THE CONGREGATIONAL LECTURE.
SIXTH SERIES.
SCRIPTURE AND GEOLOGY,
REV. DR. PYE SMITH.
NEW-YORK :
UNIVERSITY PRESS.-J. F. TROW, PRINTER, 114 NASSAU-STREET.
ON THE
RELATION
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
AND SOME PARTS OF
GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE.
JOHN PYE SMITH, D.D. F.G.S.
DIVINITY TUTOR IN THE PROTESTANT DISSENTING COLLEGE AT HOMERTON.
NEW-YORK:
D. APPLETON & CO. 200 BROADWAY
1840.
Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, un-
doubtedly ranks, in the scale of the sciences, next to Astronomy.
Sir John F. W. Herschel.
There is a knowledge which creates doubts that nothing but a larger knowledge
can satisfy ; and he who stops in the difficulty will be perplexed and uncomfortable
for life. Mr. Sharon Turner.
PREFACE
The following lectures were prepared and delivered,
by the appointment of the Committee of the Congrega-
tional Lecture, under some peculiarity of circumstances.
The appointment was unexpected, and the notice unavoid-
ably short. Several parts therefore, and those referring
to subjects of the greatest importance, were treated in a
manner too brief, and indeed extemporaneously : but to
the kind and attentive audience the promise was given
that, if the publication should take place, the author would
supply those deficiencies. This he has endeavoured to
do, partly by filling up the portions which, in the delivery,
were but sketched, and partly by adding Notes, both on
the immediate pages, and in a Supplementary Appendix.
The reader will perceive that numerous citations are
introduced. For this, no apology is requisite : and, in-
deed, so richly interesting are the most of those passages,
that it would have been a wrong to the subject and to the
reader to have withheld them. Another circumstance
proves their importance and even necessity. The facts
which are the basis of geological reasonings can be
known to the majority even of well educated persons,
1*
VI PREFACE.
only by testimony ; as, in the greater number of instan-
ces, they are to the author himself. To bring forwards,
therefore, the statements of the most competent authori-
ties, in their own words, is due to the right position of
the subject and to the satisfaction of the reader. Should
it be objected, that some of those citations contain reas-
onings and opinions, besides statements of fact ; the re-
ply is that they are the reasonings and opinions of men
who thoroughly understood the grounds upon which they
are built ; and that, therefore, the inferences which such
men have seen to be just, are entitled to stand in the next
line of authority to their testimony as eye-witnesses and
labourers in the great field. It involves no disrespect to
the multitude of pious and intelligent persons, to say that
they cannot form an independent opinion upon many
subjects in Natural Philosophy. It is no dishonour to
accept the conclusions of Newton and his followers,
though we confess ourselves unable to read the Principia.
ADVERTISEMENT.
(by the committee of the congregational library.)
The <c Congregational Library" was established with a
view to the promotion of Ecclesiastical, Theological, and Biblical
Literature, in that religious connexion with whose friends and
supporters it originated. It was also designed to secure a con-
venient locality for such associations as had previously existed, or
might hereafter exist, for the purpose of advancing the literary,
civil, and religious interests of that section of the Christian Church
to which it was appropriated. Without undervaluing the advanta-
ges of union, either with Evangelical Protestants, or Protestant
Nonconformists, on such grounds as admit of liberal co-operation,
it was nevertheless deemed expedient to adopt measures for facili-
tating the concentration and efficiency of their own denomination.
In connexion with these important objects, it was thought desira-
ble to institute a Lecture, partaking rather of the character of
Academic prelections than of popular addresses, and embracing a
Series of Annual Courses of Lectures, to be delivered at the
Library, or, if necessary, in some contiguous place of worship. In
the selection of Lecturers, it was judged proper to appoint such as,
by their literary attainments and ministerial reputation, had ren-
dered service to the cause of divine truth in the consecration of
their talents to the "defence and confirmation of the gospel." It
was also supposed, that some might be found possessing a high
order of intellectual competency and moral worth, imbued with an
ardent love of biblical science, or eminently conversant with theo-
logical and ecclesiastical literature, who, from various causes,
might never have attracted that degree of public attention to which
they are entitled, and yet might be both qualified and disposed to
X CONTENTS.
LECTURE IV. Page 89.
Genesis vi. 17. And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon
the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under
heaven : and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Continuation of apparent discrepancies between Geological doc-
trines and the testimony of Scripture, as generally understood. VI.
Concerning the Deluge. The reason for that judicial infliction, in the
righteous government of God. The testimony of history and tradi-
tion. Common ascription of geological phenomena to the Deluge :
erroneous.-—
LECTURE V. Page 107.
2 Peter ix. 5. God spared not the old world, — bringing the flood upon
the world of the ungodly.
Continuation. More accurate and discriminating inquiry. Inves-
tigation of the masses of rolled stony fragments which have been at-
tributed to the diluvial action. Those masses found to be of different
character and age. Effect of the investigation upon the convictions of
the most eminent geologists. Evidence from phenomena in Auvergne
and Languedoc. The quantity of water requisite for a deluge geo-
graphically universal. The effect of such an addition to the bulk of
the earth. The reception of animals in the ark. Other difficulties.
LECTURE VI.
Part I. Page 140.
1 Thessalonians v. 21. Prove all things : hold fast that which is good.
Examination of various methods which have been proposed for the
removal of the difficulties and alleged contradictions, between Geology
and the Scriptures. I. Denial of any difficulty, by shutting the eyes
to the evidence of geological facts, and representing the inquiry as im-
pious.
Part II. Page 165.
II. Sacrificing the Mosaic records, as unintelligible, or as being the
language of mythic poetry. III. Regarding the Mosaic six days as
designed to represent indefinite periods. IV. Attributing stratification
and other geological phenomena to the interval between the Adamic
creation and the Deluge, and the action of the diluvial waters.
CONTENTS. XI
Part III. Page 184.
Examination continued of the diluvial theory.
LECTURE VII.
Part I. Page 199.
Psalm xii. 6. The words of the Lord are pure icords ; as silver tried in
a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
The certain and infallible truth of all that is taught in the Holy
Scriptures, when taken in its own genuine sense. Our duty to elicit
that sense. Induction and examination of the forms of language used
in Scripture to convey to man a knowledge of the Nature and Perfec-
tions of God. The gracious condescension and benefit of this method,
for the religious instruction of mankind. This character of the scrip-
tural style displayed in the descriptions of natural objects. General
rule of interpretation hence derived. Superiority of the Christian dis-
pensation.
Part II. Page 227.
Application of the principle established, to the interpretation of
the narrative concerning the Creation. The independent position of
the first sentence. The subsequent description refers to a limited re-
gion of the earth. The series of operations. The human creation.
Death, before the fall of man.— The same principle applied to the fact
of the Deluge, which is shown to have been universal as to the extent of
the human population, but not geographically universal.— Concluding
vindication of the principle, and its applications, as irrefutable, and
absolutely necessary for maintaining the honour of the word of God.
LECTURE VIII. Page. 260.
Ecclesiastes xii. 13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter;
Fear God, and keep his commandments : for this is the whole of man.
Religion the perfection of our nature. The duty of scientific stu-
dies, especially in a course of education. Exhortations to personal
efforts for improvement. Peculiar claims of Geology. The proper
accompaniments of scientific pursuits. Advantage to the comforts of
life. Moral uses. Responsibility to the just and holy God. Interest
and urgency of these considerations. The rational claims and attrac-
tions of religion.
Xll CONTENTS.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
A, referred to at pages 9 and 242.
On the question respecting Death ; and on Geological Study in gene-
ral 289
B, referring to pages 60 and 61.
On the number of species in the earlier Fossiliferous Rocks. Death
of Dr. William Smith 302
C, referred to at page 1 38.
On the Longevity of Trees 304
C C, referring to pages 126—131.
Christian Piety in the Puy de Dome 306
D, referred to at page 188.
On Dr. George Young's Scriptural Geology 309
E, referred to at pages 74 and 197.
On the Evidence of a very High Antiquity of the Earth 316
F, referred to at. page 226.
Sentiments of John George Rosenmuller, Bishop Bird Sumner, and
Mr. Conybeare, on the initial portion of the book of Genesis 344
F F, referred to at page 231.
Extracts from Wiseman and Hitchcock, on the reference of the Mo-
saic Records to Geological Truths 347
G, referred to at page 235.
On the Duty of these Investigations ; and in Vindication of Dr.
Buckland 349
G G, referring to page 253.
On Mount Ararat 354
H, referred to at page 285.
The Geological Society vindicated from misrepresentation 355
ON THE RELATION
BETWEEN
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
ND SOME PABTS OF
GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE.
LECTURE I.
Psalm cxi. 2. The works of the Lord are great, sought
out of all them that have pleasure therein.
Geology so seeks out the works of the Most High.
It has claims upon the regard of all cultivated and pious
minds. It leads us to study that which God has made our
earthly abode, in its present state, filled with monuments
of past conditions, and presages, I venture to think, of the
future. It leads us into some acquaintance with a mag-
nificent part of the counsel of Jehovah's will, according
to which He worketh all things ; the machine of depen-
dent beings and subordinate causes, by which the Supreme
Cause accomplishes his purposes of wisdom and right-
eousness. We see those causes to be the same in their
nature, and similar in their mode of operation, now, as
in countless ages past ; though diffenng through a wide
rano-e in the intensity of their action and the form of
their results.
Rain, rills and rivers, aided by the electric and chem-
ical and mechanical agency of the atmosphere, are con-
tinually wearing away the solid earth, transporting it into
the estuaries of the sea, and committing it to the currents
2
14 COMPREHENSION AND DESIGN OF GEOLOGY.
which spread it out upon the ocean-bed. There the spoils
of the land are added to the defunct shells and skeletons
of marine life, the astonishing amount of the works of
men, and the millions of human skeletons which, through
more than fifty centuries, have been swallowed up in the
watery deep. At the time Avhich inviolable justice has
fixed, " the sea shall give up her dead." Can it be
thought improbable that the operations which are now in
progress, in the dark abyss, and at its greatest depths,
are subservient to the righteous proceedings of that day,
the finishing of the mystery of God as to this one por-
tion of his ways ; — the termination of man's existence as
an animal-species upon earth, but his resurrection to an
immortal life, a new sphere of being, the possession of a
more exquisite organization, which, in a manner incon-
ceivable to our present faculties, will be incomparably
more effective for the highest purposes of mind than that
which we now possess 1 — We trace the monuments of
change to early and still earlier conditions, carrying us
back to the grand simplicity of elementary creation : and
we are permitted to contemplate the all-surrounding
proofs that our globe only waits the will of the Almighty
Being, to develope its mechanical and chemical forces ;
and, if that will have so ordained, " the heavens," the at-
mospheric constitution, " shall pass away with a great
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the
earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned
up."*
The design of geological studies is to acquire a satis-
factory knowledge of the substances (airs, water, earth,
stones, and metals,) which in different combinations and
arrangements, form the accessible parts of the planet as-
signed by the Almighty Creator for our present dwelling-
2 Pet. iii. 10.
PREREQUISITES. 15
place ; and of the changes through which they have
passed and are passing ; with a view to the enlargement
of human knowledge, the promotion of our present hap-
piness, and the celebration of His perfections " of whom,
and through whom, and to whom are all things."
It is obvious that this is an attractive field of investi-
gation, promising not only to be productive of intellec-
tual pleasure, but to bring many and great benefits to the
arts of usefulness and comfort in life, and to furnish inter-
esting discoveries of the power, wisdom, and goodness of
Him who exists independently and by necessity of nature,
possessed of all perfections, the designing cause and
active sustainer of all other beings, and to whom it is
equally our duty arid our happiness to render the highest
veneration and love and homage.
It is not less obvious, that this study cannot be under-
taken, with any reasonable hope of success, without the
aid of some other branches of natural science. Indeed,
to so high a point have the pursuits of Natural History
and Natural Philosophy been raised in our day, that it is
no longer possible for one department to be cultivated,
with the hope of success and so as to avoid the danger of
falling into egregious mistakes, without some acquaint-
ance with the others. This fact has been both proved
and elucidated, with equal force of reasoning and elegance
of manner, by a lady of extraordinary attainments, in her
work entitled The Connexion of the Physical Sciences.
The substances which compose the external part of
our earth, and which present themselves sometimes in a
simple state but generally in various forms of composi-
tion, must be ascertained by their external appearance ;
and such knowledge is the science of the Mineralogist.
But their inward nature, and the states of union in which
we find them, must also be known ; together with the
principles or laws, as they are usually called, which reg*
16 PREREQUISITES.
ulate those states of union, preventing or separating some,
favouring and effectuating others : and this cannot be
without Chemical knowledge. In the production of geo-
logical formations and their subsequent changes of posi-
tion, the common law of gravitation and other regular
modes of attraction and repulsion, have performed and
are always performing an important part : the investiga-
tion of those modes of action cannot be attempted, with
the least hope of success, but by the application of math-
ematical Dynamics. The larger number of the earthy
and stony masses which we have to study contain, in im-
mense multitudes, the skeletons, the coverings, whether
adherent integuments or such as supply the place of hab-
itations, and various other remains of animals ; and the
substance, or mineral matter moulded upon the substance,
of vegetable species, trunks, stems, leaves, and fruits : it
is therefore indispensable to the right understanding of
geological facts, that a competent knowledge should be
obtained of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, and of
Botany according to a Natural System.* It must further
be remarked, that the best books and the richest cabinets
are not sufficient to convey complete ideas ; but to closet-
study must be added personal inspection of the face of a
country, of sea-cliffs and beaches, of mountain-sides,
rocky precipices, land-slips, and ravines ; besides every
kind of artificial excavation ; and this labour, in travel-
ling and exploring, must be carried to an extent greater
* "It is now admitted on all hands, that no man can be qualified to
enter any of the highest walks of science, who is acquainted with only one
branch of natural knowledge; and the mutual dependence of them all is
now so positively demonstrated, that the philosopher of our days can no
longer be allowed to remain satisfied with those inquiries which belong
exclusively to any single branch, but must extend his investigations over
the whole range of sciences, and illuminate his path by the varied combi-
nations of them all." Prof. Buckland's Vindicise Geologicae ; his Inau-
gural Lecture, 1819; p. 10.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 17
than can be expected from most individuals, though there
are eminent men who have personally achieved wonders
in this respect. There are Geologists who have devoted
severe and self-denying toil, exposure to great perils, and
vast expense, through the best years of life, to this
object ; and, with a noble disinterestedness, they com-
municate the results of their untiring exertions. Those
results are, by themselves and other qualified persons,
brought together, scrutinized, compared, connected ; and
then, by publication, exposed to the renewed criticism of
the scientific world : so that, in the issue, ample know-
ledge has been obtained, and that knowledge resting upon
rigorously examined evidence, of the geological condi-
tions of Europe generally ; of large districts in North
and South America, India, and Central and Western Asia ;
and of some portions of Africa, Australia, and the Isles of
the Pacific Ocean.
It may not unreasonably be alleged, that few persons
are qualified to this extent. To this objection we reply,
1. Though they may be few, compared with the gen-
eral population of any country, yet, if we take the ag-
gregate of persons possessed of the qualifications required,
in an eminent degree, we shall find them to rise to a very
high amount, in Europe and the European settlements
throughout the earth. Here might be mentioned a long
line of illustrious names, both British and foreign, whom
it would be a delight to honour ; but I deny myself the
pleasure of so doing, because, though the catalogue of
those whose names instantly rise in an admiring and grate-
ful memory would be very considerable, many of high and
probably equal merit would be omitted, and thus no little
injustice would be inflicted.*
* I venture to adapt to this topic the words of Leclerc. " Whoever
attempts this, study should well understand what a task he undertakes,
and by what laws he must- be governed : or else he will be a mo3t infeli-
2*
18 VERACITY OF SCIENTIFIC MEN.
2. It is no extravagance to affirm that the distinguished
men to whom I allude, and who have given us the de-
tails of their travels and labours, are entitled personally
to the fullest credit of their testimony upon the facts
and scenery which they describe. Yet, if any person,
moved, I doubt not, by honourable and even religious
principles, should allow a painful suspicion still to lurk
in his mind, let him consider that the individual veracity
of persons of the finest talents and the greatest advan-
tages of education, and whose integrity is unquestionable,
is not our only guarantee ; but that the number of explorers
and observers is great, that they belong to different nations
and parties, and are subject to be influenced by various
interests and prepossessions, so that the correction of any
involuntary mistake is sure and speedy ; but if superficial
observation, or negligent statement, or designed misrepre-
sentation, were to occur, the detection would be prompt
and the penalty severe, in a public forfeiture of character
and confidence. From some measure of knowledge and
some care in observation, I feel myself bound in duty to
profess my thorough persuasion, that the firmest reliance
may be placed on the reports and descriptions for which
we are indebted to the most distinguished geologists of
our time.
citous critic [geologist ;] and, instead of reaping that high honour which
men of real erudition [and science] have obtained from this art, he will
become contemptible and ridiculous. I think I hear my reader asking me,
Whether I myself look for any portion of this honour? 1 will only
venture to say, that I do not profess this arduous and hazardous study,
though I highly honour those who do profess it, and have long read their
writings with great pleasure, from which perhaps some tinge may have
adhered to me/' From a larger quotation out of his Ars. Critica, in Pye
Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, Vol. ill. p. 25, third ed. Yet,
if any should suspect me of being captivated by novelty and ensnared by
a precipitate disposition, I take leave to say that these are not to me the
studies of yesterday, and that I have professed and taught the leading
sentiments of this volume, within my own circle of connexions, for at
least five and thirty years.
AFFINITY OF KNOWLEDGE. 19
3. All the natural sciences ramify into each other, in
so extensive a manner, that their points of contact show
themselves perpetually. This fact not only brings to view
the necessity of the combination of these parts of know-
ledge, but it creates an ardent desire for practically effect-
ing it ; it opens numerous avenues in to the domain of other
sciences ; it suggests methods of proceeding for making
the desired acquirements ; and, while we feel ourselves
obliged to submit to the necessity of being but imperfect-
ly acquainted with many parts of the field, we are pre-
served (if we maintain a becoming moral discipline) from
the vanity and pedantry of half-knowledge, we are enabled
to apprehend with accuracy what we do learn, and we
gain safe positions from which, when the opportunity
may occur, we can make further advances.
4. Any person of good mental faculties and liberal edu-
cation, if he will take the pains of attention and some
self-cultivation, may acquire an ability to draw satisfactory
inferences from the facts recited and the reasonings pro-
pounded in the best geological works ; or at least to exer-
cise an unpresuming judgment whether the conclusions
are sound which others have drawn.
But it cannot be denied and ought not to be suppress-
ed, that a different view of the whole matter is taken by
many estimable persons. The objects of geological inves-
tigation, especially in the department of organic remains,
are in the highest degree attractive : casual allusions and
fragments of information float plentifully in the atmosphere
of social intercourse, so that none but the incurious can
fail to hear something : and the periodical papers of
the day have occasionally paragraphs of wonder, upon
real or alleged geological discoveries ; which frequently
indeed turn out to be the echoes of ignorance. Hence,
the assumption is easily made, that the circuit of this kind
of knowledge may be filled up by any young and ardent
20 UNJUST IMPUTATIONS;
mind, with a small degree of trouble and a little easy read-
ing ; without laying in even a moderate share of the pre-
requisites. Above all, it is incumbent upon us to be aware,
that a vague idea has obtained circulation, that certain
geological doctrines are at variance with the Holy Scrip-
tures. This notion works with pernicious effect. The
semblance of discrepancy is indeed undeniable ; but I pro-
fess my conviction that it is nothing but a semblance, and
that, like many other difficulties on all important subjects
which have tried the intellect of man, it vanishes before
careful and sincere examination. The naked fact, how-
ever, the mere appearance, is eagerly laid hold of by some
irreligious men, and is made an excuse for dismissing from
their minds any serious regard to the Law and Gospel
of GOD, and any rational investigation of the Evidences
of Revelation ; for they are very willing to assume that
Christianity is either a mass of obsolete prejudices, or a
theory so labouring under heavy suspicion as to have but
slender claims upon a philosopher's attention. In the oppo-
site extreme, many excellent persons, devout and practical
Christians, knowing that " the word of our God shall stand
for ever," feel no desire to become acquainted with the
real merits of the question ; and sit down with a persua-
sion, that geological theories are visionary plausibilities,
each having its day of fashion, then being exploded in
favour of some other vagary, which in its turn gives way,
and all falling under the description of false " philosophy
and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, the rudi-
ments of the world ; — the oppositions of science falsely
so called ; — perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds,
destitute of the truth, — reprobate concerning the faith. "
(Col. ii. 8, 1 Tim. vi. 5, 2 Tim. iii. 8.)*
' * A clergyman whose piety and integrity, as manifested in his book,
attract my sincere respect, notwithstanding egregious defects of candour
and justice in his animadversions, has expressed the opinions of many
CHRISTIANITY INJURED. 21
That such a state of opinion is injurious to the cause
of Christianity, can admit of no doubt. It is a fearful
thing to array science and religion against each other ;
for, however unnatural and unjust this antagonist position
certainly is, the fact of its existence is pregnant with evil
on both sides. Men who have well studied the questions
at issue, and who know the evidence of those geological
facts to which such strong exception is taken, cannot by
any possibility be brought to renounce their convictions.
"Were they treated as Galileo was, were they, like him,
other good men, in the fo'lowing words. <( J. P. S. deprecates the idea
of any person entering upon Geological questions, who does not possess
considerable acquaintance with the principles of Chemistry, Electricity,
Mineralogy, Zoology, Conchology, Comparative Anatomy, and even of
1 the Bublimest Mathematics.' It will be readily conceded that, to prose-
cute the study of Geology advantageously, some insight into most of the
natural sciences is necessary. But when this assertion is intended to
deter men of good common sense from giving their opinion upon Geology
in its connexion with the Scriptures, the position may be safely ques-
tioned. It would be just as reasonable to maintain, that a minute acquaint-
ance with the principles of Surgery and Morbid Anatomy was requisite,
before a man was qualified to say whether a leg of mutton was tainted,
and ought to be sent from the table ; or that an honest countryman was
unfit to sit in the jury-box, because he was ignorant of the English Law-
Reports, or Coke upon Lyttleton. In the controversy between geologists
and the Sacred wScriptures, nothing more is required but an acquaintance
with the common laws of evidence, and a knowledge of the distinction
between Divine and human testimony." (Reflections on Geology, sug-
gested by a perusal of Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise ; with Remarks
on a Letter by J. P. S. on the Study of Geology: by the Rev. J. Mellor
Brown, B. A. &c. p 52.) This Letter will be reprinted in the Appendix ; so
that the reader may see whether Mr. Brown has not, undesignedly I am
willing to believe, exaggerated the description of prerequisites to Geolo-
gical study. It is hardly needful to remind him that comparisons are not
arguments; and that, when they are intended to be illustrations, they
ought to be just. Upon his first comparison I make no remark, for its
propriety is equal to its elegance : but, to invest his second with any sem-
blance of analogy, he ought to have made his " honest countryman" very
ill informed upon the facts connected with the cause which he was called
to try, yet imagining himself to know all about it, and determined to shut
his ears against the evidence.
22
unwilling to be the martyrs of conscience, were they to
profess a change of sentiment which they could not feel ;
they would act the part of hypocrites. The nature of the
impression which is actually made upon such minds, may
be judged of from the language of a mathematician and
philosopher of the highest order, distinguished by the
originality and independence of his mind, and a professed
friend of Christianity.
"Let us consider what would be the conclusion of any reasonable
being in a parallel case. Let us imagine a manuscript written three
thousand years ago, and professing to be a revelation from the Deity,
in which it was stated that the colour of the paper of the very book
now in the reader's hands is black, and that the colour of the ink in
the characters which he is now reading is white. With that reason-
able doubt of his own individual faculties which would become the in-
quirer into the truth of a statement said to be derived from so high an
origin, he would ask of all those around him, whether to their senses
the paper appeared to be black and the ink to be white. If he found
the senses of other individuals agree with his own, then he would
undoubtedly pronounce the alleged revelation a forgery, and those
who propounded it to be either deceived or deceivers. He would
rightly impute the attempted deceit to moral turpitude, to gross igno-
rance, or to interested motives in the supporters of it ; but he certainly
would not commit the impiety of supposing the Deicy to have wrought
a miraculous change upon the senses of our whole species, and then
to demand their belief in a fact directly opposed to those senses ; thus
throwing doubt upon every conclusion of reason in regard to exter-
nal objects ; and, amongst others, upon the very evidence by which
the authenticity of that very questionable manuscript was itself sup-
ported, and even upon the fact of its existence when before their
eyes."*
Should any of those who honour me with their atten-
tion, be not at all, or only as the result of cursory reading,
acquainted with geological science, they are entreated
to consider the case before them very seriously. Here
is a mind of high order, versed in philosophical know-
* Mr. Babbage's Ninth Bridgewater Treatise ; pp. 69, 70,
SERIOUS REFLECTION UPON THIS. 23
ledge, whose acquirements in the exact sciences, their
highest branches, and their most astonishing applications
are acknowledged with admiration through the world ;
who has deeply studied the nature and rules of evidence ;
and who is not an enemy, but a professed friend to Re-
vealed Religion : he marches up to the front of the imag-
ined discrepance, — and we see the strength of his con-
viction. He is indeed satisfied, for himself, that Geology
and Revelation are not at variance ; and his method of
resolving the difficulty will be mentioned in a future lec-
ture. But, we may ask in the mean time, What is the
conclusion which the uninstructed observer ought in
fairness to draw 1 Can he satisfy himself with the asser-
tion, that the most eminent geologists are, in general,
secret or open infidels ; that their doctrines upon the
constitution and antiquity of the earth, are fond fancies
changeable as the wind, or irreligious hypotheses of men
" ever learning, but never able to come to the know-
ledge of the truth ;" and that he runs no risk of being
mistaken, or of becoming the instrument of moral injury
to others, perhaps his own children, by making it an arti-
cle of religion to maintain that all dependent nature came
from the creative power of the Supreme Being, only
about six thousand years ago 1 Will he say that all soli-
citude upon the question may be safely dismissed, and
that he gains firm footing for his faith on this sub-
ject by reposing upon an interpretation of the Mo-
saic records, which though extensively received, has
been seriously doubted of by sound expositors in an-
cient and in modern times, and by some absolutely
disallowed : — yea, independently of geological know-
ledge 1
An inquiry thus opens before us which cannot but ap-
pear, to every reflecting person, to be of the first impor-
tance. "Religion is the highest style of man." But
24 RELIGION RESTS ON REVELATION.
religion, the internal and practical principle of all piety,
virtue, morality, rests upon Theology. And what is theo-
logy, but the knowledge of that which is in itself true and
in its relations to us infinitely important, concerning the
Supreme Being, his perfections and works and purposes,
the duty which we owe to him, and the hopes which we
are permitted to entertain of the greatest blessings by his
bestowment 1
We have the most satisfactory proofs, that this all-
perfect Being has not only given us mental faculties, by
which we are capable of making ever progressive im-
provement in the study of the dependent universe of
which we are a part, and in which so bright rays shine
forth of his " eternal power and godhead ;" but that he
has further dignified our present condition of existence,
by the communication of positive information concerning
our relations to himself and to each other, and the results
of those relations in the eternal state to which we are
hastening.
Christianity rests upon the explicit acknowledgment
of a succession of such communications, commencing
with the earliest epoch of the human history, and growing
in comprehension and clearness, till the series is complet-
ed in the doctrine of Jesus " the Saviour of the world."
Of these communications we have written monuments,
proved to be genuine and authentic ; presenting the truths,
laws, promises, warnings, and threatenings, of the Divine
Government ; and containing the history of the persons
and the circumstances connected with those successive
revelations. The earlier of those records are far more
ancient than any monuments in alphabetical writing known
to exist : and the most early of them affirm the fact of
both the universal creation of the world, and the prepa-
ration and adaptation of that part of it which was de-
signed to be the habitation of man.
SCIENCE AND REVELATION. 25
But there are two sciences, Astronomy and Geology,
which bring us into an acquaintance with facts of amaz-
ing grandeur and interest, concerning the Extent and the
Antiquity of the created Universe. The knowledge
which each communicates rests upon its own appropriate
evidence; in the one case, the evidence of sense obtained
by innumerable observations made and compared by the
most competent men, and confirmed by rigorous mathe-
matical processes; and, in the other, the evidence of
sense also and the testimony of a host of accomplished
observers, and, though not to the same perfect extent as
Astronomy, yet, in a degree which objectors little imagine,
receiving support from mathematical applications.
Are then the discoveries and deductions of those sci-
ences consistent, or are they not, with the declarations of
primeval divine revelation 1
We cannot but expect such consistency. Our Creator
has given us faculties suited to the perception and the
right appreciation of it. Cases indeed are conceivable,
and they do occur, in which difficulties appear, because
we see only detached portions of the truth, and the inter-
vening parts of our field of view are covered with an ob-
scurity which we cannot dispel. Yet such cases are not
those of contradictory propositions, in which the affirm-
ing of one destroys that of the other. But this is the
predicament of the subject which we have to consider.
If from the discoveries of Astronomy and Geology we
infer that the created universe, including our own globe,
has existed through an unknown but unspeakably long
period of time past ; and if, from the records of revela-
tion we draw the conclusion that the work of creation, or
at least so far as respects our planet, took place not quite
six thousand years ago; it is evident that the two posi-
tions cannot both stand : one destroys the other. One
3
26 TRUTH.
of them must be an error j both may be wrong j only one
can be right.
Our first care must be to ascertain the true state of the
facts, on each side. Are the propositions respectively
drawn from their premises, by sound reasoning 1 Have
we guarded sufficiently against all causes of error 1 Are
the facts in nature satisfactorily proved % And is our in-
terpretation of the Scriptures legitimate 1 Doubts and
renewed investigation of the latter question imply no pre-
carious issue with respect to the great designs of revela-
tion. "The foundation of God standeth sure." The
great principles of faith and obedience, hope and happi
ness ; the doctrines, warnings, and promises of the gos-
pel ; shine forth in the most clear and satisfying manner :
and their certainty is not diminished by philological
inquiry into the interpretation of words, or by discussing
the relations to history and antiquities, and other collate-
ral bearings of the Scriptures. For example ; the recent
discoveries in the monuments of Egypt have cast much
light upon the history of the phraseology of the Old Tes-
tament, by bringing to our knowledge facts and usages
which were before imperfectly or not at all known : but
these accessions of knowledge, and the more correct in-
terpretation of particular passages which we hence obtain,
take nothing from us in any other respect, but add mate-
rially to the proofs and the right understanding of the
whole system of revelation. The more firmly we stand
upon the rock of evidence, the more completely we pos-
sess the " assurance of faith."
Truth, therefore, is our object : Truth, in religion, in
morals, and in natural science. The more completely we
attain it, if we faithfully apply it to its proper purposes,
the more we shall bring happiness to ourselves and our
fellow-creatures, and reverential honour to our God.
TRUTH EVER CONSISTENT. 27
All men admit arid act upon the value of Truth. Even
those who practically disregard its obligations, pay to
Truth an implicit homage; for they plainly manifest that
it is only wicked selfishness which leads them to violate it.
Truth in sentiment is the agreement of our concep-
tions or belief, with the real nature and circumstances of'
the things which are the objects of those conceptions :
and conventional Truth is the agreement of the signs by
which we express our conceptions, with the conceptions
themselves.
That our conceptions may be thus in accordance with
the reality of things, is to be secured by the due conside-
ration of Evidence : and we believe that God, the Foun-
tain of all truth and goodness, has furnished us with
means for the obtaining of evidence, sufficient for a ration-
al satisfaction, upon all objects which it concerns us to
know.
All truth must be consistent. Let the objects contem-
plated be never so different in their nature, and remote
from each other in the connexions of their occurrence;
the facts concerning them cannot but be in mutual agree-
ment ; for to say that one fact is contradictory to another,
is to say a manifest absurdity. But our conception of a
fact may fail of being in accordance with the reality ;
from the variety of causes which, we are aware, are the
sources of frequent error among mortals, and of which
the chief are, the not being possessed of adequate means
for acquiring the knowledge requisite as the basis of our
deductions ; or the want of giving due attention to the
means which we do possess for acquiring the necessary
data ; or a want of correct habitude of mind in drawing
our conclusions. If we have done our best and fail, we
have not forfeited moral truth; we are sincere, though
mistaken : but, if we have not done our best, we cannot
be blameless. For the consequences of our indifference,
28 EVIDENCE.
or negligence, or prejudice, we must be responsible to the
divine tribunal, according to the nature of the object pro-
posed for investigation, its circumstances of greater or
less importance to the well-being of mankind, our obliga-
tions to possess accurate knowledge, and our profession
to communicate it.
The criterion of truth is Evidence: and, though evi-
dence is formed of different materials in different depart-
ments, the effect of real evidence, upon a mind sincerely-
desirous of knowing the truth, will be satisfactory, how-
ever different the kind or form of the materials which
constitute it.
In Physical Science, the evidence of truth is obtained
by drawing inferences from the observation of facts made
known by our senses ; and confirmed in many cases, and
those the most important, by the application of Mathe-
matics, which indeed derive their certainty from reducing
all propositions to the plainest evidence of sense.
Truth, in matters of history, and in all that relates to
the good or evil conduct of rational beings, their disposi-
tions and motives, their dependence upon the Supreme
Sovereign, their obligations to Him, and their expectations
from him ; can be attained only by what is usually called
Moral Evidence. This kind of evidence arises from our
consciousness of the manner in which we feel and act in
given circumstances; and our observation of the manner
in which other men act under similar conditions. We
hence deduce conclusions: these are confirmed by uni-
versal experience : we feel a perfect confidence, that,
whenever the conditions are similar, the results will be
similar also : and we call the principles or causes of such
uniformity involuntary action, Laws of Mind.
Thus we come at last to find, that clear cases of Moral
Evidence produce an assent and satisfaction not less com-
plete than is our confidence in the Evidence of our Senses,
FIDELITY TO EVIDENCE. 29
We arrive at a conviction, that the same wisdom and rec-:
titude of the omnipotent and infinitely good Being, which
established the Laws of Matter, have also established
Laws of Mind ; and that to refuse our belief, where suffi-
cient moral evidence has been laid before us, is not less
unreasonable than it would be to doubt the dictates of our
senses or the results of mathematical proof.
It is however a fact that even moral truth may derive
important aid from a judicious application of mathemat-
ical methods, of investigation. The progress made, within
the last sixty years, in the most refined branches of Analyt-
ics, has contributed its measure of auxiliary support to
the resolution of questions which have a relation to the
evidences of religion ; by the doctrine of chances. The
probabilities for and against the occurrence of a supposed
fact, or the credibility of witnesses, warranting the belief
of a miracle, have been reduced to equations and satisfac-
torily worked out. The late Bishop of Peterborough
(Dr. Herbert Marsh) in his Letters to Archdeacon Travis,
nearly fifty years ago, employed this method on a ques-
tion of criticism ; and Mr. Babbage, in his Ninth Bridge-
water Treatise, has applied it to the refutation of Hume's
endeavour to set up an argument against miracles wrought
in favour of religion.
These considerations should deepen our conviction of
the duty of dealing faithfully with evidence. Those who
have temporary purposes to answer, and selfish interests
to promote, may, if they be regardless of moral obligation,
permit their predilections to infect their judgment, and
to trample down their sincerity. But Christian principles
will not allow us to do so. " Whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever are (atfxva) fair, whatsoever just, whatsoever
pure, whatsoever amiable, whatsoever (svcprjfia) deserve
honourable mention," — it is our duty and our happiness
to seek, and when acquired to profess. Let us exert our
3*
30 THE UNIVERSE.
utmost diligence to obtain true premises ; let our atten-
tion be vigilant, that we may rightly understand them ;
let us watch carefully every step of our deductions, that
they trespass not the limit of correct reasoning ; but let us
not be stopped in our course, nor desist from pursuing the
straight line, because objections meet us which are drawn
from other departments of human knowledge. Our duty
is to bid those objections to stand aside for a time. In
the pursuit of our present line of inquiry, it is more than
barely possible that new light may arise ; or another point
of view may be reached, which will have the effect of ex-
terminating the difficulty. Should this not be the result,
our work then will be to trace the derivation of the diffi-
culty from its own source ; and to follow out the separate
course of investigation by its own principles. Thus we
may find a deliverance from our perplexity in the most
effectual manner, by ascertaining that it had no founda-
tion in its own class of knowledge : or the pressure of the
difficulty may be diminished, so far as to yield a reasona-
ble satisfaction that any remaining obscurity may be fair-
ly imputed to the inherent weakness and the necessary
limitations of our imperfect nature. Above all, let us not
suffer ourselves to be beguiled into the foolish notion, if
it be not an insidious pretence, for the purpose of under-
mining the foundations of religious truth, — that a position
may be false in philosophy but true in theology ; or, in-
versely, philosophically true and theologically false. It is
scarcely conceivable that a sane mind could admit such
an assertion : yet it has been made, with some disguise
perhaps in the phrase, by persons who apparently expect-
ed to be credited.
The sum of objects which we can perceive, or know,
or conceive of as existing, falls into two very different
classes of description.
The one class is stamped with the proofs of mutability,
THE DEITY. 31
contingence, and dependence. It presents itself to our
senses and our consciousness, in a variety of ways ; yet
all those ways and their results are limited, but the object
itself is to us illimitable. We call it The Universe, or
more correctly the Dependent or the Finite Universe. We
know not its extent : for, while the microscope, at the one
extremity of the scale, and astronomical observations at
the other, set before us multitude, magnitude, distance,
and minuteness, which we feel to become overwhelming
to our faculties, we have no reason to suppose that we
have reached a term, in either direction of our observa-
tions. The vast space into which we look, and the
"worlds upon worlds" with which we see it to be filled,
may be but the threshold of the finite universe ; and in
the lowest part of the known scale of being, we gain no
evidence of ever touching a boundary.
The other description of what we can know is not
presented to our senses ; but of its existence we gain an
irresistible conviction by reasoning. The former class,
however vast its extent and remote its antiquity, impresses
us, by many facts and circumstances, with the conviction
that it had a beginning. This material portion is that
alone which is cognizable by our senses. We find it to
possess a natural inertness ; yet it is in perpetual motion.
That motion supposes an impulsive power, as its cause.
We can trace the so called causes of motion, from one to
another that is prior, and so continually ; and we cannot
rationally stop till we have ascended to the idea of a vol-
untary First Cause. To this originating principle we are
compelled, by the manifest evidence of the case, to attri-
bute the properties of being intelligent, underived, and in-
dependent ; in other words of being self- existent, spontane-
ously active, and possessed in an infinite degree of every
property that is an excellence ; the One Necessary Being.
We combine all other beings into one group, and we call
32 THE DEITY.
it the dependent universe : but comparing this assemblage
with that One Being, it becomes, in the comparison, a
shadow of existence, "less than nothing and vanity;'
mere emptiness. This Being is GOD ; not an object
perceived by our organs of sense, but the Object of pure
mental conception. He is Mind, in the highest sense ;
existing necessarily, and therefore having always existed
and always to exist ; a free-agent, of infinite intellectual
and moral perfection ; upon whom all other beings de-
pend as their Originator, Preserver, and Benefactor, their
Proprietor and Lawgiver, their Judge andRewarder ; the
supremely wise, holy, and powerful Basis of the universe.
Unbiased reason, no less than the book of revelation,
utters the voice of satisfaction and gladness ; " Give unto
Jehovah the glory due unto his name ; O, worship Jeho-
vah in the beauty of holiness ! — For of Him, and through
Him, and to Him are all things ; to whom be glory for
ever
t"
Of the existence and perfections, the providence and
efficient activity, of this glorious Being, we have every
kind and degree of evidence that can warrant the recep-
tion of any moral truth whatever. If any honest-hearted
inquirer entertain a doubt, it is sufficient to refer him to
the volumes of Ray and Derham, Clarke, Paley, and the
authors of the Bridgewater Treatises.
Neither is this the place for adducing evidence that
rational creatures are accountable, and that the Supreme
Being exercises a moral government over them. The
writings of Butler alone are sufficient for this purpose.
"We are convinced also, upon the most satisfactory
grounds, that this Wise and Gracious Being has been
pleased to give the elements of positive knowledge to
mankind, sufficient to inform us upon subjects which it
most highly concerns us to know, but of which, without
such information, it would be utterly impossible for us,
CONNEXIONS OF GEOLOGY. 33
to have any other than conjectures, vague and painfully
uncertain. The proofs that God has thus made known
those facts and truths, and the realities of an eternal futu-
rity j and that the communication is contained in the se-
ries of ancient books called the Holy Scriptures ; are also
to be found in many easily accessible works.
It plainly follows, that a serious attention to those
books is the most important duty, and the most interest-
ing occupation, to which we can apply ourselves.
Our great object is, to understand them in their true
meaning ; that is, to take them in the sense in which they
were intended by the Spirit of truth from whose inspira-
tion they have proceeded. This true sense and meaning
must be brought out by an impartial application of the
same means which men use, from a conviction of their
necessity and adequacy, in order to obtain a just under-
standing of any writings composed in long past times and
in ancient languages.
The study of revealed religion, thus pursued, cannot
but be in perfect harmony with all true science. The
works and the word of God are streams from the same
source, and, though they flow in different directions, they
necessarily partake of the same qualities of truth, wis-
dom, and goodness. Geology, in an especial manner,
possesses its place in this beneficent association. It holds
also the most interesting connexions with every other
branch of Natural Science. It attracts and renders sub-
sidiary to itself, the entire domain of Natural History ;
it is indissolubly combined with Chemistry, with which
it participates in reciprocal advantages of the most impor-
tant kind ; it has connexions, which to many have been
unexpected, with the sublime science of Astronomy, but
which the genius and attainments of Babbage, Herschel,
and Hopkins, both anticipated and have demonstrated, —
connexions of peculiar interest, and which go far to vin-
34< CONNEXIONS OF GEOLOGY.
dicate for Geology a place among the exact sciences.
The facts on which it rests have, since the beginning of
the present century, and especially since the establish-
ment of the Geological Societies of London, Dublin, and
Paris, and kindred institutions in many parts of Europe,
and in America, been collected by the assiduous labour of
many men of the finest talents j and those facts have not
only been brought together and freely exposed to examin-
ation, but they have been subjected to the most jealous
scrutiny and the most rigorous tests that can be imagined.
Philosophers, whose previous opinions were very discor-
dant, but whose qualifications for the task were of the
highest order, of different nations, (and there was a time
when national rivalry even violated the sacred ground of
science and letters,) and who had ben trained and raised
to the first stations in all the other departments of physi-
cal knowledge and the liberal arts ; have concurred, and
have emulated each other, in sifting and scrutinizing to
the utmost every announced discovery, and every theo-
retical deduction. Can it be then supposed that a scien-
tific edifice thus framed, and in the fundamental doctrines
of which all who have a claim upon our confidence, are
agreed,* possesses not the elements of stability, and has
no claims upon our confidence 1
But we are compelled to make the unwelcome admis-
sion, that the rules of reason, with regard to evidence,
have been not a little disregarded, in relation to the pro-
posed subject of these Lectures. It would not, I am per-
suaded, be possible to point out any department of scien-
tific investigation, in regard to which persons have rushed
* " I need not dwell upon the extreme danger of representing, as neces-
sarily subversive of a faith in revelation, physical conclusions received, I
believe, by all those who are generally considered as competent judges, a3
firmly established truths." Rev. W. D. Conybeare, in the Christian Ob-
server for 1834, p. 307.
RASHNESS IN TAKING TJP OPINIONS. 35
to the forming and proclaiming 1 of strong opinions, with
so scanty a portion of knowledge, yet at the same time
so fearlessly, as in relation to Geology. There have been
and perhaps still are persons who, not judging it neces-
sary to use hard-working pains and long perseverance, to
obtain a competent acquaintance with facts, have, with
much dignity, framed their systems of the world j and
have not shown the most charitable dispositions towards
those who decline to bow down to the idols thus set up.
Let it, however, be recollected that the disposition to
make these assumptions, and the facility of admitting
them, have risen, in a great measure, from a cause which
is entitled to our reverence and esteem, religious feeling ;
though mistaken in its application. The opinion, or sus-
picion, is roused to meet us, on almost every occasion,
that Geology and a religious regard to the Scriptures are
opposed to each other. This notion has been diligently
held up to the Christian public, and in a style well adapted
to excite alarm. Hence, some have been led to propose
and others to receive, for the overcoming of the appre-
hended difficulties, theories which, either, on the one
hand, have grievously misrepresented principal facts in
the natural history of the earth, or, on the other, have ex-
ercised arbitrary power upon the sacred books, in despite
of the fair methods of interpretation by which alone we
are warranted to treat ancient writings.
"When we are compelled, by the force of conviction,
to make observations of this kind, it is proper to show
that we do not stand alone. I consider it to be an advan-
tage for aiding the mind in the pursuit of truth, and there-
fore to be eminently my duty, to adduce a small number
of citations from Christian Philosophers, whose knowledge
on these subjects is the hard-earned fruit of fair labour in
toiling over hundreds of miles of rocky mountains, and of
close study for the rigid scrutiny of results.
36 MISREPRESENTATIONS.
I shall first take a few paragraphs from a most diligent
and laborious investigator, and a devout Christian, Profes-
sor Hitchcock of Amherst College, in New England. A re-
gard to brevity will oblige me to select detached passages ;
but they will represent, without perversion or exaggera-
tion, the meaning and design of the continuous pages.
Certain English authors are those referred to, but their
names need not be introduced.
The hypotheses of those writers have been " defended with no
small ability of a certain kind, and with the most dogmatic assu-
rance. They were compelled to pay so much deference to the
advanced state of science at the present time, as to knock off some of
the Hutchinsonian protuberances; yet they have not gone into the
core of the system, to make any reformation there. Their works are
distinguished by great positiveness of opinion. Where the ablest
Geologists wait for further light, they cut the knot at once. The
relative importance of facts is often presented by them in such a man-
ner, as to betray at once their want of practical acquaintance with
the subject. These works are distinguished by very great severity
and intolerance towards the leading Geologists of the last half-cen-
tury. A powerful attempt has been made, to exhibit the ' Mosaical
and Mineral Geologies,' (to borrow the unfair phraseology which
figures in one of their titles,) as at variance in their fundamental
principles ; so that the one or the other must be abandoned : and, in
doing this, they have sadly misapprehended the views of Geologists.
Because the latter have imputed the changes in the earth's condition
to secondary causes, they are charged with Atheism." One of them
" says, ' It is manifest that the Mineral Geology, considered as a sci-
ence, can do as well without God, though in a question concerning
the origin of the earth, as Lucretius did.' Now, such a sweeping
charge would never have been made had'' the writer " not entirely
misunderstood the Geologists; or had he been practically familiar
with the structure of the earth's crust: for they have referred to sec-
ond causes those changes, which no man thoroughly acquainted with
them would regard as miraculous, any more than he would the exis-
tence of such a city as London or Paris. And they have had no idea
of doing without God, because they suppose the world to have had
an earlier origin than" the censurer " admits : for, at whatever pe-
riod it began to exist, it would alike require infinite power and wis-
dom to create and arrange it. Geologists, with scarcely an excep-
MISREPRESENTATIONS. 37
tion, have decidedly and boldly opposed such views" as these impu-
tations of atheism. " The course which" those opponents "have
taken, will inevitably produce, among pious men, not familiar with
science, a prejudice against it and a jealousy of its cultivation. How
d.sastrous such a result would be, let the painful history of the past
testify."— Further, " these works are distinguished by the adoption
of very extravagant theories, and very great distortion of Geological
facts, as well as of the language of Scripture. None but a Geolo-
gist can know what absurdities must be received, and what distor-
tions made of facts, before such opinions can be embraced. To the
Geologist they appear a thousand times more extravagant and oppo-
sed to facts, than any opinions that have been entertained by the cul-
tivators of this science. But these hypotheses require scarcely less
perversion of the Sacred Records."— After giving an instance of this
bold dealing with the Bible, the Professor adds, " This, in the matter
of interpretation, is ' straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel.'
We have no doubt that" these and similar writers "are sincerely
desirous of vindicating Revelation from the attacks of scientific skep-
tics, and that this desire prompted them to write as they have done.
But we cannot doubt that the effect of their works on [those of] real
Geologists who are skeptical, will be very unhappy. Such persons
will see that these authors do not understand the subject about
which they write ; and they will see a spirit manifested which will
not greatly exalt their ideas of the influence of Christianity."*
I next ask attention to a passage, conspicuous for the
beauty of its language and the justness of its reasoning,
from one of the ornaments of the University of Cam-
bridge, the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian Profes-
sor of Mineralogy ar.d Geology.
,: A philosopher may smile at the fulminations of the Vatican
against those who, with Copernicus, maintained the motion of the
earth: but he ought to sigh, when he finds that the heart of man is
no better than it was of old., and that his arrogance and folly are still
the same. There are still found some who dare to affirm that the
pursuits of natural science are hostile to religion. An assertion
* Historical and Geological Deluges Compared ; in the American Bib'
lical Repository, vol. IX. passages from p. 108 to 114 ; 1837.
4
38 VINDICATION OF GEOLOGY.
more false in itself, or more dishonourable to the cause of true reli-
gion, has not been conceived in the mind of man."
" The Bible instructs us, that man and other living things, have
been placed but a few years upon the earth ; and the physical monu-
ments of the world bear witness to the same truth. If the Astrono-
mer tells us of myriads of worlds not spoken of in the sacred records;
the Geologist, in like mannerproves (not by arguments from analogy,
but by the incontrovertible evidence of physical phenomena [pre-
sented to the plain cognizance of our senses]) that there were for-
mer conditions of our planet, separated from each other by vast in-
tervals of time, during which man, and the other creatures of his
own date, had not been called into being. Periods such as these
belong not, therefore, to the moral history of our race; and come
within neither the letter nor the spirit of revelation. Between the first
creation of the earth and that day in which it pleased God io place
man upon it, who shall dare to define the interval 7 On this ques-
tion Scripture is silent : but that silence destroys not the meaning of
those physical monuments of his power which God has put before
our eyes, giving us, at the same time, faculties whereby we may
interpret them and comprehend their meaning.
" In the present condition of our knowledge, a statement like this
is surely enough to satisfy the reasonable scruples of a religious
man. But let us, for a moment, suppose that there are some reli-
gious difficulties in the conclusions ol Geology: how then are we to
solve them 1 Not by shutting our eyes to facts, or denying the evi-
dence of our senses ; but by patient investigation carried on in the
sincere love of truth, and by learning to reject every consequence
not warranted by direct physical evidence. Pursued in this spirit,
Geology can neither lead to any false conclusions nor offend against
any religious truth. And this is the spirit in which many men have
of late years followed this delightful science; devoting the best la-
bours of their lives to its cultivation; turning over the successive
leaves of nature's book, and interpreting her language, which they
know to be a physical revelation of God's will ; patiently working
their way through investigations requiring much toil of both mind
and body; accepting hypotheses only as a means of connecting dis-
jointed phenomena, and rejecting them when they become unfitted
for that office, so as, in the end, to build only upon facts and true natural
causes. All this they have done, and are still doing: so that, how-
ever unfinished may be the fabric they have attempted to rear, its
foundations are laid upon a rock.
" But there is another class of men, who pursue Geology by a
nearer road and are guided by a different light. Well-intentioned
VINDICATION OF GEOLOGY. 39
they maybe : but they have betrayed no small self-sufficiency, along
with a shameful want of knowledge of the fundamental facts they
presume to write about. Hence, they have dishonoured the litera-
ture of this country, by ' Musaic Geology,' ' Scripture Geology,' and
other works of cosmogony with kindred titles; wherein they have
overlooked the aim and end of revelation tortured the book of life
out of its proper meaning, and wantonly contrived to bring about a
collision between natural phenomena and the word of God. They
have committed the folly and the sin, of dogmatizing on matters
which they have not personally examined, and, at the utmost, know
only at second hand ; of pretending to teach mankind on points where
they themselves are uninstructed. Authors such as these ought to
have first considered, that book-learning (in whatsoevei degree they
maybe gified with it) is but a pitiful excuse for writing mischievous
nonsense; and that, to a divine or a man of letters, ignorance of the
laws of nature and of material phenomena is then only disgraceful,
when he quits his own ground and pretends to teach philosophy.
A Brahmin, crushed with a stone the microscope that first showed
him living things among the vegetables of his daily food
" It would indeed be a vain and idle task, to engage in controversy
with this school of false philosophy; to waste our breath in the forms
of exact reasoning unfitted to the comprehension of our antagonists ;
to draw our weapons in a combat where victory could give no hon-
our. Their position is impregnable, while they remain within
the fences of their ignorance. ' 1 *
Another eminent author, after largely discussing this
class of subjects, Dr. Chalmers, says: "We conclude
with adverting to the unanimity of Geologists in one
point, — the far superior antiquity of this globe to the
commonly received date of it as taken from the writings
of Moses. What shall we make of this 1 We may feel
a security as to those points in which they differ ; and,
confronting them with one another, may remain safe and
untouched between them. But when they agree, this
security fails. There is no neutralization of authority
among them as to the age of the world ; and Cuvier, with
* Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge; passages
from p. 143 to 152; 1S34.
40 VINDICATION OF GEOLOGY.
his catastrophes and his epochs, leaves the popular opin-
ion nearly as far behind him, as they who trace our pre-
sent continents upward through an indefinite series of
ancestors, and assign many millions of years to the exist-
ence of each generation."* This eloquent writer cannot
have intended to signify " ancestors" and "generations"
of the human kind, nor of the existing species of animals ;
for this would involve a groundless imputation. He prob-
ably used these words, without adverting to their proper
meaning, and designing only to express animated crea-
tures and the succession of different families and genera.
* Edinburgh Christian Instructor, April, 1814.
LECTURE TI .
Deut. xxxiii. 13, 15, 16. Blessed of the Lord be his land ;
for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for
the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the chief
things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious
thi?igs of the lasting hills, and for the precious things
of the earth and the fulness thereof.
This beautiful passage, from the dying benedictions
of Moses, the faithful servant of God, is not recited from
any supposition that it has an immediate reference to the
subjects of this lecture. It is a sublime thanksgiving to
the Most High, acknowledging the eminent advantages
which he had prepared for the tribes of Ephraim and Ma-
nasseh, in the approaching partition of Palestine. Their
allotment had a moderate line of sea-coast, on which was
Joppa, at that time and long after a good port ; an ample
portion of rich land for pasture and cultivation ; and nu-
merous mountains supplying streams of water, and con-
taining excellent stone and lime for building, with iron and
copper, in the northern mountains. Thus, the description
may be properly adduced as comprehending, along with
other objects, the class of providential blessings which
belonged to the mineral kingdom, and which are of so
great importance to the wealth and prosperity of a nation.
That class of blessings, God has conferred upon our coun-
try in a far superior degree : and it certainly becomes us
to understand our mercies and be grateful for them. Ge-
ological knowledge, if pursued in a right state of mind,
will much assist us in this duty.
All observation and every experiment prove, that the
sensible world around us is in a state of incessant motion
4*
42 CAUSATIONS.
and change, upon all points of the scale, from the inter-
nal movements of the matter composing the simplest and
minutest body that we can observe, to the motions of the
astral orbs and nebulse, so overwhelming to our power of
conception, or even in imagination to follow them.
Those changes take place not in a fortuitous and con-
fused manner, but in a regular subjection to principles,
mechanical and chemical ; which, though few and simple,
lead to results, very complicated indeed and recondite,
yet ever harmonizing with each other and with the whole
system of the universe : and thus these changes are sup-
plying employment to the highest powers of mathemat-
ical investigation.
Throughout organized nature, the characters of spe-
cies approach to each other, group themselves into gen-
era, and those again into families and orders, associated
by points of resemblance ; and thus they constitute a con-
tinuous series of structural forms, functions, and opera-
tions, which exhibit, in all their variety, a principle of
mutual adaptation reigning throughout ; and indicate an
entire dependence uppn an all-comprehending, and all-
arranging Intellect. The machine of the universe is thus
maintained in being and action, by an intelligent Cause
and Preserver. It would involve a contradiction to say
that the universe is itself that cause. The marks which
it bears of dependence on a supreme reason of existence,
are incontrovertible. Whether that dependence be con-
ceived of as strictly proximate, or whether the efficiency
of the divine power pass through one or ten, ten thou-
sand or ten thousand millions, of intervening agencies,
can make no difference. Let the unceasing activity of
operation move subordinate causes whose number could
not be put down in figures, and whose complication no
created intellect could follow ; it is still the same. "The
excellency of the power is of God." Indeed the latter
SKETCH OF OBJECTS. 43
supposition exalts the more highly our view of the divine
perfections; the knowledge, wisdom, and power, to which
complication and simplicity, remoteness and nearness, an
atomic point and all space, — are the same. " God is a
spirit. — Do not I fill heaven and earth \ saith Jehovah. —
He is all and in all. — In Hdi we live, and move, and have
our being."
Of this dependent universe, our planet is a part so
small that no arithmetician can assign a fraction low
enough to express its proportion to the whole. God has
appointed it for our habitation, till the great change of
death : and, on every account, natural and moral, it is to
us full of interest. Its constitution, the alterations of
structure and arrangement which are incessantly taking
place upon it and within it. its living inhabitants, and
those races of creatures once possessing vegetable or an-
imal life, but which have ceased to live, — set before us
subjects inexhaustible for examination and delight.
