 
 " all the globe, and caused in it many changes 
 ' even before the deluge of Noah 2 ." 
 
 In this portentous formulary of hypothetical 
 faith, we can have no difficulty to perceive, that 
 the sublimest intelligence, when it forces a pro- 
 gress beyond the guidance of reason and evi- 
 dence, and is determined to travel forward 
 under the conduct of fancy and speculation 
 
 1 Schol. Gen. Pr. Math. iii. injin. 
 
 2 LEIBNITZH Opera, torn. vi. p. 213. 
 
MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES. 459 
 
 alone, passes into a lunar sphere ; and the quint- CONCLUSION. 
 essence of ingenuity which it therein concocts, 
 is indeed found, on cooling, to be a production 
 per deliquium sc. " sanitatis ac mentis." The 
 MODE of the first formations of the mineral 
 substances composing this globe, is a matter cf 
 fact which lies as far beyond the scrutiny of 
 any mineral geology, whether by scientific 
 inspection or chemical analysis, whether by the 
 method of water or the method of Jire, as the 
 mode of the first formation of the bones of Adam, 
 or of the wood of the trees of Paradise ; and it is 
 not theology that pronounces this, but, " sound 
 " physics, exact logic, and the philosophy of 
 " Bacon and Newton'" 
 
 We are told that Archimedes affirmed, 
 that he could raise the globe of this earth 
 by the powers of mechanism, if he could 
 only find a place on which to fix the fulcrum 
 of his lever; but, as he knew that he could 
 not find such a place, he did not give himself the 
 trouble to seek for it. The CHAOTIC CEO GO NY, 
 in its attempt to determine the mode of first 
 formations by secondary causes, resembles 
 Archimedes and his school, not merely seek- 
 ing for the place, but confident that they had 
 found it, and busily engaged in the operation of 
 elevation ; and the contradictory hypotheses of 
 that geogony, resemble the disputes which in 
 
460 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE, &c. 
 
 CONCLUSION, that case might very probably arise, concerning 
 the fittest point of the place for fixing the fulcrum. 
 I here close this Comparative Estimate of the 
 two guides, which offer themselves to conduct 
 us to a secure knowledge of the history of our 
 globe, with respect to the MODES of its first 
 formations, and of its subsequent changes. It 
 only now remains for us, to determine our 
 selection between the two ; and to decide, whether 
 we will choose the MINERAL GEOLOGY, with 
 its nature and time, its chaos and chemistry; 
 or, whether we will unite with BACON and 
 NEWTON in adhering firmly to the MOSAIC A L 
 GEOLOGY, founded, altogether and exclusively, 
 upon the CREATIVE WISDOM, the CREATIVE 
 POWER, and the CREATIVE FIAT, of ALMIGHTY 
 GOD! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY J. MOVES, GREVILLE STREET. 
 

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