The object of this lecture is not to lay down a digest
of geological facts. Such a pretension would be absurd,
unless we could work upon a larger scale. But I may
well feel assured that my friends will not do themselves
so much injustice, as would be the neglect of studying
diligently some of the best works, and which may easily
be obtained.* I have only to present, as concisely as I
* If, for the sake of my younger friends, I mention the works which I
can with most satisfaction recommend, omissions must not be under-
stood as intimating any disparagement. L yell's Elements, and his ear-
lier and larger work, the Principles of Geology, four volumes ; Prof. Phil-
lips's Guide to Geology, his Treatises in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia
and Lardner's Cyclopaedia, two volumes, both works published separately,
and that in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana; his Yorkshire Geology, two
quarto volumes ; his Geological Map of the British Isles ; Conybeare and
William Phillips's Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales; a
work, to our great regret, not yet finished, and of which a revised edition
and the completion are earnestly looked for; Buckland's Bridgewater
Treatise, two volumes; De la Beche's Researches, his Manual, and his
44 CRUST OF THE EARTH.
can make intelligible by merely verbal description, an
enumeration of those truths which are necessary to be
known for the purpose of our present investigation. I call
them Truths, because they appear so to myself, after hav-
ing taken, I shall be pardoned for saying, no inconsidera-
ble pains, and during not a few years, in examining the
evidence of these positions. To detail that evidence
would be altogether impracticable, except we could de-
vote many days to it : but my friends will give me credit,
that I would not utter what I do not believe to rest upon
good grounds of certainty or high probability.
I. Concerning the Structure of the Earth, we are ac-
quainted, by sensible evidence, with about the four hun-
dredth part of the distance from the surface upon which
we dwell, taken at the sea-level, to the centre. This
portion may be called ten miles. But every one must be
aware that no such distance can be reached by direct de-
scent. To the bottom of the deepest seas, from the w T ater-
surface, may be seven miles : the average depth of the
sea is pretty well ascertained to be three miles : the high-
est of the European mountains, Montblanc, is not quite
three miles : the highest peak of the Himalaya mountains
falls short of five miles : each of the two deepest mines
in Great Britain, one in Cornwall, the other at Monk
Wearmouth in the county of Durham, is stated upon the
authority of the Treasurer of the Geological Society,* at
a little more than three tenths of a mile : and the deepest
mine of which we have any correct measurement, and
which may fairly be regarded as the deepest in the world,
late Memoir on Devonshire ; Mantell's two works on Sussex, and the S.
E. of England, and his Wonders of Geology, two volumes; Fiuon's Ge-
ology of Hastings; Murchison's small treatise on the Geology of Chel-
tenham, and his splendid work on the Silurian Region. There are many
other books written with sound knowledge and accurate judgment.
* John Taylor, Esq. in Report 111. of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, 1833, page 427.
STRATIFICATION. 45
at the village of Kitzpuhl in Upper Austria, is a little more
than half a mile.
It may then be asked, upon what grounds we regard
the distance, or to speak more correctly the thickness, of
nearly ten miles of the external part of the earth as known
to us by ocular observation. Not a fortieth part of this
could have been excavated, or in any way penetrated, if
the surface of the earth were what Dr. Thomas Burnet
and some other theorists of the last century imagined to
have been its pristine, and, according to their notions,
beautiful, and sacred condition, before it became deformed
by the sin of man ; that is, if the earth's surface were that
of a perfect mathematical sphere, without seas and islands,
without valley, rock, or mountain, with "not a wrinkle,
scar, or fracture," (to use the learned dreamer's own
words ;) — and which, he seems never to have thought,
would be to the eye of a spectator a universal plain, a dead
flat. Little knew those speculatists that what they deemed
deformity, was the cause of all the life and beauty of our
lower world ; that without it, we should have had no
springs of water, no rivers, no stone or lime to build with,
no metals to make tools of, no healthy condition of the
atmosphere, and but a very scanty and low existence of
vegetable and animal life. Happily for the human race,
the Creator of the earth did not see fit to form it upon
this plan. Its rind, shell, or crust, (each of which terms
is used, but none of them is free from impropriety, though
the last is the best,) consisting of a number of extended
masses of various thickness, and spread out one over the
other, has been raised up by a power acting from below j
and, from the horizontal position which originally but at
different times belonged to the larger number, they have
been inclined in all degrees, so that the lowest in order
have been elevated to form the summits of the loftiest
mountains, and their ridges constitute the edges of the
46 ORDER OF STRATA.
basins or troughs in which subsequent deposits have been
laid. The masses, beds, or layers, technically called
strata, so upraised, present of course their broken edges ,*
and, by following these out-croppings, (as they are signifi-
cantly called,) with careful search and scientific discrimi-
nation, through extensive tracts of country, the series is
disclosed, from the crystalline rocks upon which the first or
lowest stratum rests, up to the last or newest which lies
immediately under the soil on which we live, build our
habitations, and cultivate our food.
All strata follow antecedent ones in an order which is
certain and invariable for every region of the earth, so far
as investigation has been carried ; and it has been carried,
with great care and skill, far enough to render any excep-
tion from this rule extremely improbable. If the entire
series exist in superposition in any places, it must be on a
line of perpendicular descent, under low plains, which
would admit of but a trifling depth of penetration, as water
must soon fill the shafts, and the utmost depth to which
any well can be sunk is but a small fraction of the perpen-
dicular descent necessary to be explored. But this im-
practicable proof is utterly unnecessary ; because the
demonstration of the facts is incomparably more perfect
from the out-cropping of strata, and their exposure upon
large surfaces, highly inclined or even vertical, in moun-
tainous countries and sea-cliffs. Nowhere, however, is
the entire series found. Some member or many are want-
ing in every assignable locality ; but they are never put in
a violated order. Also, exact mineralogical identity of
composition is not necessary to constitute what I may call
the right and title to a given station : analogy of composi-
tion, order of succession, and (which is a most interesting
and decisive evidence) similarity of organic remains, pro-
duce a sufficient equivalence ; and when these three kinds
of proof concur, we have a complete demonstration.
OBJECTION AND REPLY. 47
It may be objected that our data are insufficient ; and
that, unless we possessed a knowledge of the terrene
matter, whatever it may be, and into whatsoever forma-
tions it may be subdivided, through the whole interior
and under every part of the superficial circumference to
the centre, we are not in a capacity to draw safe conclu-
sions, concerning the contained materials, their composi-
tion, their arrangement, their relations to each other, and
any rationally conceived mode in which subordinate
causes may have operated, initially, successively, or con-
currently, in the production of the matter of our globe.
The objection would be weighty, if there were reason
to suppose that the body of the globe, beyond the boun-
dary-line of our inspections, were similar to the part
already explored. If, for example, the objector could say
to us, "You have arrived at no term. You cannot show
us the indications of a cessation of the materials which
you say have been deposited, and which form the portion
through which you have passed. The series may be re-
peated, possibly again and again : or there may be another
series, of entirely different composition, such as precipi-
tates from suspension in water, or products of chemical
action, or results of igneous fusion; and so on indefinite-
ly. Unless you had penetrated through all these, you
can draw no conclusion on which dependence can be
placed."'
But the objector cannot say this. He would be guilty
of a false assumption. The true state of the facts is the
very contrary to what he supposes. We are acquainted
certainly, I might almost say perfectly, with the character
and succession of the deposited substances which, laid
upon each other, compose the crust of our globe ; and we
know the totally different constitution of the materials
which lie underneath. We see demonstrated, with satis-
factory clearness, the distinct character and the opposite
48 INTERNAL HEAT.
mode of production of these two classes of mineral for-
mations. We have all the evidence that can reasonably
be desired of the previous condition of those underlying
rocks, their ancient, and at a depth not great their present,
liquidity by heat, their boiling up, their extrusion both in
the melted state and in different degrees of advancement
towards being cooled and hardened, their being driven
upwards through the overlying formations of deposited
layers, their sometimes insinuating themselves between
the previously contiguous surfaces of those deposits,
their filling long furrows of outburst, and their being laid
bare in many cases to open day-light. It is therefore no
presumption to affirm that we do know, with the clearness
of sensible evidence, the constituent formations of the
crust of the earth, their modes of production, their rela-
tions to each other, and the fact of their enveloping a
mass of materials, similar in composition to the lowest
rocks, and which we have much reason to think are, at
certain depths, still in a state of constant fusion.
Those who bring forward this objection are, perhaps,
not aware of its bearing. Were it well founded, its
effects would be to augment, by immeasurable degrees,
the antiquity which must be attributed to the earth.
In replying to this objection, which is brought up at
the very threshold of geological inquiry, I have been led
into an anticipation of several positions, which must be
stated more in regular detail.
II. There are good grounds for supposing that, beyond
a certain thickness for the solid crust of the earth, which
can hardly be estimated at so much as thirty miles, the
next contiguous matter is in a state of fusion, at a tem-
perature probably higher than any that man can produce
by artificial means ; or any natural heat that can exist on
the surface. Whether, in like manner, the whole interior
of our planet be composed of melted matter ; or whether
ROCKS OF FUSION. 49
there be a solid nucleus ; and whether such nucleus be
close-grained, or more probably cavernous, the solid par-
titions being infusible and the disseminated vesicles tilled
with gaseous substances at a very high temperature ; thus
presenting an analogy to the appearance of ordinary boil-
ing liquids ; — are parts of the problem upon which emi-
nent geologists are not agreed. But in this they are
agreed, that they will not put conjecture, however proba-
ble, in the rank which is due only to decisive evidence ;
and that they will wait with patience till such evidence
shall be attained. In the mean time the highest efforts of
mathematical genius are on the stretch for the resolution
of the problem. But that a large part of the interior
matter of the earth, and that part in contact with the solid
crust on which we dwell, is in the state of fusion by heat,
appears to be a doctrine established by most satisfactory
proofs. It should be considered, that the mean density
of the earth is not quite five sevenths of that of iron, nor
half that of silver, or one fourth of that of gold: facts
utterly inconsistent with the supposition that the interior
is a solid mass, or occupied by vast bodies of water, uni-
ted or detached ; or indeed any thing but a fluid or fluids
maintained in that state by the action of heat as an anta-
gonist power to gravitation. This mean density is rather
more than double that of granite.
III. The rocks which lie the lowest in the descending
order, and which of course are under all the stratified
deposits, are in the state which has been produced by the
prodigious heat that has been mentioned, acting under a
pressure from above so great as incomparably to exceed
any familiar weight or force that we could mention as a
measure of comparison. Those rocks bear clear marks
of having crystallized in cooling from a state of fusion.
It has been objected, that the component parts of those
5
50 STRATIFIED ROCKS.
rocks melt at unequal degrees of heat ; as in the consti*
tuents of granite, which are quartz, mica, and felspar, the
last of these ingredients is fused at about half the tempe-
rature which the first requires.
But they who make this objection overlook the fact of
the extreme pressure under which the power of heat was
exerted ; which would prevent the most fusible substance
from being volatilized at the highest point that could ex-
ist : neither can they argue from the inequality of the
points of fusion of the minerals when extricated, that the
compound would not melt even in far less favourable cir-
cumstances j for most persons are acquainted with the
ready fusion of metallic compounds, though at a point
considerably different from that which each ingredient
would require singly.
IV. The rocks which lie above these, though partial
crystallization, generally aqueous but sometimes igneous,
is found in them, are demonstrably of a different origin.
They are all composed of earthy matter, that is, different
mixtures of sand, clay, and lime, with minor proportions
of some other interspersed minerals. These have been
washed away from the previously elevated rocks, by the
action, first, of the atmosphere and variations of temper-
ature, disintegrating and loosening the surfaces ; and then
of dropping rain and running rills and streams, washing
off the materials, in fine particles or coarser grain, through
all degrees of attenuation 5 carrying them down into
lower situations ; and finally, after perhaps a very long
succession of these transporting and sedimentary pro-
cesses, depositing them on levels of rest, in the quiet bot-
toms or local depressions of lakes and seas. Each
sediment or deposit is called a layer, or bed ; for conven-
iency using the Latin word stratum. These stratified
formations may be called about forty in number j in thick-
DISPOSITION OF THE BEDS. 51
ness, sometimes only a few feet or even inches, but
usually many hundreds or several thousands of feet.
Stratification must be distinguished from homogeneous
lamination, which is a frequent character of single strata,
presenting at their edges the appearance of leaves, like
those of a book or a bundle of pasteboards. Taking some
general resemblances of mineral composition as a princi-
ple of classification, the whole of the existing beds may
be distributed into a small number of groups, in a measure
according to the convenience of the geological observer,
describer, or reasoner ; though most acquiesce in making
about twelve divisions, which, for the most part, have
very distinct natural characters. Such a distribution is,
at least, useful as an aid to the memory.
V. These beds of deposited earthy substances are
not to be conceived of as concentric spheres, spread uni-
versally over the earth, the outermost including lower
ones, and thus embracing the globe ; as the paper and
varnish which cover artificial globes, or the coats of lilia-
ceous bulbs, commonly but inaccurately called bulbous
roots. Such an idea would be quite erroneous, and would
betray into great misapprehensions. But each layer is of
some limited extent ; considerable, it maybe, in reference
to the superficial divisions of country, but not exceeding-
ly o-reat in comparison with the whole surface of the
earth. Each usually thins off towards its edges, or the
edsres are abruptly broken by the up-heaving and disloca-
ting force : and the highest strata generally lie in hollows
of various form and extent, which may be called troughs
or basins, the edges of which are made by the elevated
ridges of the oldest formations, so beautifully called in
Scripture, " the great mountains, the everlasting hills, the
pillars of heaven."
VI. The lower strata, manifestly the most early, are
generally of the greatest extent in length and breadth, and
52 EXTENT AND TEXTURE OF THE BEDS.
very much the deepest in thickness.* The higher and
newer are severally of less magnitude in every dimension.
Yet, in no case, must the idea of size or extent be taken
upon a trifling scale. Even with the more recent, the
area of one formation is often some hundreds of square
miles.
VII. Thus are formed the earthy beds called by the
general name of rocks ; but this term must not be under-
stood as it is in common language, to denote a stony
mass necessarily very hard. The consolidation of the
formations, is in all degrees, from the loose sand and
gravel under our feet, or the friable Hastings sand-rock,
and the soft coherent texture of the ink-coloured clay
which lies beneath our gravel ; to the finest close-grained
marble and the heaviest hornblende. The degree of
hardness, the result of consolidation, is upon the whole
the greater, the lower we descend ; as must appear prob-
able to the mind of any reflecting person. It is produced
by the action and reaction of two opposite forces; the
one, derived from the mere weight of the materials, which
must press more heavily as the depth is increased; and
the other, one whose power is principally exerted upon
the lowest class of strata, and which, it scarcely needs to
be said, arises from the expanding property of the interior
heat. Chemical affinities also have had, and continually
have, a considerable share in the producing of texture.
* On the margin of Prof. Phillips's recently published Geological Map
of the British|Isles (a model of clearness and beauty) is a proportionate
scale of the thicknesses of the whole series of strata ; from which it ap-
pears that all the formations from the superficial soil to the lowest part
of the New Red Sandstone, constitute but about one-sixth of the entire
depth (geologically) of the stratified masses. The remaining five parts
are the Carboniferous, the Devonian (Old Red Sandstone), the Silurian,
the Cambrian, the Cumbrian, the Chlorite and Mica Schists, and the
Gneiss. See Edinb. Rev. July, 1839, p. 434 : part of a valuable article on
Mr. Lyell's Elements.
INFLUENCE OF INTERNAL HEAT. 53
VIII. Those lower strata, and in the proportion of
their distance from the surface, which is the same as their
proximity to the focus of heat, bear the more abundant
proofs of having been, not only urged upwards by the ex-
pansive power below, but in other ways acted upon by the
immensely high temperature. The source of that heat
can be no other than the fires which had melted and driven
upwards the materials forming the rocks of fusion. We
have great reason to believe that these deep-seated fires
— (scarcely however to be so called, when we reflect how
near they must be to the surface, — ) or, as some eminent
geologists are disposed to think, certain remainders of
them, are perpetually in action. Consequently, the order
of production, in those rocks of fusion, must be the reverse
of that which is seen in the rocks of deposition and strati-
fication. The upermost masses are the oldest ; and the
newest, so long as they remain in their proper place, must
be deep-seated beyond the reach of human inspection, and
lying in contact with the amazing mass of melted mineral
matter. There are also examples innumerable and upon
a grand scale, of the melted mineral matter having been
driven up with a force so great as to have overcome every
resistance, breaking through all the hard and thick rocky-
masses that lay over it, bending, cracking, bursting, up-
lifting, and overturning strata, filling the chasms made,,
running in those lines of crack or fissure, separating strata
and entering between their previously close-lying surfaces,
so as to form flat tablets, often also coming to the surface
and towering over all that it had displaced. These cases
are of frequent occurrence, and they form an exception to
the observation just made with respect to the relative an-
tiquity of the fused rocks, of which these projected kinds
have come up from the lowest depths and the most re-
cently. In fact, those fused rocks may be of all ages - y
5*
54 DIMINUTION OF HEAT;
the most recent being of course at the lowest depth, till
violent ejection takes place.*
IX. As we ascend in the order of the strata, we find
the appearances of the action of fire become fainter. The
pervading influence of a high temperature diminishes, till
little or no sensible effect from it remains ; and, though
* It would be mean injustice to refrain from acknowledging the obliga-
tions under which Geology lies to Dr. James Hutton. His "Theory of
the Earth," published in 1788, propounds the doctrines of the igneous ac-
tion, its propulsions, and its effect on deposited masses, by felicitous anti-
cipations and reasonings of extraordinary sagacity : the most important
of which he lived to see confirmed by visible facts. He died in 1797. Few
persons during his life-time, could appreciate the value of his discov-
eries and the force of his arguments : and still fewer were willing to do
so. The charge of impiety and infidelity was made against him : and he
seems to have given himself little disquiet about it. Whether he was really
a disbeliever in religion, I know not. His day of life and his connexions-
were extremely unfavourable to the just treatment of religious questions,
and the cultivation of enlightened faith. Inferences which his adversa-
ries drew from his writings, but which were not just inferences, they spa-
red not to lay upon him. His manner of expression was often inconsi-
derate, obscure, or unguarded ; and sometimes exposed to unjust censure.
But the fact ought not to be lost sight of, that his fundamental principles
are now admitted and their great importance felt, by all geologists ; few,
if any, beins excepted. The impartial lover of truth would do well to
read an article in the Edinburgh Review, (No. cxl. July, 1839,) upon Mr.
Lyell's Elements of Geology, both for its general value and for its discus-
sion on the merits of James Hutton. That any physicists and philoso-
phers are hostile and scornful with regard to Christianity, is deeply to be
lamented. Such a fact, in whatever degree it may exist, is due to preju-
dice, ignorance, irreligious education, or other moral causes: but to treat
them with injustice is not the way which Jesus Christ would have adopt-
ed, and it can tend only to render their prejudices more inveterate. See
also another admirable artic'e in the same Review, No. cxxxi. April, 1837,
on Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 4—14. It is highly grati-
fying to meet with such a sentence as the following, from one who de-
servedly stands so high as a mathematician and a philosopher : " I would
venture to express my belief that, among the most eminently distinguished
philosophers of the present day in this country, there exists even a pro-
foundly religious spirit." Prof. Baden Powell's Tradition Unveiled ; p. G5;
1339.
VARYING CONDITIONS OF STRATIFICATION. 55
the mechanical displacements are still perceptible, they
are remote and often secondary results of the power that
has acted so far below ; and the intensity of the action is
weakened, in proportion to the distance from its source.
X. By that mighty action from within, the extruding
tendency radiates generally, but with unequal force, to
all points on the spheroidal surface of the earth. It fol-
lows, that the earlier strata, with scarcely any exceptions,
and, in smaller degrees, the less ancient, have been raised
up, shattered, and left in various positions of fracture and
inclination. Of those dislocating movements, the mode
has been different j and as to the time of production, the
process has been generally very slow; though, in some
cases, there are evidences of the disturbing force having
acted suddenly and violently. From the portions thus
elevated, and left with an irregular outline, the waters in
flowing off carried dov%Ti the loosened materials, and, in
different extent and degree, left bare the stony masses.
XI. But it is upon reflection obvious, and the geolog-
ical evidences of the fact are numerous and decisive, that
the ebullient action of the fire-melted liquid below is like-
ly to produce undulations of the surface, and therefore, in
some places, to cause diminutions of density, and perhaps
vast caverns filled with aeriform fluids. The crust of the
earth, over these less solid spots, will be weakened, and a
sinking down will take place through, it may most proba-
bly be, a large area of the surface. These subsidences
may, in some rare cases, be rapid : but generally they, as
the elevations, will be extremely slow.
XII. Now I fear that I must put to trial the patience
of my friends in an attempt to describe in words a compli-
cated series of operations, which, by arguing from effect
to cause, we have sufficient reason to believe must often
have taken place, in ways equivalent to what I request
you to conceive. But this is not the forming of an imag-
56 VARYING CONDITIONS OF STRATIFICATION.
inative hypothesis : it is no more than expressing in the
form of simple narrative, facts of whose separate reality
we have the fullest evidence, and the consecutive occur-
rence of which we consider as in the highest degree prob-
able.
Let the mind represent to itself a large space of the
bed of an ancient ocean, into which the sedimentary ma-
terials from the land have been transported, through a
period of time to us immeasurable. Along this extended
surface the deposits, in the varieties which changing cir-
cumstances in both the land and the waters have pro-
duced, are spread. By the weight of an ocean five or six
miles in depth, and by the antagonist pressure, with more
or less intensity, of heat from the underlying fires, this
formation is consolidated. A series of movements from
below raises up a portion of this deposit ; till it is above
the water-level, with its hills and dales and susceptibilities
of further variation of surface. Ages roll on. Other
strata are laid upon the portion of the area which had not
partaken of the elevating movements ; or which may
have moved in the contrary direction ; that is, may have
sunk down : so that a difference of mineralogical (called
also lithological) character is produced over it. The for-
mer portion long lies as a part of the dry land, is washed
over by rains and rivers, and is subjected to other causes
of superficial change ; then it becomes subject to the pro-
cess of slow subsidence, consequent upon some great
change in the fiery region below, and it becomes once
more the bed of oceanic waters. Here, in due but vari-
ous process of time, it is overspread with a new stratum,
differing from its own preceding surface, and from the
one or several strata which had in succession been laid
upon the portion not elevated during the whole period j
the difference being probably in mineral composition and
texture, but more certainly in the character of vegetable
REPETITIONS. 57
or animal remains which are imbedded in it. Now the
new body of deposits may be identical over the entire ex-
tent first supposed. It is manifest, therefore, that in one
part the last stratum will rest upon the foregoing one,
which had been long elevated and exposed to causes of
change; and thus the surfaces at the junction will be ir-
regular : but, upon the portion which had not been raised
out of the waters, or which had sunk, one stratum or sev-
eral have been deposited throughout the intervening pe-
riod, and they will probably rest conformably, each upon
that below it, that is, their bounding surfaces will corres-
pond to each other in lines nearly parallel. The whole
area comes afterwards to be elevated ; or only some parts
of it. One part, therefore, possesses a series of strata
which are not found in the other ; and that other, if studi-
ed alone, might suggest the idea that two formations
naturally came together, or that the upper always followed
the lower at once, while yet between them in reality some
others have intervened.
These operations of deposition, elevation, subsidence,
and elevation again, in application to separate districts,
and in different periods through an indefinite duration, —
have been repeated a number of times ; each repetition
producing breaks, fissures, and manifold displacings, erec-
tions, and inclinations, of the more hard and consequently
frangible strata ; and bendings, even to a complete over-
turning, or contortion backwards of the softer and more
coherent ones. The evidence of elevation and that of
subsidence occur frequently within moderate geograph-
ical limits ; so that two districts with their intervening
ground may be familiarly compared to a long board,
balanced on a fulcrum : when one end sinks the other
rises.
The miscellaneous result might seem to baffle all at-
tempts at arrangement and safe induction : but the labours
58 DENUDATIONS AND NEW DEPOSITIONS.
of distinguished men, most of them our admirable con-
temporaries, in the field of actual investigation, with as-
tonishing toil and perseverance, guided by cautious judg-
ment and habits formed in the study of the exact sci-
ences, have triumphed over what might have appeared a
hopeless confusion; and have reduced to a certainty
scarcely short of sensible and mathematical proof, the
modes of deposition, the order of original succession, and
in many cases that of subsequent change.
From the description which I have endeavoured to
give, it will be easily understood, that the order of suc-
cession is never transgressed ; though particular forma-
tions, one, two, or more, in a system or subdivisional
group, and of course many in the whole series, may and
must be wanting. Those formations either have never
existed, from the course of operations which I have at-
tempted to describe ; or they have been removed by the
nearly horizontal action of water, washing away large
masses of strata, scattering and diffusing their materials
upon the floor of the ocean, and thus producing new for-
mations.
XIII. To such removals, occasion has been given by
the elevations and depressions so frequently before men-
tioned. These have exposed the softer or previously
loosened materials, to the incursion of mighty bodies of
water, which have washed them away, carried them out
to shorter or longer distances, dropping the coarser and
heavier portions the earliest, holding longer in muddy
mixture and transporting to the greater distances the fine
and light particles, spreading them out under the great
seas ; and there these new strata have been disposed vari-
ously, according to circumstances arising from the form
and constitution of the bottom, the direction of currents,
volcanic action below the bed of the sea, molecular ag-
gregation of similar substances, and chemical attractions.
ORGANIC REMAINS. 59
This kind of change, in relation to the era from which
the surface has been swept off, is called denudation.
XIV. While these mineral formations were thus in pro-
gress, their masses yet soft were replenished with the
remains of animals which had lived in the waters ; skele-
tons, coverings, shelly habitations, and even soft parts,
some of which still exhibit their vestiges. In all the for-
mations, (or we might say groups or systems of strata,)
excepting the earliest two or three, those remains occur
of organized creatures, chiefly animal, but in some cases
vegetable. The absence or paucity of vegetable remains
in the older strata, except in the beds connected with
coal, is reasonably ascribed to the more ready destructi-
bility of vegetable fibre, especially as the earliest species
appear to have been of soft structure, though of great
size. In the Lias beds, fragments of wood approaching
to the harder structure, are abundant : and in the still
later formations there are very remarkable instances. But
an abundance of vegetable remains does not occur, except
in the coaly strata, till we arrive at the very recent forma-
tions ; of which fact geological science affords satisfac-
tory explanations.
Even with respect to those earliest beds, just men-
tioned, we cannot be absolutely assured that organized
nature, vegetable or animal, never existed in them : for
all vestiges of such would be destroyed by the heat com-
municated from below.
XV. As a general assertion, it might be said that the
animal remains become more abundant, aswe depart from
the older strata : but such an assertion would not be uni-
versally and exactly correct. In this respect, many inte-
resting circumstances of diversity present themselves to
the laborious explorer of fossil remains, especially in the
department of Conchology.
XVI. With respect to their forms of organization,
60 CHARACTERISE!.
there is so much general analogy as gives a sufficient
ground for the observation that all belong to Classes and
Families similar to those which now exist ; but in Genera
and Species there are remarkable differences.
XVII. The earliest are the fewest in number, and the
most widely differing from animals and plants of the ex-
isting creationj in generic, and of course still more in spe-
cific characters.
XVIII. The duration of existence, in both genera and
species, presents many remarkable facts. A small num-
ber of genera, each genus containing perhaps but one spe-
cies, or a very small number, are found to have their
respective lengths of time for existence, in some single
stratum. In general, they extend through several strata ;
but then there is a greater multiplication of species, giving
proof of periods of remarkable fecundity.
XIX. Each system of strata has species which belong
to itself, so that both the mineral formations and those
certain species are reciprocally characteristic. This fact
is among the greatest discoveries of modern times. For
it we are indebted to one whose conduct and character
should be held up as a model for the imitation of young
men, in all the walks of life, that they may aim at the
highest excellence and diffusive usefulness; — Dr. Wil-
liam Smith, to whom by general accord, the designation
has been given of the Father of English Geology.
Fifty years ago, when a very young man, he began
his course ; he quietly and without ostentation pursued
it, in the most laborious examinations of the stratified
formations throughout England. He announced not his
discovery till the patience and perseverance of many years
had placed it beyond the reach of doubt. He might, by
reserve and management not dishonourable, have built up
for himself fortune as well as fame ; by the benefits which
his discovery and his practical knowledge conferred upon
WILLIAM SMITH. 61
the economy of mines, and surveying of ground in order
to building, road-making, and agriculture j besides the
firm foundation which he laid for geological science.
But, with the most open and ready generosity, he com-
municated all, to men of science and to the world at
large.* He constructed the first Geological Map that
was worthy of the name, opening the way to Mr. Green-
ough's disinterested labours ; he gave to the world sev-
eral and most valuable works on the systematic relations
of Organized Fossils j and he deposited in the British
Museum, for universal instruction, the Collection which
verified his doctrines. Long may he enjoy, in his retire-
ment, the happiness most congenial to his liberal mind,
and add to that the sublime joys of Christian piety and
heavenly anticipation! — But from this tribute of justice,
I must return.
Upon this great fact, which Professor Sedgwick hap-
pily calls " the Master-Principle of our Science,"! the
* In and before 1799, "By maps and sections, and arranged collec-
tions of Organic Remains, Mr. Smith endeavoured to explain to many
scientific persons those views regarding ihe regular succession and con-
tinuity of strata, and the definite distribution of animal and vegetable
furms in the earth, which are now the common property of Geology.
Among those who heard his explanations at this early period, may be
mentioned Dr. James Anderson of Edinburgh, Mr. Davis of Longleat, the
Rev. Joseph Townsend [of Pewsey,]— and the Rev. B. Richardson of Far-
ley. The tico last mentioned gentlemen were remarkably able to appre-
ciate the truth and novelty of such views, from both their general attain-
ments in Natural History, and their exact knowledge of the country
[Somersetshire and Wiltshire] to which Mr. Smith directed their atten-
tion. Both of them possessed large collections of Organic Remains ; and
both were astonished and incredulous when their new friend, taking up
one fossil after another, stated instantly from what particular rock, and
even bed of stone or clay, the specimens were derived. Nor were they
less surprised when in the field, Stratum Smith (as he was termed) tra-
ced with ease and accuracy the ranges of the rocks, by following the
courses of springs, and many other indications of a change of the sub-
ttrata." Biogr. Notice, by Prof. Phillips, in Mr. Charlesworth's Maga-
zine of Natural.Kistory. May, 1839; p. 216.
t Proceedings of Geol. Soc. Feb. 18. 1831.
6
62 RANGE OF KINDS.
Characterism of Fossils, a number of other truths are de-
pendent, and those of the greatest value both practically
and theoretically. A well-prepared Conchological Geol-
ogist looks to the succession of strata as the possessor
of a cabinet does to the order of his shelves ; and with a
certainty as precise, knows what species are to be found
on every layer.
XX. A small number of genera may be called (if we
may imitate one of the pleasantries of Linnaeus,) Royal
and Noble Families. Comprehending numerous species,
they have a truly wonderful range. The Genus Leptsena
(or Producta) appears to have been among the first cre-
ated, and, in about fifty ascertained species, it is found
through the immense series of formations, known as the
Cumbrian, the Cambrian, the Silurian, the Old Red Sand-
stone, and the Carboniferous Limes, Shales, and Sands.
Spirifera, about equal in origin, passes still higher, through
the remarkable varieties of the New Red System, and is
found in the Lias. The Ammonite, in an amazing num-
ber and diversity of species,* appears in the Silurian Sys-
tem, and is found in every formation till it terminates in
the Chalk. Terebratula has a far wider range : it begins
among the earliest, its numerous species scarcely fail if
at all till we reach the Chalk, in which they are more
abundant than in any other formation ; other of its spe-
cies occur, though in diminished number, throughout the
Tertiary System ; and it is represented by some twelve
or more species in the living creation. Thus each spe-
cies has a definite period of existence. The succession
proceeds. One species dies off, and its place is taken by
another of the same genus ; till at last, in many cases,
* The distinguished conchologist, Mr. Searles Wood, is of opinion that
the number of species, including however some forms which may be only
varieties, approaches to a thousand.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRICTS. 63
the whole genus ceases. Some genera have a confined
range, if we may use such a word for periods of probably-
many thousand years : others have continued through
more numerous formations, and some even to the living
state of the creation. But, be it observed, I am speaking
only of genera. Of species, none are found in the Chalk,
nor in the more early strata, which exist in the present
condition of the earth. Above the Chalk, a small number
of the now living species begin to appear : and the pro-
portional number increases through the six or seven Ter-
tiary formations ; so that the formation which, as far as
has been ascertained, is the last prior to the existing state
of nature, contains about ninety-five in the hundred of
living species ; while the oldest of even these Tertiary
beds scarcely yields four living species to ninety-six ex-
tinct ones.
XXI. The areas, or regions, over which characteristic
organic remains are found, though often of great extent,
are not universal; thus manifesting that groups of species
had their geographical limits : a most important fact,
since it establishes a correspondence with that law or
condition of the existing animal and vegetable kingdoms,
by which species are grouped together, and appropriately
confined within geographical districts, man being almost
the only exception.
XXII. It is also apparent, that the variations of organ-
ization, which form the distinctive characters of species,
as those of any given genus succeed each other, have
been adapted to the varying condition of the earth's tem-
perature, the atmosphere, and the waters ; and undoubt-
edly in their reciprocal relations as partakers of organic
life.
XXIII. Besides the fossils which are strictly charac-
teristic of the great systems of strata, there are others
which may be considered as subordinate, and which con-
64 DEPOSITS AT MOUTHS OF RIVERS.
nect the particular formations with those proximate to
them, below or above.
XXIV. Strata containing shelly, crustaceous. or coral-
line remains, generally present appearances which prove
to a demonstration that the animals lived and died on the
muddy or sandy bottoms of the waters. Those appear-
ances consist in the posture of individual specimens, in
the juxtaposition of numbers, as they lie in what may be
called tribes or family groups, spread in beautiful order
over considerable areas; and in the preservation of their
slender, delicate, and fragile parts.
There are other cases, in which the organic remains,
be they plants, shells, or bones, exhibit proofs of having
been washed away from their native seats, by streams of
fresh water, or by tides and currents of the sea ; and thus
transported into new situations, in which depressions of
the bottom, or some obstacle, or the cessation of the
force of the water, allowed them to rest : and there the
separated parts have become imbedded in the muddy bot-
tom. Those lake or ocean bottoms have been subse-
quently elevated and dried. Again they have sunk and
been submerged, so as to form new ocean-beds; over
which renewed alternations of deposition and elevation
and depression have taken place. This vast succession of
changes presents much and various evidence of having
required indescribable periods of time for their being
effected : and it should never be forgotten that the same
processes are still in operation, and have been so without
intermission since the Almighty gave its present form to
our habitable earth. There can be no doubt that, from the
earliest date of man's brief history, the Nile, the Ganges,
and the more mighty rivers of America, have been pour-
ing their waters into the seas at their respective mouths.
The quantity of earthy matter (with infinite multitudes of
dead animals and portions of them, and the vegetable
NEVER ALL LAND, NOR ALL WATER. 65
spoils of the land,) which is without ceasing floated down
and added to the formations at the bottom, cannot but be
astonishing. By careful experiments it has been ascer-
tained, that the Ganges carries into the Bay of Bengal,
annually, the average of 355,361,464 tons weight; an
amount difficult for our imagination to estimate ; but, to
bring it to some auxiliary standard for comparison, Mr.
Lyell has calculated that it nearly equals the weight of
sixty times the greatest pyramid of Egypt.* The base
of that pyramid covers an area equal to that of Lincoln's
Inn Fields, and its summit is 40 feet higher than the cross
of St. Paul's Cathedral. Yet the sea is not sensibly ren-
dered more shallow, and the river is navigable for large
ships to Calcutta. So the Thames and the Severn have
been bearing down their sediment for near six thousand
years : but how far are their estuaries from being silted
up 1 And, how many thousand years longer will be
required to produce that result ; should it not be accele-
rated by a movement from below 1
It must, however, be stated, that there is both geologi-
cal and historical evidence of rapid and even sudden ele-
vations and depressions having taken place, in many parts
of the globe ; but those occurrences have been compara-
tively rare, and to a very limited extent.
XXVI. Every stratum is itself a proof that dry land
existed contemporaneously, above the level of the waters :
for the mineral materials composing strata are the
wearings and washings down, coarse and line, from the
surfaces of the exposed land. Thus were produced areas,
formed by each kind of the matter brought down, and
having their peculiar characters and boundaries.
XXVII. From the mineral characters of those areas,
* Princip. Geol. Vol. I. p. 370, fifth ed. in which striking passage are
presented other aids to our conception.
6*
66 ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL DISTRICTS.
and from the vertical penetration by various organic spe-
cies through several strata of different composition, which
thus indicate long periods of succession and different
conditions of deposition, it is an inference highly proba-
ble, if not certain, that there never was a period when the
surface of the globe was continuous dry land ; nor entire-
ly covered with water or any mixture of detrital matter
in water. In other words ; the stratified structure of the
earth presents evidence that there have never been uni-
versal contemporaneous formations, but that, from the
period of the production of the igneous rocks, and the
commencement of the stratified, the surface has always
consisted partly of limited areas depressed and holding
water, and partly of lands rising up from the boundaries
of those depressions.
To this fact in the former periods of the earth, its
present condition affords a clear resemblance. The actual
Zoology and Botany of its surface exhibit several distinct
regions, in each of which the indigenous animals and
plants are, at least as to species and to a considerable
amount as to genera, different from those of other zoolo-
gical and botanical regions. Natural agency (such as
that of winds and currents) and artificial means have done
something towards confounding the distinctions of cha-
racters 5 but in the case of countries widely separated,
the plants and animals proper to each region so differ
from those ef every other, as to impress us with the con-
viction that they have not been derived from a common
ancestry for each species, in any one locality upon the
face of the earth. They are respectively adapted to
certain conditions of existence, such as climate, tempera-
ture, mutual relations, and no doubt other circumstances
of favourable influence which men have not yet discover-
ed, or which never may be discovered in the present state.
These conditions cannot be transferred to other situations.
ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL DISTRICTS. 67
The habitation proper to one description of vegetable or
animal families would be intolerable, and speedily fatal,
to others. Where the extreme of incongruity does not
exist, there are causes of unsuitableness, minor but slowly
and surely effective. Even when, as in many parts of the
two hemispheres, and on the contrary sides of the equa-
tor, there is apparently a similarity of climate ; we find
not an identity, but only an analog}*, of animal and veget-
able species.
It is confessedly difficult to fix with absolute precision
the lines of demarcation for these independent domains
of living organized nature. The general fact is establish-
ed beyond the reach of doubt • but naturalists are waiting
for a more complete acquaintance with the plants and ani-
mals of every part of the globe, before they deem the
natural divisions finally determined. According to the
degree of knowledge already attained, the following may
be accepted as an approximation. A distinguished Chris-
tian physiologist and philosopher, Dr. Prichard, was the
first to brim? forwards correct views upon this interestino*
subject • and he proposes seven regions for the distribu-
tion of animals.* Mr. Swainson pleads fovjive, but upon
a ground of analogy which he has assumed without proof,
and which is contrary to impregnable truth. f Others make
eleven.% With regard to the vegetable kingdom, some
eminent naturalists have given their opinion in favour of
ten for the old continents, and six for America :§ but the
great philosophical botanists of Geneva, Messieurs de
* Researches into the Physical History of Mankind; Vol. I. pp. 63 —
97, third ed.
t On the Geography and Classification of Animals, pp. 14—18.
t Prof. Hitchcock, in the American Biblical Repository, Vol. XI. p. 17,
1833.
§ Von Schouw's Fundam. Princip. of a Universal Geography of the
Veget. Kingd. German Transl. from the Danish, by the author, with an
Atlas; Berlin, 1824.
68 DISTINCT CREATIONS.
Candolle, father and son, " than whom," says Professor
Hitchcock, "no better judges can be named, reckon the
number of distinct botanical provinces at twenty-seven. This
estimate was the result of an examination of seventy or
eighty thousand species."* Mr. Henslow, the Professor
of Botany in the University of Cambridge, a man to whom
Geology, as well as the professional science which he
adorns, is under great obligations, remarks that " We do
not as yet possess any very accurate information respect-
ing the number and exact extent of the well-defined botan-
ical regions into which the surface of the earth may be
mapped out :"f but he proposes forty-five as an approxi-
mating estimate.
Hence it follows that there must have been separate
original creations, perhaps at different and respectively
distant epochs. Man, whom the Creator formed to " have
dominion over the works of his hands," to a wide extent
of the inferior natures, was brought into being in one
pair ; from which all the varieties of our kind have de-
scended. They are only varieties, effected by circum-
stances, and not species, which would imply separate
primary ancestors. This position, unhappily rejected by
some persons, is not only a fact which lies at the founda-
tion of revealed religion, but it is confirmed by an accu-
mulation of proof from anatomical structure, from history,
from the theory of language, and from the philosophy of
intellectual and moral qualities. For this assertion, I may
appeal to the authority of the veteran Blumenbach,J who
occupies a station among the highest, in the Comparative
Anatomy of the different races of men ; and to both the
* Amer. Bibl. Repos. Vol. Xl.fp. 17, 1838. Lyell's Principles of Geolo-
gy, Vol. III. p. 7.
t Descriptive and Physiological Botany, p. 305.
t Born in 1752, and appointed Professor of Medicine in the University
of Gottingen in 1778.
THE HUMAN SPECIES. 69
authority and the luminous arguments of Dr. Prichard, in
the work before referred to.
Man and a small number of animals peculiarly service-
able to man, are cndoAved with a capacity of adaptation to
all the differences of climate and other circumstances,
not indeed unlimited, but extending through a wide range.
This capacity requires, for its complete development, a
gradual proceeding in subjection to the agents of change ;
for which the life of no individual is sufficiently long, nor
even the duration of several generations. The process
must be carried on through many steps of descent ; and,
in its course, considerable alterations of structure are
slowly produced.
LECTURE III.
Romans xi. 36. Of Him, and through Him, and to Him,
are all things ; to whom be glory for ever.
Some of the most important positions affirmed in the
preceding lecture could not fail to be perceived by my
attentive hearers, to be at variance with certain senti-
ments or interpretations, which are extensively received
under the supposition of their being declared, or at least
implied, in the Holy Scriptures. It is now my duty to
state, in particular detail, what those sentiments and
opinions are ; and in what manner they stand in contra-
diction to the facts in the natural history of the earth, to
which we have adverted.
My auditors will do me the favour to observe, that I
speak of opinions and interpretations ; the sentiments
which men have taken up, and promulgated as the decla-
rations of the Bible. We have not yet arrived at the
part of these lectures in which we shall have to examine
whether those interpretations are the genuine sense of
the divine oracles. It would not be proper to anticipate
that inquiry : yet I cannot but be anxious that my friends
should keep constantly in mind the avowal made in the
first lecture : namely, my conviction that those interpreta-
tions are erroneous. I solicit this favour as a protection
to myself from being understood, in this and the follow-
ing lecture, to cast any doubt upon the truth and autho-
rity of the Scriptures. It is not the word of God, but
the expositions and deductions of men, from which I am
compelled to dissent.
I. It is a prevailing opinion that the dependent uni-
verse, in all its extent, was brought into existence by the
ANTIQUITY OF THE EARTH. 71
almighty power of its Creator, within the period of the
six days laid down in the first portion of the Book of Gen-
esis : chap. i. throughout, and ii. 1 — 3, where the editorial
division should have been made, as that portion is evi-
dently a connected and complete narrative. The same
conclusion is also drawn from the language of the fourth
commandment : "In six days, the Lord made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is." Exod. xx. 11.
v To this position the discoveries of geological science
are directly opposed. Excepting the higher parts of great;
mountains, which at widely different epochs have been
upheaved, and made" to elevate and pierce the stratified
masses which once lay over them, there is scarcely a spot
on the earth's surface which has not been many times in
succession the bottom of a sea, and a portion of dry land.
In the majority of cases, it is shown, by physical eviden-
ces of the most decisive kind, that each of those succes-
sive conditions was of extremely long duration ; a duration
which it would be presumptuous to put into any estimate
of years or centuries ; for any alteration of which vesti-
ges occur in the zoological state and the mineral constitu-
tion of the earth's present surface, furnishes no analogy,
with regard to the nature and continuance of causes, that
approaches in greatness of character to those changes
whose evidences are discernible in almost any two con-
tiguous strata. It is an inevitable inference, unless we are
disposed to abandon the principles of fair reasoning, that
each one of such changes in organic life did not take
place till after the next preceding condition of the earth
had continued through a duration, compared with which
six thousand years appear an inconsiderable fraction of
time. Among other facts, it is to be observed that the
instances referred to often involve an increase of temper-
ature to a great amount. For example, it is proved, by
the clearest evidence of vegetable remains, that, in what
72 PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES.
are now temperate or extremely cold climates, there pre-
vailed, during the periods of the earlier secondary rocks,
a mean of temperature equal to that of the hottest region
upon the present surface of the globe, or probably greater.
It is also shown, by such evidence as every physiologist
and every chemist knows to be satisfactory, that, at the
periods referred to, the earth's atmosphere (by being
loaded with carbonic acid) must have been so different
from that which we possess, that the present kinds of ani-
mals breathing by lungs and many kinds which do not so
breathe, could not have existed. Now, the evidence, from
various points of physical reasoning and from well-known
historical facts, is ample, that the same state that now
subsists, as to temperature and the constitution of the at-
mosphere, has belonged to our planet ever since the day
that God created man and the animals connected with
man. An objection may arise from the recollection that
some commentators have supposed, as the mediate cause
of the longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs a peculiarly
salubrious quality in the atmosphere, which they also
suppose to have been destroyed by the deluge, or in con-
sequence of it. But this is an imaginary hypothesis, in-
volving heavier difficulties than what it professes to
remove : and, if it were to be accepted, it would add to
the weight of reason for the interposition of an immensity
of time between the deposition of the carboniferous lime-
stone, for instance, and the present epoch; because the
condition of the atmosphere which geological evidence
evinces to have belonged to the remote period of which
we have been speaking, was the reverse of salubrious, or
better fitted to support life than our present common air ;
it would have been instantly, or in a few moments, fatal to
man, or to any lung-breathing animal, such as now
exist.
But while the general evidence for an antiquity of the
EVIDENCES OF THE ANTIQUITY OF THE EARTH. 73
earth, so great as to set at nought our attempts at estima-
tion, may be compendiously understood by any one who
will take moderate pains in studying the appearances of
stratification and the characters of organic remains ; it
ought to be kept in mind that there is a multitude of facts,
of a more minute description, and which present them-
selves on every hand to the practised geologist, each of
which has great importance, but the sum of which amounts
to an irresistible body of argument. It would be unrea-
sonable to expect that all, of even liberally educated and
well informed persons, should be sufficiently versed in
Natural History, Chemistry, and the doctrines of mechan-
ical forces, to be able readily to apprehend and duly to
weigh those facts and the deductions from them : but the
claim is reasonable that, in such cases, we should satisfy
ourselves by giving credit and honour where credit and
honour are due. We feel no difficulty in thus relying
upon conclusions drawn, in the way of mathematical
reasoning, by Newton, Bradley, Laplace, and the Her-
schels ; and, were we to indulge the monstrous supposi-
tion that such men were willing to deceive, we know that
there are thousands able and ready to detect the minutest
error and expose any misstatement, if such there were. Up-
on this ground, therefore, I may take a few sentences from
a mathematician and man of science, from whom, in the
first lecture, I derived an important citation, and who, till
his recent resignation, filled the chair of Newton. In his
work, " The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise," Mr. Babbage
has the following: words.
" In truth, the mass of evidence which combines to prove the great
antiquity of the earth itself, is so irresistible, and so unshaken by any
opposing facts, that none but those whoarealike'incapable of observing
the facts and appreciating the reasoning, can for a moment conceive
the present state of its surface to have been the result of only six thou-
sand years of existence. Those observers and philosophers who
7
74 A UNIVERSAL CHAOS.
have spent their lives in the study of Geology, have arrived at the
conclusion, that there exists irresistible evidence, that the date of the
earth's first formation is far anterior to the epoch supposed to be as-
signed to it by Moses; and it is now admitted by all competent per-
sons, that the formation even of those strata which are nearest the
surface, must have occupied vast periods, probably millions of years,
in arriving at their present state." Pp. 67, 68.
As another example, I may mention that Mr. Maclaren,
in a valuable contribution to Geology, very recently pub-
lished, estimates a single period of volcanic quiescence,
during which strata of coal, shale, sandstone, and lime-
stone were deposited over the site of the basaltic hill
called Arthur's Seat, at Edinburgh, at five hundred thou-
sand years * Let it be observed that these are not ran-
dom guesses, but founded upon knowledge and consid-
eration.f
This is indeed a cumulative argument. It arises from
a number and variety of considerations which, without
exaggeration, we may call inexhaustible* The active
geologist can scarcely enter upon any new field of obser-
vation, or repeat his survey of former ones, but he meets
new proofs, or the strengthening of what he before pos-
sessed. The evidences, taken separately, are not equal
in clearness and cogency. Some of them have a vast
amount of independent weight : others are less striking,
particularly to an unpractised observer : but they all bear
in one direction : and their united force is such as to
awaken surprise that any intelligent person can be found,
who is capable of resisting it. It is the case, as in all ar-
guments of this description, that the multitude and diver-
sity tend to embarrass us, and the difficulty lies chiefly in
selection and arrangement.
II. Another opinion which has been and perhaps still
* Geology of Fife and the Lothians, p. 37. Edinb. 1839.
t See Supplementary Note, B.
SERIES OF ORGANIC CREATURES. 75
is received extensively, not only by those who hold the
former position, but by many who disallow it, is this :
that, the state of the earth's surface, immediately before
its being brought, by the wisdom and power of God, into
the condition destined for the reception of man and his
contemporaneous living creatures and plants, was one of
universal dissolution from a former condition ; and which
consisted in a mixture of water and much earthy matter,
producing an ocean of muddy substance, half liquid half
solid, completely enveloping the globe : and that also the
atmosphere was perfectly dark, or nearly so ; either be-
cause its constitution as a regulated compound of nitro-
gen and oxygen, and endowed with the properties of
transmitting and refracting the rays of light, was not yet
effected ; or because it was so filled with the densest
watery vapour as scarcely to allow a passage to the light,
so that, if not absolutely, yet comparatively and sensibly,
had a human being existed to employ his eye upon it, it
might be called " darkness." This sentiment has been
supposed to be contained in the words of the sacred
record; "And the earth was without form and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep : and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters." Gen. i. 2.
Now this interpretation will not consist with facts
briefly stated in the preceding lecture. Those statements
I am happy in being enabled to confirm and illustrate by
the authority of one whom talent and science, unwearied
personal toil in the exploring of many of the most impor-
tant districts of Great Britain and Ireland, and a mind
disciplined by severe studies, have formed into an emi-
nently accomplished Geologist.
" The earliest forms of life kDown to Geology are not, ;as might
perhaps be expected, plants, but animals ; they are not of the lowest
grade of organization merely ; [but] zoophyta far advanced in struc-
ture, (lamelliferous corals.) Brachiopodous bivalves, of three gene-
76 ENUMERATION OF TEEMS
ra.were found by myself on Snowdon, but no distinct Iraces of plants.
The number of species of this early fauna is extremely small but
there is about them no mark of inferiority, no extraordinary simpli-
city.
" From this [apparent] origin of organic life, there is no break in
the vast chain of organic development, till we reach the existing
order of things : no one geological period, long or short, no one series
of stratified rocks, is everywhere devoid of traces of life. The world,
once inhabited, has probably never, for any ascertainable period,
been totally despoiled of its living wonders. But there have been
many changes in the individual forms; great alterations in the gen-
eric assemblages; entire revolutions in the relative number and de-
velopment of the several classes. Thus the systems of life have been
varied from time to time, to suit the altered condition of the planet,
but never extinguished. The earth, once freed from its early inade-
quacy to support life according to the appointed laws of life, has since
been prolific of vegetable and animal existence.
" The -proportionate number of organic forms has gone on, even
gradually ; augmenting from the dozen species of the Snowdon slates,
through the twelve hundred and more species of the Oolite, the four
thousand forms of the tertiary eras, to the multitude of [now] exist-
ing things. The change of organic structure is also, in some degree,
proportioned to the time elapsed. Tried by the Cephalopodous Mol-
lusca, we see perish, first the Orthoceratites, then the Belemnites and
Ammonites ; while Nautilus and Sepia exist to represent this class
in [the present families of] existing nature. The development of
the different classes of animals is usually thought to exhibit a similar
relation; as if nature had been continually improved, from the mo-
ment of the origin of life : but this opinion is. if taken generally, one
of the least certain of all the general notions now current, because of
a radical defect in the reasoning. This defect consists in assuming
into one induction, the terrestrial and the marine races of animals.
Nov/, as the higher forms of life are terrestrial, and the remains of
terrestrial things are only by accident mixed with the spoils of the
sea, it is no wonder that mammalia and birds are rarely even sus-
pected to occur among the buried spoils of the ocean. However, the
Didelphys of Stonesfield is enough to cast a doubt on this notion,
which should be more critically examined by a logical process.* It
* This very curious and perplexing subject has been recently investi-
gated, with exquisite science and labour, by MM. Valenciennes and De
Blainville, and by distinguished men in our own country ; in particular
Mr. Owen, who appears to have brought the completing evidence in fa-
vour of Dr. Buckland's opinion. S.
IN THE SERIES. 77
should be inquired what is the order of development, among the
marine races on one hand, and the terrestrial groups on the other.
The latter are too few, in a fossil state, to justify any decision; the
former supply certain evidence. The order of development is,
" 1. Zoophyta and Brachiopodous Conchifera.
" 2. The same groups, with the addition of Plagiomyonous Con-
chifera, Gasteropoda, Cephalopoda, Fishes.
" 3. The same, with the addition of Reptiles.
" 4. The same, with one solitary Didelphys.
11 5. The same, without Didelphys or any other quadruped.
" 6. The same with marine and terrestrial quadrupeds.
" 7. Existing creation.
t: Is the present situation of life a continuation of the previous
ones; a term of the same long series of communicated being % I
answer, Yes ; but not as the offspring is a continuation of its pa-
rent. The present crocodiles are not thus derived from the Teleo-
saurus of Caen, [nor the alligators, monitors, or any other lizards,
from any of the Saurian species of fossil zoology,] by indefinite
change through time and circumstance; as St. Hilaire's and Lam-
arck's (and Goethe's?) speculations might lead to suppose. But the
existing forms of life resemble those of times gone by, because the
general aspect of the physical conditions of the world has always
been, since the origin of life on the globe, decidedly anaiogous ; and
they differ from them, because the correlation of life and physical
conditions is strict and necessary, so that all the variations of these
conditions are represented in the phases of organic structure ;. while
all their general agreements are also represented by the conformity of
the great principles of structure in the beings of every geological
age, and the often repeated analogies and parallelisms of series of
forms, between different geological periods, which we now hail as a
law of nature, when we compare America or Australia, with Africa,
Asia, or Europe.
" We are not, then, in a different system of nature, properly so
called, from those which have been created, and have been suffered
to pass away, before the birth of man. But [we are] in a forward
part of the same system, whose law of progression is fixed, though
from time to time the signification of the terms varies. The full and
complete system of organic life now on the globe includes all the
effects of land and sea, warmth and cold, divided regions, and all the
other things which are the diversifying causes of nature; and it is
no wonder if, before this land was raised from the deep, and the pre-
sent distinction of natural regions was produced, there was not the
7*
78 HEAVENLY BODIES.
same extreme variety of natural productions. Till that variety was
occasioned on the globe, it was not the fitting place for intellectual
man that it now is: for, surely among the other uses and correla-
tions of the visible creation, this is one, — by its inexhaustible diver-
sity and ever-growing newness, to interest with a perpetual charm
the growing mind of a rational being, and lead him by a flowery path
to the cultivation of the divine thing within him, which raises him
above all that his senses make known ; and thus to fit him for the
highest contemplation of which he is capable, namely, the relation
which he bears to the unseen Author of all this visible material
world.
" Thus, to the mind of a geologist, nature is one glorious book ;
one system of appointed and associated law, independent of time and
exempt from change, but operating under conditions which vary
with time and place. The past has prepared the present : the present
explains the past and points to the future."*
III. A prevalent, though not universal interpretation
of the archaic narrative, is that the sun and all the other
heavenly bodies were created on the fourth day after the
creation of the earth. An obvious objection to this opin-
ion is, that light is mentioned in the account of the first
day ; " God said, Be light ; and light was." But to this,
the common answer is, that light was created in a dif-
fused state ; and that, on the fourth day, it was condensed
and collected into a centre, for the solar system of plan-
ets; that this centre is the sun, or within the sun; and
that in some similar way the luminous property of the
fixed stars was produced.
Those who adopt this hypothesis, either with or with-
out the modification annexed to it, are perhaps not aware,
that the spheroidal figure of the earth, its position in the
planetary system, its rotation producing the nights and
days which the Mosaic narrative expressly lays down in
numerical succession, the existence of water, and that of
an atmosphere, both definitely mentioned, and the crea-
* The Supplementary Note, contributed by Prof. John Phillips, to the
Rev. Prof. Powell's Connexion of Natural and Divine Truth ; p. 309.
INVENTING MIRACLES. 79
tion of vegetables on the third day, — necessarily imply
the presence and the operations of the sun : unless we
res<^t to some gratuitous supposition of multiplied mira-
cles, of the most astounding magnitude. Those who can
satisfy themselves with such suppositions, made without
evidence and at their own good pleasure, are beyond our
reach of reasoning. No difficulty, no improbability, no
natural impossibility, appals them. They seem to have
the attribute of Omnipotence at their command, to help
out any hypothesis, or answer any exigency. But I must
confess that such modes of resolving difficulties do not
approve themselves to my conviction. The Creator has
formed a finite and dependent world, the extent and com-
plication of which overwhelm our faculties ; but, in all
that extent and complication, we have demonstrations
without number that the great Sovereign and Conserva-
tor of the universe rules it according to a plan ; and that
plan, in its physical aspect, is the one grand and simple
law of attraction, with its correlates and consectaries.
That plan is but the method of the divine agency, perva-
ding, upholding, and efficiently directing all beings and
all events. God " worketh all things after the counsel of
his own will :" — and his " counsel standeth for ever." It
would be blasphemous to doubt whether his method of
proceeding be the perfection of wisdom. A miracle is
not a destroying, or even a suspending of it : it is not an
amending, or repairing, or correcting it ; it is not a break
in the chain ; not an occurrence for which no provision
had been made in the construction of the eternal pur-
pose. A miracle is an event which, supposing a given
connexion of time, place, and persons, would not have
come to pass in the ordinary course of things; but for
the instrumental causality of which the divine plan had
fixed the requisite provision. It is no less a part of " the
immutability of his counsel," than is any other fact in
80 MORAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD.
the series of God's operations. It is a deviation from
the ordinary course of events, but accomplished by the
determinating will of the Supreme Being, through the
agency of the instruments proper in every case, and for
purposes of the highest wisdom and goodness requiring
such an interposition. The Scriptures abundantly show
that the Divine Wisdom has not lavished away miracles ;
but, so far as we know, has wrought them only for the
purpose of accrediting the claim of some one who pro-
fessed to be the bearer of a revelation from God. To
every reflecting person this must appear to be a purpose
of pure and exalted benevolence, and most worthy of the
Supreme Being, the infinitely Wise and Good. The un-
deniable evidence of our entire dependence ; the con-
sciousness, which each of us carries in his own breast, of
wants, capacities, and desires, stretching out of the sphere
of our present existence, expanding the more as the more
they are gratified, thus proving their illimitable character,
and authorizing the expectation of another life with im-
proved faculties of action and sensibilities to enjoyment
or suffering; — these and their associated considerations
must impress us with the desirableness of obtaining some-
thing more than that sentiment of the Deity which we
derive by inferences from what we see of his works, in
their monuments of the past or their displays of the pre-
sent j the universal and unceasing manifestations of know-
ledge and power, of consummate wisdom in the applica-
tion of knowledge and power, and of beneficence, appear-
ing in so many beautiful forms, yet chequered with so
many dark shades of sin and pain and wo. The won-
drous evidence thus set before us of the physical govern-
ment of God, warrants our belief that he exercises a
moral government ; and that, in proportion as mind is a
nobler object than insensible matter, or, according to
some, mere ideas impressed upon an unknown substra-
ITS INFINITE IMPORTANCE. 81
turn, so must the laws and the action of that moral gov-
ernment be superior to all the grandeur of the sensible
world.
But of the moral perfections of God, and the laws
which belong to this department of his empire, we can
have no certain knowledge, unless he be pleased to com-
municate it. Yet such knowledge is what we need ; know-
ledge which shall have the character of certainty, so that
our anxious minds may rest upon it with confidence ; and
that we may attain, not a vague and precarious presump-
tion, which may be no better than an illusion of selfish-
ness, but a rational assurance of escaping the just penal-
ties of our offences against the eternal law of morals, and
of rising to an immortal perfection of all that is holy,
happy, and glorious. Nothing short of a positive commu-
nication from the Great Being himself, to whom our fears
and our desires point, can be satisfactory ; and we cannot
conceive of any method by which such a communication
could be attested as genuine, except a miraculous inter-
vention, a sensible proof that the God of the universe is
addressing us. Miracles, therefore, as well-known and
valuable writers upon the evidence of Revelation have
shown, are at the same point on the scale of probability
as is the fact of a revelation from God, of grace and mer-
cy and peace. But I must say that this wise and gracious
design is beclouded and the evidence is weakened, by
those who plead for an exuberance of miracles, and are
prompt to resort to them on every occasion which their
hypotheses require. If they more deeply considered the
sublime objects of revelation, and if they were better in-
formed concerning the order and operations of the phys-
ical universe, often called the laws and the powers of na-
ture, but which are no less the results of constant Divine
agency than is an act of immediate creation ; — if they
were thus intellectually and morally prudent, they would
82 CENTRE OF CREATION.
cease to fancy such requirements. I humbly think that,
for the honour of God and the interests of genuine reli-
gion, it is our duty to protest against the practice of
bringing in miraculous interpositions, to help out the ex-
igencies of arbitrary and fanciful theories. No : our
"God is the Eock," eternal and unchangeable in his at-
tributes ; " his work is perfect." He has constructed a
system of connexion and dependence, of succession, col-
lateral relations, and harmony ; a system which has no
shocks, no breaks, no failures, to need the interposition
of correcting and repairing. That system does indeed
include the constitution of remedial adaptations, both
physical and moral. But the corrective and restorative
character of these provisions arises from the condition of
created beings, weak, changeable, and some of them mor-
ally depraved. With respect to the Deity, his purposes,
and his operations, they are parts of a continuous system ,*
and " this also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, who
is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." Above
all, these remarks apply to the constitution and accom-
plishment of the method of redemption and salvation
which Infinite Benevolence has provided for our apostate
and ungrateful race. " God so loved the world, that he
gave his Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth,"
that is, cordially reposes, " on him, should not perish, but
have everlasting life."
IV. It is very generally assumed, as a matter included
in the description of creation given in the Mosaic narra-
tive, that all land-animals were created, in pairs or other
suitable modes of progenitorship, on one spot upon the
earth's surface, and that of very moderate extent ; which
was also the seat of the first human beings, the ancestors
of the entire human race. It is also supposed that, from
this point, not only did men multiply and diffuse them-
selves more and more widely, but that the various species
NO ONE SUCH CENTRE. 83
of animals did the same. With relation to the vegetable
kingdom, the correspondent theory is commonly main-
tained, as consistency requires. If there be any who do
not explicitly declare it, the omission is more likely to
have arisen from inadvertence, than from a perception of
incongruity.
It is not Geology merely, but other branches of Natu-
ral History, that are contradicted by this interpretation
of the Scriptures. The fossil remains, whether animal
or vegetable, which are found imbedded in the strata of
different formations, are in general spread over a large
surface ; especially so, as we go back to the earlier
classes of rocks : but the extent of surface is limited, in
both latitude and longitude. This also is the case in the
most striking manner, with respect to the present distri-
bution of the earth's vegetable and animal tenantry ; the
condition to which the subject before us precisely refers.
Eden, the region occupied by the first human pair and the
animals and plants associated with them, provided for
their use, and subjected to their dominion, was in the
finest part of the temperate zone. The persons who im-
plicitly receive the opinion just mentioned, have perhaps
never asked themselves how animals, which the Creator
has formed with the most precise and perfect adaptations
to widely different conditions of habitation, could subsist,
even for a few days, in or around the .original paradise:
or, if this difficulty be evaded, by a presumptuous evoca-
tion of miracles, or some other arbitrary supposition, the
further inquiry presents itself, by what means the respec-
tive races, whether progenitors or descendants, could
make their way to congenial climes ; some to the regions
of fierce equatorial heat, others to those of eternal ice
and a rigour of cold which no animal can endure for but
a few hours, if not protected by the power and skill of
man ; excepting those which are fitted for it by a wise
8i Hot any one centre.
and wonderful variety in the forms and functions of their
bodily structure, internal as well as external. In all the
species of animals, the entire anatomy, and the outward
provision of covering, defence, and mode of obtaining
food, are adapted to their indigenous locality, Avith &
power and precision which richly display the inexhausti-
ble resources of creative wisdom. A few species indeed
are formed to enjoy a very wide range, they being among
the animals readily domesticated and the most servicea-
ble to man. Yet even they, we have much reason to
think, were originally indigenous in particular places :
and it is worthy of observation that some of these spe-
cies, by being brought into widely different circumstan-
ces as to climate and treatment, acquire through the
lapse of many generations, alterations of form so remark-
able, that uninstructed persons might take them for spe-
cifically different animals : but that these differences con-
stitute only varieties, and not species, is established by
clear anatomical evidence, and by the test of continuous
progeny.
Having made these by no means considerable allow-
ances, we find abundant proofs that the habitable surface
of the dry land, and even the vast extent of the waters,
are divided into districts, the native plants and animals
of which have characteristic peculiarities. This fact
was stated in our last lecture. An example of it has
been rendered familiar to reading persons, by the enlarged
attention of late years to such subjects and the wonder-
fully increased means of communication ; in the instance
of the Australian countries. There has not been suffi-
cient time for any of the species of plants or animals,
which have been introduced by European settlers, to
throw a shade upon the question as to what species are
indigenous and what are naturalized foreigners. That
region, which includes some of the islands of the South
REIGN OF DEATH. 85
Sea, is marked, by characters of the most manifest and
indubitable kind, as a region whose^ora and fauna (terms
used as abbreviations, to designate the collection of
vegetable and animal productions that belong to any
place,) are completely distinct from those of any other
portion of land upon the face of the globe.
If therefore it were maintained, that the first instances
or parents of each animal species, which the Creator has
formed to dwell upon the earth, were found associated
with the first man in paradise, we should be obliged to
say that here was a doctrine, alleged to come under the
sanction of Scripture-authority, but which is at variance
with demonstrated facts. In a subsequent part of these
lectures, we shall have to examine the assumption upon
which this conclusion rests, and I venture to affirm that
we shall find it to be destitute of any solid foundation in
the fair construction of the Sacred Writings.
V. A difficulty of great moment arises from the sup-
position that, upon the authority of divine revelation,
pain and death had no place in any part of the sensitive
creation, at least in this our world, till after the sin of the
first human beings.
Who has not felt the solemn tenderness of our great
poet's invocation 1 .
" Of man's first disobediance, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, with all our wo ;
Sing, heavenly muse."
■ — And the sentiment is very natural, and engaging
to a mind of sensibility ; prior to having any acquaintance
with the natural history of the animal tribes, that ap-
proaches to comprehensiveness and accuracy. It seems
also to be sustained by the infallible authority of the
Scriptures. "By one man sin entered into the world, and
8
86 ORGANIC LIFE INVOLVES DEATH.
death by sin. — The creation has been subjected to vanity :"
it is labouring and suffering under "the bondage of cor-
ruption : — the whole creation groaneth together, and is
in pangs together, until now."*
But, when we come to examine this interpretation or
inference, by the light which undeniable facts afford, we
are taught a different lesson. We find that all organized
matter, that is, every thing that has life, vegetable and
animal, is formed upon a plan which renders death neces-
sary, or something equivalent to death. The first step to
life in the corculum of a vegetable seed, or the atomic ru-
diment of the animal body, in both cases so minute and
recondite as to be inaccessible to human cognizance, pro-
ceeds upon principles which imply an inevitable termi-
nation. The mysterious principle of corporal life is
universally supported by the agency of death. From dead
organic matter, the living structure derives its necessary
supplies. The processes of nutrition, assimilation, growth,
exhaustion, and reparation, hold on their irresistible course
to decay and dissolution ; in another word, death. Some
persons have dreamed of sustaining animal life by exclu-
sively vegetable food ; ignorant that, in every leaf or
root or fruit which they feed upon, and in every drop of
water which they drink, they put to death myriads of liv-
ing creatures, whose bodies are as " curiously and won-
derfully made " as our own, which were full of animation
and agility, and enjoyed their mode and period of exis-
tence as really and effectively, under the bountiful care of
Him " who is good to all, and whose tender mercies are over
all his works," as the stately elephant, the majestic horse,
or man the earthly lord of all. By far the larger portion
of the animal creation is formed, in every part of its an-
atomy, internal and external, for living upon animal food ;
* Rom. v. 12 ; viii. 20, 21, 22.
EVIDENCE FROM GEOLOGY. 87
and cannot live upon any other. The carnivorous nature,
in a thousand instances, is the immediate cause of ines-
timable benefits to man. Of this fact a familiar example
is constantly presented before our eyes, in the speedy
removal of the putrescent carcasses of animals, by the in-
dustry of millions of the minor tribes; creatures which
many of us can scarcely look at without disgust ; yet they
are saving us from being poisoned by a fetid and infec-
tious atmosphere ; and after a further change, striking
emblem of our future resurrection, they come forth beau-
tiful and admired insects, to enjoy the brilliance of a sum-
mer's day, to sip the flowers, to provide a posterity, and
then to die.
Geology unfolds to us similar scenes upon the most
magnificent scale, and filling the recesses of an unfathom-
able antiquity. Few of the formations above the micace-
ous slate are destitute of the remains of animals, and in
a less degree easily accounted for, of vegetables : but the
larger part of those formations is filled with such re-
mains, constituting in some cases nearly the entire sub-
stance of rocks, which are hundreds and thousands of
feet in thickness and many miles in extent. Some of the
Egyptian pyramids are built of Nummulitic Limestone, it-
self entirely composed of chambered shells, of very small
size and of exquisite construction. Other rocks there
are, whose very substance consists of microscopic shells
of extraordi nary beauty, once the habitations of living
beings. Among these are our English chalk, the Berg-
mehl of Sweden, and the polishing stone, first obtained
from Tripoli but since found in many other places. Of
this last, the exquisite shells, almost entirely siliceous in
their composition, which appear to constitute the whole
rocky masses, are so minute, that a cube of one-tenth of
an inch is calculated to contain five hundred millions of
individuals. In the series of the Oolite and Lias rocks,
88 EVIDENCE FROM GEOLOGY.
which come under the Chalk, and, in England and many
other countries, overlie the New Red Sandstone, are found,
in immense numbers, not only the shells of smaller sea-
animals, but the skeletons of formidable creatures, some
of gigantic size, formed for swimming in the sea and
crawling near the shores. We can see and examine their
powerful teeth ; the structure of their bones for the inser-
tion, course and action of muscles, nerves, and the tubes
for circulation, indicating the function ; and their very
stomachs beneath their ribs, replenished with bones, fish-
scales, and other remains of animal food.
Thus, not only the characters of the recent animal cre-
ation, but those of races which have occupied the earth
through past periods of immeasurable duration, demon-
strate it to have been the will of the All-wise Creator
that life and death should minister to each other through-
out the whole extent of the animal tribes ; both in the
actual condition of nature, and in those states of our
world which are past, but have left their monuments in-
scribed with characters that cannot be mistaken.
Whether these positions militate against any thing
that is asserted or implied in the Holy Scriptures ; and
whether they are at all inconsistent with the impressive
declaration, " By man came death j" it will be our duty,
in a future lecture, to consider,
LECTURE IV.
Genesis vi. 17. And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of
waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the
breath of life from under heaven : and every thing that
is in the earth shall die.
Another point remains with regard to which the dis-
crepancy between the belief that is held by some, at least,
of the most eminent geologists, and the testimony of the
word of God, as it is commonly understood, appears most
serious and alarming : this is the historical fact of the
Deluge.
Fifteen hundred years had nearly elapsed since the
creation of man, and his fall into sin and sorrow : and
now human depravity had grown to an awful magnitude.
So far as we can form a judgment from the concise but
emphatic terms of the history, it appears that universal
discord prevailed, mutual injustice and exasperation, ma-
lignity, oppression, and cruelty. Such a habit of mind
from men to their fellow-men, could not but break the
bonds of society, destroy confidence and hope, and poison
the springs of human happiness. Nor was it less cer-
tain, that such a state of mind and character would be
associated with an impious contempt of the Creator and
Supreme Ruler. The condemnatory testimony therefore
is, " The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth
was filled with violence." The expression " before God"
denotes a contempt and defiance of the Divine Majesty.
It is also evident that "the earth" is put, by a frequent
scriptural metonymy, for the inhabitants of the earth ;
whence it is reasonable to infer that the universal terms
in our text have their proper reference to mankind, the
8*
90 THE DELUGE.
subjects of guilt, whose flagitious character cried for a
condign manifestation of Jehovah's displeasure. His
holy perfections were insulted, and perhaps derided with
atheistic scoff. It was now become eminently proper
that there should be some demonstration of the justice
and power of God, which should admit of no doubt ; for
the supplication of a following age could never have been
more appropriate, " Lift up thyself, thou Judge of the
earth : render a reward to the proud. Jehovah ! How
long shall the wicked — how long shall the wicked tri-
umph !"*
Yet the Most High showed himself merciful and gra-
cious. He sent warnings and threatenings, by " Noah,
the preacher of righteousness;" and thus his "long-
suffering waited" one hundred and twenty years. f But
despised mercy must be vindicated by righteous punish-
ment. God therefore made known his determination to
inflict that punishment, in a revelation to his faithful ser-
vant. " Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters ;"
— I will demonstrate my holiness and wisdom, in such a
manner as shall admit of no doubt with regard to its
judicial intention.
Of that awful event, the sacred narrative is clear and
circumstantial.
" In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month,
the seventeenth day of the month," (answering to about the middle of
November,) "the same day were all the fountains of the great deep
broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the
rain was upon the earth, forty days and forty nights. The flood
was forty days upon the earth. And the waters increased, and bare
up the ark ; and it was lifted up above the < earth. And the waters
prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark
went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceed-
ingly upon the earth ; and all the high hills, that were under the whole
heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail ;
* Ps. xciv. 2, 3. 1 1 Pet. hi. 20. 2 Ep. ii. 5.
HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 91
and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon
the earth, both of fowl and of cattle and of beast, and of every creep-
ing thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man : all in whose
nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
And every living substance was destroyed which was upon ihe face
of the ground ; both man and cattle and the creeping things, and the
fowl of the heaven: and they were destroyed from the earth. And
Noah only remained [alive,] and they that were with him in the ark.
And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cat-
tle that were with him in the ark : and God made a wind to pass over
the earth, and the waters assuaged. The fountains also of the deep
and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven
was restrained. And the waters returned from off the earth continu-
ally; and, after the end of the hundied and fifty days, the waters
were abated. And the ark rested, in the seventh month, on the sev-
enteenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. . And the
waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth
month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains
seen. In the six hundred and first year" (that is, of the life of
Noah,) "in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters
were dried up from off the earth. And i\oah removed the covering
of the ark, and looked ; and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the
month, was the earth dried." Gen. vii. 11, to viii. 14.
Thus is the tremendous fact related, by the writing
which, independently of its divine authority, is the most
ancient and the most credible in the world. The histo-
ries and traditions of all nations, ancient and of recent
discovery, furnish ample proof that this great event is
indelibly graven upon the memory of the human race.
The ancient systems of mythology and polytheism are
filled with idolatrous commemorations of the deluge.
Those significant rites, and ne traditions and historical
fragments which have not entirely perished, make us
acquainted with memorials of that event, as having exist-
ed among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Greeks,
Celts, and Scythians, to the farthest antiquity of which
92 UNIVERSAL TRADITION.
we have any documentary knowledge. Also, the disco-,
very of what was long called the New World, three cen-
turies and a half ago, brought to the view of Europeans
not only traditionary notices as possessed by the nations,
at that time very numerous, and many of them compris-
ing a large population, of North and South America; but,
still further, among the Mexicans and Peruvians, histori-
cal and emblematical pictures, which preserve, with more
exactitude than could have been expected, the general
event itself, and various particulars reflecting as it were
an image, distorted indeed but well capable of being
recognised, of the narrative which we possess, in its na-
tive simplicity, in the book of Genesis. Even the inhabi-
tants of the South Sea Islands, so recently brought to the
knowledge of Europeans, are not destitute of their tradi-
tion, bearing its measure of testimony to the universal
impression.* That a statement thus attested by the con-
sent of mankind, did not rest upon a foundation of truth,
it would be the extravagance of absurd skepticism to doubt.
Yet it is remarkable that learned writers have not per-
ceived the absence of any logical connexion between the
universality of historical tradition, and a geographical
universality of the deluge itself. Immense pains have
been taken, and very laudably, to collect the traditions of
tribes and nations deposing to the fact of an overwhelm-
ing deluge in the days of their remotest ancestors ; and
it has been hence concluded, since those traditions exist-
ed in every quarter of the globe, that the deluge had be-
longed to every region. But it seems to have been for-
* The evidences of these traditions are detailed in the late Mr. Jacob
Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, several works of the Rev G.
Stanley Faber, and the recently published Doctrine of the Deluge, by the
Rev. L. Vernon Harcourt. It may be regretted that these estimable
authors have not been guarded against the too common error of weaken-
ing an argument by an excess of amplification.
CONNEXION WITH GEOLOGY. 93
gotten, that each of those traditionary and historical
notices referred to one and the same locality, the seat of
the family of Noah, the cradle of the human race. The
progress of population and dispersion, however rapid we
may suppose it, could never have been such as would
establish any correct idea of geographical distance, from
the recollection of space travelled over. Of all the no-
tions of longitude and latitude, and determinations of dis-
tance by observation of the heavenly bodies, the migrators
must have been destitute. Their abandonment of mono-
theism and pure religion awfully accelerated the reign of
barbarism and ignorance. Hence it became a matter of
next to inevitable certainty, that later generations would
attach their narratives of the flood to their own immedi-
ate districts.
The connexion of this distinguished fact in the his-
tory of mankind, with the phenomena presented to geo-
logical study, has long been a favourite object of attention
to many persons. But few of them have been aware of
the perilous course into which they had entered. To
pursue it with any rational hope of success, would require
an extensive collection of particular facts, an accurate es-
timation of each one, a power of comparing, a sagacity in
drawing inferences, and a comprehension of knowledge
both physical and biblical, the thought of which cannot
but fill me with anxiety. But I shall submit to my friends
the statements and deductions which appear to me to be
founded on sufficient evidence, in the fear of God and
with the desire of promoting the interests of truth.
That the spoils of the ocean are to be found in all
parts of the dry land, is a fact which, one would think,
could hardly have failed to force itself upon the attention
of mankind in all ages and all countries ; and that the
proper deduction would have been drawn from it. But
such a conjecture has not been realized. Just views on
94 MODERN HYPOTHESES.
this subject have not prevailed, till recent times ; though
some remarkable glimpses of the truth, and indeed more
than glimpses, are to be found in the fragmentary remains
of oriental and Egyptian Antiquity, and more completely
in the doctrines of Pythagoras and of other illustrious
men who followed him at long intervals. Strabo, the
Grecian philospher, historian, and traveller, lived in the
reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. Of his writings only a
large geographical work has survived the wreck of the
middle ages, but it is invaluable, though the existing cop-
ies of it are imperfect. In several parts of that work he
displays his sagacity and diligence in making observations,
and extraordinary justness in his reasonings upon them.
He describes geological phenomena, particularly eleva-
tions of land, alteration of the lines of coasts, and the ex-
istence of the remains of sea-animals at considerable
distances from the sea; and he shows that he entertained
very good ideas upon their instrumental causes.*
These subjects however appear to have been forgotten
or neglected during the long night of intellectual darkness
till the revival of letters. In the age of the Reformation
and through more than the century which followed, the
powerful and active minds of Europe were occupied with
other inquiries, of the highest importance ; so that few
of the great men of those days seem to have sought " ser-
mons in stones" and science in frightful ravines, pits,
and precipices. A small number of naturalists, chiefly in
Italy, rose above the prejudices which, however ridicu-
lous, were supported not by vulgar minds only, but by
persons of high cultivation ; yet who could seriously be-
lieve that the bones and shells, and the impressions and
* StrabonisRes Geogr. pp. 71, 73, 79, 89; ed. Falconer. An inter-
esting summary of the testimonies from him and other ancient writers,
upon this class of facts, is given by Mr. Lyell, in his Principles of Geology,
book i. chap. ii.
MODERN HYPOTHESES. 95
casts of animal and vegetable fragments, had never be-
longed to living creatures, but had been formed as we
find them, by a plastic power in nature, or by some kind of
abortive effort (nisus natures) to produce something which
never ascended above a mineral condition, or by freaks of
nature, (lusus nature?-,) as if this same nature were a fitful
sprite, amusing herself with beguiling and puzzling the
learned industry of poor mortals. We are now surprised
that the impiety, as well as the folly, of this jargon did
not procure its instant rejection. Yet let us not over-
value ourselves. It is an unhappy fact, and far less excu-
sable, that some men of science in our own days are not
ashamed to speak and write of a thing which they per-
petually call Nature ; of which they speak as if it were a
goddess, an intelligent, designing, and active being; and
which they without scruple introduce, when the marks of
consummate design, benevolent wisdom, and beautiful
adaptation in the sensible world, are so striking that we
cannot shut our eyes to them. So painfully is it evinced,
that " the carnal mind is enmity against God," and that men
under its influence "do not like to retain God in their
knowledge."
To all the mental movements and the beneficial pro-
gress of the human mind, as well as to times and dwel-
lings, we may apply the principle of the apostle's declara-
tion ; " God, who made the world and all things therein,
— the Lord of heaven and earth, — hath made of one blood
all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed,
and the bounds of their habitation."* A time must have
been fitted and an habitation, so to speak, provided, in
order that a science or an art might be born, and live, and
grow to manly vigour. Geology could not have been
* Acts xtil 24—26.
96
studied, without exposure to fatal errors, till the exact
sciences had been raised to their present state of cultiva-
tion ; till Newton had led the way ; till Astronomy had
been perfected by the Bradleys, the Laplaces, and the
Herschells j till Chemistry had come into existence ; (for
it could scarcely be said to have existed before the days
of Priestley and Davy ;) till Cuvier had made his wonder-
ful use of Comparative Anatomy ; and till the exquisite
calculation of Dynamics had been established by those
living men to whom we look with feelings of, not admira-
tion only, but amazement. In a word, the wisdom of
Providence had prepared the combinations, for taking ef-
fect in our own time, by which Geological Science should
rise and flourish.
There was one distinguished philosopher, Leibnitz, the
contemporary and rival of Newton, the man of universal
application, and of wondrous attainment in Theology,
Jurisprudence, Mathematics, and Philosophy generally,
whose penetrating sagacity looked beyond his time. It
is instructive and delightful to meet with such instances
of the power of mind; recollecting from whom the talent
comes, and the high responsibility which is inseparable
from it, before Him in whose sovereign disposal " is
power and might, and in whose hand it is to make great."*
I cannot resist the wish to cite the words of a judicious au-
thor and one of our first-rate geologists. " Leibnitz hon-
oured this branch of physical speculation by devoting to
it a portion of his attention, and anticipated, with the pro-
phetic sagacity of a powerful mind, its future progress,
and the very methods of investigation which would most
effectually contribute to its successful development/' —
He "exhibits a clear anticipation of the importance and
the prospects of the new science of which he foresaw the
* 1 Chron. xxix. 12.
IN ALL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION. 97
dawn. — Leibnitz proceeds even distinctly to indicate the
line of future research into the geographical distribution
and extension of the various formations, which might be
expected to place this new science on a firm basis."*
Notwithstanding these few exceptions, the common
resort of those who took any notice of the bones, shells,
and other remains, presenting themselves so profusely in
the bowels of the earth, has been to the Deluge of Noah.
In what situations soever the remains of animal and vege-
table beings were found, it was at once assumed that they
were antediluvian relics, brought thither by the flood. It
seems never to have entered into men's minds, to con-
sider the condition of these organic remains, their place
in natural history, their relations to each other and to the
particular strata in which they occur, and the presence
or absence of marks of transport. Scarcely an appear-
ance of entombed organization could be presented, but it
was at once set down to the account of the deluge. The
contents of all caves containing bones, were supposed to
have been floated or driven into them by those mighty
waters. The scooping out of valleys, whether with the
most abrupt sides and tortuous courses, or in smooth and
gentle undulations of outline, found forthwith a ready ex-
planation ; without any exercise of mind upon the inquiry
whether such a diversity of effects does not imply a pro-
portionate diversity of causes in nature, intensity .and
duration. All or nearly all, the superficial drift, consist-
ing of sand, gravel, and rolled pebbles of all sizes, up to
the bowlders of some thousand cubic feet, were, impli-
citly and without further examination of cases and cir-
cumstances, ascribed to one and the same cause, the dilu-
vial waters. In short, persons have not been wanting,
even down to the present day, who have maintained that
* The Rev. W. D. Conybeare's Report on Geology, in the Reports of
the British Association for the Advancement of Science ; vol. I. p. 368.
9
98 EXTREMES OF OPINION.
all the remarkable appearances on the surface and be-
neath the surface of the earth, the depositions, the frac-
tures, the dislocations, the denudations, the transport of
materials, and the entire formation of strata, are the ef-
fects of the deluge.
By acting upon the common infirmities of our nature,
these pretensions have led to an excess of doubt and ob-
jection in the opposite direction. Shunning the violation
of reason and evidence on the one side, in attributing too
much to the flood, distinguished men, friends of revela-
tion and religion, among whom we must reckon the great
Linnseus, seem to have been led into the extreme of too
much diminishing their estimate of its power and influ-
ence. It has been passed over as an event of but small
importance, and which therefore might be altogether ne-
glected in our attempts to trace the natural history of the
earth ; as having been only a gradual and tranquil rise of
water, fatal to life on an awful scale, and extirpating the
guilty race of man, excepting one small family j but inca-
pable of working any material effect upon the disposition
of even the superficial materials.* To my own apprehen-
* "That great event has left no trace of its existence, on the surface
or in the interior of the earth." Prof. Jameson's Notes on Cuvier's The-
ory of the Earth, fifth ed. p. 457. The Professor is a decided friend of
revelation. The Rev. Dr. Fleming also, a divine of the Church of Scot-
land, has largely vindicated the same opinion. I select the following from
his paper in Jameson's Philos. Journ. No. xxviii. April, 182ti. After de-
scribing the attempts of some to extract from geological phenomena a
corroboration of the Scripture narrative, and the crumbling away of their
hypotheses under a searching investigation, he says: "The geologist
beheld his theories vanish like a dream ; and the admirer of revelation
felt (though very unnecessarily) as if the pillar of his faith had become a
broken reed. Geology, by those premature attempts at generalizing, fell
into discredit as a science, among philosophers ; and by the Christian it
was viewed with suspicion. The former had witnessed opinions and
assertions substituted for facts ; and the latter had reaped the fruits of
misplaced confidence." P. 206. "There is reason to believe, from the
writings of Moses, that the ark had not drifted far from the spot where it
CITVIER. 99
sion, the truth lies between these extremes. During both
the increase and the subsidence of the waters, a consider-
able action, from rushing- among obstacles, would seem
inevitable ; but the admission of this by no means
necessitates the further position, that those effects
would be distinguishable to men, after the lapse of many-
ages : and, that they should have produced the stratifica-
tions of the earth, is a notion which must appear impos-
sible to any one who has a tolerably correct idea of what
those stratifications really are.
A remarkable passage relating to this subject, by one
of the finest minds and most eminent philosophers, the
late Baron Cuvier, has been often quoted, and it has a
strong claim upon our attention.
" I think therefore, with Deluc and Doloraieu, that, if there be
any thing settled in geology, it is this, that the surface of our globe
has been subjected to a great and sudden revolution, the date of which
cannot be carried much farther back than five or six thousand years ;
that the revolution broke down and made to disappear the countries
which had been before inhabited by men and the species of animals
with which we are now best acquainted ; that, on the other hand, it
laid dry the bottom of the immediately preceding sea, and formed the
countries which are now inhabited ; that it is from the epoch of that
was first lifted up, and that it grounded at no great distance from the
same spot." P. 213. " I entertain the same opinion as Linnaeus on this
subject ; nor do I feel, though a clergyman, the slightest reason to conceal
my sentiments, though they are opposed to the notions which a false phi-
losophy has generated in the public mind. I have formed my opinions of
the Xoachian deluge, not from Ovid, but the Bible. There the simple
narrative of Moses permits me to believe, that the waters rose upon the
earth by degrees; that means were employed by the Author of the ca-
lamity, to preserve pairs of the land animals; that the flood exhibited no
violent impetuosity, displacing neither the soil nor the vegetable tribes
which it supported, nor rendering the ground unfit for the cultivation of
the vine. With this conviction in my mind, I am not prepared to witness
in nature any remaining marks of the catastrophe ; and I find my respect
for the authority of revelation heightened, when I see, on the present sur-
face, no memorials of the event." P. 214.
100 OBSERVATIONS ON CTJVIER.
revolution that the small number of individuals [of mankind] whom
it had spared, have spread themselves and multiplied over the newly-
dried ground ; and consequently that it is from that epoch alone that
human societies have resumed their progressive advancement, have
formed [social] establishments, have erected memorials of themselves,
have collected the facts of nature, and have combined those facts into
scientific systems. But the countries now inhabited, which had been
laid dry by that last revolution, had been inhabited before, if not by
men, yet at least by land animals. It follows, that preceding revolu-
tions, one at least, had buried those regions beneath the waters; and,
so far as we can judge of the question from the different orders of
animals whose remains are found, it is probable that two or three
such irruptions of the sea had taken place."*
It is consistent with our admiration and reverence for
this great man, to remark that these observations attach
to a state of geological knowledge considerably inferior
to that which it has now attained. The chief design of
the work from which the passage is taken, was to explain
the manner in which the author had applied his know-
ledge of Comparative Anatomy, to the determination of
the masses of bones dug up from the quarries of Paris ;
and which, by cautious proceeding, but in the end with
the clearest demonstration, he proved to be the remains
of animals, analogous to many in the existing creation,
but all differing in species, and many generically. Now
those formations, in various mixtures of chalk, sand, and
gypsum, belong to different parts of the Tertiary division
of rocks: none of them go lower. The subjects which
were thus presented to the illustrious naturalist, in num*
bers so vast, and in a confusion which would have been
overwhelming to minds of less knowledge, industry, and
power than his, were more than enough to occupy his
thoughts and labours, in the most unremitting manner,
* Discours sur les Revolutions de la Surface du Globe, et sur les
Changemens qu'elles ont produit dans le Rigne Animal ; p. 138. Third
Edition. Paris, 1826.
OBSERVATIONS ON CUVIER. 101
during every moment of his life, had it been prolonged to
this hour : yet he devoted himself to the efficient per-
formance of many other and those most arduous duties,
as a philosopher, an academician, a politician and states-
man, and a most active labourer in the walks of benefi-
cence. The number and greatness and comprehension of
his exertions were such as to fill us with even astonish-
ment. It can excite no surprise, therefore, that he did
not carry his researches farther into general Geology;
that in this respect he was behind many of his inferiors j
and that he appears not to have had the least idea that
many of the points upon which, in this very work, he had
put sagacious queries and had suggested decisive meth-
ods of research, were at the very time under successful
examination in our country, by Dr. William Smith. That
indefatigable explorer, the father of English Geology, at
the time when Cuvier was employed in his own depart-
ment and was conferring the richest benefits upon natural
history, was completing his patient labours of thirty years ;
the result of which was to fix, upon a firm basis, the study
of the Secondary rocks, by demonstrating the sure char-
acterism of their imbedded fossils.
The design of these observations is to intimate that
the Baron's general conclusion, relative to that which he
justly calls the last great and sudden revolution affecting
the earth's surface, must not be taken without modifica-
tion. To this the strict evidence of the case compels
us. Though, with his dignified caution and moderation,
he speaks of only two or three alternations of land and
sea prior to the great deluge ; yet the tenor of his work/
where he draws rapid sketches of what to him appeared
probable theory, with respect to the earlier strata and the
underlying crystalline rocks, and some particular expres-
sions which he uses, afford no slight grounds of belief
that, had his investigations been continued over the field
9*
102 CHARACTER OF CUVIER.
on which he could do no more than glance, he would have
given his still more decided suffrage in favour of the doc-
trine of an immensely long succession of changes affect-
ing the earth and its living inhabitants; affecting, not the
whole circumambient surface at the same time, but large
districts in respect of space, and in separate periods in
respect of duration. Speaking strictly, Mineral Geology
was not his domain. His empire consisted of the Natu-
ral History of the living world, Comparative Anatomy,
and the Palseontological department of Geology; and in
this wide sphere he had not, while living, a superior, nor
scarcely a rival. He was the originator of the science :
All others were his followers. No man possessed a more
liberal mind than he. To open and widely distribute his
accumulations of knowledge, was his heart's delight :
and he would have bounded with joy, could he have fore-
known the structures which naturalists and geologists,
whom I should perhaps displease were I to name them,
have built upon the foundations by him so firmly laid.
Here, it is appropriate to our subject, and just to the
illustrious foreigner, to repeat a paragraph from Mr. Mur-
chison's eulogium, delivered from the President's chair
of the Geological Society.*
" The death of such a man has called forth deep lamentations
from every land upon whose children the rays of science have shed
their light ; and the eulogies poured forth in his honour are heard in
almost every language of the civilized globe. How are we to limit
our praise of one whose ample mind was matched only by the benevo-
lence of his heart ; and whose life was passed in unremitting exer-
tions to enlarge the domain of science by blending it with civil polity,
and by infusing into it the principles of education 1 "With an almost
incredible knowledge of the structure and functions of every part of
organized nature, he possessed a power above that of every other
* On Feb. 15, 1833. Cuvier died May 6, 1832, of a general and rapid
paralysis, probably brought on by his extraordinary mental and corporal
exertions, in his 63d year.
HIS ANTICIPATIONS. 103
man of emancipating himself from mere details, and of ascending to
lofty generalizations, which were ever recommended by him with
all the charms of eloquence ; so that, in his hands, Natural History
became adorned, for the first time, with the highest attributes of pure
philosophy. To him we owe the most important of the laws which
have regulated the distribution of the animal kingdom, and by the
application of which we have been made to comprehend many of the
mutations of the surface of our planet. He it was, who, removing from
Geology the incumbrance of errors and conceits heaped on it by
Cosmogonists, contributed more than any individual of this century,
to raise it to the place which it is assuming amongst the exacter sci-
ences. Unlike our precursors, we no longer have to wade through
the doubts and perplexities which retarded their acquaintance with
the lost types of creation: to his skill we are indebted for a know-
ledge of their analogies with existing races : and he it was who, from
their scattered bones, remodelled the skeletons of those wondrous
originals which have successively passed away from the surface of
our planet."
Another beautiful and instructive passage of Baron
Cuvier's work, more than justifies this supposition.
" If, in studying the infancy of our species, we take an interest in
following the almost obliterated traces of numerous nations which
have gone out of existence, can we fail to feel an equal interest in
piercing the darkness of the earth's infancy, and finding there the
marks of revolutions prior to the existence of all nations'? We ad-
mire the powers by which the mind of man has measured the motions
of worlds which nature seemed to have placed for ever out of our
view: but genius and science have burst the limits of space; and a
small number of observations, unfolded by reasoning, have disclosed
the mechanism of the world. Would it not be also a glorious object
for man, to learn how he may clear the boundaries of time; and, by
means of [well directed] observations, recover the history of our
globe, and display the succession of events which preceded the birth
of human kind 1 The astronomers have indeed advanced faster
than the students of nature upon earth; and, at the present moment,
the theory of the earth somewhat resembles that of some philosophers
[of old,] who thought the sky to be built of hewn stones, and the moon
to be even as big as the Peloponnesus. But Anaxagoras began : Co-
104 EVIDENCE OF GEOLOGICAL AGE.
pernicus and Kepler came to clear the way for Newton : and why-
may not Natural History one day have her Newton ?"*
These aspirations have been realized, so that I may,
with propriety, introduce a paragraph from one who is
entitled to write in this strain :
" The gradual advance of Geology, during the last twenty years,
to the dignity of a science, has arisen from the laborious and exten-
sive collection of facts, and from the enlightened spirit in which the
inductions, founded on those facts, have been deduced and discussed.
To those who are unacquainted with this science, or indeed 10 any
person not deeply versed in the history of this and kindred subjects,
it is impossible to convey a just impression of the nature of that evi-
dence by which a multitude of its conclusions are supported : evi-
dence in many cases so irresistible, that the records of the past ages,
to which it refers, are traced in language more imperishable than
that of the historian of any human transactions; the relics of those
beings, entombed in the strata which myriads of centuries have
heaped upon their graves, giving a present evidence of their past ex-
istence with which no human testimony can compete. ''t
* Discours, p. 2. I cannot but here borrow the words of a masterly
writer: " The geologist was prohibited from looking beyond the Mosaic
chronology; — and the peaceful deluge of the Scriptures was the only
catastrophe to which he durst ascribe the convulsions and dislocations *
which had everywhere shaken the interior of the earth. While our [i. c
English] geologists were thus working in chains, the unfettered genius of
Cuvier was ranging over those primeval ages when the primary rocks
rose in insulated grandeur from the deep, and when the elements of life
had not yet received their divine commission. From the age of solitude
he passed to the busy age of life : when plants first decked the plains,
when the majestic pine threw its picturesque shadows over the earth, and
the tragic sounds of carnivorous life rung among her forests. But these
plains were again to be desolated, and these sounds again to be hushed.
The glories of organic life disappeared, and new forms of animal and vege-
table being welcomed the dawn of a better cycle. Thus did the great
magician of the charnel-house survey from his pyramid of bones, the suc-
cessive ages of life and death : thus did he conjure up the spoils of pre-ex-
isting worlds, the noblest offering which reason ever laid upon the altar
of its Sovereign." Edinburgh Review, Vol. LXV. p. 12.
t Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, by Charles Babbage, Esq. p. 47.
EVIDENCE OF GEOLOGICAL AGE. 105
One of the ornaments of Geology, in our own coun-
try, has indeed gone through a course of sentiment not
much unlike that which I have been supposing in relation
to Cuvier. Dr. Buckland, in his Reliquiae Diluvianse, pub-
lished in 1823, quoted a part of the passage which I read,
a few minutes ago ; and gave the sanction of his so de-
servedly high authority to the idea, that the present sur-
face of the earth is the effect of the diluvial waters.
While he was enriching his pages with the pleasing cita-
tion, he was furnishing his illustrious friend at Paris with
a seeming corroboration of the opinion. Speaking of the
mud, gravel, and bones of the Kirkdale Caves, Baron Cu-
vier proceeds :
<( Most carefully described by Prof. Buckland, under the nnrne of
diluvium, and exceedingly different from those other beds of simi-
larly rolled materials, which are constantly deposited by torrents and
rivers, and contain only bones of the animals existing in the country,
and to which Mr. Buckland gives the name of alluvium; they now
form, in the eyes of all geologists, the fullest proof to the senses of
that immense inundation which came the last in the catastrophes of
our globe."*
This testimony was just. Dr. Buckland had indeed
put forth his zeal, his characteristic patience, and his
never wearied exertions, in exploring the drift, or, as it
was usually called, diluvium, of the British Isles: and
after careful inductions from his own observations, he
proceeded with the following passage, in reference to
that mighty action of water to which such effects were
attributed.
" An agent thus gigantic appears to have operated universally on
the surface of our planet at the period of the deluge ; the spaces then
laid bare by the sweeping away of the solid materials that had before
filled them, are called Valleys of Denudation ; and the effects we see
* Discours, p. 141.
106 BUCKLAND ON THE DELUGE.
produced by water in the minor cases I have just mentioned, by pre-
senting us an example, within tangible limits, prepare us to compre-
hend the mighty and stupendous magnitude of those forces by which
whole strata were swept away, and valleys laid open, and gorges
excavated in the more solid portions of the substance of the earth,
bearing the same proportion to the overwhelming ocean by which
they were produced, that modern ravines on the sides of mountains
bear to the torrents which, since the retreat of the deluge, have crea-
ted and continue to enlarge them."*
• Reliquiae Diluvianse, p. 237.
LECTURE V.
2 Peter ii. 5. God spared not the old world, — bringing
the flood upon the world of the ungodly.
In this sentence of the holy apostle, it is manifestly de-
clared, that the design of the deluge was to inflict a de-
served punishment upon that generation of men, whose
awful impiety had defied the power of the Most High,
and scorned his mercy. This defining of the object war-
rants the conclusion, that whatever amount and extent of
the diluvial waters would suffice to execute the sentence
of excision, would also be adequate to fulfil the moral
purpose of the Righteous Judge in ordaining this inflic-
tion. If the universality of the flood extended to the hu-
man race, " the world of the ungodly," it is all that is
requisite to satisfy the purpose of the visitation.
In the last lecture, we had set before us some account
of the mistaken views which had been extensively enter-
tained concerning the effects of the deluge, as supposed
to have left their permanent impressions upon the surface
of our globe : and we listened to the opinions of some of
the most illustrious naturalists and geologists in favour of
that hypothesis, under different modifications.
But the lapse of not more than ten years has brought
a vast collection of observations to bear upon this inter-
esting subject : and I conceive it may, with the strictest
truth, be said that the annals of science, or of literature,
or of theology, do not present a nobler instance of fair-
ness and mental integrity, than was shown by the most
perfect geologists that our country, or any other, can
boast, in yielding up a favourite and long cherished opin-
ion, to which they had committed themselves in the most
108 DILUVIAL FORMATIONS.
public manner, and for which they had been hailed with
flattering applause ; knowing also, by a very sure antici-
pation, that the concession to the power of evidence, the
avowal of honest conviction, would expose them to the
censures of some, who "understand neither what they
say, nor whereof they affirm," though they speak and
write with a confidence in the direct proportion of their
incompetency to say or affirm upon good grounds.
The observations which, in their legitimate deductions,
have produced this remarkable result, have been made by
many persons, and those the best qualified, from their
high attainments in all science, and the skill for making
observations which long practice alone can give ; they
have been made in many countries, near and far distant ;
and they have been made with a circumspection, an ex*
actitude, and an anxious watchfulness against the causes
of mistake, which ought to command our admiration and
gratitude.
Those laborious researches were chiefly directed to the
drift of which we have been speaking, and to which was
commonly assigned the name of diluvium. This is found
to spread widely over the surface in many countries, either
visibly covering the ground, or barely concealed by the
turf and cultivable soil. During the more early period of
geological progress, this diversified mass was, implicitly,
and rather hastily though the error was natural, regarded
as of one formation ; and thence it was an easy step of
advance, in drawing the conclusion that a universal flood
was the active and immediate cause of the whole, that
this flood was among the most recent events affecting the
exterior crust of the earth, and that it must have been
identical with the great deluge of universal tradition and
of sacred history. But the need was felt of closer exam-
ination, minutely distinguishing, and carefully classifying.
The constitution, mineralogical or lithological (for we
DIFFICULTIES. 109
cannot altogether avoid using the technical terms,) of the
small grains of sand, the pebbles, the bowlders, and the
masses of all sizes, which compose the so-called diluvium,
was scrutinized, and compared with the character of rocks
at every point on the lines of distance, till the parent rocks
were demonstrated from which the fragments had been
broken or rubbed off. The mineralogical constitution
thus traced up to a commencing point, gave a sure indi-
cation of the extent of each kind of drift ; and a measure
of the varying water-power, by which the detached bodies
of stony matter had been moved onwards. Hence were
perceived the different degrees of force and velocity
which characterized the streams as they flowed ; the ear-
lier or later dropping of the mud, sand, pebbles, and larger
pieces, on their course ; the greater or less rolling at the
bottom before a resting-place was obtained ; the extent
of the deposit in breadth, and where it terminated by the
moving power being exhausted, or being checked by some
obstacle ; and the deductions which could be drawn, as to
the time requisite, under different degrees of water-power,
for wearing the rough and sharp fragments of rocks of
various hardness and tenacity, till they could be brought
into rounded forms with smooth surfaces.
To any mind not practised in such inquiries, it is not
easy to conceive what a w r ide field this was for investiga-
tion : and it could not be occupied by studies only in the
closet : it required painful and patient toil in flood and
field, over wide plains, in river-beds, on the sea-coasts, in
the windings of large and small valleys, and up the moun-
tain-sides ; and all this to be effected over many miles of
surface, and in different and distant regions of the earth.
No one person could be competent to more than a limited
share in this field ; though we cannot but be astonished
at the extensive portions of it which have been individ-
ually explored by distinguished geologists : but they are
10
110 LABOURS OF GEOLOGISTS.
men in whose circumstances have been combined eminent
science, disengagement from other occupations, health,
bodily strength, ample fortune, and such attachment to
these pursuits as made them shrink from no labour. It
is not given to every man to be a De la Beche, a Buck-
land, or a Griffith j aMurchison, a Phillips, or a Sedgwick.
The investigations however have been carried on, over
the larger part of Europe, and a great breadth and length
in North America ; and the observations made by indi-
viduals have been brought together, rigorously sifted, mu-
tually compared, and their combined results wrought into
an harmonious whole. Yet the class of men of whom I
am speaking have not sat down satisfied with even the
best proved inferences. They have continued their efforts ;
and their instructions and example have excited others.
Many parts of Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America,
have been explored by experienced geologists; and their
Reports, not seldom brought by themselves and subjected
to searching criticism in assemblies of able and acute ex-
aminers, have thus been added to the common treasury.
One of the first results established was that the out-
spread masses of which we are treating, sands, gravel,
and bowlders, were not of one formation, nor of one age.
The separate divisions into which they had been traced,
put upon each a sort of historical mark. Some were
found to belong to origins almost on their own spot, that
is, the rocks of the locality within but a few miles : others
were traced to a considerable distance, yet in the same
country. Others were shown to have been derived from
mountains in remote lands, from which they are now di-
vided by lofty ridges or by seas, which are thus proved
not to have existed when the passage was free. The
order of priority or posteriority has been evinced, by pal-
pable proofs. The course of a more ancient drift has often
been overlaid by a more recent one. In many instances,
DRIFT OF DIFFERENT AGES. Ill
or I might more correctly say in most, it is evident that
the masses of drift have been formed by action long con-
tinued under water; that is, by currents, eddies, and
tides, working for unknown ages, at the bottom and on
the shores of the ocean : thus standing opposed to the
idea of any short-lived inundation. ' Frequently, large
tracts of country have been stripped bare of their drift
and underlying strata, evidently by the action of an ele-
vating movement from below, and a vast body of water
on the surface : and sometimes considerable masses of
the materials which had thus been swept away, occur
heaped up in a corner, so to speak, or where an obstacle
was presented to their further distribution. The idea of
sea-beaches covered with shingle is graphically presented,
and their successive elevation by slow rising of the land.*
The respective ages, in relation or comparison to each
other, are determined, by the position of the distinguish-
able kinds of drift, that of one character lying under or
over that of another ; by relations to movements of under-
lying or neighbouring rocks ; and by the geological con-
stitution of the parent rocks whence the mass had been
derived.
These summary remarks might suffice for the purpose
of these lectures, which is not to deliver a system of Ge-
ology, but only to state clearly, if I can, those doctrines
which to my conviction stand upon solid grounds of proof,
but which may have the appearance of being contradicted
by something said or implied in the Holy Scriptures. Yet,
* See De la Beetle's Geological Manual, pp. 172—178, third ed. 1833.
Since that time, many examples have been brought before the Geological
Society, by Prof. Sedgwick and others. Mr. Darwin, describing vast
formations of this kind in South America, observes that the doctrine of
slow elevations (a demonstrated fact) " will account, without the neces-
sity of any sudden rush of water, for the general covering of mixed shin-
gle, so common in many parts of Europe." Voyage of the Beagle, Vol.
III. pp. 206: see also of that interesting volume, pp. 381, 411, 423.
112 OLDEST DRIFTS.
considering the specially interesting character of this sub-
ject, I may be excused for stating briefly, some of the
actual facts which have been brought to light.
In our own island various and extensive bodies of drift
are found, to which a more detailed attention is neces-
sary. That which I shall first mention extends over a
district to which Mr. Murchison, by a well-judged appli-
cation of our early history, has given the name of Silu-
ria.* It may be generally described as comprehending a
considerable part of Wales, and of Monmouthshire, Here-
fordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire,
and Shropshire. There is good reason to believe that this
body of drift is the most ancient of all that have been
formed on the surface of what is now land, but was then
the bed of the sea, afterwards elevated, and, in the season
ordained by Divine Wisdom, made to constitute the island
of Great Britain. The region over which it had been
spread when under the waters of an ancient sea, was
raised and became dry land while the ocean still covered
the adjoining districts to the east and north. Since that
elevation it has not been again submerged. Its dried sur-
face was clothed with vegetation, and became the abode
of land animals ; scattered bones of which are dug up,
containing anatomical proofs that they had belonged to
species not existing in the present state of our earth.
There are several distinct formations of this drift, but
they are all local, derived from rocks existing within the
region.
Another more extensive body of drift spreads over a
large tract from Lancashire southwards $ and it possesses
characters of the most decisive kind, showing its perfect
distinctness from the former. Its contents are derived,
♦Admirably detailed in the magnificent work, The Silurian System ;
2 volumes in quarto, with a splendid and most instructive map ; 1839.
This division of the subject is treated in Chap. XXXVII.
MORE RECENT DRIFT. 113
principally from the crystalline rocks and trappean inser-
tions, which form the great mountains of Westmoreland,
Cumberland, and part of Scotland; but with underlying
beds and intermixtures of local drifts, indicating previous
formation and being of less extent. It proceeds from its
origin, tapering southwards, and turned by the mountains
of North Wales, till it comes up to the boundary of the
South Welsh and Severn region just mentioned ; and
there it stops. It skirts that region along its northern
and western limit, but does not ascend into it : and it has
also an eastern limit, which proves that a large portion of
our island on that side then stood above the waters. Be-
tween these limits, this drift is contracted, till it termin-
ates in a roughly pointed form upon the river Severn,
where was either the point of a bay, or the straits might
be prolonged into a wide sea towards the south. Hence
some conclusions of importance force themselves upon
our conviction.
The first is, that the country occupied by the local
drift had been raised above the level of the sea which
flowed up to its northern and eastern frontier.
The second, that the waters bringing this newer drift
from the north, did not flow over the region already occu-
pied by the local and more ancient drift. But there is
evidence that both these formations were effected in pe-
riods much more remote than the date of the flood in the
days of Noah, and even before the creation of man and
his contemporary animals. We are therefore compelled
to the conclusion that this flood was not absolutely uni-
versal : for, had it been so, the diluvial waters must have
carried forwards the northern drift, mingled with other
stones, gravel, and mud; and so have overspread the
previous Silurian bed.
Thirdly : this newest drift carries further evidence
that it was not deposited by any transient rush of a body
10*
114? ALPINE DRIFT.
of new waters, over a surface which had been previously
dry land ; for such must have been a deluge rising for
150 days, and then beginning to subside, and in a little
more than the same period coming completely to an end.
On the contrary, the rounded forms of the pebbles and
bowlders must have required a very long time of rubbing
and grinding by currents, eddies, and tides at the bottom
of the sea; and the occurrence of sea-shells, in consid-
erable variety and abundance, affords evidence that the
area itself had not been dry land, but the regular bed of
the ocean.
It was mentioned above that the newer or northern
drift was bounded on its eastern flank by a range of ele-
vated land. It must be added, that the eastern portion of
our island affords copious evidence of having received
several other deposits of drift, at different and distant pe-
riods, brought from nearly all the primary and secondary
rocks in the northern parts of Great Britain, from the
mountains of Sweden and Norway, and probably from
land which once occupied that which is now the bed of
the German Ocean.*
In another European region, the effects have been
traced of a series of phenomena more magnificent and as-
tonishing still. To bring into view the physical reasons
for the conclusions is impossible, in this brief sketch j nor
indeed could they be made intelligible to a general audi-
ence. A statement of the results must suffice.
Many will perhaps be surprised and incredulous at
hearing the position, which many appearances render
probable, that, for countless ages after the elevation of
the great mountain-chains of Great Britain, the region of
the Alps, in the heart of Europe, was a champaign coun-
try, in many parts marshy, and enjoying a mean tempera-
* Paper of Dr. Mitchell's read to the Geol. Society, Nov. 7, 183S.
ALPINE DRIFT. 115
ture not much if at all lower than that of tropical regions
in the present condition of the earth. Subsequently, the
elevatory movements which have operated so variously
and powerfully upon the crust of the earth, pushed up the
previously horizontal beds, and raised that large district
into ranges of mountains considerably higher than is their
present state. This effected an extreme reduction of
temperature, and established a polar climate. The val-
leys were filled with stupendous glaciers; which, as do
those of the present day, broke off and slowly bore away
as along inclined planes, fragments of rock, of all sizes,
from that of mere grains to bowlders weicrhinsr hundreds
of tons. These, by the known progressive motion of those
immense masses of frozen snow, were driven over sur-
faces of denuded rock, in the way of dry grinding. The
mechanical results of such an operation, repeated thou-
sands of times, are " written as with the point of a dia-
mond." Grooves, slighter markings, and the interposed
small pebbles and fine sand, prove the kind and manner
of the operation. In a subsequent period, this great sys-
tem of mountains sunk down, probably about the average
of seven thousand feet. Consequently, the snows must
have melted below a certain altitude. In time the valleys
were cleared, and the whole face of the country became
nearly what it is at present. One of the results was, that
the blocks of the Alps are now found on the tops and op-
posite descents of the Jura mountains, separated from the
origin of those blocks by several deep valleys, running
crosswise, each ten or fifteen miles in width, and the en-
tire distance at least fifty miles. Several local deluges
appear then to have taken place, commencing in some
part of the higher Alps. The earlier of these were prob-
ably produced from the melting of the snow and ice made
redundant by the subsidence of the ground, and the dis-
solution of which would become very rapid in consequence
116 NORTHERN FLOODS.
of the rock-fissures inevitably produced, and through
which steam and volatilized minerals would rise at a high
temperature. The courses of these floods appear to have
been principally to the east, towards the plains of Italy,
and in a northerly direction, where now is the bed of the
Rhine.*
There are evident indications of another deluge, which
had washed over Lapland and Norway, but especially
Sweden, in a direction from north or north-east, to the
south, spreading its stony burden over vast districts of
Denmark, Poland, aud the north of Germany, as far as the
51st degree of latitude ; and presenting the polished sur-
faces of rocks, marked with fine linear scratches, larger
grooves, and even furrows, evidently produced by the
passage of immense masses of rock over them.f Simi-
lar proofs and those upon a grand scale, of a flood, or
rather of several floods, exist in North America. These
were variously local, yet extensive and powerful to an
amazing degree, and having, in like manner, a direction
from northerly points to the southward.^ Those torrents
* Venetz and De Charpentier; in Jameson's Philos. Journ. Vol. XXI.
p. 210, and XXII. p. 27, Agassiz; in the same Journal, XXIV. pp. 17b,
and 364.
tDela Beche's Geol. Man. third ed. p. 189. Poggendorf, in Jameson's
Journal, Vol. XXIII. p. 69.
t "That a transient deluge, like that described in the Scriptures, could
have produced, and brought into its present situation, all the diluvium
which is now spread over the surface of this continent, will not (it seems
to me) be admitted for a moment by any impartial observer. It has ob-
viously been the result of different agencies and of different epochs; the
result of causes sometimes operating feebly and slowly, and at other
times violently and powerfully. But the conclusion to which I have been
irresistibly forced, by an examination of this stratum in Massachusetts,
is, that all the diluvium which had been previously accumulated by various
agencies, has been modified by a powerful deluge, sweeping from the north
and north-west, over every part of the Slate, not excepting its highest
mountains : and since that deluge, none but alluvial agencies have been
operating to change the surface." Prof. Hitchcock's Geology of Massa-
chusetts; p. 143. Amherst, 1835.
AMERICAN FLOODS. 117
have borne upon their bosoms numerous icebergs, broken
off from vast glaciers; and which, both from their former
action in separating portions of rock of all sizes, and from
the accompaniments of their disruption, must have in-
volved large masses of rocky materials. These materials
are of all sizes, from small pebbles and moderate bowlders
to blocks of thousands of cubic feet in dimensions and
hundreds of tons in weight. As the icebergs melted away,
after the retiring floods had left them, these stones were
deposited. Some of the masses received additional peri-
ods of long-continued water-wearing, and are now exhib-
ited to us in the graduating forms of blocks separate or in
continuous heaps, smaller bowlders and pebbles, gravel
and sand. It must be borne in mind that the reducing of
angular fragments into rounded and smooth forms, espe-
cially of the extremely hard rocks which have furnished
t; If it be true that continents and vast chains of mountains were ele-
vated at different periods, and by paroxysmal efforts, it is impossible but
that deluges of tremendous violence and universal* extent, should have
been the consequence. Accordingly, we find traces of such deluges in
the vast beds of conglomerates that exist in the sedimentary deposits ;
and also in the frequent extinctions and renewals of animal and vegetable
life, which appear to have taken place on the globe. For such deluges
must have been fatal to organized existence ; at least to a great extent.
Our rocks [those of Massachusetts] show the occurrence of several very
powerful deluges in early times. The new red sandstone affords eviden-
ces of numerous deluges during its deposition ; in the many alternations of
coarse and fine materials of which it is composed. Two periods, during
its production, appear to have been particularly distinguished for powerful
diluvial action. In the first, those conglomerated beds, made up chiefly
of the ruins of granite, and associated with the lower beds of sandstone,
were accumulated. In the second, that very coarse conglomerate, chiefly
composed of various schists, and connected with the higher shales and
sandstones, was brought into its present situation. The osseous con-
glomerate connected with the plastic clay, indicates diluvial action per-
haps, though not of the most violent kind, during the deposition of this
formation." lb. p. 520.
* He probably means very wide: for a strict universality is not requi-
red by the reasoning, nor quite consistent with what follows.
118 AMERICAN FLOODS.
this drift, (quartz, granite, syenite, hornblende, porphyry,
basalt, and the like,) could not be effected in a short time,
nor probably by any one land-torrent, or sea-current : so
that we are led to the admission of long action, previous to
the great transport, or subsequently, or both; and that not
merely in progressive motion in straight lines, but by
gyrations in basin-like spots which abundantly show
themselves in the regions of which we have been speak-
ing. The heavier fragments, having by the force of grav-
ity originally taken their places at the bottom of the icy
masses, would, upon the melting away of the under-sur-
face, present sharp angular points ; for when they were
first enveloped in the ice they had been just broken off from
their parent rocks. These under surfaces, acting un-
der the pressure of many thousand tons weight, rubbed
and ground smooth the rocks upon which they slid ; and
their points made grooves, or deep scratches, which pre-
sent themselves to the laborious observer and are truly
inscriptions " graven in the rock for ever," and furnish-
ing unerring indications of the direction in which those
vast masses were carried. The torrents must soon have
ceased, the waters subsiding into the seas and lakes in
the respective regions. The icebergs grounded ; and be-
ing now in climates which kept them continually melting,
at last disappeared, and the blocks, often exhibiting their
original sharpness of outline, remain to this day, attesting,
by the identity of the stone, which is often remarkably
characteristic, the mountain-ridges whence they had been
torn. Those mountain-ridges are frequently within a few
miles, but often at the distance of some hundreds, from
the areas over which the derived pebbles and bowlders
are spread.
Here, then, we have evidence of the origin and the
direction, the breadth, (though the edges which would
show the boundary are often lost in the ocean,) and the
CONVICTION OF EMINENT GEOLOGISTS. 119
gradual termination, of the astonishing bodies of water
which had thus been put into a violent and long-acting
motion.
To my auditors, notwithstanding their candour and
patience, I fear that these details have appeared dry and
tedious ; and to those who are not accustomed to such
verbal descriptions, it may perhaps be difficult to estimate
their argumentative value. But this object will be attain-
ed in a maimer highly advantageous and illustrative, if I
here cite the declarations of those eminent Geologists,
who have frankly and honourably relinquished their for-
mer opinion.
I begin with Dr. Buckland, because I have already
quoted, from his elegant and deeply interesting Reliquiae
Diluvianae, the passage expressing what were his senti-
ments seventeen years ago. In his Bridgewater Treatise,
he mentions, with a brevity which we cannot but lament,
the " deposits of diluvial detritus, dispersed over the sur-
face of formations of all ages." These he classes with
the newest or latest geological formations, called in Mr.
Lyell's nomenclature those of the Pliocene period, that
is, the newer of the Tertiary series ; though in fact it is
older than the state of the surface which we can, with
any reasonable appearance of evidence, regard as con-
temporary with the human race and the present vegeta-
ble and animal creation. Dr. Buckland also shows that
the bones of large quadrupeds, which are abundantly
found in these strata, have belonged to species which no
longer exist in a living state, though we have other spe-
cies of the same genera : thus warranting the belief that
we live under a different order of creation than that of
even the latest of the past periods: he then subjoins the
following passage :
" The evidence which I have collected in my Reliquiae Diluvianae,
1803, shows, that one of the last great physical events that have
120 BUCKLAND.
affected the surface of our globe, was a violent inundation, which
overwhelmed great part of the northern hemisphere, and that this
event was followed by the sudden disappearance of a large number
of the species of terrestrial quadrupeds, which had inhabited these re-
gions in the period immediately preceding it. I also ventured to apply
the name Diluvium to the superficial beds of gravel, clay, and sand,
which appear to have been produced by this great irruption of water.
" The description of the facts which form the evidence presented
in this volume, is kept distinct from the question of the identity of
the event attested by them, with any deluge recorded in history.
Discoveries which have been made, since the publication of this
work, show that many of the animals therein described, existed
during more than one geological period preceding the catastrophe
by which they were extirpated. Hence it seems more probable, that
the event in question, was the last of the many geological revolutions
that have been produced by violent irruptions of water, rather than
the comparatively tranquil inundation described in the inspired nar-
rative.
" It has been justly argued, against this attempt to identify these
two great historical and natural phenomena, that as the rise and fall
of the waters of the Mosaic deluge are described to have been gra-
dual, and of short duration, they would have produced comparative-
ly little change on the surface of the country they overflowed. The
large preponderance of extinct species among the animals we find in
caves, and in superficial deposits of diluvium, and the non-discovery
of human bones along with them, afford other strong reason for re-
ferring these species to a period anterior to the creation of man.
This important point, however, cannot be considered as completely
settled, till more detailed investigations of the newest members of
the Pliocene, and of the diluvial and alluvial formations shall have
taken place."*
My next citation is from an equally distinguished phi-
losopher, the correspondent ornament of the University
of Cambridge. Though the passage be long, its import-
ance for our present object and its comprehensiveness in
relation to others, not to mention the felicity of its ex-
pression, render any apology unnecessary.
" At our former Anniversary I ventured to affirm, that our dilu-
vial gravel was probably not the result of one, but of many succes-
* Bridgewater Treatise, Vol. I. p. 94.
SEDGWICK. 121
sive periods. But what I then stated as a probable opinion, may,
after (he Essays of M. de Beaumont, be now advanced with all the
authority of established truth : aDd among the many obligations we
owe to this accomplished observer, I may mention the new and in-
structive views he has given us of the origin of the great masses of old
detritus lying scattered over the lower regions of the earth. We now
connect the gravel of the plains with the elevation of the nearestsys-
tem of mountains ; we believe that the Scandinavian bowlders in the
north of Germany are of an older date than the diluvium of the
Danube : and we can prove, that the great erratic blocks, derived
from the granite of Mont Blanc, are of a more recent origin than
the old gravel in the tributary valleys of the Rhone. That these
statements militate against opinions, but a few years since held
almost universally among us, cannot be denied. But theories of di-
luvial gravel, like ail other ardent generalizations of an advancing
science, must ever be regarded but as shifting hypotheses to be modi-
fied by every new fact, till at length they become accordant with all
the phenomena of nature.
'• In retreating where we have advanced too far, there is neither
compromise of dignity nor loss of strength; for in doing this, we
partake but of the common fortune of every one who enters on a
field of investigation like our own. All the noble generalizations of
Cuvier, and all the beautiful discoveries of Buckland, as far as they
are the results of fair induction, will ever remain unshaken by the
progress of discovery. It is only to theoretical opinions that my re-
marks have any application.
" Different formations of solid rock, however elevated and con-
torted, can never become entirely mixed together ; and the very pro-
gress of degradation commonly lays bare all the elements of their
structure. But diluvial gravel may be shot off from the flanks of a
mountain chain, during one period of elevation, and become so con-
founded with the detritus of another period, that no power on earth
can separate them: and every subsequent movement, whether pro-
duced by land-floods or any other similar cause, must continually
tend still further to mingle and confound them. The study of dilu-
vial gravel is, then, not only one of great interest, but of peculiar
difficulty and nice discrimination: and in the verj ame deposit, we
may find the remains of animals which have lived during different
epochs in the history of the earth.
" Bearing upon this difficult question, there is, I think, one great
negative conclusion now incontestably established— that the vast
masses of diluvial gravel, scattered almost over the surface of the
11
122 SEDGWICK.
earth, do not belong to one violent and transitory period. It was indeed
a most unwarranted conclusion, when we assumed the contempora-
neity of all the superficial gravel on the earth. We saw the clear-
est traces of diluvial action, and we had, in our sacred histories, the
record of a general deluge. On this double testimony it was, that
we gave a unity to a vast succession of phenomena, not one of which
we perfectly comprehended, and under the name diluvium, classed
them all together.
" To seek the light of physical truth by reasoning of this kind,
is, in the language of Bacon, to seek the living among the dead, and
will ever end in erroneous induction. Our errors were, however,
natural, and of the same kind which led many excellent observers of
a former century to refer all the secondary formations of geology to
the Noachian deluge. Having been myself a believer, and, to the
best of my power, a propagator of what I now regard as a philoso-
phic heresy, and having more than once been quoted for opinions
which I do not now maintain, I think it right, [as one of my last acts
before I quit this chair,] thus publicly to read my recantation.
" We ought, indeed, to have paused before we first adopted the
diluvian theory, and referred all our old superficial gravel to the
action of the Mosaic flood. For of man, and the works of his hands ,
we have not yet found a single trace among the remnants of a former
world entombed in these ancient deposits. In classing together dis-
tant unknown formations under one name; in giving them a simul-
taneous origin, and in determining their date, not by the organic
remains we had discovered, but by those we expected hypothetically
hereafter to discover, in them ; we have given one more example of
the passion with which the mind fastens upon general conclusions,
and of the readiness with which it leaves the consideration of uncon-
nected truths.
" Are then the facts of our science opposed to the sacred records 1
and do we deny the reality of a historic deluge 1 I utterly reject
such an inference. Moral and physical truth may partake of a com-
mon essence, but as far as we are concerned, their foundations are
independent, and have not one common element. And in the narra-
tions of a great fatal catastrophe, handed down to us, not in our sa-
cred books only, but in the traditions of all nations, there is not a
word to justify us in looking to any mere physical monuments as the
intelligible records of that event: such monuments, at least, have not
yet been found, and it is not perhaps intended that they ever should be
found. If, however, we should hereafter discover the skeletons of an-
cient tribes, and the works of ancient art buried in the superficial det-
GREENOUGH.
123
ritus of any large region of the earth; then, and not till then, we may
speculate about their stature and their manners and their numbers, as
we now speculate among the disinterred ruins of an ancient city.
"We might, I think, rest content with such a general answer
as this. But we may advance one step further. History is a con-
tinual record of passions and events unconnected with the enduring
laws of mere material agents.— The progress of physical induction,
on the contrary, leads us on to discoveries, of which the mere light
of history would not indicate a single trace. But the facts recorded
in history may sometimes, without confounding the nature of moral
and physical truth, be brought into a general accordance with the
known phenomena of nature: and such general accordance I affirm
there is between our historical traditions and the phenomena of geo-
logy. Both tell us in a language easily understood, though written
in far different characters, that man isa recent sojourner on the sur-
face of the earth. Again, though we have not yet found the certain
traces of any great diluvian catastrophe which we can affirm to be
within the human period ; we have, at least, shown, that paroxysms
of internal energy, accompanied by the elevation of mountain chains,
aud followed by mighty waves desolating whole regions of the earth,
were a part of the mechanism of nature. And what has happened,
again and again, from the most ancient, up to the most modern pe-
riods in the natural history of the earth, may have happened once
during the few thousand years that man has been living on its sur-
face. We have therefore taken away all anterior incredibility from
the fact of a recent deluge ; and we have prepared the mind, doubting
about the truth of things of which it knows not either the origin or
the end, for the adoption of this fact on the weight of historic testi-
mony."*
I shall add one more to the mention of eminent Geo-
logists who, upon the point before us, have shown their
loyalty to the laws of evidence and the dominion of truth,
by surrendering favourite, long cherished, and diligently
elaborated sentiments. It is scarcely twenty years since
Mr. Greenough, at that time President of the Geological
Society, of which he was one of the founders, published
his Critical Examination of the First Principles of Geolo-
gy, in which he investigates at great length the phenome-
* Proceedings of the Geol. Soc. Vol. I, pp. 312—314. 1831,
124 GKEENOUGH.
na which have detained us so long, the state and connex-
ions of gravel and transported bowlders. It is right to
say of this gentleman that he has been always distin-
guished by his comprehensiveness of knowledge and his
caution, I might say extreme reluctance and even jea-
lousy, in acceding to new opinions, till they were sub-
stantiated by very satisfactory evidence. In that large
and careful disquisition, he repeatedly declares himself in
favour of one great and universal deluge. But, in the
year 1834, we find him thus addressing that Society.
" Allow me to say a few words upon a subject in connexion
with which my name has of late been brought forward much more
prominently than I could have desired;— I mean Diluvial action.
" Some fourteen years ago I advanced an opinion, founded alto-
gether upon physical and geological considerations, that ihe entire
earth had, at an unknown period, (as far as that word implies any
determinate portion of time,) been covered by one general but tem-
porary deluge. The opinion was not hastily formed. My reasoning
rested on the facts which had then come before me. My acquaint-
ance with physical and geological nature is now extended: and that
more extended acquaintance would be entirely wasted upon me, if
the opinions which it will no longer allow me to retain, it did not
also induce me to rectify. New data have flowed in, and with the
frankness of one of my predecessors, I do also now read my recan-
tation.
" The varied and accurate researches which have been instituted
of late years throughout and far beyond the limits of hurope, all
tend to this conclusion, that the geological schools of Taris, Frevberg
and London have been accustomed to rate too low the various forces
■which are still modifying, and always have modified, the external
form of the earth. What the value of those forces may be in each
case, or what their relative value, will continue for many years a sub-
ject of discussion ; but that their aggregate effect greatly surpasses all
our early estimates, is I believe incontestably established. To Mr.
Lyell is eminently due the merit of having awakened us to a sense
of our error in this respect. The vast mass of evidence which he
has brought together, in illustration of what may be called Diurnal
Geology, convinces me that if, five thousand years ago, a Deluge did
sweep over the entire globe, its traces can no longer be distinguished
from more modern and local disturbances. The first sight of those
DRIFT IN OTHER REGIONS. 125
comparatively recent assemblages of strata, which he designates the
Eecene, Meioc.ne and Pleioccne Formations, (unknown but a few
years ago, though diffused as extensively as many which were then
honoured with the title of universal,) shows the extreme difficulty of
distinguishing their detritus from what we have been accustomed to
esteem Diluvium. The Fossil Contents of these formations strongly
confirm this argument. M. Deshayes has shown that they belong to
a series unbroken by any great intervals, and that, if they be divided
from the secondary strata, the chasm can have no relation to any-
such event as is called The Flood.
'■ Further, the elephants and other animals once supposed to be
exclusively Diluvial, are now admitted to be referrible to two or
three distinct epochs ; and it is highly probable that the blocks of the
Jura Mountains, of the North of Germany, of the North of Italy, of
Cumberland, Westmoreland, &c. are not the waifs and strays of one,
but of several successive inundations."
In addition to these vestiges of deluges, wide in their
extent, and mighty in their effects, but yet limited and
marked with characters of independent action and diver-
sity of time, geological research has brought to light
other facts and evidences, which we cannot enlarge upon.
The phenomena are chiefly in the northern hemisphere.
As far as my reading has enabled me to get information,
and if the recollection do not fail, they are much less
frequent and extensive in the equatorial regions. In Ja-
maica, Mr. De la Beche found considerable masses of
drift-pebbles, conglomerates, and breccias, derived from
the rocks of the island, and evidently of various ages.*
But in the farther latitudes of South America, the plains
of Patagonia, an area of two or three thousand square
miles is covered with drift derived from the chain of the
Andes by the washing of the ocean upon ancient coasts,
which, in successive geological periods, have been raised
above the waters, leaving a series of beaches which form
terraces hundreds of miles asunder, and marked with the
* Transgc. of Geol. Soc. Second Series ; Vol. II. Article XIII. 1827.
See also his Geol. Manual, p. 142.
11*
126 CENTRAL FRANCE.
intervention of volcanic eruptions. The mind is over-
whelmed by any attempt to reduce these periods to any
comparison with our puny measures of time : and yet
they belong to the most recent class of geological opera-
tions.*
It must not be forgotten that, in some situations, the
characters of the rolled stones are thought to warrant the
supposition of their having been driven and agitated upon
the bottom of the deep ocean, by under-currents, acting
during vast periods of time, when it is probable that the
region, which now constitutes Europe, was occupied by
the sea, and studded with a multitude of small islands.
The inference to which all these observations and rea-
sonings lead, is that geological evidence is adverse to the
admission of a deluge simultaneous and universal for
every part of the earth's surface. Indeed I must add that
in proportion to the care and accuracy with which the
investigation of physical facts has been carried on, so the
proofs have accumulated that there never was a period,
since any vestiges occur of the existence of organized
creatures, when the earth did not possess a varied face ;
partly dry land with its vegetable and animal occupiers,
and partly the wide domain of the waters possessing their
numerous inhabitants.
Another fact, which has an interesting reference to
our present inquiry, must not be passed over, though I
can only treat it with the utmost brevity. There is a dis-
trict, in the southern part of the centre of France, more
than forty miles in length and twenty in breadth, com-
prised in the ancient provincial divisions of Auvergne and
Languedoc. In this district are the unquestionable cones,
craters, and other characteristic remains of more than
* For this information I am indebted to Mr. Darwin's instructive and
delightful volume, the third of the Narrative of the Voyages of Captains
King and Fitzroy ; p. 210, &c.
AUVERGNE. 127
two hundred volcanic hills and mountains. These, in for-
mer periods of our planet's history, have projected their
tremendous fiery masses, ashes, and water, into the air ;
and vast streams of the melted rocks along the ground.
Some of the smaller hills may have been secondary vents,
burst open at the same time with a great mountain-erup-
tion, with whose interior a series of minor cones might
be connected in a way well known to those who have
studied the structure and action of volcanoes. But, when
every allowance is made for this supposition, there re-
mains the astonishing spectacle of many contiguous
burning mountains, some of them fairly comparable to
Vesuvius.* All the accompaniments of volcanic action
are here presented in the most perfect manner. The
craters, the ejected ashes and cinders, the characteristic
fragments of stones, and the consolidated but once liquid
masses of various lavas, which have flowed in all direc-
tions, dispossessing rivers of their channels, filling up
those channels and other valleys to heights of fifty, one
hundred and many more feet, and spreading in their vari-
ous flow, over many miles of area. The different and
distant periods which separated these eruptions from each
other, are shown by the interposition of stratified forma-
tions, and by numerous other circumstances, appropriate
marks of volcanic districts. Subjacent and alternating
beds of different material demonstrate the succession of
distinct mineral formations, and a rich abundance of what
was once vegetable and animal life in species of creatures
which belong not to the present condition of our globe.
Vast forests, and those of the largest chestnut trees, now
clothe many parts of the slopes. " Rivers have, since the
flowing of these lavas, worn themselves new channels ;
* The summit of Vesuvius is 3900 feet above the level of the sea. Of
these extinct volcanoes, one is 3956, another more than 4000, another
nearly 5000, and many are from 500 to 1000.
128 AGE OF THE VOLCANOES.
and have sometimes not only exposed on each bank a
precipitous wall of columnar basalt one hundred and fifty-
feet in height, but even to a considerable depth eaten
into the granite rocks beneath ; the whole excavation be-
ing of course entirely subsequent to the volcanic erup-
tion, the lava of which flowed at the bottom of the then
existing valley.*
Yet when did these fires burn 1 When took place
this amazing combination of volcanic eruptions and
their terrible accompaniments 1 How long ago was
the last of them 1 And by what intervals of time could
we ascend, from that last, to the earlier eruptions j
and to the earliest of the — astounding number 1 —
These questions cannot be answered by any assigning
of our measures of time, years and centuries. Such
analogies as may be inferred by comparative exami-
nations of the condition of iEtna, Vesuvius, and other
active volcanoes, carry us to the contemplation of a
period which runs back not to the age of Noah merely,
but immeasurably beyond the date of the creation of man
and his contemporary plants and animals. In mountain-
ous countries many facts are presented to the eye which
approach to a standard of measurement of the average
action of the atmosphere and of running water, in decom-
posing and washing off the surface of granitic and basaltic
rocks. That action is sure and constant : but it is slow,
to such a degree that not years but centuries are requi-
site for its chronicle. Even the abrading of that descrip-
tion of rocks when they form the boldest sea-coast, by
the violence of storms added to the ordinary action of
water and weather, (an addition of great power,) has not
materially altered the outline of such shores in Cornwall,
the west and north of Scotland, Norway, and many other
* Quarterly Review, Vol. XXXVI. p. 464 ; 1827.
AGE OF THE VOLCANOES OF AUVERGNE. 129
countries, since the beginning of our historical know-
ledge. But the action of a fresh-water river, impinging
upon hard rocks, is much more feeble. Yet, in the dis-
trict of which we are speaking, such streams have made
themselves a way, in several places, between the granite
and the lower part, indeed the most porous and friable,
of the lava, which had formed rocks of more than one
hundred feet in thickness, overlying the granite. Such
an operation must have been slow, almost beyond con-
ception. In whatever way we may contrive to imagine a
reduction of the time necessary for this purpose, the
mind cannot rest upon a period less than many thousands
of years.* Also, in this remarkable region, in places
where time has laid bare large perpendicular surfaces,
are presented series of strata of different rock ; and la-
* " These ancient currents [of basaltj have since been corroded by riv-
ers, which have worn through a mass of 150 feet in height, and formed a
channel even in the granite-rocks beneath, since the lava first flowed into
the valley. In another spot, a bed of basalt, 160 feet high, has been cut
through by a mountain- stream. The vast excavations effected by the
erosive power of currents along the valleys which feed the Ardeche, since
their invasion by lava-currents, prove that even the most recent of these
volcanic eruptions belong to an era incalculably remote." Mr. Poulette
Scrope's Memoir of the Geology of Central France.
"The time that must be allowed for the production of effects of this
magnitude, by causes evidently so slow in their operation, is indeed
immense: but surely it would be absurd to urge this as an argument
against the adoption of an explanation so unavoidably forced upon us.
The periods which, to our narrow apprehension and compared with our
ephemeral existence, appear of incalculable duration, are in all probability
but trifles in the calendar of nature. It is Geology that, above all other
sciences, makes us acquainted with the important, though humiliating
fact. Every step we take in it forces us to make unlimited drafts on anti-
quity.
"There are many minds that would not for an instantdoubt the God of
nature to have existed from all eternity, and would yet reject as preposter-
ous the idea of going back a million o! years in the history of his works.
Yet, what is a million, or a million million, of solar revolutions, to an
Eternity T lb. p. 165.
130 AGE OF THE VOLCANOES OF AUVERGNE.
minations of the same kind of rock, which amount to
the thickness of one hundred feet, and two hundred, and
still more. One of the laminated formatians just men-
tioned may be said to furnish a chronometer for itself.
It consists of sixty feet of siliceous and calcareous de-
posits, each as thin as pasteboard, and bearing upon their
separating surfaces the stems and seed-vessels of small
water-plants in infinite numbers ; and countless multi-
tudes of minute shells, resembling some species of our
common snail-shells. These layers have been formed
with evident regularity, and to each of them we may
reasonably assign the term of one season, that is a year.
Now thirty of such layers frequently do not exceed one
inch in thickness. Let us average them at twenty -five.
The thickness of the stratum is at least sixty feet ; and
thus we gain, for the whole of this formation alone, eigh-
teen thousand years.
Further : many of these hills in the form of sugar-
loaves consist of, or are coated with, pumice-stone and
other loose and light substances, which every person
knows to be volcanic products. It is self-evident that
these could not have withstood the action of a flood :
they must have been broken down and washed away with
the first rush of water. Either, then, the eruptions which
produced them, took place since the deluge ; or that del-
uge did not reach to this part of the earth. Against the
former side of this alternative the argument from analogy
is very strong. All that we know of the history of vol-
canoes impresses us with the vast improbability, that such
an intensity and extent of volcanic action as belonged to
the later series only of these eruptions, could begin, run
their course, and come to an end by settling in perfect
quiescence, within the period from the deluge to our first
historical notices of this district, which is about 2300
years. Supposing the eruptions in question to have com-
WATERS OF THE DELUGE. 131
menced immediately upon the subsiding of the diluvial
waters, it would be contrary to all known instances of
volcanic action, to suppose that they would finally cease
within a less period than many centuries. Now Julius
Caesar, in his Gallic wars, was encamped in this very dis-
trict, at the closing part of the period just mentioned.
His writings furnish abundant evidence of his observant,
inquisitive, and acute character. Notwithstanding his
vicious habits, he had a mind deeply imbued with litera-
ture, and the love of philosophical pursuits , and he made
considerable attainments in science so far as in his day
was practicable. Had he found in this place any tradi-
tion of volcanic action as having formerly existed, it is
morally certain that his curiosity would have been pow-
erfully awakened, and that we should have had in his
Commentaries the result of his inquiries. But nothing of
the kind exists, though he indicates his acquaintance with
the features of the country, as having surveyed it with
the eye of a general.*
The geological difficulties are not the only ones which
present themselves, in relation to the admission of a
strictly universal deluge, and some of the circumstances
which are commonly supposed to be affirmed or implied in
the sacred narrative. It would be a failure in the service
which I have undertaken, were I to pass these by without
notice : but I must renew my entreaty that my auditors
would not permit any conclusion unfavourable to the per-
fect verity of the Mosaic narrative, correctly interpreted,
to lodge in their minds ; for I trust that, in a future lec-
ture, satisfactory proof will be brought that such conclu-
sion would be erroneous.
The mass of water necessary to cover the whole globe
to the depth supposed, would be in thickness about five
* Comment, vii. 4, 9, 36. <
132 WATERS OF THE DELUGE.
miles above the previous sea-level. This quantity of wa-
ter might be fairly calculated as amounting to eight times
that of the seas and oceans of the globe, in addition to
the quantity already existing. The questions then arise,
Whence was this water derived j and how was it disposed
of, after its purpose was answered! These questions
may indeed be met, by saying that the water was created
for the purpose, and then annihilated. That Omnip-
otence could effect such a w 7 ork, none can doubt : but we
are not at liberty thus to invent miracles, and the narra-
tive in the Book of Genesis plainly assigns two natural
causes for the production of the diluvial water ; the in-
cessant rain of nearly six weeks, called in the Hebrew
phrase the " windows of heaven," that is, of the sky ; and
the " breaking up of all the fountains of the great deep."
By the latter phrase some have understood that there are
immense reservoirs of water in the interior of the earth,
or that even the whole of that interior, down to the cen-
tre, is a cavity filled with water ; a notion which was ex-
cusable in the defective state of knowledge a century ago,
but which, from the amplest evidence, we now know to
be an impossibility. The use of this expression, in other
parts of Scripture, sufficiently proves that it denotes the
general collection of oceanic waters. It is scarcely need-
ful to say, that all the rain which ever descends, has been
previously raised, by evaporation, from the land and wa-
ter that form the surface of the earth. The capacity of
the atmosphere to absorb and sustain water is limited.
Long before it reaches the point of saturation, change of
temperature and electrical agency must produce copious
descents of rain : from all the surface below, evaporation
is still going on : and, were we to imagine the air to be
first saturated to the utmost extent of its capacity, and
then to discharge the whole quantity at once upon the
earth, that whole quantity would bear a very inconsider-
WATERS OF THE DELUGE. 133
able proportion to the entire surface of the globe. A few
inches of depth would be its utmost amount.* It is in-
deed the fact that upon a small area of the earth's surface,
jet the most extensive that comes within experience or
natural possibility, heavy and continued rain for a few
days often produces effects fearfully destructive, by swell-
ing the streams and rivers of that district : but the laws
of nature, as to evaporation and the capacity of atmos-
pheric air to hold water in solution, render such a state
of things over the whole globe, not merely improbable,
but absolutely impossible.
If we then turn to the waters of " the great deep," we
obtain the idea of an irruption of the sea, spreading desola-
tion and death over the land. Such irruptions have often
occurred over low countries bordering upon flat coasts.
But all the water that could be derived from this cause
would produce only an increased diffusion over the land,
which would be accompanied by a subtraction of water
from the sea, to the same amount. The absolute quantity
of water, for the entire globe, would remain precisely the
same.
But we are especially called to take notice of the
terms used in the sacred narrative, which appear to ex-
clude the idea of a sudden and violent irruption ; and to
present that of an elevation and afterwards a subsidence,
comparatively gentle, so that the ark was lifted, floated,
and borne over the awful flood in a manner which we
might call calm and quiet, if compared with an in-burst of
the sea by the immediate breaking of a barrier. The
words are, " The waters increased, and bare up the ark,
and it was lifted up above the earth : and the waters pre-
vailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth ; and
the ark went upon the face of the waters." In relating
* Seven inches, according to Mr. Rhiad, in his Age of the Earth, p. 100.
Edinb. 1839.
12
I3i WATERS OF THE DELUGE.
the subsidence, the words used are such as remarkably
suit the conception of a large body of water undergoing
a process of evaporation from the surface, and of a gradu-
al draining off by outlets beneath : " God made a wind to
pass over the earth " — (an expression which definitely
conveys the idea of a local field of operation ; extensive
it might be, but totally inapplicable to the surface of the
whole globe ;) — " and the waters assuaged ; the fountains
also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped,
and the rain from heaven* was restrained ; and the waters
returned from off the earth continually — (literally, going
and returning :) and, after the end of the hundred and
fifty days, the waters were abated."
If we suppose the mass of waters to have been such
as would cover all the land of the globe, we present to our-
selves an increase of the equatorial diameter by some
eleven or twelve miles. Two new elements would hence
accrue to the actions of gravity upon our planet. The
absolute weight would be greatly increased, and the
causes of the mutation of the axis would be varied. I am
not competent to the calculation of the changes in the
motions of the earth which would thus be produced, and
which would propagate their effects through the whole
solar system ; and indeed to the entire extent of the mate-
rial creation: but they would certainly be very great.
To save the physical system from derangements, proba-
bly ruinous to the well-being of innumerable sentient
natures, would require a series of stupendous and im-
mensely multiplied miracles.
Again, pursuing the supposition, the ark would not
remain stationary : it " went upon the face of the waters."
Its form was adapted to secure slowness of motion; so
* This " rain" is not to be considered as a third cause ; but, according
to the frequent style of Scripture, exegetically intended, or upon the prin-
ciple of the hendiadys, which is abundant in the Hebrew Scriptures.
ANIMALS PRESERVED. 135
that it should float as little a distance as possible from the
place of human habitation. But, by the action of the sun
upon the atmosphere, currents would be produced, by
which the ark would be borne away, in a southerly and
then a western direction. To bring it back into such a
situation as would correspond to its grounding in Arme-
nia, or any part of Asia, it must first circumnavigate the
globe. But, this was impossible in the time, even if it had
possessed the rate of going of a good sailing vessel. It
might, perhaps, advance as far as the middle of Europe,
or the more westerly part ; and there it would ground, at
the end of the three hundred days.
Upon the supposition that the words of the narrative
require to be understood in the sense of a strict and proper
universality, another difficulty arises with respect to the
preservation of animals. Ingenious calculations have
been made of the capacity of the ark, as compared with
the room requisite for the pairs of some animals, and the
septuples of others: and it is remarkable that the well-
intentioned calculators have formed their estimate upon a
number of animals below the truth, to a degree which
might appear incredible. They have usually satisfied
themselves with a provision for three or four hundred
species at most ; as in general they show the most aston-
ishing ignorance of every branch of Natural History.
Of the existing mammalia (animals which nourish their
young by breasts) considerably more than one thousand
species are known ; of Birds, fully five thousand ; of Rep-
tiles, very few kinds of which can live in water, two
thousand ; and the researches of travellers and naturalists
are making frequent and most interesting additions to the
number of these and all other classes.* Of Insects (us-
* Among the numerous and satisfactorily authentic works of this de-
scription, it is a pleasure to mention two as an honour to our country,
136 ANIMALS.
ing the word in its popular sense) the number of species
is immense ; to say one hundred thousand would be mod-
erate : each has its appropriate habitation and food, and
these are necessary to its life ; and the larger number
could not live in water. Also the innumerable millions
upon millions of animalcula must be provided for j for
they have all their appropriate and diversified places and
circumstances of existence. But all land animals have
their geographical regions, to which their constitutional
natures are congenial, and many could not live in any
other situation. We cannot represent to ourselves the
idea of their being brought into one small spot, from the
polar regions, the torrid zone, and all the other climates
of Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia, and the thou-
sands of islands $ their preservation and provision ; and
the final disposal of them; — without bringing up the idea
of miracles more stupendous than any that are recorded
in Scripture,* even what appear appalling in comparison.
which are now publishing under the authority of Her Majesty's Treasury :
the Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle, Capt. Fitzroy, by Mr.
Darwin, Naturalist to the Expedition : and the Illustrations of African
Zoology, by Dr. Andrew Smith, who conducted an exploring expedition
into the Interior of South Africa. Both these enterprises were effected in
the years 1832 to 1836.
* Some one may adduce Josh. xi. 13, the sun and the moon standing
still : but the obvious reply is, that the whole effect wanted in that case,
and fully answering to the description of the apparent phenomenon as
recorded, would be produced by an alteration in the refracting and trans-
mitting properties of the atmosphere, immediately over the part of Judea
where the victory was obtained. Such an alteration would be an indubi-
table miracle. But if any exclaim, ' All miracles are alike; the smallest
and the greatest are equal to Omnipotence ,' I request their kind attention
to some remarks in a former lecture, (pp. 79—82.) Upon this particular
case, to suppose that the diurnal rotation of the earth was interrupted, is
to bring in a shock which would have disturbed the functions of not only
every part of our earth, and the planetary system, but would extend
through the astral spaces, rendering necessary a continuous and universal
miracle of restoration.
DESCENT FROM ARARAT. 137
The great decisive miracle of Christianity, the Resurrec-
tion of the Lord Jesus, — sinks down before it.
The persons of whom we are speaking have probably
never apprehended any difficulty with respect to the in-
habitants of the waters ; supposing that no provision was
needed for their preservation. It may therefore be pro-
per to notice some particulars. Such an additional quan-
tity of water as their interpretation requires, would so
dilute and alter the mass as to render it an unsuitable
element for the existence of all the classes, and would
kill or disperse their food j and all have their own appro-
priate food. Many of the marine fishes and shell ani-
mals could not live in fresh water : and the fresh water
ones would be destroyed by being kept even a short time
in salt water. Some species can indeed live in brackish
water ; having been formed by their Creator to have
their dwelling in estuaries and the portions of rivers ap-
proaching the sea : but even these would be affected,
fatally in all probability, by the increased volume of
water and the scattering and floating away of their nutri-
ment.
Thus, in a variety of ways, it is manifest that, upon
the interpretation which I conceive to be erroneous, the
preservation of animal life in the ark was immensely
short of being adequate to what was necessary.
Further ; if we admit that interpretation, and also
accede to the usual opinion that the Ararat upon which
the ark rested was the celebrated mountain of that name
in Armenia, and which tradition points out as being such,
— we are involved in another perplexity. That mountain
is nearly the height of our European Mont Blanc, and
perpetual snow covers about five thousand feet from its
summit. If the water rose, at its liquid temperature, so
as to overflow that summit, the snows and icy masses
would be melted ; and, on the retiring of the flood, the
12*
138 ANCIENT TREES.
exposed mountain would present its pinnacles and ridges,
dreadful precipices of naked rock, adown which the four
men and four women, and with hardly any exception the
quadrupeds, would have found it utterly impossible to
descend. To provide against this difficulty, to prevent
them from being dashed to pieces, — must we again sup-
pose a miracle 1 Must we conceive of the human beings
and the animals, as transported through the air to the
more level regions below ; or that, by a miracle equally
grand, they were enabled to glide unhurt down the wet
and slippery faces of rock 1
One fact more I have to mention, in this range of ar-
gument. There are trees of the most astonishing mag-
nificence as to form and size, which grow, the one species
in Africa, the other in the southern part of North Ame-
rica. There are also methods of ascertaining the age
of trees of the class to which they belong, with satisfac-
tion generally, but with full evidence after they have
passed the early stages of their growth. Individuals of
these species now existing are proved, by those methods,
to have begun to grow at an epoch long before the date
of the deluge; if we even adopt the largest chronology
that learned men have proposed. Had those trees been
covered with water for three-quarters of a year, they
must have been destroyed ; the most certain conditions of
vegetable nature, for the class (the most perfect land-
plants) to which they belong, put such a result out of
doubt. Here then we are met by another independent
proof that the deluge did not extend to those regions of
the earth.*
Such are the objections which present themselves
against the interpretation which, with grief I acknowledge,
is generally admitted, in relation to the scriptural narra-
* See Supplementary Note, C.
SUSPENSE REQUESTED. 139
tive of the deluge. It is a painful position in which I
stand. I seem to be taking the part of an enemy, addu-
cing materials for skepticism, and doing nothing to re-
move them. But this situation for me is inseparable from
the plan of these lectures ; the only plan that appeared
practicable. The apparent discrepancies, between the
facts of science and the words of Scripture, must be un-
derstood, before we can make any attempt at their remo-
val. I confide in the candour of my friends, that they
will suspend their judgment till I am enabled to lay be-
fore them the way, in which I conceive that independent
and unforced philological evidence will enable us satisfac-
torily to dispose of those difficulties.
LECTURE VI.
PART I.
1 Thessalonians v. 21. Prove all things : hold fast that
which is good.
We are born for great and noble purposes. The ob-
ject of existence, to every rational creature, is to enjoy a
conscious union, in approbation, delight, and conformity,
with the Being who is supreme in all excellence. To love
and obey him is to secure our own happiness, and to ac-
quire the best means of promoting that of every other
being within our influence. If our minds be not dead to
just feeling, we must be sensible that this is a necessary
truth: and its undeniable concomitants are accountable-
ness and retribution, stretching out into immortality. To
that immortality of moral purity and happiness, the Rev-
elation from God, contained in the Scriptures, is our only
guide. Clearly then, it is the duty of every man to ap-
prehend, with the most complete intelligence and satis-
faction that he can attain, the contents and evidences of
that Revelation ; and to remove out of the way every ob-
stacle to a complete "assurance of faith." Among the
Christians of the apostolic age, there was a variety of
talents for the understanding of sacred subjects, their ex-
plication, and their communication to others. Some of
these were of an extraordinary kind, depending for their
existence and exercise upon peculiar communications
from the Sovereign of all minds, who, in order to give the
fullest proofs of divine authority, in the introduction of
Christianity, confirmed it by wisely adapted miracles.
Among these was the gift of Prophecy. The meaning of
GIFTS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 141
this word was not restricted to the foretelling of future
events, in such a manner as evinced an emanation from
the Omniscient; but it comprehended a faculty of com-
municating divine knowledge, by public speaking, with
remarkable attractions of fervid eloquence : in fact, it was
•preaching. But the matter thus declared was not neces-
sarily and in all cases the result of inspiration or any di-
vine influence. Even in the hands of the wise and holy,
it was not infallible ; but was exposed to the intrusions of
error in judgment and imperfection in representation.
Therefore the apostle Paul gave precepts for the regula-
tion, control, and correction of this " gift for the edify-
ing of the church."* In the words preceding our text,
he enjoins a respectful and reverential treatment of all
those means of instruction ; while yet, in the text itself,
he directs to a faithful examination of them, by bringing
them to the standard of truth, and then firmly to retain
whatever sentiments had endured this searching scrutiny.
The standard of truth, in religious matters, lies in the un-
changeable perfections of God, and the revelation which
he has made of himself: and, in matters of science re-
specting the sensible world, it is to be elicited by obser-
vation, experiment, and induction. The obligations, then,
to which we are here remitted, are comprehensiveness
and diligence in our inquiries, openness to conviction,
right estimation of evidence, and a steadfast adherence to
its results.f
* 1 Cor. xiv. A similar precept is in 1 John iv. 1.
t " — See ; here St. Paul determines that no position should be ad-
mitted, till, before the community which hears it, it has been examined
and found to be sound. This duty of examination does not belong to
teachers only ; but" [implies that] :( they must openly propound their sen-
timents, in order that they may be subjected to every man's examining.
Thus, by the authority of this passage, the exercise of jndgment upon doc-
trines is not reserved to Christian teachers, but is given to the learners:
so that it is altogether a different thing among Christians, to what obtains
142 SCIENCE AND REVELATION
We have seen that formidable difficulties present
themselves to a man who looks seriously at the relations
between the records of Revelation and the monuments of
Natural History. Yet such a man cannot but feel as-
sured, that the difficulties lie only in our want of sufficient
knowledge. Nature and Revelation are both beams of
light from the same Sun of eternal truth ; and there can-
in the world. In the world, sovereigns command what they please, and
their subjects yield compliance. But, says Christ, ' it shall not be so
among you.' Among Christians, every one has the right of forming a
judgment concerning others ; and is also himself subjected to the same
right in them: though spiritual tyrants have made a worldly dominion
out of Christianity." Luther's Larger Catechism ; a work of 2756 col-
umns, on the quarto page, written in 1528 : in Walch's ed. of Luther's
Works, Halle, 1744, Vol. X. col. 1799.
" Because rash men and impostors often cover over their absurdities
with the title of prophecy, there was some danger of true prophecy being
brought into suspicion, or cast into odium. As, in the present day, many
persons almost nauseate the very name of a sermon, because there are
so many silly and ignorant men (insulsi ac imperiti) who babble out
from the pulpit their own inventions ; and also ungodly men and contem-
ners of religion, who preach execrable blasphemies. Wherefore, because,
by the faults of such teachers, prophecy" [or preaching] " might be
brought into dislike or even be almost entirely rejected, Paul commands
the Thessalonians to prove all things; intimating that, although all
teachers are not unexceptionable in their adherence to the perfect rule,
and the propriety of their expressions, still we are not to condemn or re-
ject any doctrine till we have fairly put it to the trial. In this respect, two
opposite errors are common. Some persons, finding that themselves, or
the bulk of men, have been imposed upon, reject in the mass all" [reli-
gious] " doctrines. Others, with weak credulity, indiscriminately em-
brace whatsoever is proposed to them in the name of God. Each ex-
treme is wrong. The former class, filled with proud prejudice, bar them-
selves out from the way of improvement : the others, rashly expose them-
selves to every wind of error. From these two extremes, Paul recalls the
Thessalonians to the middle path ; forbidding the condemnation of any
sentiment, till it be first duly examined : and admonishing that we
should exercise a just judgment before we receive as certain that which is
proposed to us. Nothing is more hurtful" [to intellectual and religious
improvement] " than the petulant and conceited disposition, by which
we take up a dislike to any sentiment, without taking the trouble of a
fair examination." Calvin in his Comment, in Epistolas ; ad loc.
CANNOT BE OPPOSED. 14,3
not be a discordance between them. If that which is an-
nounced as a revelation be indeed what it professes, and
if the facts in nature be satisfactorily ascertained, it must
be impossible that any real discordance should exist.
The appearance of it, however, we have seen. We know
that this appearance of things has attracted, and contin-
ues to attract, the most earnest attention, to a very wide
extent among reading and inquiring persons. Serious
Christians are alarmed : unbelievers and irreligious per-
sons exult. But to both classes we say, Ye are too hasty :
the Christian may dismiss his apprehensions: the hopes
of the infidel are a spider's web. The voices of nature,
and reason, and revelation, are in harmony. We want
only that facts be correctly stated, and that the words of
Scripture be interpreted upon the principles of just phi-
lology ; and we fear not the result. We will search out
the objects of science, " the works of the Lord," by the
most careful investigation and rigorous induction, as if
we had never heard of his word : and we will apply our-
selves to the study of his word, with the strictest observ-
ance of the rules of interpretation, just as if we knew no-
thing of the physical world. We do not therefore speak
of bringing about a conciliation between these two lines
of fact and doctrine ; for we anticipate the conviction
that it already exists.
It will not, I trust, be presumptuous in me to express
some regret in finding an expression used by one of the
most accomplished geologists of our own or any other
country, Dr. Buckland ; believing, at the same time, that
it was introduced by him, more from oversight than with
deliberate intention. He says, "If, in this respect, geolo-
gy should seem to require some little concession from
the literal interpreter of Scripture, it may fairly be held
to afford ample compensation for this demand, by the large
additions it has made to the evidences of natural religion.
144 DUTY OF IMPARTIAL INQUIRY.
in a department where revelation was not designed to
give information."* The testimony of the word of hea-
ven does not lie at our disposal. We have not the power
of conceding any thing from it ; and I am confident that
the distinguished Professor did not intend to intimate that
mortals have such a power or right. He was referring in-
deed to the interpretation of Scripture ; but, in this view,
the expression is unhappy. Interpretation, as well of the
Bible as of other ancient writings, is to be conducted by a
rigorous process of examination into words and phrases ;
a process solely grammatical, and which must not be
checked or turned out of its straight-forward course by
any foreign considerations.!
The design of this lecture and the following, is to
enumerate methods that have been proposed for remov-
ing the difficulty, or apprehended inconsistency, which
arises from a survey of God's visible works and compar-
ing them with the declarations of his word ; and to sub-
mit those remarks which they respectively seem to re-
quire.
It cannot be without some anxiety that I enter upon
this part of my duty, being perfectly aware of the strong
* Bridgewater Treatise ; Vol. I. p. 14. I cannot too much recommend
the diligent study (not an indolent running over) of this admirable work,
to all who desire to gain true and accurate information. Such students,
however, will consult their own advantage by previously acquiring a sat-
isfactory acquaintance with the Mineralogical part of Geological science.
Dr. Buckland's work is chiefly occupied with the description of the ani-
mal and vegetable remains found in the successive strata of the earth ;
conveniently called the Palasontological department of Geology.
tThe excellent Bishop of Chester has perhaps approached to the same
inadvertence, in saying, ,l The concessions, if they may be so called, of
the believers in revelation on this point, have been amply remunerated by
the sublime discoveries as to the prospective wisdom of the Creator, which
have been gradually unfolded by the progressive improvements in astro-
nomical knowledge. We may trust with the same confidence as to any
future results from geology." This was written in 1813 or earlier. Dr.
Bird Sumner on the Records of Creation ; Vol. I. p. 271.
REJECTION OF INQUIRY. 145
sentiments which exist in the minds of many upon this
class of objects ; and of the suspicion and disapprobation,
I might even say horror, with which some excellent per-
sons view any deviation from those interpretations which
they have been accustomed to hear and read. Scarcely less
sensitive are the authors of different hypotheses with regard
to their respective views. Many estimable men, who have
published their opinions upon the question before us, lay
the greatest stress upon their own views, and find it dif-
ficult to tolerate, or even to excuse, any dissent from
them. For many of them I entertain a sincere esteem ;
and I equally respect the motive by which they are excit-
ed, a jealousy for the honour of revelation and the inter-
ests of religion. But it becomes us all to take the utmost
care that our godly zeal may be according to knowledge.
If it be not so, we shall inflict no slight disservice upon the
cause of truth and righteousness, while we may imagine
that we are promoting it.
I. There are some who feel no difficulty at all in the case,
or at least, none from which they cannot disembarrass
themselves with the utmost ease. Of geological subjects,
truly they possess but little knowledge ; yet they persuade
themselves that they know much, or certainly as much as
qualifies them to give a peremptory judgment upon the
whole matter. They afford reason enough to believe that,of
the most important facts, those upon which the decision
of the question principally depends, they are far from being
well-informed : and with regard to other geological facts
and doctrines, a partial acquaintance with which they have
derived from a light and easy perusal of a few books, or
perhaps of only one, they make it evident that they have
acquired no more than some confused and incoherent no-
tions. But their confidence rests upon the assumption,
that the interpretation of the Sacred Records which they
have adopted, and in which they can certainly strengthen
13
146 VEHEMENT DENUNCIATIONS.
themselves by the suffrages of eminent commentators,
none of whom had the least acquaintance with these sub-
jects, is the only true one. Some of them reckon it among
the highest points of the Christian faith, that the first
sentence in the Book of Genesis is not an independent
proposition, a simple, majestic, and complete enunciation
of one grand truth j but that it is connected with the reci-
tal of the six days' work, in such a manner as to allow of
no interval of time between the facts related. To have a
doubt upon this matter is represented as characteristic of
a criminal state of mind, not deserving to be refuted by
kind and calm argument, but which ought to be put down
by awful rebukes and threatenings. I shall transcribe a
few words of a fervid writer of this school.
" This ' first day' is the beginning : and, if we fix that beginning
by the eternal testimony of the same truth, (which the same God of
truth will do, and has done, for us,) all the vain 'nebulosities' of a
graceless philosophy are dispelled for ever. — [This is] the self-evi-
dent definition of the beginning which God himself has given. — And
we here defy all the combined ability of infidelity, philosophy, and
geology, to prove the ' beginning 1 to have been anterior to the 'first
day' God here intends. — No geologist who may read these pages will
henceforth remain ignorant of his war against Omnipotence and
Everlasting Truth. And we again sacredly defy all the combined
ability of sophistical Geologians, to the end of time, to prove either
our Scriptural positions false, or their geological positions true.
We have insubvertibly established it from the lips of Eternal Vera-
city, that neither the earth, nor the material of which it was formed,
nor any creature that is found therein, had existence before ' the
first day' of the revealed creation : that truth we have undeniably
and everlastingly established, insubvertibleand immoveable by hu-
man ability. Certainly, of all the lately discovered or extended
sciences, which the enemy of God and man has thus pushed to his
destroying ends, no one has been found so appropriate to his purpo-
ses, nor has been so insidiously and industriously driven forward to
the accomplishment of his aims, as the popular 'new science' of
Geology. To enumerate all the infernal artillery, which the sub-
tle enemy of God and man has put into the hands of his vassals, to
VEHEMENT DENUNCIATIONS. 147
aim at this everlasting monument of revealed truth, would require
his own unspent breath and unwearied tongue. Suffice it to say,
that sophisticating geologians have been allured, by his implacable
subtleties, to enlist themselves in the service of his infernal policy
This awful evasion of the testimony of Revelation, by denying its
concernment with the Creation, and indeed by denying in fact its in-
spiration altogether, runs through the whole race of geologists, and
is the principle set up in both our National Universities. As to
the fear of not satisfying, or of making, infidels; if the word of God
does not satisfy them, no scientific hypotheses will. If a man ac-
knowledge not the divine and eternal authority of that word, he is
not worthy with whom to argue on any subject which involves its
sanction. Let such be turned out of the field of sacred argument,
as they have often nobly been from a court of justice, as not worthy
of being heard."—*
I have thought it right to quote these passages, that I
may not do injustice to their author ; who is, I indulge
no doubt, a zealous maintainer of the gospel according
to his own conceptions of it, and desirous of promoting
the best interests of mankind, which undoubtedly can be
promoted by no other means than the truth and power of
religion. These declarations of his are adapted to make
a deep impression on the minds of uninformed persons,
who are upright and pious : and it is always a duty to
protect such persons from being grieved or offended.
1. I present then my solemn protest against the as-
sumption which runs through and characterizes the whole
structure of the book and the supplementary pamphlet
just cited. The impassioned author of them ought not
to put his own interpretations, supported though they
be by the expositions of eminent scholars and divines,
upon a level with the express declarations of Scripture
itself. That he believes his interpretations to be just,
cannot be doubted : but he ought not to affirm, in so high
* Popular Geology subversive of Divine Revelation ; and Two Letters
to the Editor of the Christian Observer; by the Rev. Henry Cole. Pp.
21, 35, 37, 54, 91 ; 6, 34, 42.
148 LUTHER.
and peremptory a tone, that they are infallible and inca-
pable of being subverted ; at least till the other side has
been heard. Also, on my own behalf as an humble geol-
ogist, (and I confidently join with myself men of the
greatest eminence in geological attainments,) — I disown
and reject with the strongest abhorrence the imputation
of evading, or denying, or in any way perverting the Holy
Scriptures, or taking away their inspiration : and I main-
tain also that those persons do no honour to the word of
God, but are unwittingly serving the designs of its ene-
mies, who judge of it in the superficial, hasty, and flippant
manner here exemplified ; who choose not to search out
its true sense by those means of criticism and explication
which God has put into our hands ; and who bury the
Christian dispositions of humility and meekness under
their imperious dogmatism and assumed infallibility. It
will be the business of a future lecture to explain and
apply those principles of honest philology by which we
are bound to study and interpret the Scriptures, and which,
it is my full conviction, will show that the true sense of
the beginning of Genesis does not contradict the geolog-
ical doctrines which are made the objects of these un-
measured reproaches.
The Reverend gentleman to whose observations I have
been compelled to advert, makes large extracts from
Luther's Commentary on the Book of Genesis ; and dis-
plays, with exultation and triumph, that great man's opin-
ion of the creative act, described in the second sentence,
as having immediately followed upon the primary one
declared in the first, I yield not to that gentleman in
veneration and love for the illustrious .Reformer j for his
devoted piety, his noble independence of mind, his sim-
plicity and perspicuity, the ingenuity and liveliness of his
remarks, his judgment and even his taste : but I do not
see the propriety of attributing to him, or to any man of
LUTHER. 149
his day, such a knowledge of Natural Philosophy as was
necessary for the application of the Hebrew phraseology
to the objects under description. It is no disparagement
to Luther that, for instance, in his Comments on the work
of the fifth day, he shows his want of correct ideas con-
cerning the atmosphere and the heavenly bodies ; that he
implicitly rests on the common notions of his time ; that
he speaks copiously upon the four elements and the ten
spheres, (according to the doctrine of one atmospheric,
seven planetary, the ninth crystalline, and the tenth em-
pyreal,) that the stars, taken universally, derive their
light from the sun, for he intimates no distinction between
the fixed stars and the planets ; and that the sun and all
the other heavenly bodies move round the earth in twenty-
four hours. All this was quite natural, and we may say
unavoidable, under the circumstances of the time. Unless
a miraculous communication had been made to the mind
of Luther, it could not have been otherwise. Yet the au-
thor who has compelled me to make these observations
brings forward his citations from the blessed and immor-
tal man, (as he justly calls the Reformer,) as if they pos-
sessed a kind of divine inspiration. He writes, " What a
faithful, simple, unphilosophizing, convincing, and self-
evident exposition is the holy man thus instructed by the
Holy Spirit to leave to the world ! I cannot describe
the gratitude of spirit and union with the holy Luther
which I found, when in turning to his Exposition of the
Book of Genesis, I found that his faith and understanding
respecting some particulars of the creation-work (in addi-
tion to his fixed faith regarding the main point at issue)
exactly and sweetly accorded with my own."
This writer so cites, with just approbation, a part of
Luther's introductory paragraph. It would have been
well if he had given the passage entire ; and had reflected
whether, in his fiery positiveness of assertion and his
13*
150 FALSE CHARGES AGAINST GEOLOGISTS.
ruthless condemnation of philosophers and geologists, he
was not violating the admonition before his eyes.
" There has not hitherto been any one in the Church, that has,
with the sufficient propriety and exactness, expounded the whole of
these subjects. For expositors have so mixed them up with various,
diversified, and never-ending inquiries, as to make it apparent that
God has reserved to himself alone this majesty of wisdom, and the
sound understanding of this chapter; leaving to us the general know-
ledge, that the world had a beginning, and was created out of nothing
by God. This general knowledge is clearly derived from the text.
But with respect to the particular things, there is very much that is
involved in difficulty and doubt, and about which questions without
end are agitated."*
Thus temperately and wisely wrote "the blessed
man." Most plainly has he laid down the very position
which will be the foundation of my reasoning, when I ar-
rive at the part of these lectures in which it is proposed
to search out the declarations of divine truth upon our
subject. Other passages might be adduced from the
writings of Luther, in which he vindicates scientific re-
searches, and supports the kind of principles for ascer-
taining the sense of Scripture, on which we are proceed-
ing ; those of a strict and impartial grammatical investi-
gation.
2. I likewise raise my protest against the constant
strain and tone of this gentleman, respectable and worthy
as he may be, in his holding up the friends and pro-
fessors of Natural Philosophy in general, and of Geology
in particular, as either open infidels, or, what would be
worse, secret traitors to the cause of Christianity. There
is a deplorable want of both wisdom and justice in this
style of representation. It is not wise ; for it tends to
foster the suspicions and objections which unhappily
exist in many minds, imbued with scientific knowledge,
* Luther's Works, ed. Walch, Vol. I. p. 1.
THE SCIENCE A DIVINE BLESSING. 151
but ignorant of the evidences and the divine grandeur of
religion, and unhappily averse to a free examination
of them. How must such persons be confirmed in
their prejudices, and in the sinful condition of mind
which is the substratum of those prejudices, when they
hear Christian ministers declaiming against the know-
ledge of what they are convinced is certain and valu-
able truth : and reviling the only possible means of
attaining that knowledge ! It is not just : for the sci-
ences and all their investigations for which we are plead-
ing, are not the "philosophy and vain deceit" against
which the apostle gives a solemn warning. That was no
other than a compound of Oriental and Grecian doctrines ;
referring to the mind of man and to invisible beings, found-
ed, not upon observation and experiment, but on the play
of imagination and the dictates of assumed authority : it
was an impostress under the name of philosophy, entang-
ling men in a web of idle and visionary speculations, des-
titute of evidence, having no practical applications, and
opposing itself to that purest reason which is displayed
in the authority and grace of the gospel. The Natural
Philosophy of our times is of the opposite character, as
to both its constitution and its tendency. It consists in
the honest searching out of the works of Jehovah, in ob-
taining the facts of sensible nature, in admitting nothing
as data without adequate evidence, and in receiving no
conclusions till they have been substantiated by the most
cautious reasoning : and if its proper effects be not coun-
teracted by our own perverse depravity, it leads to a de-
vout veneration of God, and to practical benefits without
number to ourselves and our fellow-creatures. This phi-
losophy may be abused: and so may any of the gifts of
God ; health, strength, property, family, education, talents,
the esteem of our friends, the advantages of our social po-
sition, and even our heavenly religion itself. All our en-
152 INTERPRETATIONS OF GENESIS.
joyments of the divine beneficence may be abused, by
some kind or other of an association with unworthy princi-
ples, or a subserviency to wrong pursuits. But does any
man abandon these blessings on that account ; or declaim
against them as sinful, or in their own nature pernicious 1
The oppugners of philosophy do not act so with their
own favourite enjoyments. They ought to reflect that
the pursuits which they misunderstand and misrepresent,
and then decry, are no other than obedience to the divine
command, " Consider the works of God : — remember that
thou magnify his work which men behold." If, to any
attainments which we may make in the study of physical
objects, we do not add sincere love and devotion and obe-
dience to the Lord of nature and grace, the blame is our
own ; and no slight blame and guilt it is. But let not the
good principles be condemned for the bad practice. Does
it not so much the more become sincere Christians, to la-
bour to " add to their faith — knowledge ;" to acquire, so
far as they have opportunity, that true science which dif-
fuses innumerable benefits among men, unfolds many of the
divine glories, and is the proper handmaid of vital piety 1
3. Though our interpretations of the word of God
must rest upon their own intrinsic evidence, in grammat-
ical construction, suitableness to the connexion, and
agreement with other parts of Scripture ; still it is a use-
ful assistance, in cases of difficulty, to know what senti-
ments have been entertained, and expositions given, by
persons whose opportunities of knowledge, and whose
character for learning and judgment, constitute a reason-
able presumption that they have not taken up opinions
from supine ignorance, unexamined custom, or any other
prejudice. Upon this ground, therefore, and not because
we attribute to the sentiments of uninspired men any
commanding authority, I bring some instances, to show
to our opponents that it is not a novelty in the Church of
THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 153
Christ, to consider the first sentence in the Book of Gen-
esis as an independent proposition ; and the succeeding
portions as taking up our habitable earth at a crisis of its
existence, and describing a series of operations by which
God was pleased to make it fit for the exercise of his
wisdom and goodness in relation to a new order of crea-
tion : and consequently that those persons have no right
to charge us with impiety, even if our interpretation were
erroneous ; since we stand upon the same ground with
so many eminent Christians, who were led to their con-
clusions by reasons purely critical, and without the least
tincture of geological knowledge.
Some of the ancient Christian writers, usually called
the Fathers of the Church, intimate this idea, under the
opinion that the first verse states generally the creation
of matter, out of which the formations and distributions
of the six days were afterwards educed. It is evident
that the former idea is distinct and separable from the
latter ; though it is not probable that Clemens of Alexan-
dria, Origen, and others who adopted the sentiment, con-
ceived of the commencement of the former order of ac-
tion as having preceded that of the latter, by any long
interval. Augustine, in two passages, though he does
not always maintain consistency, writes copiously upon
this interpretation ; representing the former state of the
earth as being to the latter what the seed of a tree is to
the root, the trunk, the branches, leaves, and fruit.* Ba-
sil says : " It is probable that something existed before
this world ; which we may conceive of in our understand-
ings, but of which no narrative has been left."f Chry-
sostom lays down, as a principle for the interpretation of
the beginning of Genesis, that Moses designed to write
* De Genesi, contra Manichaeos, lib. i. cap. 6. Confessioncs, lib. xii.
cap. 17, 29.
t Homil. I. in Hexahemeron ; Op. torn. I. p. 7, Par. 1619.
154* MODERN AUTHORS.
only of the sensible appearances of things, adapting both
the matter and the expression to the capacities of the Is-
raelites, a people recently delivered from the oppression
of Egyptian slavery, and whose minds had not been ele-
vated above low and common conceptions.*
Calvin considers the design and purport of the first
verse, as being to establish this primary truth, that " the
world was not from eternity, but was created by God."
Thus that acute Bible-interpreter sanctions the general
idea for which I am pleading, that the passage is a grand
and independent axiom.
Bishop Patrick, in his Commentary, supports the sen-
timent, which many others have done, that the passage
declares a chaotic condition of the earth, between its cre-
ation and its being made the receptacle of vegetable and
animal life : and he regards this state as having been of
an indefinitely long continuance. He thus admits the
principle of our interpretation, though we think him to
have been mistaken in his method of applying it. There
appears to be no reason for attributing any other than a
* Homil. II. et Sermo I. in Gen. Op. torn. II. pp. 12, 723 ; Francof.
1698.
' ; It is indeed singular that all ancient cosmogonists should conspire to
suggest the same idea, and preserve the tradition of an early series of suc-
cessive revolutions." The Hindoos :— the Burmese: — Egyptians.
" But I think it much more important and interesting to observe, how the
early Fathers of the Christian Church should seem to have entertained
precisely similar views ; for St. Gregory Nazianzen, after St. Justin Mar-
tyr, supposes an indefinite -period between the creation and the first order-
ing of all things. St. Basil, St. Csesarius, and Origen, are much more
explicit ; for they account for the creation of light prior to that of the sun,
by supposing this luminary to have indeed before existed, yet so as that
its rays were prevented, by the dense chaotic atmosphere, from penetra-
ting to the earth ; [and that] this was, on the first day, so far rarified as
to allow the transmission of the sun's rays, though not the discernment
of its disk, which was fully displayed on the third day." Principal Wise-
man's Lectures on the Connexion between Science and Revealed Reli-
gion : delivered in Rome, in 1835 ; Vol. I. p. 297.
MODERN AUTHORS. 155
short duration to the state of our planet, or any part of
its surface, which is expressed in the words of our trans-
lation, " And the earth was without form and void."
Dr. David Jennings, the author of the well-known
work upon Jewish Antiquities, and who, in the days of
our fathers, was one of the most esteemed Dissenting
Ministers of this city, has these observations. "The x\lo-
saic account does not seem to be designed for an account
of the whole creation of God ;" — but " plainly to be a de-
signed account of the creation of this planet only." He
speaks with approbation of the hypothesis, that " our
earth, — as that most penetrating philosopher, Dr. Halley,
seems to suspect, might be a former world, reduced to a
chaos by the shock of a comet." — It may be not improper
here to interpose the remark, that this supposition of Hal-
ley and others, is exploded by the fact, ascertained but
within the few latter years, that comets are not solid bo-
dies, but are composed of brilliant matter, resembling
some kind of vapour ; but so attenuated that small stars
are visible through it, and that it might pass over and en-
velop the earth without giving a shock or producing any
material effect. — Dr. Jennings goes on to say : " One
cannot suppose that this account of the creation was de-
signed to teach the Israelites such deep points of
philosophy as the true motions of the earth and moon:
but rather it was designed to teach them to reverence the
great Creator of all things, and also to preserve them
from the idolatry of the heathen nations around them,
who worshipped the sun and the moon, and other crea-
tures which God had made. But yet, as this account was
written by inspiration, — it is all agreeable to truth and to
the nature of things. And the skill of the Divine Author
is in this truly admirable, that the account of the creation
is here given, for the use of the people, in such words and
phrases as were suited to vulgar conceptions ; and yet it
156 MODERN AUTHORS.
is, at the same time, perfectly consistent with true phi-
losophy.*
I may, with propriety, remind my auditors, that in
this Lecture for 1833, Dr. Wardlaw had this passage ;
" When creation began, we know not. There were angels,
and there was a place of angelic habitation, before the
creation of man and of the world destined for his residence.
— How long these spirits had existed, and how many
other orders of being besides, it is vain for us to conjec-
ture. — But of one thing we are certain, that, how far back
soever we suppose the commencement of creation carried,
— let it be, not only beyond the actual range (if a definite
range it can be said to have) of the human imagination,
but even beyond the greatest amount of ages that figures
in any way combined could be made to express ; — still
there was an eternity preceding."!
Also, in this Lecture for the year 1837, Dr. Redford
went into our present discussion at considerable length,
and concluded that " we ought to understand Moses as
saying, Indefinitely far back, and concealed from us in the
mystery of eternal ages, prior to the first moment of mun-
dane time, God created the heavens and the earth."%
The last year, a pamphlet was published by a clergy-
man whose manner of writing makes a strong demand
upon our respect and affection. § His talents are evidently
of a superior order ; and, which is a far higher recom-
mendation, his book breathes the spirit of reverential
piety, and a holy affection for the word of God. From
such a man it is painful to be compelled to differ. But
I should be wanting in that faithfulness of which he sets
the example, if I were not to express concern that he has
* Introduction to the Globes ; pp. 148, 151, 167. Lond. 1747.
t Cong. Lect. first series, p. 206.
X Cong. Lect. fifth series, p. 34.
§ The Rev. J. Mellor Brown, mentioned in the Note on p. 9.
MELL0R BROWN. 157
not escaped the errors of many other good men, with re-
spect to the design of the Scriptures, and the proper
method of interpreting them. It will be my duty, in fu-
ture lectures, to show cause in reply to his views, upon
the subject of the Deluge, and that of Biblical interpreta-
tion. At present I have only the pain of saying, that he
follows in a style of assumption, less headstrong and
vehement, but for that reason more touching to my mind
and feelings, than that of another author, before referred
to. He hesitates not to charge upon modern geologists,
making no exceptions, — even designating them " our
Bucklands, our Sedgwicks, and our Conybeares," — that
they are associating their efforts with those of infidels to
invalidate the statements of Scripture, — impugning the
sacred record, — and assailing the volume of the Great
God. On the other hand, with equal boldness, he repre-
sents his own interpretations of Scripture as unquestion-
able ; and so confident is he in the infallibility of his own
deductions as to identify them with the Divine Veracity,
and to think himself entitled to take for an analogy to his
own reasonings, " Two and two may be five, more easily
than the God of truth can be untrue." He zealously
affirms, but makes no attempt at proof, that it is exceed-
ingly " offensive to the plain reader of the Scriptures,"
" not only contrary to the Scriptures but unphiloso-
phical, to resort to such an idea as a series of creations on
the same spot :" and he maintains that " our highest con-
ception of creation" (evidently intending to imply that it
is the proper conception) " is that of a world starting
into being, perfect and complete, at the command of God :
so perfect and complete that, from the lowest zoophyte
to the highest species of living creature, not a single gap
could be found into which another animal might be thrust."
He looks with evident complacency to the hypothesis
14
158 MELLOR BROWN.
" that Almighty God may, by the mere fiat of his power,
have intentionally brought every rock and stratum, every
fossil leaf and shell and bone, into its present form and
condition."
This kind of argument has been repeatedly brought
forwards, even in modern times : but surely those who
use it have not considered what havoc they are making ;
for, if it had any strength at all, it would fearfully weaken
the proof for the first truth of religion, from the doctrine
of sufficient causes. We find the dead parts of animals,
with the marks of muscular attachment, the shelly, or
crustaceous, or bony structure, the condyles, the receiv-
ing hollows, the grooves and port-holes for the passage
of nerves and blood-vessels, the teeth with their sockets
in all the variety of the most exquisitely appropriate for-
mation, even the provisions and modes of nutrition : — and
it is seriously said, that we may sit down with the con-
clusion that these objects were never the parts of any
living creature, but have existed from the beginning, just
as we now find them ! — Shall we throw such an advan-
tage as this into the hands of the atheist 1 —
This respected clergyman has also other suppositions,
and certain theories of his own, by which he believes that
all the geological appearances may be accounted for,
within the limits of time which he holds it an impiety to
exceed.
One of these is, to bring forwards, with some spirit
and ingenuity, instances of accelerated speed, in motion
and mechanical operations, by the steam-engine ; and
some cases in Natural and Civil History, not well under-
stood: and from the whole, the author asks, "Whether
there is any difficulty in believing that the known laws of
nature could be so far increased, in power and velocity,
as to produce the same effects in six thousand years, for
MELLOR BROWN. 159
which" geologists "now estimate sixty thousand, or six
hundred thousand, to be necessary V'* The querist was
evidently not aware of the want of analogy in his cases.
We know that great mineralogical changes may be
wrought in a very short time, by the chemical and elec-
tric forces which are in constant action : metallic com-
pounds may be produced and veins formed, crystals made
to shoot, and lamination or even stratification effected
upon a small scale. Let us grant the extension of these
effects as largely as can be desired, notwithstanding the
insuperable objections which lie in our way: the conces-
sion will not benefit the argument. The question is not
with regard to mineralogical deposits and formations, as
such; but to the remains of once living beings inbedded
in them. It is manifest that the worthy author possesses
only crude and defective notions upon this subject. He
is evidently not acquainted with the characterism which
* " I once showed to a reader of this cast a solid, lofty, inland rock,
composed of one vast mass of shells, often very delicate and brittle, agglu-
tinated with interstitial matter; and asked him whether he thought that
these enormous depositions were attributable to the deluge, or were form-
ed during its short duration; and also, whether the various successions of
strata, ten miles thick, teeming with the remains of animals and vegeta-
bles, from the most complicated in the upper strata down to the most
simple in the lower— all arranged in order; now a layer of salt water
formation, then one above it of fresh, and then another of sea, and so on
in succession,— had really been deposited thus in fifteen hundred years
before the deluge. His reply was to the following effect.— ' How do I
know but that in those early days the powers of nature were so prolific,
or rather that there was so constant a miracle, that this rock, which would
require an enormous period to grow by ordinary accretion, might be gene-
rated in a day ; each plant and animal going through all its stages of life
and death in the fraction of a moment, if necessary to produce the effect V
But why should it be necessary 1 Or, what ' effect' did my friend mean,
except the support of a popular interpretation 1 I almost believe, that if
my friend had been pressed with an argument from Euclid, he would have
replied, ' But how do we know that antediluvian circles or angles were
like ours V " A Scriptural Geologist ; in the Christian Observer, April,
1S39, p. 212.
160 MELLOR BROWN.
connects particular formations with definite fossils ; nor
with the manner, as to position, in which the principal
classes of specimens are found, (the conchiferous and
molluscous shells,) proving the quietness and slowness of
the processes to which they had been subjected ; nor of
the numerical amount of the remains, as to species and
individuals, (the number of known fossil species of these
two classes only, being little if at all less than five thou-
sand ;) nor of the nature of the argument as it arises
from the gradation of changes, specific and generic, in
the subjects of organic life ; nor of laws which the Cre-
ator has disclosed to industrious research, with regard
to the duration of species. All these topics needed to
have been known and well scrutinized, before any sur-
mise had been hazarded. Our objectors universally ap-
pear not to be aware that it is from a long-continued
search into the almost immensely numerous particulars,
and a contemplation of their parallel relations, that the
conclusion appears irresistible, as to the myriads of ages
during which the all-glorious God has held on the won-
drous course of his works.
Another of his objections is directed against the the-
ory of the internal heat of the earth, and its gradual
cooling through a vast period of time. He appeals to the
evidence which we possess, that the general temperature,
and that of particular climates, has undergone no change
from the earliest times of history. Had he taken the pre-
caution of understanding what he was writing about, he
would have refrained from combating his own shadow.
He would have learned that the heat, however intense at
no very great depth, has long ago arrived at the point at
which the weak conducting power of the earth's rocky
crust prevents any further sensible progress, in affecting
the temperature at any point of the surface. The process
of cooling therefore, though at first and for a long period
MELLOR BROWN. 161
rapid, must have acquired a stationary condition thous-
ands of years ago : so that our climates now are depend-
ent solely upon the action of the sun, and the superficial
causes of radiation. We have reason to regard it as
highly probable, and we may hope that the exact re-
searches upon which eminent mathematicians are now
engaged will bring an approximating certainty to the con-
clusion, that this point was reached some time before the
creation of man, and that it was a part of the processes
by which the earth was adapted to its present destination
among the works of God.
With a solemnity and fidelity for which he has my
cordial gratitude, this Christian monitor sounds the alarm
against forgetting " the most valuable axiom of human
science, that man is ignorant and weak ;" and that he
ought therefore " to be thankful for what he is permitted
to know," but " submissive where God has been pleased
to set a barrier to further knowledge." He comprehends
geological investigations among what he considers as not
" subjects of lawful inquiry, — shrouded from us by a
higher power," to be reckoned " a dark art, dangerous
and disreputable." To these cautions he adds the asser-
tion, " Surely an humble mind will be ready to confess
that events which took place before the birth of man, or
the date of revelation, belong to a forbidden province."
I cannot for a moment doubt the good motive from
which this strain of admonition has proceeded. The
author's fundamental principle, upon the duty of modesty
and humility, is unquestionably of the first importance.
The best friends of science will unite with him in depre-
cating the pride and vanity which pretend to carry
researches beyond the limits which the Author of our
nature has prescribed. But he has not brought an atom
of evidence to prove that the efforts of Geology, or of
any other branch of Natural Philosophy, involve any ex?
14*
162
MELLOR BROWN',
cursion whatsoever out of those limits. His caution is,
in itself, only an enforcement of the first principle of the
Baconian philosophy. But for this application of it, he
gives us nothing but his own assertion. The undistin-
guishing application of good general principles is one of
the most frequent causes of human error, and that to the
most dangerous extent. I question whether there is any
error or heresy, which may not be traced to this as one
of its principal causes. Speculations may indeed be in-
dulged and theories constructed, upon subjects in which
we have no data for the support of our conclusions ; and
in which therefore all the materials are the offspring of
imagination. But that is not the case here. In Geology
and every other part of physical science, the objects of
investigation are substantial realities, things presented to
our eyes and all our other bodily organs ; and the pheno-
mena of change are in many cases perfectly similar, and
in others analogous, to what is continually passing before
our eyes. True philosophy is not an " intruding into
things which we have not seen," the vain inflation of a
carnal mind.* It is the patient ascertaining of actual
things and actual events, of which our own senses and
those of other men are the witnesses ; and it then seeks
to find out the connexion of those facts with each other.
Such is Geology. It deals in realities, diligently ascer-
tained and faithfully reported : and the reasonings against
which this author, pious and amiable as he is, directs his
assault, are in all Christian uprightness intended to pro-
tect the cause of religion against the injuries to which it
is exposed from the misunderstanding of natural facts,
and from what we believe to be the misinterpretation of
the sacred Scriptures. What right has he to say, that
"events which took place before the birth of man or the
* Col. ii. 19.
FALSE IMPUTATIONS. 163
date of revelation, belong to a forbidden province 1" He
brings no reason in support of his assertion : he adduces
no evidence in its favour from the divine oracles : he
does not pretend to give us any ground whatever for the
reception of it. Can he have expected that any man will
receive this dictate, upon his pronouncing of it 1 Geology
unrolls to the eyes of men a glorious book of the works
and ways of divine power and providence. Are we to
behold these objects ; aud then turn aside, refusing to
inquire, or to hear other persons inquire, concerning their
nature and relations, their causes and consequences 1 Can
we persuade our fellow-men to yield obedience to such a
prohibition 1 Will the unbelieving and irreligious submit
to it 1 Will they retire from the threshold of the temple,
after they have been permitted to look in and gain a
glance of its grandeur ; and will or can they repress
every desire of entering to explore its treasures 1 There
are, unhappily, men well acquainted with the natural
sciences, but who are disgracefully, because wilfully,
ignorant of the real nature of religion, and the grounds
of claim which it has on their understandings and their
hearts : how will such as they treat this ban of an un-
proved authority 1 Will they not regard the futile prohi-
bition as involving an unequivocal confession, that the
book of revelation will not endure to be confronted with
the book of nature 1 Or will religious persons, the sin-
cere believers in the authority of the Bible, give in their
adherence to it ! Will they, can they, shut their eyes
and silence their understandings ; and suppress the risings
of reason and admiration and piety % Can they strike
dead the desire for knowledge which the wise and good
Creator has implanted in manl Widely different is a
simple desire of knowledge, regulated by rational and
religious considerations, from that principle of the first
transgression with which some unreflecting persons pro-
164" TENDENCY OF THE BIBLE.
fess to identify it. That was the hankering after a grati-
fication of animal appetite, in despite of a prohibition
which the transgressors knew to have proceeded from
infinite goodness ; it was the giving credit to an unknown
pretender, in contempt of the divine veracity: but the
studies of Natural Philosophy, (though, like every other of
God's beneficent gifts, they may be and awfully are
abused by ungrateful men,) are, in themselves, only a
proceeding in the spirit of the divine declarations ; " The
works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that
have pleasure therein. — Kemember that thou magnify his
work which men behold. — Through desire, a man, having
separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all
wisdom."* The Bible, in numerous places, directs us to
the contemplation of God, under the especial aspect of
displaying his perfections by his doings ; and it affixes no
limitations of time or place to the objects of such con-
templation. The works which the Infinite Being has
wrought, and the ways in which he governs his own cre-
ation, may, in a sound and obvious sense sanctioned by
the inspired apostle, be called a revelation of Him ; " be-
cause that which may be known of God (to yvmaxhv rov
Qsov) is manifest in them."f It cannot be held excusa-
ble, in any to whom he has given the means of studying
this manifestation of himself, to neglect that duty, or to
oppose and decry those who endeavour to perform it.
This study is, not the rival, but the valuable assistant, of
* Ps. cxi. 2. Job xxxvi. 24. Prov. xviii. 1. This'Jast passage is one
of those in the Old Testament which, on account of the extremely ellipti-
cal character of the Hebrew style, is attended with difficulty. The fol-
lowing paraphrastic translation is submitted as strictly conveying the
sense of the original. " For gratifying a laudable desire, a recluse stu-
dent diligently explores and zealously contends for all elevation of know'
ledge."
t Rom. i. 19.
SUPPOSITION OF OBSCURITY IN THE LANGUAGE. 165
the manifestation which God has granted us in positive
revelation ; and which is to us practically of infinitely
the greatest importance.
"All nature joins to show thy praise.
Thus God in every creature shines.
Fair is the book of nature's lines:
But fairer is the book, of grace."
Walts.
PART II.
II. There is another and very different class of men,
who are not only aware of the difficulties which we have
undertaken to discuss, as producing some appearance of
contradiction, but who affirm, without hesitation, that
there is a real and insuperable discrepancy between the
demonstrated facts of science and the unambiguous de-
clarations of the Mosaic writings : and their method of
resolving the difficulty is not like that of others who deny
the geological facts, (for this, their knowledge makes im-
possible for them,) but they take the opposite course.
The two leaders in this course are Mr. Babbage and Pro-
fessor Baden Powell. The former of these philosophers
thinks himself compelled to resort to a desperate kind of
hypothesis, which is really cutting the knot. He is of
opinion that we cannot so depend upon our ability to con-
strue the ancient Hebrew language, as to be sure that we
have correctly interpreted the archaic documents before
us. Thus, to speak the plain truth, an opening is made
for treating the written records of the creation as if they
had no existence ; or, in the same manner as would be
our conduct with regard to some antique marble, in-
scribed with characters which we might believe to ex-
166 OBSCURITY IN THE LANGUAGE.
press the words of a lost language, but that language one
which we could never hope to recover. We might ad-
mire the elegance of its form and the beauty of its sculp-
tured figures ; we might lay it up as the most interesting
treasure of a museum ; but we should not spend our time
in attempting to decipher its characters, persuaded be-
forehand that the attempt would be vain.
The second of those distinguished mathematicians and
philosophers goes farther. He has no difficulty in ad-
mitting the perfectly intelligible character of the com-
mencement of Genesis and the Fourth Commandment ;
but he considers it incumbent upon him to maintain that,
in both cases, the statement " was not intended for an
historical narrative ; and, if the representation cannot
have been designed for literal history, it only remains to
regard it as having been intended for the better enforce-
ment of its objects in the language of figure and poetry ;
and to allow that the manner in which the Deity was
pleased to reveal himself to the Jews as accomplishing
the work of creation was (like so many other points of
their dispensation) veiled in the guise of apologue and
parable ; and that only a more striking representation of
the greatness and majesty of the Divine power and crea-
tive wisdom was intended, by embodying the expression
of them in the language of dramatic action*
* Connexion of Nat. and Div. Truth ; by the Rev. Baden Powell,
Savil. Prof. Geom. Oxford : p 260. A work which ^regard as of great
value; and cannot but earnestly recommend it to those who wish to
6earch deeply and accurately into philosophical subjects and their moral
relations: notwithstanding the author's deplorable mistake in his notion
of Calvinism, and the appearance of some serious theological errors. But
I cannot surrender him to the self-styled Rationalists, but whose just
claim would he to a very different appellation. The learned Professor
has, more recently, done excellent service to the cause of religion by his
masterly exposure of a system, which comes forwards indeed with lofty
pretensions, uniting in itself the lamb and the dragon, (Rev. xiii- 11,) but
THE LANGUAGE PLAIN. 167
I offer a few remarks upon each of these hypotheses.
Mr. Babbage is careful to state that he has not "any
acquaintance with the language in which the sacred vol-
ume" of the Old Testament is written. This deficiency
is justly to be regretted. Had it not existed, the acute
investigator would never have taken up his hypothesis, or
any approach to it. He would have felt himself assured
that, as a consequence of the uninterrupted use of the
Hebrew language by the Jews, and the constant public
reading of these very writings, from the days of Moses
down to our own, we have in fact* as firm a hold upon the
meaning as we have in regard to the Greek and Latin ;
that, from its being one of a family of languages, all of
which possess literary monuments and those of great an-
tiquity, we are furnished with aids and guarantees, in the
comparison of the cognate tongues, by which the correct
understanding of Hebrew is made sure to those who will
rationally study it ; and that, by the aid of the Greek Ver-
sion, all or most of which was made in the third century
before Christ, we have a still further ground of satisfac-
tion for the intelligence of the Hebrew Scriptures. There
are oriental scholars, especially in Germany, and of whom
some are awfully hostile to the truth and the authority of
revelation, who would inform Mr. Babbage that the fact
of a clear and certain understanding of the Hebrew Scrip-
tures is above all reasonable doubt. The construction of
the language is the most simple and luminous that can
well be imagined ; its peculiar idioms are well ascer-
tained and illustrated ; few very difficult passages occur ;
the principal obscurities lie in the determination of a
small number of words referring to natural objects and
operations of art ; and the text is settled to a degree of
which he rightly characterizes " as involving in entire ambiguity the land-
marks of Christian truth:— by neutralizing it destroys the whole evidence
of the gospel." Tradition Unveiled ; page 68.
168 MYTHIC HYPOTHESIS.
purity more satisfactory than we dare affirm of many of
the Greek and Latin classics. All competent scholars,
of whatever opinions and parties they may be in other
respects, will agree to reject any imputation of uncer-
tainty with respect to the means of ascertaining the sense
of the language.
Professor Powell's scheme is in fact but a reproduc-
tion of the mythic hypothesis which the German Anti-
supernaturalists generally hold ; and which we could not
consistently adopt unless we went with them to the infi-
del length of denying any positive revelation. This I am
persuaded that the Professor would not do. But as a di-
vine, he has involved himself in serious difficulty. His
notion, that we have here " the language of figure and
poetry," is palpably erroneous. The whole is in the
style of plain narrative, evidently intended to be under-
stood as a simple, straight-forward, unadorned history.
The dramatic form, introducing the Creator as speaking,
to command an effect ; and then stating that the effect
followed, and that he was pleased with the contemplation
of it ; — is a part of the great characteristic which runs
through all the Hebrew Scriptures and especially the ear-
lier parts of them, the Anthropopathia ; a mode of ex-
pression adapted, by the graciousness of Divine conde-
scension, to the capacity and habits of thought which be-
long to men in an unpolished state of society, who were
totally ignorant of abstract phraseology, and would have
been unable to receive spiritual sentiments, unless clothed
in language borrowed from sensible objects and from the
emotions and actions of men. This is indeed the very
principle which will appear, as I trust, in a following lec-
ture, to be both " a true cause" in the formation of the
ancient scriptural phraseology, and to be adequate to carry
us out of the difficulty, without sacrificing the reality of
the things related, or invading the truth and majesty of
Divine Inspiration.
PERNICIOUS EXTREMES. 169
I do cherish much hope that, had Professor Powell
more carefully and completely examined the case, he
would have found this principle, which indeed he definite-
ly lays down, quite sufficient for obviating all the diffi-
culty j without having recourse to admissions which can-
not but be revolting to the calm judgment of any man ;
as well as to the enlightened piety of a reflecting Chris-
tian. We, equally with him, admit the folly of "con-
structing systems of philosophy out of the Bible, of
attempting to force its language into accordance with
philosophical results," — or of supposing that the senses
or applications which, by some engineering of verbal
criticism, we might maintain that the words could be
made to bear, were actually in the understanding and in-
tention of Moses, or of any other inspired writer ; or
of " imagining that the delivery of the Judaical law was
really intended to embrace the doctrines of Geology, and
this too under the guise of expressions which, in their
obvious sense, are directly contradictory to those doc-
trines ;" — or, in a word, of " saying something plausible
to satisfy prejudice, and avoid giving offence to popular
belief."* Some persons indeed have been, and are, who
have held notions like these, and have pursued some such
fallacious course as is here reprobated. We cannot shield
them from the Reverend Professor's censure. We repu-
diate all such devices. But it is not necessary for us to
go into the opposite extreme, and affirm that the language
of revelation, when stripped of the conventional forms of
description which were necessary in that state of mind
and habits which characterized the people and the aare, is
irreconcilably and insuperably contradictory to the truth
of facts in nature. The rash and harsh lano-uao-e of Mr.
Powell has betrayed him into great inconsistency with
* Expressions of Prof. Powell. ^
15
170 NOTION UNCHRISTIAN.
his own sacred professions and obligations, and into po-
sitions deeply injurious to the cause of Christianity. He
admits the inspiration of Moses, and the divine origin and
authority of the previous patriarchal and the subsequent
prophetic revelations ; and yet he maintains that the
Christian system of religion is independent of those former
disclosures of the will and truth of God, and distinct from
them, in such a manner that (if I do not misapprehend his
meaning, which I sincerely wish may be the case with
me) we might lawfully and safely give them up, as obso-
lete ideas, mingled with much that is erroneous. This is
a notion which stands in direct hostility to the sentiment
that pervades the whole frame of revelation, a progression
of knowledge and its practical applications ; exhibiting a
twilight, a dawn, a sun-rise, and the perfect day. Moses
and the prophets bore testimony to the Messiah, the prom-
ised Redeemer of mankind ; and that Messiah with his
immediate disciples pointed to the completion of the an-
cient dispensations in the " grace and truth " of the gospel.
Nothing can be plainer than that our Lord and his apos-
tles gave honour to Moses as the most faithful servant of
God, as an inspired person, and as the initiating prophet
of a national dispensation which was constituted by divine
authority to be the symbol and preparative of a religion
that should be universal and permanent for mankind, the
" glad tidings concerning Jesus Christ."*
I trust it will appear, in the sequel to these lectures,
that we neither torture the Bible to make it speak the
language of philosophy, nor suppress or mutilate the facts
of nature in order to bring about an agreement with the
Bible.
* Besides the whole bearing of the Old Testament prophecies and the
writings of the New Testament, particular evidences are Matt. xvii. 3;
Luke xvi. 31 ; xx. 37; xxiv. 27 ; John i. 17, 46 ; iii. 14; v. 46, 47 ; Acts iii.
22 ; vii. 35 ; xxvi. 22, 23 ; xx viii. 32 ; Rom. iii. 2, 21, 31 ; iv. throughout ;
ix. 4, 5 j 2 Cor. iii. Heb. throughout; Rev.'xv. 3.
METAPHORICAL DAYS. 171
III. An hypothesis was resorted to about thirty years
ago by several men of eminence in geological knowledge,
such as the late Mr. James Parkinson, Baron Cuvier, and
Professor Jameson of Edinburgh ; and it has found appro-
vers and advocates more recently : among whom we may
reckon Professor Silliman, (at least a few years ago,) and
the anonymous clergyman who wrote the able Prelimi-
nary Essay to Dr. Mantell's Illustrations of the Geology
of Sussex, published in 1822: but it is now so generally
relinquished that more than a brief mention of it will not
be necessary. This is, that the Six Days of Creation may
be understood of periods of time, of indefinite though of
a very great length. Finding in frequent instances of
Scripture-use, what is indeed the case in all languages,
that the term day is put metaphorically to denote any
portion of time which has been marked by the accomplish-
ment of some great event or series of events, it was con-
cluded that the same figurative application might be re-
sorted to here. The mind was thus left at liberty to
attach to each of these periods any length that the exi-
gency of the case might require, in order to obtain the
protracted time which the supporters of this hypothesis
knew to be an indispensable provision for the mineral and
palaeontological formations. They went further, and
supposed that the succession of geological beds, with re-
spect to organic remains, exhibited a correspondence
with the contents of the sacred narrative in describing
the several operations of divine power. Upon this the-
ory a few remarks are submitted.
1. More accurate investigations have proved that the
correspondence just mentioned does not exist. Though,
to a superficial view, some plausible appearances of this
kind present themselves, the scheme fails when it is at-
tempted to be carried into detail.
172 METAPHORICAL DAYS UNTENABLE.
2. Admitting, what indeed every person must be aware
of, that the word is often used in the wide acceptation, as
when we speak of " the day of the Son of man," — " the
day of salvation," — the day of human life ; it is evident
that this figurative use is employed, more generally indeed
in poetical or oratorical diction, but always when the
connexion in any given instance makes it unquestionably
manifest that a figurative sense is intended. No exam-
ples need be brought in proof of this fact : it must be fa-
miliar to every person.
Yet there is one instance which is peculiarly impor-
tant, because it occurs in another of the archaic records
with which Moses the inspired and faithful servant of
God,* was directed by the Divine Being to commence
his narrative. For, it is not irrelevant here to remark,
that the earlier part of the Book of Genesis consists of
several distinct compositions, marked by their differences
of style and by express formularies of commencement.!
It is entirely consonant with the idea of inspiration, and
established by the whole tenor of the Scriptural compo-
sitions, that the heavenly influence operated in a concur-
rence with the rational faculties of the inspired men ; so
that prophets and apostles wrote from their own know-
ledge and memory, the testimony of other portions, and
* "My servant Moses is not so [on an equality with other prophets,]
who is faithful in all my house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth,
even apparently [Heb in visible form, J and not in dark speeches [obscure
representations:] and the similitude of Jehovah he shall behold." Numb.
xii. 7, 8; and compare Heb. iii. 2, 5.
t The following appear to be the distinct compositions, yet it must be
observed that the evidence is not equally clear in every case. I. Gen. i.
1, to ii. 3. II. ii 4, to iii. 24. III. chap. iv. IV. v. 1, to vi. 8. V. vi. 9, to
ix. 29. VI. chap. x. VII. xi 1-9. VIII. xi. 10, to 26. IX. xi. 27, and
all that follows may be regarded as the records of the house of Abraham.
Chap, xxxvi. a separate document, inserted in the most suitable place.
METAPHORICAL DAYS UNTENABLE. 173
written documents, to which indeed express appeal is
often made.* From the evidence of language and of
matter, we have no slight reasons for supposing that
Moses compiled the chief parts of the Book of Genesis,
by arranging and connecting ancient memorials, under
the divine direction, and probably during the middle part
of his life which he spent in the retirements of Arabia.
Thus, though it is impossible to affirm with confidence
such a position, yet it appears far from improbable that
we have, in this most ancient writing in the world, the
family archives of Amram and his ancestors, comprising
the history of Joseph, probably written in great part by
himself; documents from the hands of Jacob, Abraham,
Shem, Noah, and, possibly ascending higher still, authen-
tic memorials from Enoch, Seth, and Adam.
At the fourth verse of the second chapter, commen-
ces a new narrative, in these words : " These are the gene-
rations" — (the Hebrew word is that commonly used to
introduce an historical relation, and learned translators
render it, in numerous places, by origin, history, account,
or some similar word, — ) " of the heavens and the earth,
in their being created, in the day of Jehovah God's mak-
ing earth and heavens." I read this in the most closely
literal version. Undoubtedly the word requires to be
understood here, in the less restricted sense of a period
of time. But one obvious remark puts an end to all dif-
ficulty in the matter. The word used in this place and
in chapter v. 1, 2, is not the simple noun ; but it is a
compound of that noun with a preposition, formed ac-
cording to the genius of the Hebrew language, and pro-
* We have these instances in the Old Testament, Numb.xxi. 14. Josh,
x. 13. 2 Sam. i. 18. 1 Kings xi. 41. 1 Chron. ix. 1 ; xxix. 29. 2 Chron.
ix. 29 ; xii. 15; xx 34. In the New Testament many of the anecdotal
portions in the first three Gospels ; and see Luke i. 1, 2.
15*
174 RESORT TO THE
ducing an adverb, requiring to be rendered by such words
as when, at the time, after.*
v 3. Upon the very face of the document, it is manifest
that in the first chapter the word is used in its ordinary
sense. For this primeval record (terminating, as was re-
marked in a former lecture, with the third verse of the
second chapter) is not a poem, nor a piece of oratorical
diction; but is a narrative, in the simple style which
marks the highest majesty. It would be an indication of
a deplorable want of taste for the beauty of language, to
put a patch of poetical diction upon this face of natural
simplicity. But, one might think that no doubt would
remain to any man who had before his eyes the conclud-
ing formula of each of the six partitions, " And evening
was, and morning was, day one ;" and so throughout the
series, repeating exactly the same form ; only introducing
the ordinal numbers, till we arrive at the last, " And eve-
ning was, and morning was, day the sixth."
4. If there were no other reason against this, which
I may call device of interpretation, it would appear quite
sufficient to require its rejection, that it involves so large
an extension in the liberty, or license, of figurative
speech. Poetry speaks very allowably of the day of
prosperity or of sorrow, the day of a dynasty or of an
empire : but the case before us requires a stretch of hy-
perbole which would be monstrous. A few hundreds, or
even thousands, of days turned into years, would not
supply a period sufficiently ample to meet the exigency
of geological reasoning; while this way of proceeding,
to obtain the object desired, is sacrificing the propriety
and certainty of language, and producing a feeling of re-
volt in the mind of a plain reader of the Bible.
* Examples are numerous; as Exod xiv. 57; Num. xxx. 5, &c. ;
Deut. xxi. 16; 2 Sam. xxu 1 ; Neh. xiii. 15. Many other instances are
adduced in Noldii Concord. Partic. Hebr.
ANTEDILUVIAN PERIOD. 175
IV. We advance to the consideration of a theory,
which has been held with strong attachment by persons
of talent and piety, upon many of whom we cannot think
without the feelings of Christian affection. At the same
time, it is incumbent on me to make an observation which
is entitled to be well considered. It is, that the persons
to whom I advert, and especially those who have most
distinguished themselves as the advocates of this theory,
are not practical men, not geologists who have devoted
the continuous labour of weeks and months, I might
justly say years, in exploring those regions of Europe
and other parts of the earth, which are the most impor-
tant in a geological sense, because they present the great-
est extent of natural sections, elevations, fractures, and
outcrops, and the largest abundance and variety of organic
remains. But the writers who have most signalized
themselves in the advocacy of this view, appear to have
chiefly derived their knowledge of geological subjects
from the study of books and their own reflections in calm
retirement. I am not so presumptuous as to imagine my-
self qualified to bear this testimony concerning those
estimable persons, so as to exclude all liability to mistake.
I utter only the impression made upon my mind, by a
small degree of actual knowledge, by credible informa-
tion from other persons, and above all from the indica-
tions of their own writings.
The hypothesis referred to is that which, first, con-
siders the Jlosaic record as indubitably affirming the cre-
ation of the universe, within the period of six natural
days, at an epoch about six thousand years back ; then,
it regards the interval from the Creation to the Deluge,
as affording a sufficient lapse of time for the deposition
of the chief part of the stratified formations ; and finally
it considers the remainder of the phenomena as ade-
quately accounted for by the action of the diluvial waters.
176 ANTEDILUVIAN PERIOD
That interval, according to the chronology calculated
from the Hebrew copy of the Bible, was 1656 years ; ac-
cording to the Greek translation usually called the Sep-
tuagint, it was 2262 ; but according to the estimate in
the "Analysis of Chronology" of the late Dr. William
Hales of Dublin, the period was 3155 years.
1. The first thought that strikes our minds, on a sur-
vey of the inquiry, is this ; that the materials, of which
the advocates of this theory have framed it, are what they
have derived from the labours of the very men who hold
the opposite doctrine. The men whose persevering toils
have brought to light the great facts of Geology, who
have traced them through their vast extent, and who have
described them with careful precision by their pens and
pencils, are represented by this hypothesis as the worst
interpreters of those facts ; either incapable of drawing
logical inferences from their own observations, or unwil-
ling to declare what the honest inferences are. Upon the
former supposition, it must appear a strange thing that
the persons, who have given such distinguished proofs
of their general ability, and of their acuteness of penetra-
tion in this particular department of scientific study ; who
possess the resources of those auxiliary sciences which
are the best guides in physical inquiry, and the most stern
checks upon sanguine minds, to guard them against pre-
cipitance or inaccuracy in drawing conclusions ; — it must
appear a strange thing, that such persons should labour
under an obliquity of judgment so peculiar and so ob-
stinate that they cannot see the just conclusion from
premises which they have obtained by so much expense
of time and fortune, of mental and of bodily toil. It should
also not be omitted that, of these persons, some, probably
the larger number, had the prepossessions of education
originally fixed in their minds in favour of the very opin-
ion which they are now rebuked for rejecting. Could we
NOT ADEQUATE. 177
ma trine that one such human mind was in existence 1 —
It would appear a prodigy : but that many, that all who
fall under the former part of my description (for I know
not of one exception) should be thus mighty to do the
greater thing, which every logician knows to be the gain-
ing of true premises, yet so wretchedly feeble to perform
the easiest part of all, the perceiving what conclusion is
contained in those premises ! — This does indeed surpass
belief !—
But the other part of the alternative is that, the men
so qualified, with the evidence on the case spread before
their eyes, are unwilling to announce that conclusion
which dispassionate bystanders see to be the right one,
and which they themselves were quite aware of, yea, pro-
bably had before maintained \ that they have been se-
duced into a confederacy, — though many of them never
saw each other, — to violate conscience, honour, and truth,
to support an opinion which they know is not the fair de-
duction from the facts by themselves'elicited j an opinion
which they themselves had once disapproved,* which
* "When I first heard of the conclusions of Geology, I thought them
very unsafe, for they opposed my conscientious interpretation of the
Scripture-narrative; and I concluded (as was right and just, for I knew
Scripture to be infallible, and I had never considered any other interpre-
tation) that geological science was an 'aberration.' But, upon further
scrutiny, I found its main conclusions impregnable. I then considered
whether my interpretation was of necessity the right one; and I found,
as many Scriptural Geologists have shown, that the sacred text might,
without any violence, be differently interpreted, and that thus the suppo-
sed difficulties vanished. I was not reckless of consequences,— very far
from it: but I saw that there might be bad consequences in two opposite
ways ; and I fear that some well-meaning and truly pious writers are ex-
posing Scripture to one of them." Letter of a Scriptural Geologist, in
the Christian Observer, August, 1S39, p. 473.
On the question, Whether these phenomena can "be comprised with-
in the short period usually assigned to them V the Rev. Samuel Charles
Wilks long ago observed : " Buckland, Sedgwick, Faber, Chalmers, Cony-
beare, and many other Christian geologists, strove long with themselves
178 REMARKS ON AUTHORS.
shocks many of their friends, which is denounced as of an
irreligious and skeptical character, and which therefore
forces them to lie under suspicion and reproach ; and,
finally, that some of these men, and those the most ready
to make the avowal, are consecrated ministers and zeal-
ous advocates of the Christian Religion : — this side of the
supposition does indeed involve such an amount of delib-
erate baseness, — that it exceeds my capacity of belief !
2. The worthy persons who oppose what I may, not
assumingly, call the whole body of geologists, have had
no very difficult task to perform. There may be two or
three exceptions : but we may safely affirm that they in
general have not spent those years of patient application
which the case demands in order to have the prerequisites
for forming a correct judgment : but they take up an allur-
ing book, Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, perhaps, or
Lyell's Principles : or, more probably, they may have
been content with some of the older and very defective
authors. From this they select a few statements, which,
by their want of previous knowledge, they are exposed to
no small risk of failing to understand. Of the great num-
ber of facts necessary to be known, many are overlooked,
and many are forgotten ; and among them are some which
make no very prominent appearance in a verbal descrip-
tion, but the omission to grasp and apply which will viti-
ate the entire body of conceptions which the hasty com-
piler is forming. He finds incoherencies, and has no sus-
picion that they are produced only by the fragmentary
character of his own attainments : he puts them down and
to believe that they coiiU 1 : ar d they did not give up the hope, or seek for
a new interpretation of the sacred text, till they considered themselves
driven from their position by such facts as we have stated. If, even
now, a reasonable, or we might say possible solution were offered, they
would, we feel persuaded, gladly revert to their original opinions." Christ.
Obs. Aug. 1834; p. ^86.
PENN AND FAIRHOLME. 179
surveys them : to him they appear to involve positions or
to warrant inferences fatal to the geologists: and then
our well-pleased considerator marshals his doubts and ob-
jections, forms a theory of his own which delightfully
harmonizes with his views of the Scriptural cosmogony:
he favours the world with it : and, in the end, he is sur-
prised and grieved, and perhaps irritated, that the geolo-
gists do not adopt his views.
With reluctance and pain I acknowledge myself under
the obligation of mentioning some principal writers of
this description.
Some twelve or thirteen years ago, a gentleman enti-
tled to our high esteem, Mr. Granville Penn, published a
large work which he entitled " A Comparative Estimate
of the Mineral and the Mosaic Geologies." He endea-
vours to prove that the phenomena of stratification may
be accounted for by referring them to the accumulated
deposits of the antediluvian ocean, which he supposes to
have become the habitable earth after the Deluge ; and
then introducing tremendous disruptions and forcible
transportations of those accumulations, by the action of
the diluvial waters. While professing, and I have no
doubt, with the utmost sincerity, to hold the authority of
Scripture in the supremacy of honour which is its due,
Mr. Penn makes no scruple to deal with it in a very arbi-
trary manner. He even cashiers and rejects as spurious,
in the face of all critical evidence, the entire passage
which gives the topography of the country of Eden ; be-
cause it is incompatible with his theory. Pleasing and in
some respects useful as his volumes are, I am compelled
to regard them as calculated to mislead the confiding 1
reader.
Considerably later, another of our countrymen, Mr.
Fairholme, published a work on the "Geology of Scrip-
ture," which he has lately amplified and republished. He
180 PENN AND FAIRHOLME.
is evidently versed in some parts of recent Natural His-
tory ; and, in this respect, he may be put into the same
class with a respectable clergyman, the Rev. William
Kirby, who, inhisBridgewater Treatise, having wandered
out of his proper province to introduce some of the wild-
est speculations upon geological subjects that ever germi-
nated in the brain of man, while in the same work, he gen-
erously relieves our astounded minds by acknowledging
that he has not studied Geology. Surely this is a lesson
and a monitory example for us all, to refrain from hazard-
ing opinions upon subjects with which we are conscious
of being but insufficiently acquainted.
Mr. Fairholme exercises great ability, I might call it
adroitness, in the whole strain of his work ; with a strong
tincture of severity and sarcasm upon the objects of his
censure; and with a boldness of assertion and the fre-
quent assumption of a triumphant tone which is likely to
lead captive an uninformed reader. He rests most confi-
dently upon an argument derived from the forms of val-
leys, which Dr. Buckland had before laid before the world,
but which he has since with equal publicity, retracted, or
so modified as to render it incapable of warranting the
conclusion in favour of which Mr. Fairholme avails him-
self of it : yet he does not, so far as I have observed, take
notice of such modification, though the fact itself, under
all its circumstances, had surely no little claim to respect-
ful notice. Dr. Fleming also, a zealous advocate of the
authority of Scripture, had long before maintained the fu-
tility of this argument.
In preference to resting upon my own opinion of the
productions of Mr. Penn, Mr. Kirby, and Mr. Fairholme, I
will quote that of Professor Hitchcock ; a man whose re-
ligious character, his candour and fairness in discussion,
and his extensive acquaintance with geological subjects,
— an acquaintance gained not merely by studious reading
PENN AND FA1RH0LME. 181
and reflection, but by the hard labour of years in river-
beds, ocean-coasts, gorges, and mountains, — entitle him
to the confidence which is due to a man who understands
what he is writing about.
'■ Will it be believed, that a really able and scientific man, writing
by appointment of the President of the Royal Society— in the year
1835, should have revived and adopted, with slight modifications,
the essential features of this hypothesis" [Thomas BurnettV] "of
dissolution and reconsolidation of the earth by the deluge V' "It
is not necessary to go into a formal exhibition of the absurdity of
such views as these: for, unless a new school of Physico-Theolo-
gists should arise, and Geological Science as well as Biblical Criti-
cism revert to their condition one hundred years ago. they will not
be adopted.— We do no injustice to that gentleman by saying this:
while justice to the cause of science as connected with religion,
requires us to do it. Such exhibitions can have no other than a
bad effect upon the cause evidently so near Mr. Kirby's heart, the
defence of Natural and Revealed Religion. For the inevitable effect
upon the Skeptical Geologist, will be to make him throw aside the
work, and we fear the whole series" [of the Bridgewater Treatises,]
" in disgust. We have before us a letter from one of the ablest liv-
ing Geologists of this description, which well exhibits the effects of
such productions. ' It gives me pain (says he) to find a man so esti-
mable in every respect as * * * [not Mr. Kirby,] compelled to
cling to theories impossible to defend, from reasons unconnected with
science. It has injured his well-earned reputation; and I think Acs
injured the great cause he has at heart, the interests of the Christian
Religion: for this must be the effect of connecting it with opinions
which are manifestly no more than the best conclusions that wise
and good men of former days were induced to adopt, when they had
but few facts, inaccurately observed, to reason from.' There is
another bad effect resulting from the adoption of such untenable and
exploded opinions by a standard writer. The greater part of even
educated men have not the leisure requisite for pursuing the
subjects of natural science, so accurately as to be able to form inde-
pendent opinions upon difficult questions connected with it. Hence,
when a manlike Mr. Kirby, of acknowledged distinction in science,
and evidently jealous for the honour of Natural and Revealed Reli-
gion, advances opinions on the connexions of science with revela-
tion, they will have a wide influence and be extensively adopted :
and, if they happen to be wrong, they will powerfully arrest the pro-
16
182 PENN AND FAIRHOLME.
gress of truth. Now, Mr. Kirby's reputation as an Entomologist,
and perhaps we may add also as a Helminthologist, is deservedly
high. But this does not prove that he is at all qualified lo decide dif-
ficult Geological questions; especially when he himself testifies that
he is not. Yet his opinions on Geology will have nearly as much
influence, except among Geologists, as if he were well acquainted
with the science. Nay ; with not a few, there exists no small jeal-
ousy respecting the views of Geologists, as if hostile to revelation ;
and such will be very glad to range themselves under the banner of
a leader in Natural History, especially of one whose great object ap-
pears to be, to bring philosophers back to the word of God."*
With regard to Mr. Perm and Mr. Fairholme, I must
now say that a passage of Professor Hitchcock which was
quoted in the first lecture, but suppressing the names, re-
ferred to those authors. It needs not to be repeated.
The tenor of it is to complain of them for their unreason-
able positiveness of opinion upon subjects in which they
betray their want of practical acquaintance, their intole-
rant spirit and injurious language, their wrong represen-
tation of facts, and their calling upon us to receive theo-
ries of their own which, says Mr. Hitchcock, " appear"
to a person acquainted with Geology, " a thousand times
more extravagant and opposed to facts, than any opinions
that have been entertained by the cultivators of this
science, and which Penn and Fairholme so violently op-
pose." This comparison shows the strong sense which
Hitchcock entertains of the folly and presumption which
provoked his censure ; but I ought to caution my hear-
ers against understanding it too largely. The Professor
did not design to cast a veil over the irreligious opinions
of some foreign geologists, which, in the Dissertations
from which I have quoted, he has strenuously exposed
and refuted. But his observation is strictly correct in
relation to the subject upon which he is treating, the the-
ories of really well-informed geologists.
* Americ. Biblic. Repos. Jan. 1837 ; pp, 100 to 104.
GISBORNE. 183
Two years ago, a venerable clergyman, of whom it
would not be easy to speak in terms of too high re-
spect, the Rev. Thomas Gisborne, one of the Prebenda-
ries of Durham, published his " Considerations on the
Modern Theories of Geology." If Christian piety, good
temper, fine talent, and elegant expression, could alone se-
cure correctness of sentiment upon a subject of natural
knowledge, we should have had nothing to regret in rela-
tion to this work. But the sources of error, which have
been already described, have unhappily poured their influ-
ence into Mr. Gisborne's mind. The prevalent and deeply-
working prejudice against the modern Geology, that it
seeks to undermine the authority of the Scriptures, and
consequently to destroy our faith in Christianity, has led
Mr. Gisborne into the adoption of the most imperfect views
of geological facts, and into the pleasing fallacy of what
Professor Sedgwick calls "making a world after a pattern
of our own." He employs his great ability in finding or in
imagining faults and inconsistencies in the doctrines ad-
vanced by geologists, while it is manifest that his ac-
quaintance with the subjects of their attention is extreme-
ly limited ; and that his perusal of their writings has been
but cursory, and far from being comprehensive, or such
as could be made the basis of safe argument. The incon-
sequence of reasoning, into which this excellent man has
allowed himself, I am sure unconsciously, to be drawn, we
can scarcely hope that, in his very advanced age, he will
be brought to discover: but it has subjected him to the
cutting suggestion of a clergyman of his own communion,
who concludes a page of criticism upon the Prebendary's
pamphlet, with the words, " This is surely not an age, in
which dignitaries of the Church should be found arraying
themselves in hostility to science."*
* Powell's Connexion; p. 231.
184? TURNER.
Yet another dignitary has not withheld himself from
the peril of joining this array. The last year, the Dean
of York published "A Letter to Professor Buckland j" in
which, by the expenditure of a very few pages of loose
paragraphs, he actually represents himself as having over-
thrown some of the principal doctrines which the most
cautious geologists regard as indubitably established ; and
then he brings forward a theory of his own, of which I
will only say that it manifests a degree of ignorance next to
incredible upon the phenomena under his consideration, the
very nature and most obvious facts of stratification :
and, to crown all, the Dean of York does not observe even
common courtesy towards Dr. Buckland. Probably that
eminent man may think this attack beneath his notice ;
and, scientifically considered, it is so. But, as not only
the Dean's pamphlet, but the productions of Prebendary
Gisborne, Mr. Melior Brown, and some other writers, are
directed against Dr. Buckland by name ; and as multitudes
read those pamphlets who are totally unqualified to detect
their errors and escape the impression of their vehe-
mence ; it is greatly to be wished that he would confer
upon the public a service so valuable as would be a calm
exposure and refutation of the whole genus.
PART III
A gentleman who has illustrated the history of our
country in a manner which proves diligent research, fidel-
ity to moral principles, and a pleasing talent for narra-
tion, Mr. Sharon Turner, has also written a work for the
use of young persons, and containing stores of valuable
matter, " The Sacred History of the World." This work,
in a manner well adapted to inform and religiously to ben-
TURNER. 185
efit the readers, introduces many facts of Natural History
and principles of Natural Philosophy : yet one may wish
that he had accumulated his materials with more discrim-
ination. He has also taken notice of geological subjects,
in several of the Letters of which the work consists. He
has consulted many books and philosophical journals ;
and has brought together, in rapid, but not always cor-
rect, sketches, a numerous body of interesting facts. In
many of his details and descriptions, I humbly think that
his work is mistaken and defective 5 the apparent result
of having been compiled too hastily, by multifarious read-
ing, without personal observation and practical know-
ledge. This is particularly the case in his opinions upon
stratification ; and in his account of vegetable and animal
remains. He supposes all the stratified formations, from
the lowest up to the highest secondary, to have been pro-
duced in the 1656 years from the creation of man to the
deluge ; and the tertiary, to have been the effects of the
deluge itself: notions which, one might well think, would
be impossible to be received by any person who had ex-
amined with his eyes any large extent of stratified masses,
and observed the vast thickness of many, and the regu-
larity and order which belong both to the earthy depo-
sits and to the organic remains imbedded in them. But,
with all the deficiencies and errors Avhich appear in this
part of the work, Mr. Turner has sufficiently conceded
the position, that, in any fair interpretation of the com-
mencing portion of Genesis, "the Sacred Historian gives
the largest latitude for the investigations and deductions
of geological science." "What interval occurred
between the first creation of the material substance of
our globe, and the mandate for light to descend upon it,
whether months, years, or ages, is not in the slightest de-
gree noticed. Geology may shorten or extend its dura-
tion, as it may find proper. There is no restriction on
16*
186 EIBLICUS DELVINUS.
this part of the subject. In this portion of time or eter-
nity, we may place the formation of our elementary mat-
ter ; the composition and arrangement of the vast central
and interior contents, whatever they may be 5 and the
construction, circumambiency, and consolidation of all
the primordial rocks ; and indeed the production of all
things to which light was not essentially necessary."*
If this be admitted, the chief point is secured ; and we
may indulge the hope that more ample examination, and
its results in more accurate knowledge, will show to this
respectable writer the perfect untenableness of the theo-
ries which he has advanced on the formation of strata
and the character of imbedded remains. I may be al-
lowed also to add, that the beautiful sentence of the arch-
aic record, — "Be light, and light was," — upon which Mr.
Turner expatiates with just feeling, will be perceived by
no means to signify a first creation of light, or a first pro-
duction of the conditions of which it may be an effect ;
but is perfectly reconcilable with the belief that the phe-
nomena of light had existed long before, and that the in-
stance under consideration declares only a new develop-
ment and application of it.
A book has been lately published by some one who
honours himself with the appellation of "Biblicus Delvi-
nus ;" entitled, " Facts, Suggestions, and Brief Inductions
in Geology." The apparent rapidity of composition, the
unscrupulous facility of assertion, and the tone of self-
complacency, which distinguish the book, would appear
ludicrous ; were it not that our minds are wounded and
mortified by the reflection, that errors so egregious and
reasonings so inconsequent as are found here, united
with professions of pious reverence for the Bible, are not
unlikely to work great mischief. That mischief may be
* Sacred History of the World ; Vol. I. pp. 490, 491.
Y0UXG. 187
immediate, by misleading the honest but uninformed ;
and remote, by producing a revulsion, to the injury of
faith in the Scriptures, when those persons may come
hereafter to be better informed. Indeed, I may express
the belief that this is a common character of certain books
and papers, which seem to be mutual copyists, in the
qualities of blind and obstinate blundering, and vehement
censuring of others who take some pains to understand
before they write and publish ; while these easy writers
allow themselves no narrow indulgence in the formation
of purely ideal and often very ignorant theories, by which
they fancy that they can account for every thing.*
A gentleman entitled to our high regard as a Christian
minister and a cultivator of natural science, Dr. George
Young of Whitby, has recently published a small work
with the title, " Scriptural Geology." He possesses the
advantage of having resided many years in a most inter-
esting district for this branch of study ; and he has
* There have been in the Christian Observer for 1832, 1834, 1839, and
at other times, many valuable remarks of the Editor and communications
from his correspondents, upon the studies of Geology. Many of those
papers might be particularized as preeminently valuable : but to attempt
such a discrimination would be digressing too far, in this incidental notice.
I may, however, recommend con amore the poetical jeu d esprit, "The
Fossil Shell," by the Rev. Samuel Charles Wilks ; in the vol. for 1834,
page 219. From an article published since these lectures were delivered,
Ffeel happy in taking a citation. "The anti-geologists taunt the geolo-
gists with their diversities of opinion, but keep back that no two of them-
selves agree : whereas the geologists, amidst all their controversies, are
unanimous, as to the main points which their opponents represent as heret-
ical ; namely, [1,] the impossibility of condensing the actual phenomena
of the fossil strata into the space of six thousand, or many times six
thousand years ; or [2,] of admitting, with due regard to the voice of truth,
that the death of animals is not to be traced to a much more remote pe-
riod. A man only betrays his own ignorance or incapacity, who affects
to sneer at modern physical science." — A letter signed Fides ; Christ. Obs.
for July, 1839, p. 404. In the same work for the month of August, p. 473,
is a just and gentlemanly castigation of Biblicus Delvinus.
188 RHIND.
acquired, what long observation and practice only can
give, an extensive acquaintance with mineralogical struc-
ture and organic remains in some of the northern coun-
ties, both on the eastern coast and in the upland. In
former works of greater magnitude, he has furnished
valuable materials to the antiquary and to the geologist.*
The design of this recent treatise is to maintain the pro-
duction of the earth, at least as a place of habitation for
living creatures, to have been coeval with the creation of
man, that the materials of all the strata were collected
during the period from that epoch to the deluge, that the
deposition of those materials and the formation of all the
strata took place about the same era, that this was effect-
ed by the waters of the deluge, and that all the organic
remains are those of vegetable and animal beings which
lived in the antediluvian period.
It is with reluctance and pain that I say any thing in
disparagement of a writing by so good a man : but I am
sure that he is far from wishing that any person should
sacrifice conviction to respect and friendship. To me, I
must confess, it appears that he often errs in stating the
opinions of other persons ; that his arguments upon the
disputed points are quite insufficient to bear their conclu-
sions; that he commits the great fault of drawing univer-
sal inferences from particular facts and occasional circum-
stances, without any sufficiently comprehensive induction j
and that, if we were to rest upon the statements by him
made and the doctrines which he draws from them, our
knowledge of premises would be essentially defective,
and our conclusions from them very far from the truth. f
Mr. Rhind of Edinburgh is a writer respectably known
by a brief treatise entitled " The Elements of Geology,"
* In his History of Whitby and the Vicinity ; 2 vols. 8vo, 1817 ; and
his Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast ; 4to, 1828.
t See Supplementary Note, D,
RHIND.
189
and by other works on natural science. The last year,
he published "The Age of the Earth, considered Geolo-
gically and Historically." He understands his subject far
more than some of whom we have been obliged to speak,
and discusses it with calmness and candour. He lays
down facts, too briefly and generally indeed, and not
always, I fear, accurately, but with the nature and rela-
tions of which he is acquainted ; and he is far from being
dogmatical in his manner. Yet I must own that, to my
apprehension, he seems to be labouring under the disad-
vantages of an inquirer whose mind is filled beforehand
with the idea that he absolutely must establish a previous-
ly dictated doctrine. I cannot with full satisfaction
accord to him the praise of impartiality. He brings for-
ward facts and phenomena that may be made to look
favourably upon the views which he is anxious to confirm ;
and touches very lightly or entirely passes over others
which are necessary to a more complete view of the evi-
dence.* His mind is imbued with the idea, that the
voice of the Eternal and Omniscient Being, speaking by
the instrumentality of his inspired servants, has clearly
fixed a limit to physical research, and has positively
revealed the commencement of universal creation to have
been nearly coincident with that of the human race. He
affirms, that " the most obvious and general impression
of these revelations on the human mind, cannot be mista-
ken or controverted ;" [as being to this effect,] " that
the world was created, and furnished with plants and ani-
mals, for the express habitation of man, within a definite
* As many of Mr. Rhind's arguments are drawn from the geological
structure of the country round Edinburgh, considerable advantage would
be derived by a careful student from the far more comprehensive and ex-
act descriptions of the same region, by Mr. Maclaren, in his Sketch of the
Geology of Fife and the Lothians ; 1839. The results of his investiga-
tions, as applied to the time elapsed since the deposition of even the car-
boniferous strata, are in striking contrast to Mr. Rhind's opinions.
190 ANNIHILATION DENIED.
period ; that, after a time it suffered a partial destruction
and change by some great catastrophe ; and that, ulti-
mately, it will be totally destroyed, after it has ceased to
be needed as the theatre of moral probation for the hu-
man race." (Page 115.) Of these three positions, the first
is the question under our actual consideration : and the
middle one is expressed in terms not discrepant from the
views concerning the Deluge which are supported in
these lectures. With respect to the third, I cannot but
feel astonishment, that any serious and intelligent man
should have his mind fettered with the common, I might
call it the vulgar, notion of a proper destruction of the
earth ; and some seem to extend the notion to the whole
solar system, and even the entire material universe \ ap-
plying the idea of an extinction of being, a reducing to
nothingness. This notion has indeed been often used to
aid impassioned description in sermons and poetry ; and
thus it has gained so strong a hold upon the feelings of
many pious persons that they have made it an article of
their faith. But, I confess myself unable to find any evi-
dence for it, in nature, reason, or Scripture. We can
discover nothing like destruction in the matter of the
universe as subjected to our senses. Masses are disinte-
grated, forms are changed, compounds are decomposed ;
but not an atom is annihilated. Neither have we the
shadow of reason to assert that mind, the seat of intelli-
gence, ever was or ever will be, in a single instance, de-
stroyed. Should any man ask me, What I presume to
think concerning the principle of intelligence in the infe-
rior animals 1 What becomes of it, when they die %
Does the soul of an elephant or of a sparrow, of a bee,
of an ant, or an animalculum, retain its consciousness
after death 1 Or, into what state does it pass % Or, does
it absolutely cease to exist 1 — I reply, that I pretend not
to know, nor do I presume to conjecture ; that an impene-
ANNIHILATION DENIED. 191
trable veil prevents our obtaining this knowledge ; but
yet that, if there be mind, I can find no ground for be-
lieving in its. annihilation. The great naturalist of Gene-
va, Charles Bonnet, distinguished also by his piety as a
Christian, maintained the reality of a future life for all
sentient natures. No man who thinks seriously upon the
infinite perfections of God, can imagine that difficulty
can lie in his path, whether of purpose or of action ; or
that there is not space in the universe to contain such
assemblages of beings, and to furnish them with the full-
est scope for useful and happy existence. If an expres-
sion in one of the Psalms be held to imply the annihilation
of inferior animals, such interpretation will carry with it
also that the souls of wicked men are annihilated : " Man
that is in honour and abideth not, is like the brutes that
perish." — Where our Maker has not given us the means
of knowledge, our duty is to be humbly and thankfully
ignorant.* The declaration in Scripture, that "the hea-
vens and the earth shall flee away, and no more place be
found for them," is undoubtedly figurative, and denotes
the most momentous changes in the scenes of the divine
government. If it be the purpose of God that the earth
shall be subjected to a total conflagration, we perfectly
well know that the instruments of such an event lie close
at hand, and wait only the divine volition to burst out in
* Quaernnt arguti sedparum sobrii homines, an immortale futurum sit
omne animalium genus. His speculationibus si fraenum laxetur, quorsum
tandem nos abripient 1 Hac ergo simplici doctrina contend simus, tale
fore temperamentum et tarn concinnum ordinem, ut nihil sit vel deforme
vel fluxum appareat. " Some persons more curious than wise, ask whe-
ther the inferior animal creation will be endowed with immortality in the
future state. If we give unlimited indulgence to such speculations, to
what lengths will they hurry us 1 Let us be satisfied with the plain doc-
trine, that the adjustment and disposition of the universe will be so beau-
tifully adapted as to leave no room for disorder or decay." Calvin, on
Rom. viii. 21.
192 ANNIHILATION DENIED.
a moment. But that would not be a destruction : it would
be a mere change of form, and, no doubt, would be sub-
servient to the most glorious results. "We, according
to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth ;
wherein dwelleth righteousness."* Upon the whole, Mr.
* 2 Pet. iii. 7, 10. Many critics and expositors, probably the majority,
understand this passage of a literal conflagration of our planet, to take
place immediately after the universal resurrection and the final judgment.
But it would be wrong to withhold the observation, that some of the most
eminent Bible-scholars have entertained a different opinion : in particular,
John Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester in the time of Charles I., a man ne-
ver to be thought of without affection for his learning, magnanimous hu-
mility, piety, and sufferings as a conscientious royalist ; (Fascicul. Con-
trov. Theol cap. vii.) Dr. Lightfoot ; ^Works, ed. 1684, vol. II. pp. 626,
1073—6.) Dr. John Owen; (QcoXoyovixtva, ed. Bremen. 1684, p. 147.)
I will attempt a summary of Owen's disquisition. " The apostle treats
upon three worlds, or states of the world ; the ancient one, which had
perished by water; the one then present, which was to be consumed by
fire; and a third, the new heavens and earth, the abode of righteousness.
He is not referring to the visible heaven or earth, considered with respect
to its substance. For the destruction of the ancient world by water did
not take away the material frame of the heavens and the terrene globe.
The term world is used to signify the human inhabitants of the world.
They were extirpated by the flood ; and another world of men was to be
established., for maintaining true religion and the right worship of God.
Of this xcorld he laid the foundations in the family of Noah ; and its fabric
was completed by the erection of the Church of Israel. That was the
world whose immediately impending dissolution by fire St. Peter here
predicts ; but we must observe that he uses the prophetic style" [of em-
blematical imagery;] " corresponding with Isa. Ji 15, 16;" [Ixv. 15, 17,
18; lxvi. 14 — 16.] " When God divided the sea and brought his people out
of Egypt, he intrusted them with his law and the solemn institutions of
his worship, and formed them into a Church for himself: that was estab-
lishing and completing this new world, the heaven and the earth. But, when
Peter wrote, this world, the Jewish Church, had become apostate, and
was hastening to the destruction of fire ; just as the ancient world plung-
ed itself into the destruction of the deluge. By the burning of the temple
and city of Jerusalem, the frame of that world was dissolved. The
apostle directs believers to another world, as a matter of expectation to be
looked for ; because h awrCXeia rov ai&vos [the completion of the period,
Matt, xxviii. 20,] was not yet accomplished ; and which would be new
WISEMAN. 193
Rhind's chief intention appears to be the moderate and
pious one of promoting the due reverence to divine au-
thority, a modest sense of our ignorance, and a cautious
abstinence from lofty positiveness. His candid admission
does him honour. " It is true, even the Mosaical record
does not definitely settle this question. May we not be
permitted to think — that the period for forming a true
theory of the earth, has not arrived, and may never come;
that we must content ourselves in this, as in most other
cases of human inquiry, with an investigation of facts
and phenomena, without diving into causes which are to
us inscrutable 1" (Pp. 114, 111.) Thus he concedes what
nullifies the purpose and the title of the whole book.
Three years ago, Dr. Nicholas Wiseman, Principal of
the English (of course Roman Catholic) College in Rome,
published a work eminently valuable, " Twelve Lectures
on the Connexion between Science and Revealed Reli-
gion." The course advantageously comprehends Philol-
ogy, Civil History, Antiquities, and some branches of Nat-
ural Science. The view which he gives of Geology, he
professes to be historical rather than scientific,* but it is
very able, candid, and judicious ; and in a mild but effec-
tive manner, he vindicates Geology and many modern ge-
ologists from the opprobrium which some have endea-
voured to throw upon them ; he convicts those accusers
heavens and a neic earth, according to the promise of God. That promise
is in Isa. Ixv. 17; lxvi. 22; in which passages the prophet draws as it
were a picture of the coming of the Messiah. The state of the Church,
after the conflagration of the second world, was called the age or xcorldto
come: Heb. ii. 5; vi. 5. Thus, the first or ancient world, was that which
perished by the deluge; the second, was the actually present, which the
apostle declares was about to perish by fire ; and the third, the world to
come, is declared to be that which shall endure to the end of time."
* "I am not guided by a personal predeliction for any system. I have
no claim to be called a geologist. I have studied the science more in its
history than in its practical principles." Vol. I. p. 299.
17
194 WISEMAN,
(some of whom we have had occasion to refer to) of in-
consistency and vicious reasoning; he shows that the
time implied between the first action declared in the
Book of Genesis and the ensuing facts is left undecided
and indefinite ; he expresses himself very favourably to
the doctrine of the central heat j he has just views of the
difference and disposition of strata and the characters of
the imbedded vegetable and animal remains ; and, though
he maintains the universality of the deluge of Noah, he
considers its effects and vestiges as merely superficial,
and that it is utterly absurd to ascribe to it the formation
of strata. Throughout this part of his interesting vol-
umes, he proves how vain are the fears of those who ap-
prehend injury to religion from geological discoveries, he
exposes the false reasonings of infidel pretenders, and he
manifests the consistency of those very positions which
have been vehemently condemned, upon the antiquity and
mutations of the earth, with the testimony of the sacred
writings. The impartiality, good temper, and equity of
this Romish priest ought to put to shame some Protes-
tant animadverters.
A pleasing exception therefore is made by these vol-
umes of Principal Wiseman, to the larger part of books
like those upon which I have thought myself called to
animadvert. Of them it may be said that, however dis-
similar in some respects, they agree in certain charac-
ters : such are, the laying down of facts or statements in
a partial manner, thus producing defective and often
widely erroneous impressions ; the keeping out of sight
other facts which would be adverse to their hypotheses,
probably from not being themselves acquainted with those
facts ; a frequent forgetfulness of equity in stating and
describing the objects under consideration ; their being
either insensible to the difficulties which belong to their
own schemes, or not feeling any obligation to remove
LYELL. 195
those difficulties ; in short, their carrying on their argu-
ments in the way which, in another department of human
talent, bears the name of special pleading.
Striking is the contrast which this method of reason-
ing and writing bears to the character of a work which I
do not say is unexceptionable, but which, for complete-
ness and accuracy, for fairness of statement and perspi-
cuity of exposition, for force of reasoning and felicity of
suggestion, stands forth among the books of our day, very
signally distinguished ; but which has been made an ob-
ject of censure and suspicion, by some who have never
carefully studied it, and of serious regret by most intelli-
gent and candid geologists; — Mr. Lyell's Principles of
Geology. We cannot but lament that he takes so slight
a notice of the bearings of his subject upon the ancient
records of revelation ; using loose and general expres-
sions when precise distinctions were called for, and thus
laying himself open to painful imputations. The hope
had been cherished that, in the editions after the first, he
would have obviated serious objections which had been
advanced in a spirit so candid and kind as to have pos-
sessed a just claim upon his respect.* This however he
has not done. It therefore remains for the readers of his
♦ In particular, some remarks upon a passage in his Fifth Chapter,
published in the Christian Observer, April 1834 ; p. 200. — It is with no
captious spirit, but with sincere respect and solicitude, that I would ask
this eminently gifted man, why, in his beautiful chapter (the viiith o
Book III.) on the Introduction, Extinction, and Vicissitudes of Species,
he has so dexterously escaped from any mention of the Almighty Crea-
tor? He has not said indeed, or implied, that a new species has ever,
in the world's history, come into being without God as its cause; but it
is painful to see the semblance of reserve on so eoul-stirring a theme.
He speaks of "admiration— strongly excited, when we contemplate th e
powers of insect-life, in the creation of which nature has been so prodi -
gal." — Nature?— Creation?— O, why did not his heart grow warm with-
in him, and bound with joy, at the opportunity of doing some homage to
the God of glorious majesty?
196 LYELL.
indispensable volumes, to make such explanations and
corrections for themselves. It is not, I trust, in me an
unbecoming hope, that these lectures may furnish, in
some degree, the means of so doing. Yet a work which
the Council of the Royal Society, two years ago, hon-
oured by the adjudication of the Royal Medal, a work of
which Sir John Herschel says, " I now read it for the third
time, and every time with increased interest," a work
whose luminous and lively diction makes even so inter-
esting a subject more attractive, — cannot have its merits
exploded by a few though serious faults, and from which
it is a pleasing and reasonable hope that it will be expur-
gated. If I may venture on the expression of my own
opinion, it is, that the day is not distant when the
chief points of difficulty will be satisfactorily cleared up ;
and that, in particular, the great question between catas-
trophes and uniformity of action, brought to comparison
upon a scale of appropriate amplitude, will be found to
shade off into a fair coalescence. All will fall under the
universal principle that, through a series of dependent
agencies, extensive and complicated beyond our mental
grasp, God " worketh all things, according to the counsel
of his own will." Professor Sedgwick, while he did not
spare the language of frank and strong criticism, uttered
the impressions of his honourable mind with impartiality
as noble as it was splendid in eloquence. Speaking of
Mr. LyelPs first volume in the first edition, he said,
" Nineteen twentieths of his (Mr. LyelPs) work remain
untouched by these remarks. His excellent and original
historic narrative, his dignified philosophic views and
clear descriptions, his admirable account of the effects
brought about by the great causes, whether aqueous or
igneous, now acting on the crust of the globe, contribute
to make his volume in the highest degree both popular
and instructive : and I cannot but express a wish that, in
GEOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES. 197
the future editions of his work, the system of Geological
Dynamics may be stripped of even the semblance of hypo-
thetical assumption.''*
It would be desirable here to give a sketch of the rea-
sons which we have for believing in the high antiquity of
the earth : but the length of this lecture and the demands
of the subsequent ones render such an attempt impracti-
cable.! Instead of it, my kind and patient auditors will
allow me to conclude by reading a passage, from a paper
by an unknown writer, in the Christian Observer for the
present month.
" In regard to difficulties, the popular interpretation labours under
heavier ones than that of the scriptural geologist; but I fear that
such argumenta ad hominem are of very little service; for there is a
class of minds upon which inductive science makes no impression
Argue with a person of this order of intellect, (he may be a good
linguist, a critic, an historian, a man versed in polite literature,) upon
the known incontrovertible facts of Geology; he cannot deny them ;
but when you press the conclusion, you perceive that his mind has
not really grappled with them. He replies, ' How do we know that
it was not a miracle V or, ' How do we know that things were then
as they are now V or, ' I will believe God rather than man ;' or,
' We know nothing at all about the matter;' or something equally
vague, and to which of course no reply can be given. But the most
common resource is, ' The Deluge did it all.* This reply exhibits
either complete ignorance of the facts, or a rejection of the inevita-
ble conclusions which they suggest. No epitome of those facts
would do justice to them ; for they would require at least a hundred
pages of minute detail; and yet, without having even glanced over
the outlines, some persons are not ashamed to say, ' It was the De-
luge ;' or, ' It was a miracle;' and they persuade themselves they do
God service by this sort of obtund argument. Geologists have care-
fully examined some ten miles' thickness of solid fossiliferous strata
to the number of hundreds, which they are able to do by means of
their slanting position, where the edges crop up. These strata are
not homogeneous ; but consist of successive layers differing widely
in their character and contents. They are divided into groups ; they
* Address to the Geol. Soc Feb. 13, 1S31 ; on retiring from the Presi-
dent's chair,
t To meet this object, a Supplementary Note, E, is added to this volume
17*
198 DIFFICULTIES RETORTED.
are not jumbled confusedly — fresh water productions with salt, land
animals with fishes, present with extinct genera or species: but they
lie as methodically as the shelves of specimens in a cabinet, being to
all appearance successive sedimentary depositions gradually accumu-
lated through a period of very long duration ; the footsteps of ani-
mals on the once soft moist sand (now hard rock), and the ripple
marks of water, being in many cases still visible, and the most deli-
cate and brittle species of shells being unfractured. At the bottom
are numerous strata of slate, shell, limestone, and sandstone, con-
taining vegetable and animal sea-water remains now wholly un-
known. Over these come sand and clay, interlaid with vast forests of
coal, and other land and fresh water productions. Then come lime-
stone, and sandstone, and clay; all containing organic remains quite
distinct from those of the former groups. Then come the upper fos-
siliferous rocks ; in which, for the first time, appear land animals;
but even these quite distinct from those that now inhabit the world.
These ten miles of strata upon strata bear marks of successive
changes in the crust of the earth, both by dislocation and gradual
accretion, every particle of clay or sand, for example, being so much
pulverized rock ; and the vast masses of fossiliferous stone, often
composed almost entirely of shells, having every appearance of
being the sediment at the bottom of oceans for very lengthened peri-
ods ; how long no man can calculate ; but this we know, not through
eternal ages, for the very first announcement of Holy Writ is, that
God created all things; they were therefore not self-derived or eter-
nal. But to pretend that there is any proof in Holy Writ, that God
created them about six thousand years ago, and that to doubt this is
infidelity, is to foist the received interpretation in the place of the
inspired word, as well as to deal very harshly by our Christian neigh-
bour who thinks otherwise. The geologist only asks a hearing ; but
he is not heard; he is taunted, declaimed against, and silenced;
whilst the infidel stands by and admires the proceedings of the Pro-
testant inquisition, as often as a new Galileo demonstrates a truth
which accords not with some received interpretation. ' Let God be
true, and every man a liar;' but we are not to lie for God, or, what
comes nearly to the same, to refuse to open our eyes to truth, because
we are apprehensive, as the Roman Catholics are in regard to tran-
substantiation, that our senses and our faith will contradict each other.
We may feel quite easy on that score ; for the more we know of
God's works, the more clearly shall we see their accordance with his
word ; though not, it may be, with some popular comments on it."*
* Baconianus Christianus ; in the Christian Observer, March 1839 ;
p. 147.
LECTURE VII.
Psalm xii. 6. The words of the Lord are pure words ; as
silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
The connexion of this passage shows that, by " the
words of the Lord " here mentioned, we are to under-
stand his promises of mercy and protection to his faithful
servants, when they are exposed to sufferings from the
treachery of false-hearted men, and when their hopes of
aid from their friends are diminished by the death or op-
pression of the " godly" and " faithful." In opposition
to the flatteries and deceitful actions of an unprincipled
party, the author of this psalm exults in the fidelity of
God, and the assurance that the fullest reliance might be
placed on every authenticated declaration of the divine
will. This is illustrated by the metaphor of metallic purity.
Silver and gold occur native, in the proper metallic
state ; yet, even in that case, they cannot be got free from
the stony substances which enclose or penetrate them,
without the art of the refiner : but, when the processes of
the hammer, the crucible, and the furnace have been duly
performed, the precious metal is obtained in a state of
high purity, and fit for completely answering every pur-
pose in the arts of life, for which it is adapted.
That which is thus declared concerning the " exceed-
ing great and precious promises" of divine grace, is
equally true of every other part of what God has been
pleased to reveal, for the purposes of his wisdom and be-
nevolence to mankind ; " for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, and for instruction in righteousness." The
most scrupulous student of the Bible will not accuse me
of making an arbitrary application of Scripture, because
200
CERTAINTY OF SCRIPTURE.
from this particular instance, upon the principle of evident
analogy, I deduce a universal truth. That truth is, that
every declaration contained in the writings of the pro-
phets and apostles, which has a respect to the faith, the obe-
dience, the consolation, and the usefulness of believers ;
and when understood in the sense intended by the Author
of inspiration ; possesses the purity of the best refined
silver, the infallibility of unmixed truth. The senti-
ment in this enlarged form is given by the son of the
writer of this psalm ; " Every word of God is pure; He
is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add
thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou
be found a liar."* Every serious mind will perceive how
solemnly this caution bears upon our proceeding, in the
endeavour to elicit the sense of the Scriptures. It not
less clearly follows, that one of our first duties is to as-
certain, by those means which God has put into our pos-
session, the genuine meaning of the divine oracles, with-
out prepossession in favour of some interpretations, or
prejudice against others. Our honest question must be,
" What saith the Lord 1"
It is not, I trust, in disregard of this caution, that I
avail myself of the analogy suggested by our text, as an
instructive direction, not of fancy, but arising justly and
naturally out of the imagery employed. The use of silver,
though it is often found native in metalliferous veins,
would be confined within narrow limits, if mankind could
employ only the native metal. The quantity obtained,
and the capacity of even the best specimens for being ap-
plied to the many valuable purposes for which the provi-
dence of God has given us that metal, would be very
small, were it not for the skill and laborious diligence of
the metallurgic workman. So the treasures of the heav-
* Prov. xxx. 5, 6.
THE SENSE TO BE ASCERTAINED BY PROPER MEANS. 201
enly word, " more to be desired than gold, yea, than
much fine gold," require that we should exert our best
faculties, in digging out of the mine, (if I may carry on
the metaphor,) and in separating the actual substance of
divine communication from that which is necessarily
human, the forms of language, and the condescending
methods of comparison with the affections and actions of
men, by which God is pleased to bring spiritual and di-
vine realities within the sphere of our narrow comprehen-
sion. The matter is divine, but the vehicle is human.
" We have this treasure in earthen vessels." Pursuing
this train of thought, we arrive at some important princi-
ples for Theology and the study of the Scriptures.
I. Of the nature and attributes of the Infinite Spirit,
of his purposes and his acts, which cannot but have the
characters of his own perfection, we have no intuitive
knowledge : and we have no possible means of receiving
knowledge, though communicated from its own Divine
Fountain, except through the medium of resemblances to
objects of our own thought, or of sensible perception by
our own organs. " Behold, God is great ; and we know
him not !" Of the Divine Nature as Infinite Intellect,
Pure Mind, we can form no conception but by reflecting
upon, and drawing conclusions from our own conscious-
ness, and the operations of our own minds. In like man-
ner, we gain our knowledge of the Eternity of God, by
adding the notion of infinity to our perception of the
flow of time. By our touch and our sight, we get the
ideas of motion, resistance, and impulse \ and, by reflect-
ing on the lesson thus taught, we rise to the notion of
effects and causes. We look and feel around, we lay
hold of bodies extraneous to ourselves, and we discover
certain states and alterations of states following upon
certain conditions of tangible and visible things ; we then
rise to a wider survey of the sensible world around us,
202 OUR KNOWLEDGE FOUNDED ON ANALOGY.
and we see a vast number of changes taking place, upon
a scale of great magnitude ; and at last, our feeble minds
having acquired the idea, of power, we transfer it, with the
highest increase of form, to our conception of the Infinite
and Eternal Deity : and we call our new idea Omnipotence.
In a similar way, we form conceptions of justice and
kindness, from the action of parental and infantile feelings,
and from the mental phenomena which we experience in-
wardly and the actions of our fellow-beings observed out-
wardly : to these conceptions we also annex the qualities
of infinity and eternity, and thus we gain some notion of
the moral attributes of the Supreme Majesty, his Holiness
and his Benignity. But, how faint, how low are our best
conceptions ! " Lo, these are parts of his ways : and
what whisper-word is heard of him ! — The Almighty !
We find him not !"*
I humbly think that these positions are self-evident to
every reflecting person. Equally manifest it is, that the
highest order of created intelligences, though they may
be immeasurably superior to man, in their faculties of un-
derstanding, can know God in only the same way ; by
elevating their minds through aids of analogy : unless
the Transcendent One, in his boundless goodness, have
reserved for them some mode of immediate communica-
tion ; but to conceive which must necessarily be beyond
our powers.
From this general statement, some important conse-
quences follow.
1. All the methods of representation, that may be em-
ployed to convey notions of the Deity to the mind of
* Job xxvi. 14. The word rendered parts signifies the extremities of
lines, mere points : but I know not of any good English word which I
could venture to substitute. The whisper-word is the barest literal ren-
dering; and it is too beautiful to be lost, as in the common version.
Chap, xxxvii. 23, also closely rendered.
ANALOGIES VARIOUS. 203
man, must, of absolute necessity, be designed to produce
only analogical or comparative ideas ; and must be
adapted to that end. If we may so speak, they are pic-
tures, which stand in the place of spiritual realities ; but
the realities themselves belong to the inaccessible light.
2. The materials of such comparison must be differ-
ent, according to the varying states of mental improve-
ment in which different minds are found. Let it, for a
moment, be supposed that it had pleased the Divine Ma-
jesty to grant an immediate revelation of his authority
and his grace to the Athenians, in the age of Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle, and for their use ; we may reveren-
tially believe that, in such a case, the communication
would have been expressed in the terms and phrases to
which they had habituated themselves, and moulded upon
a system of references to the natural scenery around
them, to their modes of action in social life, and to their
current notions upon all other subjects. Not only would
the diction have been pure Greek, but the figures, the al-
lusions, and the illustrations of whatever kind, would also
have been Attic. The Hebraized style which was adapted
to the people of Israel, would have failed to convey just
sentiments to the men of Greece ; for, though it would
not have been absolutely unintelligible, the collateral
ideas would have been misapprehended, false bye-notions
would have insinuated themselves, and the principal sen-
timents, to inculcate which was the object of the whole
process, would have been grievously distorted. Or, had
the favour of a positive revelation been given to the an-
cient Britons, or to the aborigines of America, it would
have been clothed in another dress of representative im-
agery, and described in other and very different forms of
speech.
Yet, in any such case, and under every variety that
could occur, the enucleating of the representations, if it
204 EARLY REVELATIONS.
were fairly accomplished, would bring out the same truths :
and the practical benefit of piety and virtue, resulting
from each mode, for the classes of mankind to which
each was adapted, would be the same, if improved with
equal fidelity.
3. The earliest revelations which God was pleased to
grant to man, whether in the state of pristine integrity,
or in that into which by transgression he fell, must have
been conveyed by representations of the character which
we have described ; they must have been composed of
materials derived from the knowledge possessed by the
subjects of those revelations, and the relations under
which they stood to beings and circumstances around
them.
This position is only the correlate of saying that the
revelation must have been given and transmitted in the
language spoken or written by those to whom the mes-
sage of God came : or, to say all in one word, it must
have been intelligible, If any objection be raised against
the supposition, that, by this showing, the revelation
would be clothed in the imagery of gross and sensible
objects, with the imperfections and misconceptions, under
which those objects appeared to men possessing only the
rude ideas of a primeval state of society ; a corresponding
objection would lie against the revelation's being con-
veyed in a rude and imperfect language. Then, to be
consistent, it would be requisite further to maintain, that
the terms and style of the revelation must have been in
the most pure and abstract kind of phrase that human
diction could afford, the most nearly approaching to the
spirituality of the Divine Nature, and the majesty of eter-
nal things : and this would be equivalent to saying, that
it ought to have anticipated by many centuries the pro-
gress of man as an intellectual and social being ; that it
ought to have been written, not in the language of shep-
FIRST HUMAN BEINGS. 205
herds and herdsmen, but in that of moral philosophers
and rhetoricians ; not in Hebrew, but in Greek or Eng-
lish.
It would plainly also follow that, if the prescription,
as to the forms of thought and diction, which such pre-
sumptions demand as befitting a revelation from heaven,
were admitted, a revelation so expressed would have been
unintelligible, to "the ages and generations" of primitive
time, and to the generality of mankind in all times.
II. We are thus led to another observation, which will
bring us to the principle proposed as the solution of the
Biblical question, with relation not to Geology only, but
to human science universally. It is this.
The revelations, successively given to the fathers of
mankind, to the ancestors of the Israelitish nation, and to
particular persons of that nation, u at sundry times and in
divers manners," were conveyed in representations to the
senses, chiefly that of sight, and in words descriptive of
those representations.
To the slightest rational consideration, it must be ev-
ident that the first human pair were created in the perfec-
tion of their bodily organs and mental powers ; and that
they were immediately endowed by their Creator with a
full use of their organs and faculties, and with a compe-
tent measure of the habits thence resulting : that use and
those habits, which all subsequent human beings have had
to acquire, by the slow process of parental training and
imitative acquisition. Had these qualifications not been
thus infused into them, or made instinctive, at the very
commencement of their being, they could not have pre-
served their own lives, nor have rendered to their hea-
venly Sovereign any religious homage. The German
philosopher Fichte gave the decision of reason, when he
asked the question and returned the answer, " Who edu-
cated the first human pair 1 A Spirit took them under his
IS
206 MODES OF REVELATION.
care ; as is laid down in an ancient, venerable, original
document ; which contains the deepest and the sublimest
wisdom, and presents results to which all philosophy must
at last return."* The certainty of such an order of things
nature and reason declare : the actual reality of it we
learn from the word of revelation.
" God created man in his own image ;" and the Chris-
tian Scriptures show us in what that image consisted;
" in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness." That
knowledge must have been sufficient for all the purposes
of a pure and happy existence, and as the principle of a
progressive development which would undoubtedly have
been most glorious, had man abode in his pristine honour.
The Deity was pleased to manifest himself to the newly
formed and favoured creatures, in ways of the most con-
descending goodness and wisdom ; assuming probably a
splendid human form, and communing with them, in ways
and to an extent of the most wise and benevolent pur-
poses, beyond what we can know. But it is not an unrea-
sonable conjecture, that the archives of the human race
which open the writings of Moses, are fragments of those
communings. The narration of that which took place
before man existed to have witnessed it, could have been
only from a supernal communication. Yet, to suppose
that scientific knowledge was thus imparted, or any know-
* " Wer erzog denn daserste Menschenpaar? Ein Geist nahm sich
ihrer an, wiees eine alte, ehrwiirdigeUrkunde vorstellt, welche liberhaupt
die liefsinnigste, erhabenste Weisheit enthalt, und Resultate aufsteilt, zu
denen alle Philosophie am Ende doch wieder zuriick muss." Quoted by
Dr. Dere'ser of Breslaw, in the translation of the Bible with annotations,
by himself, Brentano, and Scholtz; in 17 vols. Francf. 1820—1833;
vol. I. p. 16. John Gottlieb Fichte, whose writings have exercised a
very powerful influence in Germany, taught that the arrangement of
moral sentiments and relations, that is, the moral order of the universe,
is God; thus denying a personal and intelligent Deity. He died in 1814,
set. 52 ; and there is reason to believe that, several years before his
death, he renounced his atheism.
SPIRITUALITY OF GOD. 207
ledge beyond what was necessary for the present welfare of
the newly created rational beings, their intellectual pro-
gress, and the preservation of their unalloyed but not ex-
panded holiness ; has no ground of probability as a subject
of conjecture, nor the shadow of evidence as a matter of
fact. After the mournful apostacy of man, the condescend-
ing Deity was pleased still to grant manifestations of
himself; for the increase of moral knowledge, the coun-
teraction of growing wickedness, and. the providing of
facts and evidences to be recorded as a basis for ulterior
revelations. In many of those manifestations, the appear-
ance of a human figure is expressly declared : thus sug-
gesting reason to believe that those appearances were in
the person of u the Word, who, in the fulness of the time,
became flesh," that is, assumed the human nature, "and
dwelt among us;" "who is over all, God blessed for
ever."* In this manner, a foundation was laid for the
succession of divine communications, to guide wandering
man into the ways of peace.
In comparison with the glory of the gospel, the "grace
and truth by Jesus Christ," this was a very imperfect pro-
ceeding : but it was a rudiment of the moral system which
was to be the excelling glory of a future age ; and, with
all its imperfection, it was as high and spiritual as the
condition of human nature was able to bear. It was adapted
to a state of intellectual and spiritual infancy ; and from
it was derived that character of the Old Testament revela-
tions, which it is our present object to consider more
closely.
That character consisted in representing God by the
figurative attribution of the human form with its organs
and functions, and the human mind with its affections and
passions.
* John i. 1, 14. Gal. iv. 4. Rom. ix. 5.
208 ANALOGICAL REPRESENTATIONS.
In the majestic language of the Church of England,
"There is but one living and true God ; everlasting, with-
out body, parts, or passions."* And does any man need
to be told that this article is the echo of the clearest
Scripture-testimony, in the Old Testament as well as in
the New 1 " Do not I fill heaven and earth % saith the
Lord. — Whither shall I flee from thy presence 1 — God is
a spirit : — the King eternal, immortal, invisible ; who
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no
man can approach unto ; whom no man hath seen, nor can
see."f
Yet it pleased this BeIng to bring down himself, not to
the comprehension, for that is impossible, but to the ap-
prehensive capacity of untutored men, by representa-
tions drawn from the circumstances of man, and from
other natural objects.
Is it intended to represent the beauty and grandeur of
the Divine Nature 1 — " He covereth himself with light as
with a garment. — His glory covered the heavens : — his
brightness was as the light : — God is light."J
His universal knowledge 1 " The eyes of the Lord
run to and fro, through the whole earth. "§
The application of his omniscience to the exercises of
distributive justice 1 " God looked down from heaven
upon the children of men ; to see if there were any that
did understand, that did seek God. — The Lord said, Be-
cause the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and
because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now,
and see whether they have done altogether according to
* More impressively in the Latin copy of the Articles : ({ incorpo-
reus, impartibilis, impassibilis: "
t Jer. xxiii. 21. Psa. cxxxix. 1—12. John iv. 24. 1 Tim. i. 17; vi.
16.
t Psa. civ. 2. Habak. iii. 3, 4. 1 John j. 5 ?
§ 2 Chron. xiv, 9.
ANALOGICAL REPRESENTATIONS. 209
the cry of it, which is come unto me : and if not, I will
know."*
His unfailing notice and gracious attention to the suf-
ferings of his obedient servants \ "The eyes of the Lord
are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their
cry. — Thou wilt hear me, God ; incline thine ear unto
me, unto my speech."!
His justice upon the wicked and impenitent 1 " When
ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from
you. Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear.
— God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord re-
vengeth and is furious. "J
His compassion and forgiving grace 1 " Is Ephraim
my dear son 1 Is he a pleasant child \ For, since I spake
against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore
my bowels are troubled for him j I will surely have mercy
upon him, saith the Lord."§
His almighty power, and its various exercises'?
li When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers.
— I have made the earth and created man upon it. I, even
my hands, have stretched out the heavens. — This is the
fino-er of God. — Thou didst drive out the heathen with
o
thy hand : — thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light
of thy countenance. "||
In like manner, "the heart of Jehovah" is put to sig-
nify his love and approbation ; his nostrils, mouth, and
breath, his lips and tongue, express his declarations of
mercy to the penitent and retributive justice upon the un-
godly ; his feet and footsteps, designate the proceedings
of his government.^
* Psa. liii. 2. Gen. xviii. 21. t Psa. xxxiv. 15; xvii. 6.
t Isa. 15; Nah. i. 2. § Jer. xxxi. 20.]
I! Psa. viii. 2. Isa. xiv. 12. Exod. viii. 19. Psa. xliv. 3.
IT In numerous places which must be familiar to the dutiful readers
of the Bible.
18*
210 ANALOGICAL REPRESENTATIONS.
By a further application of this method of bringing
down divine things to the grasp of man, the Scriptures,
and most abundantly the earliest books, represent the attri-
butes of Deity and their exercise in the moral govern-
ment of rational creatures, by ascribing to him the sudden
emotions, and the more tranquil yet mutable affections
which, in their literal meaning, can be predicated of only
limited and imperfect beings.
To express the wisdom of God in the adaptation of
creatures, forms, and structural organs, to the purposes
destined ; he is represented in the attitudes of a man who
has invented and constructed a new machine, or who has
made an untried experiment. He watches the working ;
he looks at the result ; he sees the whole to have suc-
ceeded to the fulness of his intention ; and he sits down
contented and happy, to repose after his labour. " God
saw" (the word has an extensive meaning, and denotes to
look at an object with strong feeling,) " every thing that
he had made ; and behold, it was very good." — " 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 had made ; and he rested, on the seventh day,
from all his work which he had made."*
It deserves observation, that a similar train of ideas
occurs in the passage which, with the same kind of graphic
simplicity, presents Moses, upon his having completed the
construction and utensils of the tabernacle, as revising
the whole work, finding it correctly done, sitting down
satisfied, and invoking the blessing which only God could
confer. f
The disobedience and ingratitude of mankind to their
heavenly Maker and Benefactor, and his abhorrence of
every thing wicked, in principle and in act ; are expressed
* Gen. i. 31— ii. 3. t Exod. xxxix. 42, 43.
ANALOGICAL REPRESENTATIONS. 211
by the image of a man who sees a valuable work spoiled,
a favourite measure frustrated, his intentions thwarted,
and his hopes turned to the reverse of just expectation :
he therefore bitterly regrets that he had ever formed such
a purpose, and undergone the labour of executing it.
" God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth j and that every imagination of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually : and it repented the Lord
that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at
his heart. "'* In another remarkable passage, this im-
agery is carried still further, and the Blessed and Glori-
ous Being, " with whom is no variableness nor shadow of
turning," is depicted as changing his mind a second time.
" The Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people ;
and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore
let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them,
and that I may consume them : and I will make of thee
a great nation. And Moses besought the Lord his God,
and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy
people 1 " He then uses pleas and arguments to urge
his petition, — " Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent
of this evil against thy people. And the Lord repented
of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. "f
One instance more only shall be mentioned. After
the awful visitation of the deluge, when Noah with his
small household came from their ark of safety and saw
themselves the sole survivors of the human race, he pre-
sented the adoration of gratitude and prayer to his Al-
mighty Preserver : and this, according to what we think
there is evidence to regard as a divine institution, was
accompanied by a full offering of sacrifices, in which sin
was acknowledged, repentance professed, and the great
propitiation anticipated. The God of mercy deigned to
* Gen. vi. 5, 6. t Exod. xxxii. 9—14.
212 UTILITY OF ANALOGIES.
give some sign of assurance, that the act of devotion was
accepted; and that the stream of his goodness should
now flow uninterruptedly to man, notwithstanding the
aboundings of sin which would anew take place. The
entire transaction must have been of the most impressive
character to the favoured family ; and to us and all men,
it is full of instruction. Yet observe the childlike sim-
plicity and the boldly figurative language in which it is
related. " Noah builded an altar unto the Lord ; and took
of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and offered
burnt-offerings upon the altar. And the Lord smelled a
sweet odour ; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not
again curse the ground any more for man's sake ; al-
though the imagination of man's heart is evil from his
youth ; neither will I smite any more every living thing
as I have done."*
Such was the manner in which the earliest Scriptures
depicted to men the perfections and the operations of the
Infinite Being, his dominion and authority, his justice and
his mercy. Was it not most touching and impressive 1
Was it not well adapted to the mental capacities and the
susceptibility of strong affections, which characterized
men in a state of rude simplicity 1 Would a style more
chastised, more coldly correct, more philosophical, more
theological, (if we please so to call it,) have been better
fitted to answer the ends of religious instruction ! —
Better adapted 1 — would it have been adapted at all ? —
Let us elevate its beneficial effect the most that we rea-
sonably can ; still, it would have been cold, unattractive,
and with difficulty comprehended. Try the experiment
upon our peasantry, or even the best educated children
of our own families. The style of a Moral Philosophy
school would arouse no attention, would leave scarcely
* Gen. viii. 20, 21.
DUTY OF CAREFUL STUDY. 213
any impression : the simple imagery of Scripture is
instinct with life, and touches every chord of feel-
ing.
But it not the less plainly follows, that it is our duty
to understand all such passages in modes which shall be
worthy of the dignity of God; and so to interpret them
as to deprive the contemners of revelation of a pretext
for censuring and rejecting it. Possibly some Christian
may say, ' I will not follow this course : I will take the
words of Scripture in their immediate and obvious sense,
and let difficulties alone, persuaded that all is true and
right, however contrary to my understanding.' If this
language proceed from piety, I honour its motive ; but I
cannot regard the course which it takes as wise and good.
If you do indeed resolve to take up the figurative language
of Scripture as if it were literally true, look well to your-
self. Think what consequences you are plunging into ;
what conceptions of the Infinite Majesty you are cherish-
ing in your mind and propagating around you ; what
effects they are likely to have upon other persons, — yes,
your own children, especially in the well educated and in-
quiring classes of society; and what vantage-ground you
are surrendering to the impugners of the Bible, thus giv-
ing your aid for undermining the faith of probably the
dearest to you in this world. — Know ye not the universal
rule of language, that the figurative is always to be ex-
plained by the simple ; the obscure by the perspicuous 1
Are ye inattentive to the plain declarations of the sacred
word, upon the spirituality, the omniscience, the unchange-
ableness of the One Living and True God 1 Or, if ye
will not accept of this method of reconciling the appar-
ent discrepance between the two classes of passages, a
method fair and reasonable, and consonant to all the use
of language ; are you provided with any other 1 Are
214 BIBLE DESCRIPTIONS OF
you able, upon any better grounds, to protect the faith of
the gospel, and to disarm its opponents 1*
Nor ought we to forget, in the pride of our philoso-
phy, that our own best conceptions of God, and our most
chastised manners of expression, are likewise formed
upon resemblances and analogies. In this way only can we
have any conceptions of the Infinite One. The difference
between us and the ruder children of nature lies only in
the degree.
III. We have now to consider the manner in which
this characteristic style of the Scriptures speaks of na-
tural phenomena. The field of this kind which it opens
for investigation is very extensive ; but we must content
ourselves with a small number of instances.
1. With regard to the figure of the Earth, its relation
to the heavenly bodies, and its motion or immobility.
So far as I have been able to ascertain, direct inform-
ation does not occur in the Scriptures, upon these sub-
jects. But there are many passages which, in the way of
incidental mention, seem capable of affording us abundant
satisfaction. As this is a topic of much interest in itself,
* The Anthropornorphites of the fourth and fifth centuries furnish an
example of the danger of adhering to the literal understanding of the
passages of the Old Testament which describe the Deity under the analo-
gies of human forms and passions. Upon them, the modern master of
Ecclesiastical History, Dr. Neander, (Prof Theol. Berlin,) has this obser-
vation : "The coarse and carnal idtas, which attribute human passions
to the Divine Nature, were derived by carnally minded Jews and igno-
rant Christians, cleaving to the letter, from certain misunderstood passa-
ges of the Old Testament. Thus occasion was afforded to JVJarcion to
represent the God of the Old Testament as in reality such a being as
those persons had pictured him." (Allgemeine Gesch. d. Chr. Relig.
vol. I. p. 968.) There are some unhappy people, in our own times, who
maintain that God is really a being having the shape, limbs, and func-
tions, of a man; the disciples of an Irishman, Alexander Campbell, an
emigrant to Virginia. A large account of them is in the American Bib-
lical Repository for Jan. and April, 1839.
NATURAL OBJECTS. 215
and has a close connexion with our ultimate subject, I
shall recite passages at some length.
The primary record, in the beginning of the Book of
Genesis, will presently be the specific subject of atten-
tion. It is only needful now to say, that nothing is there
affirmed, nor in any way implied, concerning the figure
and situation of the earth. T^ie mention which is made
of the heavenly bodies evidently relates to their use to
men, as luminaries and as measures of time ; and it gives
no hint of any other relations and uses.
" He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,
and hangeth the earth upon nothing."* The former part
of this verse seems to contemplate the expanse of the
starry heavens as seen by night, especially distinguishing
the northern constellations, and presenting the appear-
ance of a concave surface extended on all sides ; or, as it
is more fully expressed in the Book of Isaiah ; " he
stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth
them out as a tent to dwell in."f By " the empty place"
("fin, a word applied to any thing supposed to be waste
and deserted) appears to be meant the whole space above
the habitable ground, and which, by those who had no
knowledge of the atmosphere or of any aeriform substance,
was regarded as emptiness, a mere nothing. The " sus-
pending of the earth upon nothing," comes as the antith-
esis of the former member, and declares that the solid
earth on which men and other creatures dwell, has no
visible or known support, but remains in its place fixed
by the decree and power of God. I cannot discover that
the passage involves any sentiment, or warrants any con-
clusion whatever, as to the figure of the earth, or its con-
nexion with other bodies : but it is perfectly conformable
to the idea of the earth's being an extended plane ; which
* Job xxvi. 7. t Is. xl. 22.
216 BIBLE DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURAL OBJECTS.
we shall find to be the sentiment more clearly declared in
other places.
Consonant with this, is a verse in the same connexion.
" He hath drawn a limiting circle upon the surface of the
waters, to the boundary of light with darkness."* The
idea is that of a disc drawn with a compass-instrument,
consisting of the whole earth, surrounded by water, and
beyond which, on every side and beneath, all was perpet-
ual darkness and a dead waste. The same representation
is in the Book of Proverbs ; " In his cutting out a circle
upon the surface of the deep."f
Other passages speak of extremities, as bounding lines
of the earth; and of pillars or supports of some kind
upon which it rests. In some places these boundaries
are represented as points, the summits of angles : but it
is not necessarily to be thence deduced that the idea en-
tertained concerning the figure of the earth was that of
a four-sided plane ; for the expression would naturally
arise from contemplating the two opposite points marked
by the sun's rising and setting, and the two which lie
transversely to them. The Hebrew words for denoting
each of these four quarters (called wings) of the heavens
or of the earth, are several in each instance ; and thus
they afford us an insight into the ideas of the Israelites
upon the characteristics of the cardinal points. The
words for the East signify radiating, a luminous space, and
before, that is, referring to the position of a person who
has his face towards the rising sun; those for the West,
express going away, going down, behind the sea, namely
the Mediterranean ; those for the North, darkness, gloom-
iness, the left hand ; and those for the South, light, the
* Verse 10. The closest translation. That in the Common Version
is not sufficiently exact,
t Chap. viii. 27 ; closely translated.
GALILEO. 217
shining region, dry referring to the countries parched
with heat, the right hand.
" Under the whole heavens he directeth it, [the thun-
der ;] and its light [the lightning] unto the wings of the
earth. Where wast thou at my laying the foundations
of the earth 1 Narrate [it;] since thou possessest full
understanding. Who applied measuring rods to it ; since
thou knowest 1 Upon what were its hases let in 1 Or
who laid a stone for its corner 1 He shaketh the earth
out of its place, and the pillars thereof tremble.* He
will collect [the dispersed people] from the four wings of
the earth."f
The belief w T ith regard to the figure of the earth, that
it is an extended plane, was current among the Christian
fathers : but they in general disapproved and avoided
attention to physical subjects. By slow degrees, the
general doctrine of a globular form made its way among
men ; but to a much later date, that of the immobility of
the earth was strenuously maintained. Considerably
within the last two centuries, that opinion was the gene-
ral belief of all denominations of Christians. Most per-
sons know that threats, persuasions, and a short imprison-
ment subdued Galileo, and brought him to make a solemn
recantation of the Copernican doctrine ; and he had to
endure the penal sentence of imprisonment for life.* It
* Job xxxvii. 3; xxxviii. 4—6; ix. 6; closely translated.
t Is. xi. 12; and compare Ezek. vii. 2.
t Yet let not a wrong use be made of the example of Galileo. It has
been very properly observed, that many a system-maker, " when a check
is offered to his crude and inconclusive conceptions, — fancies himself ano-
ther Galileo, and glories in his imagined martyrdom. Yet no case was
ever more exaggerated than that of Galileo : and, even assuming it at its
worst phase, it was rather the fault of the age than of the individuals en-
gaged in it. How many really wicked attacks have been levelled at sa-
cred things, from the days of Galileo to the present, and successfully refu-
ted by divines laudably on the watch to preserve the purity of that faith
which has been entrusted to them ; and yet, how small praise has been
19
218 GALILEO.
is hardly imaginable that his persecutors could believe in
his sincerity ; even had he not declared, the moment after,
awarded them, compared to the opprohrium of this one case of exaggera-
ted oppression !" (Rhind, on the Age of the Earth ; p. 117.)
So much error prevails with regard to this great man and his persecu-
tions, some overstating and others diminishing them, that a few lines of
information may not be useless. I derive it from the Allgemeine Deutsche
Real-Encyclopadie, 16 volumes, Leipzig, 1830—1834: and its authorities
are the works of Galileo himself, and Lives by Jagemann and Nelli.
We usually call him by his baptismal name, though the family name
would be more exactly proper. He was the son of Vicenzo Galilei, a
Florentine nobleman, and born at Pisa. His talents and industry corres-
ponded to the signal advantages of his education, in mathematics, the
sciences, and elegant literature. About 1620 he became involved in a dis-
pute with the Jesuits, which materially affected his subsequent circum-
stances. Having obtained the legal permission at both Rome and Flor-
ence, he published, 1632, his great work, " A Dialogue by Galileo Galilei,
in which, through conversations of four Days, are discussed the two prin-
cipal Systems, the Ptolemaic and iheCopernican." Notwithstanding the
extreme moderation of the work, scarcely amounting to an avowal of the
Copernican doctrine, it was made the ground of severe proceedings.
Pope Urban VIII. had, in private life, been his friend ; but he was now
drawn over by the monks to become a zealous enemy. A congregation
of cardinals and others, all his sworn enemies, condemned his book, and
cited him to the tribunal of the Inquisition. He was obliged to come to
Rome, was imprisoned some months, and on the 23d of June, 1633, kneel-
ing and placing his hand upon the gospels, to denote a declaration by
oath in the presence of the God of truth, he uttered the dictated words,
"With a sincere heart and undissembled fidelity, I abjure, curse, and de-
test the aforesaid errors and heresies.'- Immediately as be rose from
this impious mockery, he betrayed the strongest emotion, stamped on the
ground, and said, E pur si muove! (It moves, however.) He was con-
demned to perpetual imprisonment in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and
to repeat weekly for three years the seven Penitential Psalms. With re-
gard to the place of imprisonment, great favour was shown him. Instead
of a dungeon, he was confined in the Bishop's palace at Sienna, and after-
wards in a similar retreat near Florence. In this condition he prosecuted
his investigations on the laws of motion, the planetary phenomena, and
other parts of mechanical philosophy : till deafness, blindness, sleepless-
ness, and excruciating pain wore out the venerable philosopher. He died,
aged 78, Jan. 8, 1642, the year of the birth of Newton.— Alas ! How low
does this great man sink, by the side of many a poor, tender, and delicate
woman, who has refused to purchase a release from the most cruel tor-
ture of the rack or the flames, by yielding to utter any falsehood or deny
any truth !
PREJUDICES OF PROTESTANTS.
219
his retention of his own belief ; which he did. But per*
secution is the parent of hypocrisy. A consistent Chris-
tian would have died, rather than have infringed his in-
tegrity. Yet, not hurling condemnation, but pitying the
illustrious Florentine, let us turn his history into a lesson
for ourselves. In things of every kind, earthly as well
as spiritual, " godly simplicity and integrity" is the only
right course : and, whatever it may cost, it will bring
happiness in the end. But it is not so much known
that, long after that event, pious and learned Protestants
viewed Galileo's doctrine with the same alarm and abhor-
rence as the Romish church professed to feel : and they
founded their determination upon the following passages
of Scripture.
" He hath established the earth upon its foundations : it shall not
be moved for ever and ever. — For upon the seas he hath founded it,
and upon the streams he hath fixed it. — 0,give thanks unto Him
who hath spread out the earth upon the waters ! — The Mount Zion"
[and therefore, they inferred, the whole earth, of which any hill or
mountain is only a part,] — "shall not be moved, for ever and ever. —
Generation goeth, and generation cometh ; but the earth for ever
standeth. The sun rejoiceth as a strong ma<i to run a race.
From the end of the heavens is his going forth, and his circuit to
their uttermost parts. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens ; and ye
waters that be above the heavens. Whostretcheth out the heavens
as a curtain, who layeth rafters in the waters, his upper chambers."*
Upon the interpretation which men of the highest abil-
ity attached to these declarations of Scripture, they rested
the most positive confidence, that the sun flies round the
earth every twenty-four hours, and that the earth rests
immoveably in the centre of the universe. " This," said
one of the most eminent men of the Reformed Church,
" we affirm, with all divines, natural philosphers, and as-
* Psa. civ. 5; xxiv. 2; cxxxvi. 6; Eccles. i. 4. Psa. xix. 6; cxlviii.
4 ; civ. 3.
220 PREJUDICES OF PROTESTANTS.
tronomers, Jews and Mohammedans, Greeks and Latins ;
excepting one or two of the ancients, and the modern fol-
lowers of Copernicus."* It is in no small degree curious,
but it conveys also a serious lesson to us, to observe
what was a very great stretch of candour and charity, one
hundred and fifty years ago. " That the sun moves and
that the earth is at rest," wrote another of that class of
learned men, " is testified in Scripture : that the earth
also cannot be moved, being as it were founded and fixed
upon bases, pedestals, and pillars. Some philosophers,
indeed, both ancient and modern, and Copernicus the
most distinguished among them, have maintained the
contrary. Gemma Frisius has taken pains to explain this
opinion of Copernicus in the most favourable manner that
he could; and some celebrated philosophers have endea-
voured to reconcile it to the Bible, by considerations drawn
from the ambiguity and various use of language. Others
have recourse to the condescension of the style of Scrip-
ture, which, upon matters that do not affect faith and re-
ligion, is wont to lisp and prattle (avfixptlliZeiv) like a fa-
ther with his babes. But our pious reverence for the
Scripture, the'word of truth, will not allow us to depart
from the strict propriety of the words ; as, by so doing,
we should be setting to infidels an example of wresting
the Scriptures : unless we were convinced by sure and irre-
fragable arguments; as perhaps there may be a few so
convinced, but they are ambitious persons, though pro-
fessing to be devoted to sacred studies."*
The length to which these observations has gone ap-
peared necessary, in order to establish the broad and
strong foundation of that principle of Bible-interpretation
which, to my full conviction, will liberate us from diffi-
culty, in relation to the supposed discrepance between the
* Gisb. Voetii Disput. Theol. Vol. I. p. 637 ; Utrecht, 1649.
+ Joh. Henr. Heideggeri Med. Theol. Christ, p. 136 ; Zurich, 1698.
HEBREW IDEAS OF NATURAL OBJECTS. 221
facts of science, especially geological science, and the
testimony of the Holy Scriptures.
A few more instances will be useful: but they shall
be briefly mentioned.
" Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars ; if thou
be able to number them. So shall thy seed be. In
multiplying I will multiply thy seed, as the stars of the
heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore."*
Here we have two similitudes, to represent the great in-
crease of a national population ; a population which, in
the most flourishing times of Israel and Judah, cannot be
estimated as having reached to more than eight or nine
millions. Yet it is represented by two comparisons,
which lie in opposite extremes. The one falls immensely
short. With a little skill and perseverance, Abraham
might have counted all the stars visible, even in his fine
climate. They could scarcely have amounted to fifteen
hundred. But the second object of comparison presents
a number which the most advanced arithmetic could with
difficulty write in figures, and which would many times
exceed the number of human beings that have ever lived
upon the face of the globe. Will any one say, that these
are not figurative expressions, peculiarities of idiom ;
which must be interpreted by the rule of common sense,
the one by extending, the other by contracting 1
A mode of expression to be interpreted upon the same
principle is that of representing a long period of time, in
relation to the history of mankind, by " a thousand gener-
ations :"f whereas all the generations of the human race,
from Adam to the present hour, cannot exceed two hun-
dred.
2. Concerning atmospheric phenomena, a few things
are to be noticed.
t Deut. vii. 9. 1 Chron. xvi. 15. Psa. cv.
18*
222 HEBREW IDEAS OF NATURAL OBJECTS.
The Hebrew word fc^P'n is commonly translated fir-
mament, after the example of the Septuagint, (aztQtoofia,)
but many modern critics have sought to mollify the im-
philosophical idea of a solid concave shell over our heads,
by using the word expanse. No doubt they felt their
minds acquiescing in this term, as expressing very well
the diffused fluid which surrounds the earth ; and so leav-
ing us at liberty to conceive of its increasing tenuity, till
it is lost in the planetary spaces. But this is the trans-
ferring of a modern idea, to times and persons which had
it not. The Hebrew language has no word for air, prop-
erly speaking : because they knew not the thing. Their
nearest approaches were with words that denoted con-
densed and so visible watery vapour, whether floating
around them or seen in the breathing of animals ; and
words for smoke arising from substances burning ; and for
air in motion, wind, a zephyr-whisper, or a storm. But
of elastic fluids they had no idea. The word under con-
sideration strictly signifies a solid substance, extended by
beating out, or rolling, or any other mode of working upon
a ductile mass.* The old \v ox A, firmament, was therefore
the most proper. Examining the whole subject, by con-
necting it with some passages which have been quoted,
and some yet to be mentioned, we acquire an idea of the
meteorology of the Hebrews. They supposed that, at a
moderate distance above the flight of birds, was a solid
concave hemisphere, a kind of dome, transparent, in
which the stars were fixed, as lamps ; and containing
openings, to be used or closed as was necessary. It was
understood as supporting a kind of celestial ocean, called
" the waters above the firmament," and " the waters above
the heavens." This was the grand reservoir containing
water to be discharged at proper times in rain, with which
* See Jer. x. 9.
HEBREW IDEAS OF NATURAL OBJECTS. 223
were connected "water-courses, for the overflowing" or
pouring out* The idea also was entertained of masses
of water being - secured in strong bags, which the clouds
were supposed to be. Thus we read, as one of the works
of Deity, that he " tieth up water in his dark cloud, and the
cloud beneath them is not torn."f Here also were the
" treasures of snow and treasures of hail. "J Lightning
also was conceived of as produced, and then laid by for
use, in the same region; and as consisting of some kind
of ignited matter, called in Scripture " coals of fire ;" de-
riving the idea from burning wood, for mineral coal they
knew not. Of the nature and cause of thunder, the Isra-
elites had no conception ; and therefore they referred it
immediately to the Supreme Cause, and called it " the
voice of God." This idea coincided with the accustomed
mode of representing the Deity, by the analogies of the
human form. In one place it seems as if the lightning
was regarded to be the effect of thunder : " Who hath
divided a way for the dartings of the voices !"§ As
the thunder was conceived to be the awfully majestic
voice of God, it was a natural accompaniment of the
imagery that "He maketh the clouds his chariots, and
walketh upon the wings of the wind."|| In one passage,
we find all the parts of this imagery combined, so as to
produce the most magnificent effect. " Then the earth
shook and trembled : the foundations also of the hills
moved and were shaken; because he was wroth. There
went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of
his mouth devoured : coals were kindled by it. He
bowed the heavens also, and came down ; and darkness
was under his feet : and he rode upon a cherub and did
fly ; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made
♦ Job xxxviii. 25. t lb. xxvi 8. t lb. xxxviii. 22.
§ lb. xxxviii. 25. II Psa. civ. 3.
224? HEBREW IDEAS OF NATURAL OBJECTS.
darkness his secret place : his pavilion round about him
was dark waters, thick clouds of the skies. At the
brightness before him his dark clouds passed, hail-stones
and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the hea-
vens, and the Highest gave forth his voice, hail-stones
and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows and scat-
tered them ; and he shot out lightnings and discomfited
them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the
foundations of the world were discovered, at thy rebuke,
O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils."*
3. With respect to the animal system, the knowledge
of the ancient Hebrews did not go beyond what might be
expected in their circumstances. They appear to have
ascribed distinct intellectual functions to the region of
the kidneys, (usually rendered the reins,) and the liver.
They referred pain to the bones ; and they seem to have
not had the least knowledge of the nervous system.
There is no word in Hebrew for the brain and nerves ex-
cept that which denotes the marrow of the bones, with
which it is probable they confounded the cerebral and
nervous substance ; and even that word was a derivative
from another signifying fat. Yet upon this defective
physiology the language of Scripture is formed for the
expression of sensations and many intellectual opera-
tions, f
It was incumbent upon me to go thus largely into the
induction of particulars, not merely on account of the
connexion of the entire view of Scripture-Idioms with our
particular object ; but because I venture to hope that the
principle thus established will be of use to those who
* Psa. xviii. 7—15.
t Examples. Psa. xxvi. 2; lxxiii. 21. Lam. ii. 11. (Psa.xvi. 9; IviL.
8 ; cviii. 1 ; where the word is usually rendered glory, but learned orien-
talists incline to the opinion that the use of the term is based upon the sen-
sitive properties which were supposed to reside in the liver.) Job xxxiii.
19. Psa. vi. 2.
RULE OF INTERPRETATION. 225
favour me with their attention, as some assistance to the
forming of an intelligent and therefore most profitable
method of studying the divine word.
We have thus seen it placed beyond the possibility of
a doubt, that it is the manner of the Scriptures, and most
copiously in their earliest written parts, to speak of the
Deity, his nature, his perfections, his purposes, and his ope-
rations, in language borrowed from the bodily and mental
constitution of man, and from those opinions, concerning the
works of God in the natural world, which were generally
received by the people to whom the blessing of revelation was
granted.
That so the fact is, cannot be denied : and will any
dare to find fault with it 1 Is it not sufficient to satisfy
any rational man, that it has pleased Him who cannot err
to make use of this method 1 We have no right to de-
mand any more satisfaction. But let it not be forgotten,
what has already been stated, that, not only is this style
that which alone would have been intelligible in the early
ages of the world ; but it is still the best adapted for uni-
versal use.
An observation now arises to our view, which must,
I cannot but think, force itself with irresistible conviction
upon any impartial mind. If it was not unworthy of the
Adorable Majesty of God to permit himself to be described
in terms infinitely beneath him, and which require our
watchfulness and pious care, lest we take up with con-
ceptions far remote from the spirituality of the Divine
Nature, and the purity of Christian worship ; much more
may it be regarded as consonant with the honour of his
word, that its references to natural objects should be, in
the character of thought and expression, such as comported
with the knowledge of the age in which they were delivered*
* No doubt this principle has been often thought of, and happily em-
ployed in theological discussions ; as by Archbishop King, the German di-
226 SUPERIORITY OF CHRISTIANITY.
Again: the completed manifestations of the Divine
Will in the New Testament raise us to a justness and pu-
rity of conception concerning "the things of God," far
superior to that which the ministration of Moses and the
prophets could supply. The one was obscure, tinctured
with the spirit of bondage, only a preparatory and tem-
porary system : but the other is " the ministration of
righteousness," in comparison with which the former
" had no glory."* We stand therefore upon safe ground,
and are fully warranted by divine authority, to translate
the language of the Old Testament upon physical sub-
jects, into such modern expressions as shall be agreeable
to the reality of the things spoken of.
Tine Seiler, Mr. John Sheppard, and probably others. Whether it has
been distinctly applied to the interpretation of the Bible, in relation to the
objects of natural science, by any writers in particular, I am not able to
8ay. I am aware of but two distinguished authors who have expressly
pointed it out : and, as they only indicate it in general terms, the effort in
this lecture to pursue it into its details, and to show its application as a
shield to scientific investigations, against the misconceptions and alarms
of some well-intentioned men, will not, I trust, be held superfluous. The
two authors alluded to, are John George Rosenmuller, in a book publish-
ed more than sixty years ago, and from which the relevant extracts are
given in the Appendix, Supplementary Note P ; and my honoured friend,
Professor Sedgwick, in his Discourse on the Studies of Cambridge.— A
" source of error, on physical questions, has been a mistake respecting the
import of certain Scripture-phrases. These writings deal not in logical
distinctions or rigid definitions. They were addressed to the heart and
understanding in popular forms of speech, such as men could readily com-
prehend. When they describe the Almighty as a being capable of jeal-
ousy, love, anger, repentance, and other like' passions, they use a lan-
guage accommodated to our wants and capacities, and God is put before
us in the semblance of humanity." Page 147.
* 2 Cor. iii.lQ, 11.
THE PRINCIPLE APPLIED TO THE MOSAIC RECORDS. 227
PART II.
Upon the principle which has been explained, I now
propose to the impartial judgment of Bible-scholars, that
method of understanding the Mosaic account of the Cre-
ation and the Flood, which appears to me just and safe.
The way is sufficiently cleared, and the principles ex-
plained and confirmed ; so that little will be necessary in
showing the application to the cases before us.
I. With respect to the account of the Creation.
Gen. i. 1. " Tn the beginning, God created the hea-
vens and the earth."
The phrase " the heavens and the earth," though not
always used by the sacred writers in the full sense, is the
most comprehensive that the Hebrew language affords,
to designate the universe of dependent being ; and, on
account of the connexion, it requires to be so taken in this
place. It thus corresponds to the expressions in the New
Testament : " All things, that are in the heavens and that
are on the earth, the visible and the invisible j the all
things."* This sublime sentence therefore stands, at the
head of the sacred volume, announcing that there was an
epoch, a point in the flow of infinite duration, when the
whole of the dependent world, or whatever portion of it
first had existence, was brought into being ; and that this
commencement of being was not from pre-existent mate-
rials, nor by fortune, chance, or accident, nor through the
skill of any finite agent, but absolutely and solely by the
will, wisdom, and power of the One and Only God. It
was a creation, in the proper sense ; not a modelling or
new-forming. The phrase, "In the beginning" is used
several times in Scripture, to denote the commencement
* T
a Travra, ra tv Ton ovpavots km ra ctti r»j? y/)j" — ra irav-a.
228 CREATION.
of whatever flow of time, or series of things, the subject
spoken of requires. One of the primary doctrines of the
New Testament is, " In the beginning was the Word ;"
showing that the Word was already in existence, at the
point of time spoken of, did not then begin to be, and
consequently must have existed in all prior time. But
here the expression specifies an action as taking place at
this point of time ; an act of the Infinite Being. But
when that beginning was, when that act was put forth, it
was not the design of revelation to inform us. Carry it
back as far as we may, there is eternity beyond it : and,
compared with that eternity, all finite duration sinks into
a moment.
In the same manner we understand the recapitulation
in chap. ii. 1 — 3 ; the commencement of the briefer nar-
rative, in chap. ii. 4 ; and the reason of the Sabbath given
in the fourth commandment, Exodus xx. 11. All that
the Israelites could understand by " the heavens and the
earth," all that they knew and all that it concerned them
to know, was "made," (adjusted, arranged, appropriated
to new purposes, for so the word often signifies,) " in six
days." There is just as much reason to interpret that
commandment, as representing the Deity to "faint and
be weary," in direct contradiction to other parts of the
Bible,* as to maintain that it teaches the proper creation
of the universe to have taken place immediately before
the institution of the Sabbath.
Here I trust that, without assumption or captiousness,
I may express regret that Dr. Buckland, in his Bridge-
water Treatise, instead of relying on his own sound and
clear judgment, obtained a note from one of his learned
fellow Professors, which appears very obscure and quite
* " Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting
God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither
is weary ?" Is. ad. 23.
CREATION. 229
nugatory. If it had any application to the matter at all,
it would rather go to darken the evidence of a proper
creation being here asserted, or declared in any other
part of the Bible. Such aid was not needed.
Whether the original writer of this sacred archive was
Moses, or whether he was placing at the head of his
work, a composition of an earlier patriarch, the calm
majesty and simplicity of the declaration give, as a mat-
ter of internal evidence, the strong presumption that he
spoke with authority ; that he only repeated what the
Omniscient Spirit had commanded him to say and write.
The declaration is, in the New Testament, adduced as an
object of faith ; which implies a divine testimony.*
What was the condition or constitution of the first
created matter 1 — Certainly it falls within the province of
General Physics to examine this question : and if the in-
vestigation be conducted in the true spirit of philosophy,
which is modest, reverential, and cautious, — in a word,
the spirit of genuine religion, — though it may not be de-
monstratively answered in the present life, yet valuable
approximations may be made to it. The nebular hypo-
thesis, ridiculed as it has been by persons whose igno-
rance cannot excuse their presumption, is regarded as in
a very high degree probable by some of the finest and
most Christian minds.f If I may venture to utter my own
* Heb. xi. 3.
t If the reader be not already acquainted with the nature and the rea-
sons of this doctrine, he owes himself a great duty. Let him consult Prof.
Wbewell'a Bridgewater Treatise, book II. chap. vii. ; Dr. Mantell's Won-
ders of Geology, Lect. I. § 17, 18; and Prof. Nichol's Architecture of the
Heavens, Letters vii. and viii. " The Nebular Hypothesis, in its relations
to the Planetary System, may be termed complete ; it comprehends its
beginnings, establishes those elements on which its duration depends,
and exhibits the causes and mode of its ultimate transition into a novel
form. Surely the vision of these unfathomable changes, of the solemn
march of these majestic heavens from phase to phase, obediently fulfilling
their awful destiny, will be lost on the heart of the adorer, unless it
20
230 CREATION.
impressions, I must profess it as the most reasonable sup-
position, and the correlate of the nebular theory, that
God originally gave being to the primordial elements of
things, the very small number of simple bodies, endow-
ing each with its own wondrous properties. Then, that
the action of those properties, in the ways which his wis-
dom ordained, and which we call laws, produced, and is
still producing, all the forms and changes of organic and
inorganic natures; and that the series is by Him destined
to proceed, in combinations and multiplications ever
new, without limit of space or end of duration, to the un-
utterable admiration and joy of all holy creatures, and to
the eternal display of His glory " who fixed the wondrous
frame."
Ver. 2. " And the earth was without form and void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
The first inquiry here is, What relation does this para-
graph bear to the preceding 1 Is it the relation of close
connexion, an immediate sequence ; or does it only ex-
press posteriority, without defining the separating inter-
val 1 My conviction is, not the former, but the latter.
The question will be answered by attending to the
connecting particle. As it is rendered in our Version, it
naturally excites the idea of immediate sequence. But a
few words will show that this would be an unwarranted
inference from the expression in the original. This pre-
fixed conjunction is the general connecting particle of the
language ; but the mode of connexion may be extremely
swells with that humility which is the best homage to the Supreme ! —
Between us and the Highest there is still vastness and mystery. — To
take wing beyond terrestrial precincts, perhaps is not wholly forbidden,
provided we go with unsandalled feet, as if on holy ground. An order
hanging tremblingly over nothingness, and of which every constituent
fails not to beseech incessantly for a substance and substratum, in the
idea of One, who liveth for ever?" Nichol.
THE EARTH. 231
various, and is always to be ascertained by a considera-
tion of the circumstances in every case. It may be copu-
lative, or disjunctive, or adversative ; or it may express a
mere annexation to a former topic of discourse, the con-
nexion being only that of the subject-matter, or the con-
tinuation of the composition. This continuative use forms
one of the most marked peculiarities of the Hebrew idiom j
and it comprehends every variety of mode in which one
train of sentiment may be appended to another.* As this
prefix is most usually rendered and, in our Version,
(though frequently by other conjunctions,) the English
reader has it in his power to observe the variety in the
shades of meaning, and the differing grounds upon which
it connects sentiments and expressions. The two sen-
tences are thus rendered by a cautious and judicious
critic, the late Dr. Dathe of Leipzig \ "In the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth. But afterwards
the«earth became waste and desolate."!
A most important subject of our inquiry is the genu-
ine meaning of the word which we render earth ; and
which, in passing, it may be remarked has an etymologi-
cal affinity with the words of the same signification in all
the Teutonic languages, to which class ours belongs, the
ancient Persian, those allied to the Hebrew, and the
Sanscrit. I assure my friends that I have not spared
time and pains in pursuing this inquiry ; and the result I
will briefly give. The most general sense of the word is,
the portion of the universe which the Supreme Lord has
assigned for the habitation of mankind. When it is con-
* It introduces the series of history, commencing at Numb. xx. 1 ;
which immediately follows the preceding narrative from which it is chron-
ologically separated by an interval of thirty-eight years : yet that interval
is not indicated by any words ; it is left to be made out by the research of
the reader. ^ .
t See Supplementary Note #1
232 THE EARTH.
joined with "the heavens," it denotes the entire created
world : but it is evident of itself that the practical under-
standing of the phrase would be in conformity with the
ideas of the people who used it. Frequently it stands
for the land of Palestine ; and indeed for any country or
district that is mentioned or referred to in the connexion.
Sometimes it denotes a mere plot of ground ; and some-
times the soil, clay and sand, or any earthy matter.
Often it is put, figuratively, for mankind, as the inhabi-
tants of the world. Considering all the evidence of the
case, I can find no reason against our considering the
word, subsequently to the first verse, and throughout the
whole description of the six days, as designed to express
the part of our world which God was adapting for the
dwelling of man and the animals connected with him. Of
the spheroidal figure of the earth, it is evident that the
Hebrews had not the most distant conception. The pas-
sages which have been quoted, and many others, abun-
dantly convince me that it never entered into the purpose
of Revelation to teach men geographical facts, or any
other kind of physical knowledge.
I must profess then my conviction that we are not
obliged by the terms made use of, to extend the narrative
of the six days to a wider application than this ; a descrip-
tion, in expressions adapted to the ideas and capacities of
mankind in the earliest ages, of a series of operations, by
which the Being of omnipotent wisdom and goodness ad-
justed and furnished the earth generally* but, as the par-
ticular subject under consideration here, a portion of its
* "Geology, therefore, in expounding the former condition of the
globe, convinces us that every variation of its surface has been but a step
towards the accomplishment of one great end: whilst all such revolu-
tions are commemorated by monuments which, revealing the [proximate]
cause and object of each change, compel us to conclude that the Earth
can alone have been fashioned into a fit abode for Man by the ordinances
Qf Infinite Wisdom." Murchison's Silurian System ,- Vol. I. page 576.
REGION OF THE ADAMIC CREATION. 233
surface, for most glorious purposes; in which a newly
formed creature should be the object of those manifestations
of the author it y and grace of the Most High, which shall to
eternity show forth his perfections above all other methods of
their display.
This portion of the earth I conceive to have been a
large part of Asia, lying between the Caucasian ridge, the
Caspian Sea, and Tartary, on the north, the Persian and
Indian seas on the south, and the high mountain ridges
which run, at considerable distances, on the eastern and
the western flank. I venture to think that man, as first
created, and for many ages afterwards, did not extend his
race beyond these limits ; and therefore had no connexion
with the extreme east, the Indian and Pacific clusters of
islands, Africa, Europe, and America ; in which regions
we have ocular demonstration that animal and vegetable
creatures had existed, to a vast amount, uninterruptedly,
through periods past, of indescribable duration.
This region was first, by atmospheric and geological
causes of previous operation under the will of the Al-
mighty, brought into a condition of superficial ruin, or
some kind of general disorder. With reverence I pro-
pose the supposition, that this state was produced by the
subsidence of the region, of which the immediate cause
might be the same that we know has often operated to
work a similar effect in various districts upon the earth's
surface ; namely that which is probably the cause of
earthquakes, a vast movement of the igneous fluid mass
below. Extreme darkness has been often known to ac-
company such phenomena. This is the meaning of t e
two words rendered " without form and void." Those
words in the Hebrew Bible are elsewhere used to describe
ruined cities, wild wastes of desert-land, and figuratively
any thing that is empty, unsubstantial, or useless.
The sacred record presents to us the district describ-
20*
234 REGION OF THE ADAMIC CREATION.
ed as overflowed with water, and its atmosphere so turbid
that extreme gloominess prevailed. " Darkness was upon
the face of the deep," the " waters " mentioned just before.
Both this deluge, from the flowing in of a sea or rivers, and
the darkness, would be the effect of an extensive subsi-
dence. The Hebrew word does not necessarily mean the
absolute privation of light : it is used in relation to various
circumstances of partial darkness : and we know that
conditions of the atmosphere have locally happened, in
ancient and in recent times, in which the noon-day has
become dark as an ordinary night. The divine power
acted through the laws of gravity and molecular attrac-
tion ; and, where requisite, in an immediate, extraordinary,
or miraculous manner. The atmosphere over the re-
gion became so far cleared as to be pervious to light,
though not yet perfectly transparent. In this process,
the watery vapour collected into floating masses, the
clouds ; which, as we have seen, the ancient Hebrews ex-
pressed by the phrase " waters above the firmament."
Elevations of land took place, by upheaving igneous force ;
and consequently the waters flowed into the lower parts,
producing lakes and probably the Caspian Sea, which
manifestly belonged to the very region. The elevated
land was now clothed with vegetation instantly created.*
* Gen. i. 11, 12. The enumeration of vegetable kinds here given is
both an illustrative example of the earliest botanical distribution, and a
confirmation of our principle of interpretation, that the language has
throughout a simple reference to the wants and conveniences of men.
The vegetation intended to be included in this primeval arrangement is
put under three descriptions ; (1,) grasses, food for cattle; (2,) herbs, for
human use, probably referring chiefly to grain and leguminous plants ;
(3,) trees producing edible fruit : all considered merely in the light of
utility to mankind. Of timber-trees and thousands of other important
genera, there is no hint. From just analogy we infer, that the first in-
dividuals of every other species were produced by an act of immediate
creation; but a body of evidence convinces us that these productions
took place, respectively at the points of divergence, or centres, of the
REGION OF THE ADAMIC CREATION. 235
By the fourth day, the atmosphere over this district had
become pellucid; and, had there been a human eye to
have beheld, the brightness of the sun would have been
seen, and the other heavenly bodies after the sun was set.
Animals were produced by immediate creation, in this suc-
cession ; the inhabitants of the waters, birds, and land-
animals ; all in the full vigour of their natures. No men-
tion is made of the thousands of tribes of insects, mol-
luscous creatures, and animalcula; whose number, we
know, transcends calculation. It is generally assumed by
commentators that they are included in " the things that
creep. 1 ' But this very phrase supplies an illustration of
the Scripture-style, as condescending to the limited know-
ledge and the simple associations of comparatively uncul-
tivated men. Last of all, God formed his noblest earthly
creature : " in the image of God created He him," in the
command of physical faculties, the possession of intellect,
a dominion over the lower creation, and the noblest en-
joyment of all, the image of the divine holiness.*
different botanical districts. The language of the text expresses a crea-
tion of these vegetables in a state of maturity, that they might be ready
for the immediate use of the human pair and the small number of land-
animals formed for the enjoyment of this region. Those who contend
for an immediate creation of all the mineral strata with all their contents,
precisely as they are, (—see Mr. Mellor Brown's positions, page 153 of
this volume, — ) have sometimes brought forwards this question, as in-
cluding for them a triumphant argument, If the exogenous trees were
created in a state of maturity, must they not have had the concentric
layers around their pith, indicating what in all future cases would be
years of growth, and which, in order to effect the perfect maturity sup-
posed, would in many instances be numerous?— The answer is at hand;
that all the exigencies of the case are satisfied by the condition of trees
in an early stage, before the first layers can be distinguished. Service-
able leaves, fruits, and seeds are produced within that period.
* It will, I trust, conduce to the illustration and establishment of the
sentiments here so briefly sketched, and other parts of the general subject,
to insert in the Appendix a Letter published sometime ago in a periodical
work, and occasioned by a Review of Dr. Buckland's Eridgewater Trea-
tise. Supplementary Note, G.
236
OPERATIONS.
No rational objection can lie against the statement,
that the Creator was pleased to distribute these works
through the space of six natural days ; instead of effecting
the whole by an instanteous volition. It is sufficient for
us to know that Infinite Wisdom chose this method of
proceeding : we are sure then that it was the best. But
we may very reasonably suppose that the gradual char-
acter of the process furnished valuable instruction for su-
perior creatures, and filled them with devout rapture ;
" when the morning-stars sang together, and all the sons
of God shouted for joy." Nor can we be insensible to
the lessons to which the Scriptures apply this part of the
counsels of Jehovah, for the religious, and not overlook-
ing the physical, benefit of mankind in all following time.
The condescending principle of the narrative is mani-
fested, in a striking manner, by the description of the
fourth day. The sun is mentioned as the greatest lumina-
ry, the moon as the next in magnitude and importance,
and the other shining orbs are grouped together as if
they formed, even when all combined, the least object of
consideration. The heavenly bodies are represented, not
as being at that time created, but "made," constituted
or appointed, to be "luminaries," for such is the meaning
of the word used : and their design is specified with an
exactitude very observable : to afford light, and to furnish
standards for the divisions of time, the operations of agri-
culture, and religious or other social observances. Had
it been the purpose of revelation, to give a view of crea-
tion according to the physical reality, can we imagine that
no reference would have been made to superior creatures,
of whom the subsequent Scriptures say so much, under
an appellative which designates only their work and office,
— angels ! Or that no mention would occur of the plan-
ets, and their satellites, as distinct from fcjie fixed stars 1
And that all the notice taken of the astral system would lie
DESCRIPTION OF THEM. 237
in two words, " — and the stars 1" — If not our earth merely,
but the entire solar system, were to be this instant blotted
out of existence, it would be no more missed in the as-
pect of the universe, — except to the glorious Creator's
eye, — than a grain of sand blown away from the sea-shore !
Yet it is most evident that any person not acquainted
with the true system of the world, would, after his most
careful study of this portion of the Bible, rest in the con-
clusions, that our earth is, not in moral importance only,
but in physical magnitude, by far the greatest of the Crea-
tor's works ; and that the entire furniture of the heavens is
solely a provision for our convenience and comfort.
It is a further evidence that the style of this primitive
document was framed in conformity to the phraseology
of simple men in unpolished times, that the successive
processes are described in a child-like conversation form.
" God said, Let there be light ; let there be a firma-
ment ; let the earth bring forth ; let us make man ;"
using in each instance the same formula of introduction
and then of narrating the effect. Now, is there a man
who seriously believes that the Infinite Spirit exercised
vocal organs, the supposition of which would imply a cor-
poreal structure ; or that he willed the effect of voice
without those organs, creating the impulses upon an elas-
tic medium which, had there been an animal ear to have
received the impression, would have duly impinged upon
it and produced the effect of articulate words ; as " God
spake all the words of the law" from the top of Sinai, so
as to be heard and understood by a million and a half of
people ] To my judgment, this circumstance carries with
it the force of demonstration.
The same style is shown in the second and the subse-
quent narratives.
" The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." To the
238 CREATION OF MAN.
men of primitive time this statement would be sufficient ;
and they would probably form a conception of some kind
of moulding as in pottery, one of the earliest arts ; which
indeed we actually find in the Grecian fable of Prome-
theus: and that, into this mechanical formation the pow-
ers of life were infused, as they are indicated by respira-
tion. The style of the Scriptures abundantly shows that
the Hebrews derived their conception of the intellectual
principle in man, from the phenomena of respiration. So
far only could the men of the first ages proceed : but we
are enabled to develope, out of this little statement, one
of the most interesting facts in physiology, and which
could not have been known till the Chemistry of our own
days was, by God's benignant providence, bestowed upon
men. By the Hebrew term (aphar) rendered dust, is sig-
nified the general soil with which men were always famil-
iar j the mingled sand, clay, and lime. Now the fact is,
that the human body, as that of all other animals, is com-
posed of the same substances as those which constitute
large and essential parts of the mineral kingdom ; nitro-
gen, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen ; potash, soda, phos-
phorus, sulphur, lime, and iron. Thus does the most ac-
curate science confirm the declarations of Scripture, if we
only take care to understand them rightly.
Again ; " The Lord God said, It is not good that the
man should be alone ; I will make him a help, meet for
him." In the fact itself there is no difficulty; but it is
the mode of introduction upon which we are remarking.
The statement of the fact has been cavilled at by incon-
siderate men. But I would ask any person of reflection
and feeling, whether the method described of bringing
the female man (isha, vira, manning) into being, is not as
wise and benign as it is simple 1 The first female must
have been the subject of an immediate creation, in some
way : and can imagination frame a mode of origin so well
DEATH BEFORE THE FALL. 239
adapted to endear her to her conjugate, as that the cre-
ative power should form her out of his actual bodily sub-
stance \ Under the dress of a child-like narrative, we
discover a proceeding of exquisite wisdom and effective
tenderness.*
II. We proceed now to inquire what solution the
Holy Scriptures afford of that which to many appears a
difficulty not only formidable but insuperable, the domin-
ion of pain and death over the animal creation, in all pe-
riods of its existence.
The nature of this difficulty was stated in Lecture III,
and facts were detailed, both in the disclosures of geolog-
ical investigation and in the present condition of anima-
ted nature, which compel us to admit that production and
growth in all organized beings have their correlates in
decay and dissolution.
But the general opinion has been that, before our first
parents fell from innocence and happiness, death and its
harbingers had no place in the inferior animal creation.
To maintain consistency, it ought further to have been
affirmed that the vegetable kingdom was also preserved
from decay, withering, and dying. But men have been
probably withheld from setting up such a theory, by con-
sideration of the manifest absurdities into which it would
have led its supporters ; and by the belief that plants,
* Upon the genius and character of the initial Mosaic records, I ear-
nestly solicit my reader to give his attention to the solid, heautiful, and
eloquent Address of the Rev. William Vernon Harcourt, to the British
Association, at its late meeting in Birmingham, Aug. 26. It is excellently-
reported in the Athenaeum for Aug. 1831 ; and will be published authenti-
cally in the next Volume of the Reports of the Association. With all
respect I cannot but say, that this Address and the many other labours in
science, especially geology and its alliances, by which that amiable and
accomplished man has distinguished himself, form a mighty shield of de-
fence against the efforts to disparage Geology, which some estimable cler-
gymen and others, mentioned in former parts of this volume, have unhap-
pily put forth.
240 DEATH BEFORE THE FALL.
though possessing an irritability to which it is difficult
to refuse the idea of some kind of sensitiveness, yet
appear not to have any consciousness or intellectual
faculties.
Our first inquiry most naturally should be, whether we
find any information, direct or indirect, in the original
document of inspiration. I think that we do ; not indeed
directly, but indirectly and by such an implication as is
equal to a formal assertion. The constitution of animated
beings, founded upon the divine will, is expressed in the
words, "Be fruitful, and multiply." This involves the
preservation of species, but a succession of individuals,
which would necessarily imply a departure of precedent
individuals. The law of organization, from the embryo
formation to the animal maturity, is carried on in the
way of a continual separation of particles and their re-
placement by new ones which the nutritive process inces-
santly furnishes. To this process, impassable limits are
set, by the most certain laws of the Creator's ordination ;
those of gravity and chemical action. To suppose that
those laws should be abrogated, or, what would amount
to the same thing, be perpetually suspended, would in-
volve a contradiction ; it would be abolishing the very
essential condition of organized existence. When a cer-
tain point was reached, separation, changed combination,
and dissolution of the molecules, must take place j the
rudiment and sure introducer of death.
Were it not so, were animated beings to increase and
multiply without the departure of the preceding genera-
tions, they would, at no immense distance of time, go be-
yond the provision of nutritive support, and the limits of
appropriate habitation: the land, the air, and the waters,
would be filled ; food would fail, and death with aggra-
vated suffering would be the infallible consequence. This
terrible consummation would the more speedily ensue, as,
DEATH BEFORE THE FALL. 2-il
by the supposition made, the only means of nutrition
would lie in vegetable matter.
The threatening of death, upon a violation of the easy
test of obedience, seems very clearly to imply, that the
subjects of this law had a knowledge of what death was ;
otherwise, they could not have known what the threaten-
ing meant. The idea of their having had set before them,
as the penalty of violating the law, an unknown and unde-
fined suffering, does not seem congruous to the wisdom
and dignity of legislation.
It would next be proper to ascertain whether there
are any passages of Scripture which affirm, or imply, that
the animals inferior to man were created in a state not
liable to death. This, if supposed, would involve the ne-
cessity of all being herbivorous ; and further, that there
were no minute and even invisible animals, inhabiting the
leaves and fruits of plants, and which the feeders on vege-
tables must kill by myriads. I must own that I know of
no such passage.
If, however, any should contend that an insuperable
difficulty lies in the occurrence of pain and death to ani-
mals, irrespectively of moral evil, I humbly think that
they ought to satisfy themselves with the spirit and prin-
ciple of our Lord's reply to a not dissimilar question ;
" His disciples asked him, Master, who did sin, this man
or his parents, that he was born blind 1 Jesus answered,
Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents ; but [this
was appointed] that the works of God should be mani-
fested in him."*
It is indeed an essential part of revealed truth, that
11 by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin ;" and that thus "by man came death."f But it ap-
pears to me a fair interpretation of these passages, and a
♦ John ix. 2, 3. + Rom. v. 12. 1 Cor. xv. 21.
21
242 DEATH BEFORE THE FALL.
full admission of the doctrine concerning death as the
penalty of sin, to consider them as declaring that in this
manner death acquired dominion over the first man and
his posterity ; that is, the human race universally. The
entire view of the case leads us to believe that, in the
state of pristine purity, the bodily constitution of man
was exempted from the law of progress towards dissolu-
tion which belonged to the inferior animals. It must
have been maintained in that distinguished peculiarity, by
means to us unknown: and it would seem probable that,
had not man fallen by transgression, he and each of his
posterity would, after faithfully sustaining an individual
probation, have passed through a change without dying,
and have been exalted to a more perfect state of exist-
ence.
In addition to these considerations, it ought to be es-
pecially recollected, that the anatomical structure of the
larger part of animal species presents demonstration that
they were created to live upon animal food. Some per-
sons have strangely affirmed the contrary, and have sup-
posed that, by persevering practice, lions and wolves and
all carnivorous creatures might be brought to live on a
vegetable diet. Every physiologist must smile at this
monstrous absurdity. A few species indeed are omnivo-
rous ; and this circumstance has misled some persons.
It follows, that those predictions of the peace and happi-
ness of the Messiah's reign, which picture the ferocious
and venomous animals as becoming herbivorous and
harmless, must be understood, as they are by Christian
expositors generally, as beautiful poetry, expressing the
moral influence of the gospel.*
III. In the second and third of these lectures, several
* Upon this subject, I beg to refer to Dr. Buckland's recently published
Sermon on " The Sentence of Death," preached before the University of
Oxford ; and to the Supplementary Note A of this volume.
THE DELUGE. 243
facts were brought forwards, tending to place the natural
history of the earth in a position of variance with the gen-
erally received belief concerning the Deluge, which is so
important a part of the scriptural history of the human
race. As I cannot expect that those facts can be dis-
tinctly recollected, it will be proper to recapitulate them
in the briefest manner consistent with making them intel-
ligible.
That enumeration brought before us the following
statements : that, through the whole process of stratifica-
tion, from the most ancient to the latest, the mineral
character of each stratum proves the existence of con-
temporaneous dry land, as well as of depressed areas
filled with water: that the indubitable relics of once ani-
mated creatures, in a great variety of species, from the
earlier formations to the latest, penetrate through one or
more of the next superincumbent strata, so that there
never occur contiguous beds of mineral deposit which
fail to be connected, (if I may use the phrase, dovetailed,)
with each other ; giving the result, that, from the un-
speakably remote point of time in which vestiges of liv-
ing nature first occur, there never was a period when life
was extinct upon the surface of the globe ; or, we might
more properly say, when living creatures did not abun-
dantly exist : that the vast masses of rolled pebbles and
stones of all sizes, which have been spread over large
districts, especially of this northern hemisphere, belong,
not to any one transient flood, but to different eras of
time, at great respective distances ; some of the earliest
never having been overflowed by a succeeding flood, and
each for itself indicating the action of water through very
long periods of time, in contradistinction to the idea of a
deluge so brief as that of Noah, enduring but little more
than three hundred days : that the cones of cinder and
other volcanic products, over a considerable district in
244 OBJECTIONS TO THE COMMON OPINION.
the south of France, are accompanied by evidences of an
antiquity reaching much farther back than the date of
Noah's Deluge ; and that these cones of loose and light
materials have never been exposed to the action of a rush
or any even moderate force of water, or they would have
been inevitably washed away. These geological facts
stand thus powerfully in the way of our admitting that
there ever was a universal deluge. Some other circum-
stances also were briefly alluded to, belonging to other
departments of natural science. One of these was the
impossibility of either the vegetable or the animal crea-
tions having all proceeded from one spot as a centre of
ancestry; but that the surface of the earth is distributed
into several distinct regions, each of which has its appro-
priate and exclusive tenantry, both vegetable and animal.
It was also remarked how utterly impossible it would be
for the inhabitants of many of those regions to have mi-
grated from various others, or even to exist in them, if
by an instantaneous miracle they were transported thither.
We adverted to the difficulty, arising from the quantity
of water requisite to cover the entire globe and to over-
flow the highest mountains, which would be an addition
to the present ocean of eight times its actual quantity.
For both the production and the subsequent removal of
this body of water, we can imagine no cause but the mi-
raculous intervention of Omnipotence ; whereas the nar-
rative in the Book of Genesis assigns two natural causes,
raised to an extraordinary degree of action. Notice was
also taken of the animals preserved with Noah in the ark j
the number of existing species, so far exceeding what the
commentators on the Bible have taken into their calcula-
tions ; the very different kinds of receptacle which would
be necessary, the amount of food, the necessity of ven-
tilation and the cleaning out of the stables or dens ; the
provision for reptiles and insects ; the fact that some fish
OBJECTIONS TO THE COMMON OPINION. 245
and shell animals cannot live in salt water, and others not
in fresh. The difficulty also was mentioned, if we sup-
pose that the resting place of the ark was the Mount Ara-
rat pointed out by tradition, of conceiving how the eight
human persons and their accompanying animals could
descend adown the precipitous cliffs; a difficulty which
amounts to an impossibility, unless we call in the aid of
divine power operating in the way of miracle.
^ Another circumstance was adduced as proving that
the Deluge of Noah was not absolutely universal : the
existence of trees, in the equatorial regions of Africa
and of South America, which, by the known method of
ascertaining the age of exogenous trees, are shown to be
of an antiquity which goes farther back than to the date
of the Deluge. What was said in that lecture, and will
be advanced in the Note on this subject,* renders it need-
less to add any more.
I may also remind my auditors that the opinion which
ascribes to the Deluge, the vast amount and variety of
animal and vegetable remains found in all parts of the
earth, is flagrantly inconsistent with a correct attention
to the circumstances in which they occur.
From any of these considerations, the probability of
a universal contemporaneous flood is, to say the least,
rendered very small : but, their united force appears to
me decisive of the negative to this question.
I cannot doubt but that some alarm and anxiety may
be produced in the minds of many, by the hearing of
these statements. They will be thought to be in direct
contradiction to the sacred narrative ; and w T e cannot
justify to ourselves any twisting and wresting of that nar-
rative in order to bring it into an apparent accordance
with the doctrines of human philosophy. But let my
* See Supplementary Note, C.
21*
246 OBJECTIONS TO THE COMMON OPINION.
friends dismiss their fears. The Author of nature and
the Author of revelation is the same. He cannot be at
variance with himself. The book of his works and the
book of his word cannot be contradictory. On the one
hand, we find certain appearances in the kingdoms of na-
ture, which stand upon various and independent grounds
of sensible proof ; and, on the other hand, are declara-
tions of Scripture which seem to be irreconcileable with
those appearances, which are indeed ascertained facts.
But we are sure that Truth is immutable ; and that one
truth can never contradict another. Different parts of
its vast empire may and do lie far asunder, and the inter-
mediate portions may be covered with more or less of
obscurity ; but they are under the same sceptre, and it is
of itself and antecedently certain that the facts of nature
and the laws that govern them are in perfect unison with
every other part of the will of Him that made them.
There are declarations of Scripture which seem thus to
oppose facts, of which Ave have the same kind of sensi-
ble evidence that we have of the letters and words of the
sacred volume ; and which we understand by the same
intellectual faculties by which we apprehend the sense of
that volume. Now those appearances, — facts I must call
them, — have been scrutinized with the utmost jealousy
and rigour : and they stand impregnable ; their evidence
is made brighter by every assault. We must then turn
to the other side of our research ; we must admit the
probability that we have not rightly interpreted those
portions of Scripture. AVe must retrace our steps. Let
us resort to this renewed examination in the great in-
stance before us.
I. The expressions of universality, with regard to the
extent of the deluge, are these. "The waters prevailed
exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that
were under the whole heaven were covered."
QUESTION OF UNIVERSALITY. 247
To those who have studied the phraseology of Scrip-
ture, there is no rule of interpretation more certain than
this, that universal terms are often used to signify only a
very large amount in number or quantity. The following
passages, taken chiefly from the writings of Moses, will
serve as instances. — " And the famine was upon all the
face of the earth ; — and all the earth came to Egypt, to
buy from Joseph, for the famine was extreme in all the
earth :"* yet it is self-evident that only those countries
are meant which lay within a practicable distance from
Egypt, for the transport of so bulky an article as corn,
carried, it is highly probable, on the backs of asses and
camels. — "All the cattle of Egypt died;" yet the con-
nexion shows that this referred to some only, though no
doubt very many, for, in subsequent parts of the same
chapter, the cattle of the king and people of Egypt are
mentioned in a way which shows that there were still re-
maining sufficient to constitute a considerable part of the
nation's property. f — " The hail smote every herb of the
field, and brake every tree of the field ;" but, a few days
after, we find the devastation of the locusts thus described ;
" They did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of the
trees, which the hail had left."J — " All the people brake off
the golden ear-rings which were in their ears, and brought
them unto Aaron :"§ meaning undoubtedly a large number
of persons, but very far from being the whole, or even a
majority, of the people ; as we may reasonably infer from
the circumstance that the stroke of punitive justice, for
this act of idolatry, fell upon only three thousand persons,
but the entire number of the Israelites at that time was a
million and a half, and of them six hundred thousand
* Gen. xli. 56, 57. t Exod. ix. 6, 10, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25; xiv. 26, 23.
t lb. x. 5, 15. § lb. xxxii. 3.
248 USE OF UNIVERSAL TERMS.
were grown men trained to arms. — " This day will I begin
to put the fear of thee and the dread of thee upon the
face of the nations under all the heavens :"* yet this de
claration respects only the nations of Canaan and those
lying upon its frontier, all being within a very small geo-
graphical district. We likewise find the phrase, " under
heaven," employed by the inspired writers to signify an
extent of country, large indeed, but falling exceedingly
short of a geographical universality: as, "I gave my
heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all
things that are done under heaven. There were dwell-
ing at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation
under heaven." With this passage is combined a geo-
graphical enumeration, which points out the extent of
country intended, as being from Italy to Persia, and from
Egypt to the Black Sea : and thus a probable elucidation
is given to the declaration of the apostle, that " the gospel
was preached to every creature which is under heaven. "f
— " Ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou
goest to possess it, and the Lord shall scatter thee among
all peoples, from one end of the earth even unto the other
end of the earth :"J a prophetic description of the disper-
sion of the Jewish people, as the punishment of their apos-
tacy from God and rejection of the Messiah, but no one can
regard the expression as denoting a proper geographical
universality. — " The fame of David went forth into all the
lands, [the plural of the word generally rendered the
earth,'] and Jehovah put the fear of him upon all the na-
tions.'^ This expression cannot be taken as reaching
beyond the range of Syria, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Ara-
bia, and Egypt. — " And all the earth sought the presence
* Deut. ii. 25. t Eccl. i. 13. Acts ii. 5. Col. i. 23.
t Deut. xxviii. 63. 64. § 1 Chron. xiv. 17.
USE OF UNIVERSAL TERMS. 249
of Solomon, to hear his wisdom."* This cannot be rea-
sonably understood of any kind of resort but that of em-
bassies and complimentary visits, from sovereigns and
states within such a distance, as might have appeared im-
mense in those times, but which was small compared with
even the then inhabited parts of the earth. The queen
of Sheba was, we may think undoubtedly, the principal
of these visitants. Our Lord himself condescended to
use the style of the Jews, in saying of her, that " the
queen of the south — came from the uttermost parts of
the earth, to hear the wisdom of Solomon."! Yet her
country was on either the Eastern or the Western side of
the Arabian Gulf, about twelve or fourteen hundred miles
south of Jerusalem, a mere trifle compared with distances
familiar to us in our days.
Passages are numerous, in which the phrase " all the
earth" signifies only the country of Palestine.^ In a few
places it denotes the Chaldean empire :§ in one, that of
Alexander. ||
From these instances of the scriptural idiom in the
application of phraseology similar to that in the narrative
concerning the flood, I humbly think that those terms do
not oblige us to understand a literal universality ; so that
we are exonerated from some otherwise insuperable diffi-
culties in Natural History and Geology. II If so much of
the earth was overflowed as was occupied by the human
* 1 Kings x. 24. t Matt, xii 42.
t Deut. xxxiv. 1. Is. vii 24 ; x. 14. Jer. i. 18 ; iv. 20 ; viii. 16; xii. 12;
xl. 4. Zeph. i. 18 ; iii. 19. Zech. xiv. 10.
§ Jer. li. 7, 25, 49. II Dan. ii. 39.
TT Dr. George Young, though his ideas concerning the flood appear to
my humble judgment to be very extravagant, feels the necessity of main-
taining that "all, every one, the whole, and such like expressions, are very
often used to denote a great many, or a large proportion: " Script. Geol.
p. 72.
250 ANTEDILUVIAN POPULATION.
race, both the physical and the moral ends of that awful
visitation were answered.
Some writers have taken great pains in calculating the
numbers of mankind at the epoch of the deluge, and they
have brought out an amount for the human population
immensely larger than that which has subsisted in any
succeeding period, down to the present time. But apart
from other errors in the statistical principles upon which
they have proceeded, they appear to have overlooked two
elements of calculation. The first is the apparent paucity
of births which not obscurely shows itself in the genealo-
gical table, (Gen. v. 3 — 28,) almost all the history left to
us of the period from Adam to Noah. We may not irre-
verently conjecture that, in addition to other reasons, es-
pecially the preservation of a correct tradition concern-
ing the most important religious truths, one motive in
the plan of Providence for the longevity of the antedilu-
vian patriarchs was, to compensate, by the length of indi-
vidual lives, for the slowness of multiplication. The
second consideration which those calculators have ne-
glected, is the effect of moral depravity in diminishing the
fecundity of the human species. There are facts in
modern history which exemplify this principle. The
rapid decrease of the population of the South Sea Islands,
within little more than half a century, is a striking instance.
Of such depopulation, there are two causes, the one, ex-
treme licentiousness ; the other, tyrannous, anarchical,
and murderous cruelty. That the latter state of mankind
existed in the antediluvian period, is expressly recorded
(verse 11): and the former is not without intimation
(verses 2 and 4), as indeed from the too well known
tendencies of corruption in society, it may be very cer-
tainly inferred. The consequences would be, that few
children would be born; many would die of diseases, or
ANIMALS IN THE ARK. 251
of sheer neglect, or by actual murder ; and the mutual
destruction of grown persons would be very great. It is
an instance in confirmation of this reasoning, that no chil-
dren of Noah are mentioned till he was five hundred years
old ; and that, a century later, his three sons, each having
a wife, had no children. Now, we cannot but suppose
that the family of Noah was, at least, among the most
virtuous of those which then existed ; and therefore was,
upon the whole, more likely to have become numerous
than the generality of others. From the whole, I humbly
think it reasonable to infer, that the human population had
not spread itself far from its original seat, the country of
Eden ; that its number was really small ; and that it was
in a course of rapid progress towards an extreme reduc-
tion, which would have issued in a not very distant ex-
tinction.
The difficulties also seem to be insuperable, with res-
pect to the animals saved in the ark, on the supposition
that every species had its representatives. But why may
we not derive our explanation of this part of the state-
ment, from the general rule of the Hebrew and Hebrais-
tic diction, with respect to universal terms 1 A confirm-
ation of the principle we may find in the description of
Peter's emblematical vision, presenting to him, "all the
four-footed animals of the earth, and the wild beasts, and
the creeping things, and the birds of the heaven."* The
design of this revelation was to convince him that the
Mosaic distinction into clean and unclean was by the
gospel abolished : therefore, a representation of some
principal animals, under each of the two divisions, and
those such as were well known to the apostle, would be
all that was needed. To assume a literal universality
would involve the idea of a crowding and compressing
* Acts. X. 12, — navra ra Ttrpairoda .
252 ABODE OF THE POPULATION.
such as would destroy all distinctness. In the case of
Noah, we may understand the animals preserved with
him in the ark as having been those connected more or
less with man, by domestication, and by other modes of
subserviency to his present and future welfare. This
idea answers to the enumeration given, which only com-
prises the four descriptions ; — " wild animals," such as
we now call game, serviceable to man but not tamed ; —
" cattle," the larger domesticated mammifers, such as
the ox, the camel, the horse, the ass, the sheep, and sev-
eral species of the deer and goat genera ; — " the creep-
ing things," the smaller quadrupeds ; — and " birds," the
peaceable, useful, and pleasing kinds.*
But an important observation presses upon us. If, by
the Ararat mentioned in Scripture, be understood the
mountain of that name in Armenia, it would inevitably
follow that a deluge capable of surmounting that, must
have been, by the laws of the motion of fluids, universal
with regard to the earth. Against that supposition, the
impossibility of descent presents itself, as has been
already mentioned. But St. Jerome says that the name
Ararat was given generally to the mountains of Armenia :
and Dr. Shuckford, a judicious writer who lived long
before geological studies were awakened, adduces reasons
against the common opinion, and supports the idea of
the ark's having grounded much farther to the East.f
This therefore might be on a mountain, or a mountainous
range, but not so high and precipitous as to preclude an.
easy descent into the lower and more cultivable grounds.
Let us now take the seat of the antediluvian population
to have been in Central Asia, in which a large district,
even in the present day, lies considerably below the level
of the sea. It must not be forgotten that six w T eeks of
* Gen. viii. 14.
t_Sacred and Prof. Hist. Connected ; Vol. I. pp. 98-104 ; ed. 1731.
SENTIMENTS OF ST1LLINGFLEET. 253
continued rain would not give an amount of water forty-
times that which fell on the first or a subsequent day : for
evaporation would be continually carrying up the water,
to be condensed and to fall again : so that the same mass
of water would return many times. If, then, in addition
to the tremendous rain, we suppose an elevation of the
bed of the Persian and Indian Seas, or a subsidence of
the inhabited land towards the south, we shall have suffi-
cient causes, in the hand of almighty justice, for submerg-
ing the district, covering its hills, and destroying all liv-
ing- beings within its limits, except those whom divine
mercy preserved in the ark. The draining off of the
waters would be effected, by a return of the bed of the
sea to a lower level, or by the elevation of some tracts
of land, which would leave channels and slopes for the
larger part of the water to flow back into the Indian
Ocean, while the lower part remained a great lake, or an
inland sea, the Caspian.
I may now adduce citations from divines and sacred
scholars whose eminence none will dispute, and who
wrote without the least knowledge of geological argu-
ments.
Few men possessed a more powerful understanding or
a finer judgment than Bishop Stillingfleet. He makes
the following remarks.
" I cannot see any urgent necessity from the Scripture, to assert
that the Flood did spread itself over all the surface of the earth. That
all mankind, those in the ark excepted, were destroyed by it, is most
certain, according to the Scriptures. The Flood was universal, as
to mankind : but from thence follows no necessity at all of asserting
the universality of it as to the globe of the earth, unless it be suffi-
ciently proved that the whole earth was peopled before the Flood :
which I despair of ever seeing proved. And what reason can there
be to extend the Flood beyond the occasion of it, which was
the corruption of mankind 1 1 grant, as far as the Flood
extended, all these [the animals] were destroyed; but I see no
22
254 poole.
reason to extend the destruction of these beyond that compass and
space of the earth where men inhabited: because the punishment of
the beasts was occasioned by, and could not but be concomitant with,
the destruction of Mankind. But (the occasion of the Deluge being
the sin of man, who was punished in the .beasts that were destroyed
for his sake, as well as in himself,) where the occasion was not, as
where there were animals and no men, there seems no necessity of ex-
tending the flood thither.''
The bishop further argues that the reason for " preserv-
ing living creatures in the ark," was that there might be
a stock of the tame and domesticated animals that should
be immediately " serviceable for the use of men after the
flood ; which was certainly the main thing looked at in
the preservation of them in the ark, that men might have
all of them ready for their use after the flood ; which
could not have been, had not the several kinds been pre-
served in the ark, although we suppose them not destroyed
in all parts of the world." *
The eminent nonconformist divine, Matthew Poole,
wrote as follows, in his Latin Synopsis of Critical Wri-
ters upon the Bible.
" It is not to be supposed that the entire globe of the earth was
covered with water. Where was the need of overwhelming those
regions in which there were no human beings 1 It would be highly
unreasonable to suppose that mankind had so increased, before the
Deluge, as to have penetrated to all the corners of the earth. It is
indeed not probable that they had extended themselves beyond the
limits of Syria and Mesopotamia. Absurd it would be to afhrin that
the effects of the punishment inflicted upon men alone, applied to
places in which there were no men. If then we should entertain the
belief that not so much as the hundredth part of the globe was over-
spread with water, still the Deluge would be universal, because the
extirpation took effect upon all the part of the world which was in-
habited. If we take this ground, the difficulties which some have
raised about the Deluge, fall away as inapplicable and mere cavils;
* Origines Sacrae, Book III. Chap. iv. Ed. 1709, p. 337.
PRICHARD. 255
and irreligious persons have no reason left them, for doubting of the
truth of the Holy Scriptures."*
The same pious and learned author repeats the senti-
ment in his English Annotations, published after his
death. " Peradventure this flood might not be simply uni-
versal over the whole earth, but only over the habitable
world, where either men or beasts lived ; which was as
much as either the meritorious cause of the flood, the sins
of men ; or the end of it, the destruction of all men and
beasts ; required."!
To the same effect, Le Clerc and the younger Rosen-
muller might be quoted ; but it cannot be necessary. Yet
I may add that my hearers and readers will derive addi-
tional satisfaction from perusing the observations on this
subject of Dr. Prichard, a man whose amiable and Chris-
tian character adds a bright ornament to his scientific and
philological eminence. He states the difficulties, and
methods for removing them. But though he declines giv-
ing a decided opinion, the inclination of his judgment ap-
pears to be in favour of the limited locality of the
deluge.J
But, I almost hear the exclamation from a thousand
tongues, What are you doing 1 Whither are you driv-
* Non putandum est totum terrae globum aquis tectum fuisse. Quid
opus erat illas mergere terras ubi homines non erant? Stultum est putare
ante diluvium homines ita multiplicatos fuisse ut omnes terraee angulos
pervaserint, cum ne Syriee quidem et Mesopotamia fines forsan excesse-
rant. Absurdum autem est dicere, ubi nullae hominum sedes, illic etiam
viguisse effectus pcenae solis hominibus inflictaa. Licet ergo credamus ne
centesimam quidem orbis partem aquis fuisse obrutam, erit nihilominus di-
luvium universale, quia clades totum orbem habitatum oppressit. Sic si
statuerimus, jam cessabunt ineptee istae et futilesqueestiones quas nonnulli
de Diluvio moverunt, et simul improbis de Sacrarum Literarum veritate
dubitandi omnis praeripietur occasio." Synops. in Gen. vii. 19-
t On the same passage. Mr. Poole died in 1679.
t See his Researches into the Physical History of Mankind j Vol. I.
pp. 93—102.
256 APPREHENSIONS ALLAYED.
ing 1 Are you not trampling upon, not the inspiration
only, but the veracity of the Holy Scriptures % Are you
not representing the God of truth, speaking through the
medium of his inspired servants, as uttering that which is
not true ] Let it be freely admitted that it is no part of
the design of God, in giving a revelation of his moral
will, to communicate lessons of physical philosophy ; yet
this does not involve the admission that, when the instru-
ments of revelation advert to physical causes and opera-
tions, they should not speak according to the reality of
things. A well informed and correct speaker, when he is
talking freely about common affairs, and when nothing is
farther from his mind than to be teaching history or geog-
raphy, yet will not so express himself as to imply ignor-
ance of historical or geographical facts. Surely we can-
not think less of the inspired writers. " If Moses professes
by divine inspiration to give an account of the manner in
which the world was framed, he must describe the facts
as they occurred."* This may seem an unanswerable ob-
jection ; but will it stand before a fair examination 1 I
think not ; for two reasons.
1. It is impossible to deny that the Scripture does use
language, even concerning the highest and most awful of
objects, God and his perfections and operations, which we
dare not say is literally true, or that it is according to the
reality of the things spoken of. I entreat renewed atten-
tion to the evidence which I have adduced. Will any
man deny, that the Scripture, in places innumerable, par-
ticularly in the earlier books, speaks of God as having the
bodily form and members of a man, and the mental and
imperfect affections of men 1 Or will any say that such
descriptions and allusions are properly true ; that they
* The excellent and amiable man, the late Rev. Richard Watson, in
his Theological Institutes ; Vol. I. p. 273.
APPREHENSIONS ALLAYED. 257
are according to the reality of things 1 Shall we, can
we, believe that the Infinite, Eternal, and Unchangeable
Being, comes and goes, walks and flies, smells, hears, and
sees, and has heart and bowels, hands, arms, and feet %
Or that he deliberates, inquires, suspects, fears, ascer-
tains, grieves, repents, and is prevailed upon by importu-
nity to repent again and resume a rejected purpose % Do
not the same Scriptures furnish us amply with the proper
exponents of those figurative and, strictly speaking, de-
grading terms 1 Do they not, for example, tell us ; " God
is not a man, that he should lie ; neither the son of man,
that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do \ Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good]
1 am Jehovah: I change not."* What then will ye
do, ye worthy men that make this objection] Must ye
not admit that the language of inspiration is couched on
the plan of the boldest figures 1 Such figures as, if we
were not protected by this authority, we should not dare
to employ 1 And do ye not always explain that language
by stripping off the figurative coverings, and drawing
forth the simple truth, which ye then express in some kind
of abstract phrase, metaphysically more accurate, but far
less mighty to impress the human mind 1 — You are con-
vinced that this is necessary : and you do not for a mo-
ment admit that, in doing this, you derogate from the
truth and inspiration of the Bible. Apply then your just
methods of interpretation to this case : I ask no more.
Mr. Romaine lays down the principle, in saying, " The
Holy Spirit does not reveal God to us as he is in himself,
but as he stands related to us :" and this knowledge is
best conveyed to mankind in the style of condescension
to our own low estate of acts and habits, feelings and lan-
guage.
If the view of the range of inspiration, that its proper
* Num. xxiii. 19. Mai. iii. 6.
22*
238 FINAL RESULT.
and sole reference is to religious subjects, be rejected, it will
inevitably follow that we must impute error to the Spirit
of God. Abhorred be the thought. We must sup-
pose to be physically correct, those declarations concern-
ing the astral worlds, the phenomena of the atmosphere,
and the human frame, which have been mentioned : we
must regard the inferior creatures as " made to be taken
and destroyed,"* in defiance of all our knowledge that the
whole animal creation is formed for an immense variety
of beneficent purposes, partly no doubt unknown to us,
but in a very great measure manifest by the clearest and
most beautiful proofs.
2. The Mosaic narrative is, manifestly and undeniably
as we have seen, so expressed in that style of condescen-
sion, and particularly in the manner suited to the men of
primeval times. Yet, when read and understood, as all
language is required to be, by the conversion of what is
figurative and idiomatical into plain diction, it is a faith-
ful description of the facts that did occur, and the method
and order of their occurrence.
I have now reached the point at which, from the be-
ginning of these lectures, I have been aiming. I speak
my own conviction, and I trust I have brought forwards
sufficient evidence to support that conviction, that the
alleged discrepance between the Holy Scriptures and the
discoveries of scientific investigation, is not in reality,
but in semblance only : in particular, that the Scriptures,
fairly interpreted, are not adverse to a belief in an immea-
surably high antiquity of the earth; in the reference of
the six days' work to a part only of the earth's surface ;
in the position of several centres of creation, distinct
from each other, on the surface of the globe ; in the reign
* 2 Pet. ii. 12. Not well rendered "natural brute beasts :" for the clause
oXoya (wa, <pv<xiKa, strictly signifies irrational animals, governed by natural
instinct.
FINAL RESULT. 259
of death over the inferior animals, from the earliest exist-
ence of organized earthly beings ; and in a limited extent
of the deluge which swept away the remnant of a self-
destroying race, saving one family, which " found grace
in the eyes of the Lord."
I have not attempted to do this by affirming that the
Scriptures teach the sciences ; or that their language can
be forced, by any grammatical or critical ingenuity, into
a literal accordance with scientific truths : but by addu-
cing abundant evidence to show that the Author of reve-
lation spoke to mankind in such language as they were
accustomed to use, such as they could most readily un-
derstand, and such as must ever remain the most affect-
ing and impressive to the human heart.
Let it also be observed, that the principle of interpre-
tation here brought forwards is entirely independent of
facts in Natural History, or doctrines of Geology, or any
other branch of Natural Science. If those facts be de-
nied and those doctrines disapproved, still this mode of
understanding the figurative language of Scripture will
not be affected ; it stands upon its own evidence, and
cannot, I conceive, be overthrown.
It follows then, as a universal truth, that the Bible,
faithfully interpreted, erects no bar against the most free
and extensive investigation, the most comprehensive and
searching induction. Let but the investigation be suffi-
cient, and the induction honest. Let observation take its
farthest flight ; let experiment penetrate into all the re-
cesses of nature ; let the veil of ages be lifted up from all
that has been hitherto unknown, if such a course were
possible ; religion need not fear, Christianity is secure,
and true science will always pay homage to the Divine
Creator and Sovereign, " of whom and through whom
and to whom are all things ; and unto wdiom be glory for
ever."
LECTURE VIII.
Ecclesiastes xii. 13. Let us hear the conclusion of the
whole matter ; Fear God, and keep his commandments :
for this is the whole \duty~\ of man.*
" The whole of man :" instruction for his duty, direc-
tion in his difficulties, consolation in his sorrows, triumph
in death, and the boundless bliss of knowledge and holi-
ness to eternity. But the fear of God and the observance
of his commandments are no servile and narrow habits of
mind. The Scriptures abundantly show that they com-
prehend, or by just deduction lead to, all that is true in
knowledge and noble in feeling. " The High and Lofty
One, who inhabiteth eternity," builds also his temple in
"the contrite heart." He has made it our duty, and a
part of the filial " fear" which we owe to him, that we
should acquire all that we can of sound information con-
cerning his perfections and his works. " He giveth to a
man that is good in his sight, wisdom and knowledge and
joy ;" and it is laid down as one of the characters of the
impious, that " they regard not the works of the Lord,
nor the operation of his hands. "f
When the Committee of the Congregational Lecture
did me the honour of the invitation to deliver the course
of this year, I could not but feel grateful for the opportu-
nity thus afforded, of making an attempt to rescue from
misapprehension a branch of research into the works of
* " It will not be unwelcome to the serious reader to have this passage
laid before him in a close translation. "The finishing lesson, the total,
let us hear ; Revere God, and keep his commandments : for this [con'
cerns] every one of mankind."
t Eccl. ii. 26. Psa. xxviii. 5.
PURSUITS OF SCIENCE. 261
God, which at the present time attracts the attention of
men, beyond all former example ; and of offering an hum-
ble contribution for advancing the influence of religion,
as the rightful associate of all other knowledge.
It is incumbent on me to state that, beyond a general
approbation of the subject, the Committee is not answer-
able for any thing that has been advanced. The senti-
ments and arguments which have been submitted to you,
rest upon the responsibility of the lecturer alone.
There are some remaining subjects respecting which
I am desirous of obtaining the approbation of my indul-
gent auditors ; especially of the young persons, who are
the delight of our families and the hope of our churches ;
— " for ye are our glory and joy."
I. I congratulate you upon the increasing attention
which is evidently paid to the objects of sensible science.
By the studies of Natural History, my young friends, you
become acquainted with " the wondrous works of Him
that is excellent in knowledge ; and, by those of Natural
Philosophy, you investigate the causes and results of the
changes which you or others have observed in the objects
noticed by your senses. This is a part, at least, of what
the wise man describes as " applying the heart to know,
and to search, and to seek out wisdom and the reason of
things."* It is a subject for much thankfulness to the
Author of all good, that so many of you have been fur-
nished, by the affectionate liberality of your parents, with
the means of laying a foundation for these acquisitions, and
of commencing to build worthily upon that foundation.
Yet those who have been thus favoured in a less degree
ought, by no means, to be discouraged. It is an humili-
ating fact, that the class of persons which has enjoyed
such opportunities in their most perfect form, is not uni-
* Eccl. vii. 25.
262 IMPERFECTION.
versally found to make a correspondent improvement of
them. On the other hand, the honours of science have
been sustained, and its bounds enlarged, in the greater
number of directions, and, in superior degrees, by those
who, nearly or altogether unaided, have risen to eminence
by their own diligence and perseverance in the cultivation
of talent.
The advice has been often and very properly given,
that you should beware of satisfying yourselves with su-
perficial acquirements. But this recommendation needs
to be better understood than it sometimes is. A vicious
superficialism is when self-fondness persuades a man, and
urges him to endeavour to persuade others, that his know-
ledge is something great ; that he has studied to an ex-
tent which he has not done, and has made attainments
which he has not made. Such affectation involves the guilt
of falsehood ; and it is sure to defeat its own end, and bring
its merited punishment.
But there is a sense in which it must be said that
most, even of cultivated minds, possess but superficial
knowledge. It is one of our blessings, by God's kind
providence, to live in a time when literature, science,
and the arts are cultivated so assiduously ; and their re-
sults are proclaimed so widely ; that the necessity of ac-
quiring general knowledge is strongly impressed, and the
means of the acquisition are afforded with unexampled fa-
cility. To many, however, the measure of such acquisition
must be imperfect. The indispensable cares and labours
of our earthly condition present insurmountable obsta-
cles : and there are duties of personal religion and of social
life which possess an infinitely higher obligation, and the
neglect of which would bring guilt upon our own conscien-
ces, and injury upon our dearest connexions. Far from
happy would be the possession of even great attainments,
purchased at such a cost.
SELF-IMPROVEMENT. 263
Let us then never be reluctant to acknowledge the ig-
norance, which we have not been able to remove. Let us
not put on the flimsy show of a knowledge, which we do
not possess. Let us be ever open to the confession, that
such or such a subject is one with which we have not been
favoured to obtain an accurate acquaintance. The in-
genuous state of mind which thus expresses itself, will
bring no shame; and it will very often be the means of
opening a valuable door of information and improvement ;
partly by its exciting influence on ourselves, and partly
by its conciliating the attention of our more accomplished
friends.
These considerations not only impress upon us some
admonitions, but they justify the exhortations, which I am
presuming to give, that (in subordination to the richest
jewel and sweetest charm of life, the religion of Christ,
and in a well regulated connexion with all domestic and so-
cial obligations,) my young friends would invigorate their
minds by literary, mathematical, and scientific pursuits.
This must, generally and chiefly, be accomplished by what
Milton so strenuously eulogizes, as the education which a
man gives himself.
Let us suppose that a foundation has been laid in a
good general education, in which the rudiments of the
Mathematics have been solidly taught; for without
that preparation the exact sciences cannot be efficiently
pursued.* Young persons then enter upon some course
* The observation of Sir John Herschel concerning Astronomy is also
applicable to all other departments of Natural Philosophy, and it ought to
be engraven on the mind of every aspirant after scientific knowledge.
11 Admission to its sanctuary, and to the privileges and feelings of a votary,
is only to be gained by one means, a sound and sufficient knowledge of
Mathematics, the great instrument of all exact inquiry, without which no
man can ever make such advances in this or any other of the higher de-
partments of science, as can entitle him to form an independent opinion
on any subject of discussion within their range." Treatise on Astronomy ;
p. 5.
264 STUDIES OF YOUTH.
of life which claims their chief earthly attention. Some
are privileged to enjoy a good measure of evening hours :
let them not neglect the gift which the benignity of Provi-
dence thus confers upon them. Their leisure is a talent
too precious, and its responsibility is a weight too awful,
to be treated lightly. The cultivation of Natural History
and the Sciences will be a dignified means of excluding
those modes of abusing time which are the sin and dis-
c-race of many young persons ; vapid indolence, frivolous
conversation, amusements which bring no good fruit to
the mind or the heart, or such reading as only feasts the
imagination while it enervates the judgment, and dimin-
ishes or annihilates the faculty of command over the
thoughts and affections, a faculty whose healthy exercise
is essential to real dignity of character.
But, there are many of the most estimable men who
cannot enjoy this advantage. The connexions and claims,
whether of business or of professional life, leave them
scarcely any leisure ; and, at the close of each day, both
the mind and the body are wearied to exhaustion. Yet
let them not be discouraged. Let them take unceasing
pains to cultivate the habit of close observation and exact
attention. Let them make up by repetition what they
lack in continuity. Small portions of time, linked to-
gether by constancy of return and closeness of succes-
sion, will form, in months and years, a noble amount of
improvement.
May I then be permitted to advise my young friends
to select that department of solid knowledge, for which
each may possess the best means and opportunities 1
Let this one thing be the body of the building. " This
one thing, do."* You will see the necessity of obtaining
* Not till after the composition of these lectures was I made acquainted
with a circumstance, full of hope and promise; and which presents a
motive for determining, among objects that may seem equally inviting,
STUDIES OF YOUTH. 265
completely and securing firmly, those first truths in any
science which make its foundation: and you will be
that which shall be the first choice. The University of London has made
a Regulation that evtry student, before being admitted to Examination
for his First Degree, shall be examined, among other subjects, in "The
characters and differences of the principal Natural Classes and Orders
belonging to the Flora of Europe, according to the Botanical classifica-
tion of De Candolle." This then fixes the first step in a scientific educa-
tion ; and a more judicious determination could not well be conceived.
It will now be the duty of parents and mstructers every where, to lay
this foundation in early life. From their tenth or twelfth year, boys and
girls should be led to acquaint themselves with every species in the fields,
hedges, and woods within their reach. It will be the most salutary re-
creation from the toils of school ; it will be a strong barrier against indo-
lence and dissipation ; and it will draw on to Zoology and all other de-
partments of natural knowledge, by ohvious and even necessary bands of
affinity. Though but a small number of our young men through the land
may come to be examined for degrees, the spirit of the Regulation ought
to operate 10 the widest extent; and I trust it will. It has led Dr. Lind-
ley (Prof. Bot. Univ. Coll. Loncf.) to compose his new work, " School
Botany ;" for the express purpose of promoting this object. He gives the
monition : " It is necessary that boys should prepare themselves lor it be-
fore they leave school ; and therefore it will be a part of the duty of
school-masters to cause their highest classes to be taught the kind [i. e.
the system] of Botany required by the University." Undoubtedly it has
been from mature consideration that the Council has fixed upon M. De
Candolle's System, instead of the more operose and difficult one of Dr.
Lindley himself: but it has the unwelcome result of counteracting in some
measure the use of his own valuable works. It was hoped that the Sys-
tem which he has elaborated through so many years of study and ex-
ertion, would have come into universal and permanent use. However,
for inconveniences like this, there is no remedy but acquiescence : and let
it be our consolation that De Candolle's System has already made sure of
acccpiance among all nations. Perhaps Dr. Lindley will construct anew
his principal works, to the great benefit of students. It will be needful
and easy for them to add a competent acquaintance with the Linnaean
System, for many indispensable purposes. To this study there is a de-
lightful Introduction expressly for young persons, by Mr. Francis, just
published, "The Little English Flora :" but they must not dispense with
the works of Withering, or Sir James E. Smith, or Sir W. J. Hooker. —
Besides the sentiment which has occasioned this too long note, we ought
not to be insensible to the direct benefit of botanical knowledge, econo-
mically and in agriculture, as well as in relation to Medicine and general
science.
23
266 MAKING PROGRESS.
convinced also of the need of minute accuracy in all de-
tails. This one science, — or you may have chosen a de-
partment of solid and elegant literature, then I would say,
this one object, — make your dwelling place ; and let
others be viewed as accessories of convenience and sta-
bility. Avenues will open into other departments of val-
uable knowledge. Affinities will present themselves of
the most pleasing kind. Mutual illustrations will multi-
ply. Delight will supersede difficulty. Every position
taken up will give a new extent of command ; and by de-
grees a noble allotment will be enclosed from the field
which divine goodness has made the common property
of mankind. Thus, a most desirable amount of literary
or scientific acquirement will be laid up in the stores of
the memory. The very labour of getting these intellec-
tual possessions will be a pleasure, and its own reward ;
and results will probably be obtained, of immediate value
in the arts of life. Your attainments will not be superfi-
cial ; they will be solid and safe, so far as they have pro-
ceeded ; you will have always in your hand good instru-
ments, and you will know how to use them, for making
progress in any direction that may invite. But forget
not the heavenly axiom, " The fear of the Lord is the be-
ginning of wisdom."
II. As a branch of knowledge to which I request these
remarks to be especially applied, I invite you to the
studies of Geology.
Here I avail myself of a paragraph, expressed with
his usual felicity and force, by one of the most favoured
sons of science, and to whom already I have been largely
indebted.
" By the discoveries of a new science (the very name of which
has been but a few years engrafted on our language) we learn that
the manifestations of God's power on the earth have not been
limited to the few thousand years of man's existence. The geologist
GEOLOGY RECOMMENDED. 267
tells us, by the clearest interpretation of the phenomena which his
labours have brought to light, that our globe has been subject to vast
physical revolutions. He counts his time, not by celestial cycles, but
by an index he has found in the solid framework of the globe itself.
He sees a long succession of monuments, each of which may have
required a thousand ages for its elaboration. He arranges them in
chronological order, observes in them the marks of skill and wisdom,
and finds within them the tombs of the ancient inhabitants of the
earth. He finds strange and unlooked for changes in the forms and
fashions of organic life, during each of the long periods he thus con-
templates. He traces these changes backwards, through each suc-
cessive era, till he reaches a lime when the monuments lose all sym-
metry, and the types of organic life are no longer seen. He has then
entered on the dark age of nature's history, and he closes the old
chapter of her records. This account has so much of what is ex-
actly true, that it hardly deserves the name of figurative descrip-
tion."*
* Sedgwick's Studies of Cambridge; p. 25. My reader will thank
me for introducing here a passage from another ornament of the same
University. "The spirit of geological observation is so widely diffused
and so thoroughly roused, that I trust we need not anticipate any pause
or retardation in the career of Descriptive Geology. I confess indeed for
my own part, I do not look to see the exertions of the present race of ge-
ologists surpassed by any who may succeed them. The great geological
theorizers of the past belong to the Fabulous Period of the science ; but
I consider the eminent men by whom I am surrounded as the Heroic Age
of Geology. They have slain its monsters and cleared its wildernesses;
and founded here and there a great metropolis, the queen of future em-
pires. They have exerted combinations of talents, which we cannot hope
to see often again exhibited; especially when the condition of the science
which produced them is changed. I consider that it is now the destiny
of Geolouy to pass from the heroic to the Historical Period. She can
no longer look for supernatural successes : but she is entering upon a ca-
reer, I trust a long and prosperous one, in which she must carry her vigi-
lance into every province of her territory, and extend her dominion over
the earth, till it becomes, far more truly than any before, a universal em-
pire." The Rev. Wm. Whewell, in his Address as President of the Geol.
Soc. Feb. 15, 1839. The concluding sentiment referred only to human
dominions, civil or intellectual. I am sure that the learned and estimable
speaker is not indifferent to the unearthly empire of Christianity, which
God has destined to be the parent of virtue and happiness, knowledge
and peace, to all nations.
268 SCRIPTURE DIFFICULTIES.
We have seen, however, that this science brings us
into a situation which we cannot but feel most unwelcome
and even distressing. In these lectures it has been suffi-
ciently shown that some of the most evident geological
facts carry the appearance of being at variance with the
declarations of Holy Scripture ; and that many of our
friends, men of ardent piety and Christian excellence, not
perceiving any mode of conciliation, deny and reject, with
great vehemence, our statement of those facts.
In the last lecture, a principle was explained and es-
tablished which to me appears capable of removing the
difficulty, in a way that ought to satisfy impartial minds.
But it would be too presumptuous in me, to indulge the
hope that this mode of solution will be satisfactory to
those prepossessed persons ; or to others, who take up an
opinion at first sight, and are not disposed to go through
the course of investigation which is necessary for a proper
understanding of the question. I cannot but fear that it
must have the fate of the Newtonian Philosophy ; and
must wait its time, till pious and learned men shall be con-
vinced that their objections are groundless.
I cannot imagine any motive but the excellent one of
veneration for the Bible, that can induce a pious mind
to feel satisfied with the idea which attributes to the first
exercise of creating power, a date so recent as six or
seven thousand years ago. Yet we may reasonably ask,
Ought the mind of a Christian to sit down with passive
acquiesence in this persuasion 1 A commencement of
creation unquestionably must have been : and before that
point, from eternity, the All-sufficient Jehovah was his
own universe. But what reason, viewing the subject
solely in itself, can we have for assuming that we are liv-
ing in so early a stage of the flow of time 1 What objec-
tion can we, a race of poor, feeble, sinful c reatures, pre-
tend to set up against the idea that the glories of the Crea-
SCRIPTURE DIFFICULTIES. 269
tor had been displayed, in diffusing a holy and happy ex-
istence through worlds upon worlds, and throughout ages
which man cannot number, before he called human kind
into existence 1 If it be said that the " great mystery of
godliness," the display of the divine perfections in the
work of Redemption, forbids such an extent of our con-
ceptions ; I would reply, with humility and deference, that
the objector has forgotten the grand attribute of Deity,
the basis of all the Divine Perfections, — Infinity. He is
measuring Jehovah by a standard applicable only to crea-
tures. — And are not the purposes of God, including the
glorious plan of salvation to a lost world (Eph. i. 4, 5 ; iii.
11,) from eternity % — To my judgment and feeling, the
grandeur of of those heavenly counsels is presented to
us more sublimely by the views for which I have been
pleading, of the extent, antiquity, and endless duration of
the products of God's creative power and provident wis-
dom.*
But, why do you not let these matters alone 1 Why
do you bring them before the Christian public, distressing
the minds of pious persons, and incurring the danger of
shaking the faith of your weaker brethren %
I am bound to acknowledge that my own breast is no
stranger to the feelings involved in these queries. Scarce-
* Let the reader turn back to the quotation from Mr. Scrope in page
129.— What materials for reflection lie deep in this sentence of the wise
and devout Richard Baxter ! " I meddle only with mankind ; not with
angels. Nor will I curiously inquire whether • e were any other world
of men created and destroyed, before this had being." Saints' Everlast-
ing Rest; p 115, ed. 1633. Thus the mind of this good and great man
did not absolutely reject the notion of a prior race even of beings like our-
selves; though such a notion would have appeared much more in colli-
sion with the Scriptures than the admission of creatures quite different
from the human. Geology confirms the scriptural doctrine concerning
the origin of man. and supplies proofs that man is among the newest pro-
ductions of the Creator's power, and that our kind had no existence be-
fore Adam.
23*
270 THEY MUST BE ENCOUNTERED.
ly can I turn out of my heart emotions approaching to
envy, at the tranquil state of many of my fellow-Christians.
Happily ignorant, exempt from perplexities and conflicts,
at least on such subjects as this, they spend their blame-
less lives in the exercises of piety, usefulness to mankind,
and all the sweet enjoyments of religion ; they go down
to the grave in peace, and the angel of death leads their
purified spirits to the perfection of heaven. — Would we
harass them on their pilgrimage 1 — Far, far from it ! —
Alas, the choice is not left with us! These subjects are
not allowed to lie in concealment. They are bruited
abroad. If Christians can be quiet, infidels will not be
so.* " The arrow flieth by day, and the pestilence walk-
eth in darkness." Not only in books of philosophy, but
in the periodical journals and common literature of the
day, in this country and in others, in Europe and in
America, by various phrase, covertly and openly, coarsely
and politely, it is proclaimed that Cuvier has supplanted
Moses, that Geology has exploded Genesis. There is a
class of persons, who understand the scientific side of the
difficulty enough to make out of it an excuse for open in-
fidelity, or secretly cherished skepticism ; and thus they
are able to pacify their consciences in a contemptuous
neglect of the evidence and authority of religion. Do
we owe no regard to those persons 1 Have we no sym-
pathy for them ; no consideration for the educational and
other unhappy causes of their doubts 1 Are not their
souls as precious as our own] Is not their state, before
God and for eternity, as important as ours 1 Can we prevail
upon them to unlearn their knowledge, to stifle the convic-
tions of their judgment, or to suppress the avowal of those
* "The time has come when the whole question must be understood
and settled by the friends of Revelation, unless they wish it to be turned
to evil account by its enemies." An Anti-infidel Geologist, Christ. Observ.
May, 1834; p. 313.
NECESSITY OF DECLARING OUR VIEWS. 271
convictions 1 And if we could ; if they were to prom-
ise silence and to keep the promise ; would religion be
served thereby 1 Examples have not been wanting of
complimentary verbiage, with affected solemnity, offered
to the Christian religion ; while the fraternity of conceal-
ed unbelievers can look significantly at each other, and
mutually build up their self-flattery and pride ; as if they
were men immeasurably superior to the vulgar, but who,
to sooth prejudice and flatter public opinion, are willing
to uphold a style of conventional hypocrisy.
But, can we not throw ourselves into the arms of our
brethren in the faith, who, as we have seen, summarily
dispose of the whole matter 1 — We cannot. First ; our
own convictions stand in the way. The facts cannot be
set aside : they are too numerous, too various and inde-
pendent, and too weighty in their character as grounds
of reasoning. Secondly ; if we could so put off our rea-
sonable faculties, the great cause would not be relieved.
It would be far more deeply injured. The body of scien-
tific men, in every country, would only be confirmed in
their hostility, and the more completely discharged from
keeping terms with us: while we should be the men that
laid Christianity under the feet of its adversaries.*
* " From ill informed, or too often prejudiced persons, we hear fre-
quent remarks disparaging the inquiries and conclusions of the Geologist,
while they allow and applaud the inferences of the Astronomer and the
Chemist. They condemn as visionary and presumptuous the results of
the one as to the antiquity of 3trata, and the successive eras of animal
organization, the monuments of which are before their eyes ; while they
revere as unquestionable truths the most marvellous and paradoxical in-
ferences of the other, which refer to subjects utterly beyond the scope of
the senses, to periods and distances which transcend our arithmetical
powers to conceive, and to processes of nature which exceed our facul-
ties to apprehend. Yet, when the Geologist contends that the crust of
the earth, with its organized productions, has been gradually brought into
its present condition, by a series of creative changes, going on through
millions of ages; his conclusion is condemned as chimerical and danger-
272 DANGER OF ERRONEOUS NOTIONS.
Hence arises a motive of the greatest force to quicken
our endeavours to diffuse every where just principles for
understanding the figurative language of Scripture. We
cannot but be affected by the prevalence of ignorance and
misconception on this point ; and the consequent influ-
ence of those misconceptions upon the formation of reli-
gious sentiments and their practical results. The elo-
quent profusion of striking Scripture-language, in sermons
and treatises and poems, yet without the accompaniment
of just caution and correct interpretation, has made many
enthusiasts and many infidels ; and not a few have rushed
from the one extreme to the other. The unexplained as-
cription of human forms and passions to the Deity leads
some to breathe the atmosphere of a piety imaginative
and picturesque indeed, but degrading to its glorious Ob-
ject and nursing most pernicious fancies in its subjects :
and it helps forward another class in their injurious con-
ceptions of the attributes and government of God; for
these are ideas which they are very ready to accept, as a
bolstering up of secret skepticism. In their own minds,
they put upon the adorable One a garb of unreasonable,
turbulent, and changeful passions ; instead of represent-
ing him as the Being all whose attributes are perfections,
fixed and invariable principles of rectitude and wisdom.
Thus, the pure character and the reasonableness of moral
obedience, and the inviolability of the law that requires
it, are thrown out of sight ; the necessity of a Divine
Saviour is therefore hidden from view ; the whole econ-
ous. They allow the full claims of the human mind, to assign spaces
and periods which transcend the flights of the loftiest imagination : yet
they talk of the arrogance of the Geologist in pretending to maintain
that, millions of years ago, the world was going on, governed by the
same physical laws which prevail now, and replete with vegetable and
animal life in all its varied forms of perfection and adaptation to a state of
things of which the existing order is only one of a series of gradual and
regular changes." Prof. Powell's Connexion ; pp. 67, 69.
DANGER OF ERRONEOUS NOTIONS. 273
omy of redeeming grace is distorted ; Christianity is rep-
resented as an irrational dream ; and the best hopes of
man are thrown to the winds. But, how often does a
melancholy reaction take place, and the empire of super-
stition succeed to that of scorn ! Sorrow and desolation,
age and death, present themselves ; and the miserable
victim, " ignorant of God's righteousness," and never
having cast the anchor of his soul "within the vail," is
overwhelmed with terrors, and flees into the arms of
some foolish and delusive scheme, for relief from the
scourge of a terrified conscience : — a false relief, to be
followed by the bitterest aggravations of disappointment,
and the death of hope ! To prevent such ruin, let us do
all in our power to inculcate just views of the true mean-
ing of Scripture-imagery, the unalterable perfections of
God, the majesty of his holiness, the riches of his grace,
and the exceeding greatness of his power, through faith
in Christ, to liberate our souls from sin and wretchedness,
and raise them to immortal purity, activity and joy.
This is "the glorious gospel of the Blessed God; — the
truth according to godliness, in hope of eternal life,
which God who cannot deceive (6 aipevd^g Oeog) has
promised before the w T orld began."*
Our religion, — blessed be God ! — is not a religion of
contrivance and expediency. We want only Truth : and
we cannot barter it for ease, custom, or fashion.
Is it not then our duty, as honest men and Christians,
to make ourselves somewhat more than superficially ac-
quainted with the evidence in this case ; and to take some
pains in diffusing correct knowledge upon it 1
This is the proceeding which I humbly recommend; and
to promote which has been the design of these lectures. f
* 1 Tim. i. 11. Tit. i. 1, 2.
t "The subject before us is not one which can be advantageously
discussed with the people at large." [Meaning, no doubt, in sermons.]
274" VALUE OF TRUTH.
III. I would entreat my friends to consider what are
the proper accompaniments of all human knowledge, if it
be sought and employed in the manner that becomes rea-
sonable and accountable creatures.
Science is the knowledge of truth. Its proper ten-
dency is to augment our desire to obtain higher measures
of that possession ; and to increase our love to that truth
of which it is the image. But all truth is connected with
all other truth, by natural alliances numerous and ever
multiplying. Physical truth, though the fact is often
overlooked, has much in common with moral truth. From
a sound acquaintance with the kingdoms of nature, innu-
merable benefits accrue to the comfort and always ex-
tending usefulness of the life that now is : and we thus
" A wide range of facts and an extensive course of induction are neces-
sary to the satisfactory exhibition of geological truths; and especially to
establish their connexion and harmony with the Mosaic history. It is
a subject exclusively for the learned, or at least for the studious and the
reflecting. But it can no longer be neglected with safety by those whose
province it is to illustrate and defend the sacred writings. The crude,
vague, unskilful, and unlearned manner in which it has been too often
treated, when treated at all, by those who are to a great extent ignorant
of the structure of the globe, or who have never studied it with any effi-
cient attention, can communicate only pain to those friends of the Bible
who are perfectly satisfied, after full examination, that the relation of
geology to sacred history is now as little understood, by many theolo-
gians and biblical critics, as astronomy was in the time of Galileo.
There is but one remedy. Theologians must study geology : or, if they
will not, or from peculiar circumstances cannot do it, they must be satis-
fied to receive its demonstrated truths from those who have learned them
in the most effectual way, not only in the cabinet, but abioad on the
face of nature and in her deep recesses. They will then be convinced,
that geology is not an enemy but an ally of revealed religion ; that the
subject is not to be mastered by mere criticism ; that criticism must be
applied to facts as well as to words; and that there is, at most, only an
apparent incongruity, an incongruity which vanishes before investigation."
Dr. Silliman (Prof. Chem. Yale Coll. U. S.) in his App. to a republica-
tion of Mr. Bakewell's Geology, near the close; published separately in
London, by Mr- J. S. Hodson, with the title, Consistency of the Dis-
coveries of Modern Geol. with the Sacred Hist. 1837.
VALUE OF TRUTH. 275
obtain enlarging convictions of the pernicious consequen-
ces of ignorance and false opinions. From the want of
knowledge in some branches of science, many a nattering
project has been marred, much property has been thrown
away, families have been ruined, and the public has been
injured. This has been remarkably the case from the
want of geological knowledge. Almost incredible might
appear the history of disappointments and pecuniary
losses which have been produced by this cause, in laying
down lines of road, in selecting materials for road-making
and stone for building, in making cuttings and tunnels,
in sinking for coal, and in the economy of metallic mines.
Hence we may derive lessons, by reasonable analogy, to
enforce the scriptural precept, in its moral aspects, as
well as in every other : " Buy the truth and sell it not."
It is a treasure above all price, and nothing can compen-
sate for the loss of it. Ignorance and error, in relation
to God, our duty to him and expectations from him, are
the causes of unbelief, impenitence, insensibility to the
evidences and claims of revealed religion, and all sinful
affections and conduct ; what the inspired author calls
" foolish and pernicious lusts which drown men in de-
struction and perdition."* But a mind which ingenu-
ously loves Truth, will "search for it as for hidden trea-
sure ;" and will see a beauty in moral and religious truth
transcending every other kind of excellence, and connect-
ing itself with the glories of eternity.
Well-conducted studies also tend to promote a right
estimation of Evidence universally, a wise discrimination
of its various kinds, and the habit of regarding it with
integrity and fidelity.
These qualities of mind are congenial with others,
which advance still higher the holy edifice in our minds :
such are a profound sense of the universal presence and
• lTim.vi.9.
V «
276 ETERNITY AND RETRIBUTION.
the infinite perfections of God, veneration and filial love
to him, cordial submission to his authority, delight in his
precepts, the thankful reception of his gospel, and the
repose of the soul in Him as the ground of its immortal
hopes.
So shall we answer the purposes of our existence, and
shall be prepared for the momentous changes which are
hastening on, and in which we have a never-dying in-
terest. Infinite happiness or infinite wo will be the re-
sult of a due regard to these considerations, or a contempt
of them. This result for eternity will be the product of
our present character, as it is seen by the Omniscient ;
a product necessary, by the laws of our intellectual nature,
and just under the government of eternal rectitude.*
God has written the lesson of responsibility and retri-
bution upon the large scale of affinity and sequence,
through the whole empire of nature. The felicities of
holiness and the punishments of sin, are not arbitrary
inflictions, but grow out of the necessary constitutions
which the All-wise Sovereign has fixed for the good
order of his universe. Hence, it is not less an inevitable
certainty, from physical truths and rational evidences, than
it is a primary doctrine of the Bible, that "they who hate
knowledge and choose not the fear of the Lord, who re-
ject his counsels and despise his reproof, shall eat of the
fruit of their own way."f
* This portion (p. 276 to 282,) was prepared and written ; but, by a
mortifying accident, was omitted in the delivery of the lectures.
1 Prov. i. 29—31. With this coincide the reasonings of Mr. Babbage,
in his chapter " On the Permanent Impressions of our Words and Ac-
tions on the Globe we inhabit." Laplace had observed that " the curve
described by [the motion ofj a single molecule of air or any fluid is sub-
jected to laws as certain as those of the planetary orbits : there is no dif-
ference between them, but which arises from our ignorance." Mr. Bab-
bage pursues the idea, and shows that tl these aerial pulses, unseen by the
keenest eye, unheard by the acutest ear, unperceived by human senses,
RETRIBUTION. 277
The instruments of his righteousness are in prepara-
tion ; and, how soon they will be ready for action He
knows who created, who sustains, and who governs his
own world. But we need not expect a delay till the work-
ings of the atmosphere and the running waters shall have
worn down the mountains and washed away the plains to
the sea-level. A different point in the course of the
agency which God has ordained, may bring on the catas-
are yet demonstrated to exist by human reason. If man enjoyed a
larger command over mathematical analysis, his knowledge of these mo-
tions would be more extensive : but a being, possessed of unbounded
knowledge of that science could trace every the minutest consequence of
that primary impulse. Such a being, however far exalted above our race,
would still be immeasurably below even our conception of Infinite In-
telligence. Whilst the atmosphere we breathe is the ever-living wit-
ness of the sentiments we have uttered, the waters and the more solid ma-
terials of the globe bear equally enduring testimony of the acts we have
committed. If the Almighty stamped on the brow of the first murderer,
the indelible and visible mark of his guilt; he has also established laws
by which every succeeding criminal is not less irrevocably chained to the
testimony of his crime; for every atom of his mortal frame, through
whatever changes its several particles may migrate, will still retain, ad-
hering to it through every combination, some movement derived from that
very muscular effort by which the crime itself was perpretaled. The soul
of the negro whose fettered body, surviving the living charnel-house of
his infected prison, was thrown into the sea to lighten the ship, that his
Christian master might escape the limited justice at length assigned by
civilized man to crimes whose profits had long gilded their atrocity, will
need, at the last great day of human account, no living witness of his
earthly agony. When man and all his race shall have disappeared from
the face of our planet, ask every particle of air still floating over the un-
peopled earth, and it will record the cruel mandate of the tyrant. Inter-
rogate every wave which breaks unimpeded on ten thousand desolate
shores, and it will give evidence of the last gurgle of the waters which
closed over the head of his dying victim, confront the murderer with
every corporeal atom of his immolated slave, and in its still quivering
movements he will read the prophet's denunciation of the prophet king, —
Thou art the man." Ninth Bridgewater Treat, chap. ix.
But the arm, the tongue, the brain, were but the organism of the mind ;
and for mind with all its machinations God has made equally effective re-
gisters : " and the books will be opened."
24
278 GEOLOGICAL FACTS ADMONITORY.
trophe. Let but the deposits at the bottom of the sea,
over any particular area, proceed to a certain amount of
thickness, and Deity knows, (and he may have disclosed
the event and its time to creatures superior to man,) how-
near we are to the attainment of that point ; and upheav-
ing must take place, escape of the fiery liquid below by
a volcanic vent may not be permitted, new continents
must then be raised from the bed of the sea, and now-ex-
isting land must resume its former place at the bottom of
the waters. It may be said that this is a slower process
than numbers can assign. Be it so : but, before this point
is reached, the operation of the same constant cause may
produce earthquakes and volcanic explosions under the
soil of Great Britain or Germany, or the intermediate
sea ; and in a few moments may send into eternity every
human creature, over a wide district. That these coun-
tries have not been the seat of such destructive outbursts,
within the record of history, or since the creation of man,
forms no objection. That they have been so agitated in
former periods is among the most certain of facts : and
no man can be assured that the renewal of similar events
will not take place, at any hour.
I do not advert to these considerations as if religion
needed them. Its evidences, its authority, and its mo-
tives stand forth full and complete on their own grounds ;
and a few years, or perhaps a few of our rapidly fleeting
days, will bear away each one of us to our personal judg-
ment. But this is one of the lights in which we may view
the interest of geological studies. The records of earth-
quakes and volcanoes, if we contemplated nothing else in
this rich field, are the most awfully impressive that visible
nature affords. The Christian cannot exclude them from
the universal government of God: nor would he, if he
could. Physical events have moral relations. Here we
see large extents of country rising, or sinking down, at
GEOLOGICAL FACTS ADMONITORY. 279
the slow rate of two or three feet in a century : there an
elevation or a depression, of several feet through hundreds
of miles, takes place in a few hours. On our own coasts
are many examples of ancient sea-beaches, even several
in superposition, but far above the highest tide-level of
the present day. In places innumerable of the British
Isles, the early and secondary and tertiary beds have been
upraised, fractured, and pierced through by the melted
rocks from below ; parts of which, having become solid,
as necessarily and speedily they would, form our most
magnificent mountains, and other parts have run in lines
of many miles in length, filling up the cracks and chasms
which the up-bursting force had rent. In many parts of
the ocean which covers three-fourths of the surface of
our globe, new islands have been raised up ; some of which
have soon sunk down, or have been washed away, leaving
dangerous shallows, and others continue to this day and
have become the abodes of life and action. The vestiges
of ancient volcanoes stand up in their unquestionable de-
monstration, in countries next to our own. At distances
a little greater, we find volcanic vents, either in never-
ceasing though temperate action, or at uncertain periods
breaking forth in terrible magnificence. Fifty-six years
ago, in the island geographically near to us, Iceland, the
eruption of the mountain Skaptar Jokul, which was pro-
longed through two years, dried up rivers and filled their
beds, covered valleys of five hundred feet in depth and
overflowed their mountain-limits, and spread its lava-tor-
rents over areas of country from seven to fifteen miles in
breadth, in length forty to fifty, and in various thickness
from one hundred feet to six hundred. Twenty villages
were destroyed, and nearly the fifth part of the population
perished.
In 1797, the old city Riobamba, in Peru, was destroyed
in one day by an earthquake ; and, in a few minutes,
280 CONSTANCY OF CHANGE.
forty-five thousand human beings were thus awfully sent
into eternity.
In 1815, the island of Sumbawa, at the eastern end of
Java, was the scene of volcanic devastation to a most
dreadful extent. The eruptions continued for three
months. Great tracts of land were buried under the lava.
" Violent whirlwinds carried up men, horses, cattle, and
whatever else came within their influence, into the air ;
tore up the largest trees by the roots, and covered the
whole sea with floating timber."* The terrible sound of
the explosions was heard over a range of 1500 miles.
The ashes ejected reached 200 and 300 miles in distance,
covering the sea for some miles with pumice and cinders
to the thickness of two feet, and making the day darker
than the thickest night. " Out of a population of 12,000,
only twenty-six individuals survived on the island."!
Seven years afterwards, in the same island, an erup-
tion took place of the mountain Galongoon, which, with
its deluges of rain and scalding mud, destroyed 114 villa-
ges and 4000 persons.
Thus the instruments of change are incessantly at
work, in modifying and altering the surface of the planet
which the adorable Creator has appointed for our dwelling-
place, in this incipient state .of being. The examination
of the earth affords us an insight into its state and many
of the changes through which it has passed, before it as-
sumed its present condition ; and spreads before us vol-
umes of evidence that those changes have been produced
by the same instrumental causes that we see working at
the present moment. The intensity has varied : different
states or circumstances have augmented or diminished
their resulting forces ; but the causality, mediate as well
as primary, has been of the same kind ; and the variations
* Lyell's Princip. Geol. II. 200 ; from Sir T. S. Raffles's Java, t lb.
CONSTANCY OF CHANGE. 281
of intensity have affected but a small portion of the im-
measurable system of Jehovah's empire, and have been
all the effect of more general laws. Every thing that we
can observe, and every deduction that we can form, pre-
sents the glorious unfoldings of beauty and majesty, the
progressive triumphs of wisdom and beneficence.
We ought not to omit the observation, that the causes
of most extensive operations are and have been the most
silent and quiet. The volcano and the earthquake, neces-
sary as their part has been in carrying on the economy
of God's physical government, have had to perform a
much inferior part compared with the slow and tranquil
processes of deposition, consolidation, elevation, crystal-
lization, cleavage, and electric affinities continually
acting. Those hidden operations, whose depth and
breadth and length were to be the elements of the most
important results through a vast futurity, have in all past
time been effected, and now are proceeding, in a manner
so gradual, so slow, and yet without any needless con-
sumption of time, as to overwhelm our minds with the
contemplation, and to impress us with conceptions at
once awful and delightful, of the Wisdom, Power, and
Goodness, which have connected incalculable numbers of
beings and events, stretching through ages to which we
are incompetent to apply a measure j so that they all
combine with unfailing accuracy, to effectuate the pur-
poses which only Infinite Perfection could form, or when
formed could execute.
Whether fiery catastrophes shall take place, local and
successive over different regions, or one universal con-
flagration involving the globe in simultaneous destruction,
(improperly so called, for a glorious future will lie be-
yond,) is probably beyond the reach of human knowledge
to determine. How far the prophetic announcements of
Scripture import a literal action of fire, or whether they
24*
282 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY.
are altogether significant of moral changes, are questions,
the resolution of which I presume not to assert.*
IV. There remains another object of my heart's desire,
with which, if I might be gratified, my prayers would be
answered, and my joy be unspeakable. Might I but hope
that those sons of science, to whose labours and our obli-
gations for them so frequent reference has been made,
would be persuaded to give to the noblest objects of con-
templation, a portion of their attention correspondent to
that which they have devoted to objects valuable indeed,
but infinitely inferior ; happy should I be, beyond ex-
pression !
The philosophers, whose names form a wreath of
honour to our own and other nations, cannot but be ob-
jects of regard, with feelings of interest and solicitude to
which no words can give full utterance. Illustrious
men ; we look up to you with more than respect : we ad-
mire and reverence you. Your early acquisitions in
mathematics and the exact sciences, in all that could lay
the foundation of an enduring edifice ; your separation
from the frivolity and vice to the temptations of which
you have been exposed ; your devotement of youth and
manly age, of fortune, health, labour and peril, and
severe studies; your generous readiness in giving to the
public the fruit of your toils ; the debt which physical
science owes you ; the benefits which you have conferred
upon society, for economical and national purposes ; the
excitement and encouragement which you have so readily
given, through wide circles of influence ; all entitle
you to our honour and affection.
But these reasons add to the justness and warmth of
our wishes, that you would adorn all other excellence
with the pearl of greater price. Your penetration into
+ See page 193.
AFFINITIES OF RELIGION. 283
the vastness of space and time, has made you familiar with
the sublimest ideas in nature. Those ideas have brought
you into a contact, incomparably closer than that of ordi-
nary men, with the eternal and the infinite. Is it then
possible, that you do not meditate on eternity and infini-
ty, as subjects in which you have the highest interest 1
The powers of intellect which you so exercise, must have
given to you a more than probable conviction that those
powers are not extinguished by the stroke of death.
Knowing that not an atom of material existence is de-
stroyed, or even fails to come into beneficial uses : you
above all men cannot suppose that moral powers and sus-
ceptibilities sink into annihilation. Witnesses as ye are
to the demonstrations of forecast, wisdom, and design,
upon the grandest scale, in the connexions and adjust-
ments of unintelligent matter ; and to the disclosures of
the same qualities, in forms of still higher magnificence,
through all organized nature, as well the dead memorials
of ancient life, as the wonders of actual animation ; — you
cannot but see the evidence that an all-presiding Mind
exists : nor can you think it reasonable to suppose that He
is not the possessor of all perfections ; of all that is lovely
and all that is awful. You contemplate the laws and you
calculate their results, by which you show us that the
Infinite Being has bound together all the parts of his ma-
terial universe ; that, through their complexity, divine
simplicity reigns ; and that one fundamental law exercises
its sovereignty over the mighty whole. And has it
never occurred to you, that the Lord of the world must
also love every other kind of order ; and must rule by
fixed laws, in his highest domain, the minds which he has
created \ Is it not a reasonable presumption that he has
made known his moral laws, to the beings from whom it
is right that he should expect gratitude, love, and volun-
tary obedience 1 Is it not possible that there may be an
284 AFFINITIES OF RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY.
intercourse, between the human mind and the glorious
Deity 1 Are there even now, no incipient communings
of your spirits with the Infinite Being 1 No aspirations
after a greater good than nature yields'! Are there no
means of securing the favour of the All-Sufficient, and so
of looking forwards to the immortality which awaits you,
with something better than vague hopes ; with rational
joy and confidence!
There are such provisions, made by the Being of su-
preme goodness on behalf of rational and therefore ac-
countable creatures. Christianity presents them. She
opens a portal into the palace of undying purity and hap-
piness, and she invites you to enter.
Astronomers, geologists, and microscopic observers
have peculiar facilities for acquiring the most sublime
conceptions of the Deity ; from their deep, extensive, and
accurate acquaintance with his works. Can they gaze at
the wondrous mechanism with which they are familiar ;
can they calculate its workings, based upon the most re-
condite mathematical truths ; can they predict the results
on the greatest scale and with infallible certainty ; and
yet cherish no admiring and affectionate thoughts of the
Former \ You disclose to the astonished view the ani-
malcules of the living world, or the shells and habitations
of those which peopled their proper stations in the long
past conditions of creation : you witness their exquisite
beauty, their especial adaptations, and the appropriate
places which they fill in the ranks of organized being :
and you show us many species, of which millions of the
individuals do not weigh a grain : and does not this im-
press upon you the weakness of skepticism with respect
to the doctrines of a Divine Redemption, as if they gave
to mankind too much importance in the view of the
Almighty God % Your science carries you back to peri-
ods of past time, the review of which is overwhelming to
MOTIVES AND CAUTIONS. 285
even your well-trained understandings : and do you not
hence gather a presumption of credibility to the plan
arranged from eternity, of holiness and wisdom, for the
highest welfare of human beings'?
There are indications of a thought latent in some
minds, that the Deity cannot be expected to take that no-
tice of the human race, still less of an individual man,
which the Christian religion affirms. But is it possible that
a philosopher, a mathematician, a true student of nature,
can entertain such a thought 1 Accustomed as he is to
the demonstrations of wisdom and power which he cannot
but call infinite, in the farthest regions of the microscopic
world ; he must grant that every unit in the aggregate of
creation, let it be more minute than can be expressed, has
a share as complete in the regards of the Infinite Mind, as
if that unit were the universe. Can it be thought un-
worthy of the Supreme Majesty, or on any ground im-
probable, or indeed any other than a necessary truth, that
He should require the affectionate attachment and the
zealous obedience of each rational creature ; and that he
should govern the intelligent world and every being in it
by a system of the purest moral lawl #
Can such men as you, be enslaved to the prejudices
of little minds 1 — Can you be satisfied with a knowledge
of Christianity, so meager as to be a parallel to that igno-
rance on scientific subjects which provokes your pity 1
When large expatiating and thorough research upon all
other objects, are esteemed indispensable, and are nobly
achieved by you ; can you be contented with fragments
of knowledge about religion, picked up in childhood, or
accidentally and carelessly in the course of life ; and
which have no coherence, no completeness, no standing
* See Supplementary Note H.
286 DR. EDWARD TURNER.
upon well-studied proof; which are often indeed nothing
but vulgar prejudices!*
Did the religion of Dr. Turner, who so long and meri-
toriously filled the office of Secretary to the Geological
Society, impede his exertions in the field of philosophy ;
or in any way depreciate their value 1 The testimony of
his friend Mr. Dale should be inscribed upon the heart of
every man of science. "He received the Bible with im-
plicit deference, not as the word of man, but, as it is in
truth, the word of GOD. — Blameless, excellent as he was,
to outward appearance, in every relation of life, he knew
that he could not abide the scrutiny of one who looked
upon the heart ; and he joyfully took refuge in the com-
fortable doctrine of an Almighty Saviour, one able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him."
When Dr. Turner knew that death was near, he ad-
verted to the perfect calmness of his pulse, and asked,
" What can make it so, at such an hour ! What, but the
power of religion 1 Who, but the Spirit of God 1 1
could not have believed (he said) that I could be happy
on my death-bed. I am content my career should close.
The question was put to him by an anxious relative,
* O that they would practically and efficiently abrogate the distress-
ing monition of one of the distinguished philosophers of our country !
"There is no subject on which the generality, even of educated and rea-
soning persons, are less given to reason than on religion. Hence the
prevalent disposition (even among those who think deeply, and are per-
haps profoundly engaged in philosophical investigations on other sub-
jects) is to avoid all such examination of religious matters ; to adopt no-
minally the established creed without question; to dismiss all particular
distinctions from their thoughts ; or, if questioned, to recur to mystery,
and repose in the incomprehensibility of the doctrine; maintaining this,
too, as in itself the most effectual and legitimate means of cherishing a
due and becoming sentiment of religion. And all this grounded upon and
vindicated by the favourite and fashionable idea, so grateful to human
nature, that religion is altogether a matter of feeling." Powell's Tradi-
tion Unveiled ; p. 62.
CONCLUSION. 287
Is not Christ as good as his word 1 Yes, he faltered,
quite. And, when he had said these words he fell asleep."*
I cannot but add, that any member of the learned and
scientific societies to which Dr. Turner belonged, is doing
himself a wrong if he do not read and deeply ponder the
Sermon which has furnished these extracts.
In a word ; suffer one to entreat you, who puts forth
no claim but that of the sincerest regard, and the warmest
desire for your enjoying happiness of the most exalted
kind and in the most perfect degree. Suffer him to en-
treat, that you would effectually resolve to yield to reli-
gion its rightful place in your minds and your hearts:
that you w r ould give the just proportion of your studies
to the facts and evidences of Christianity, its doctrines
and duties, its promises, its invitations, and its faithful
warnings.
"Glory to God in the highest ; on earth, peace;
among men, good will !"
* The Philosopher entering as a Child, into the Kingdom of God : a
Sermon preached at the Parish Church of St. Bride, Feb. 27, 1837 ; on
the Death of Edward Turner, M. D., F. R. S. &c. by the Rev. Thomas
Dale, M. A. Pp. 24, 23, 29.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
[A.]
Referred to at pages 9 and 242.
In the Congregational Magazine for November, 1837, the inquiry
wasproposed, under the signature of T. K., " Could there be death,
by violent and painful means, before the entrance of sin had deranged
the order of a holy world, or had given occasion for bringing into
action the instruments of violent death V
To this, the following answer was returned : and, as it has been
made an object of controversial attack by Mr. Mellor Brown, and as
it may contribute some further illustration to several of the topics
treated in these lectures, I have thought it not unsuitable to be here
introduced, omitting a few sentences.
The question of your correspondent, T. K., merits the most seri-
ous attention. It forms one, and probably the heaviest, of the two
great difficulties which Christians feel in relation to the discoveries
and doctrines of modern Geology : the first is the alleged necessity of
admitting that God had put forth his creating energy from an era im-
possible to be even conjectured, but stretching back, through immea-
surable periods, from the adaptation of the earth, to be the abode of a
new race of creatures, with man at their head. I have said, alleged
necessity : because that qualifying term is proper at the outset of an
inquiry : but, though 1 cannot now undertake this part of the discus-
sion, I am bound to profess that there is no doubt in my own mind.
I must even go so far as to express my conviction, that it is perfectly
impossible for any intelligent person to understand the facts of the
case, and sit down with any modification of the sentiment which sup-
poses our globe to have been created a few thousand years ago. But
it is much to be lamented, that many well-meaning persons have im-
agined themselves qualified to decide this question, while really un-
acquainted with the essential parts of the argument ; having probably
derived what they suppose to be a competent measure of knowledge
25
290 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
from a perusal of some one or two books, lofty, and even haughty in
assertion, but ignorant, to a degree almost incredible, of the very
grounds on which the inquiry must proceed, so as to have any rea-
sonable prospect of success. Indeed, Geology, as a science deduced by
the severest logic from phenomena which, when once fairly ascer-
tained, a man can no more doubt of, (I think I speak not too strong-
ly,) than he can doubt that it is day when he sees the sun, can scarcely
be said to have come into existence till within the last thirty or forty
years; for it is within such a period that Dr. William Smith's dis-
covery of characteristic fossils to each stratum and series of strata,
laid a foundation, on which many most cautiously practical and rea-
soning geologists have built, and from which, by general accordance,
th£ epithet has been applied to him, the father of Geology. Yet, at
this hour, many excellent persons are reposing upon the belief that
one theory is about as good as another, that the primary doctrines
which prevail among geologists are nothing but ideal hypotheses, not
at all advanced beyond plausible conjectures, mostly at variance with
each other, and that, as fast as one theory is set up, it is found to be
wrong by some succeeding inquirer ; so that, upon the whole, we may
rest satisfied that the right theory has not yet been discovered, and
that the phenomena are not yet justly understood, nor their real bear-
ings discerned. Of such persons there can be no hope, unless they
will take pains in more ways than one, and to a degree which they
have not yet dreamed of. It is no wonder that Geology has risen so
high within but the last fifteen years, and has attracted to it the most
gifted minds in this and other countries : for it is based upon the evi-
dence of sense, in the laborious and protracted examination of mines,
mountain-regions, and less dangerous places without number ; and it
demands, in order to its successful cultivation, an acquaintance with
at least the principles of chemistry, electricity, mineralogy, zoology,
conchology, comparative anatomy, and (as the papers of Mr. Hopkins
and Sir J. F. Herschel have recently shown) of the sublimest mathe-
matics. Thus Geology maintains relations with the whole sphere
of natural knowledge ; and, above all, it bears a most important refer-
ence to Theology and Biblical studies, that we may know truth, and
maintain it against both well-meaning believers and ill-meaning un-
believers, and may magnify " the wondrous works of Him that is
Perfect in knowledge."
I hau no design of launching out thus : let me return to the occa-
sion first mentioned. But I must put down thoughts as they arise, not
having time to arrange them very particularly.
The question is, How can we admit the existence of animal pain
and death, before "sin entered into the world, and death by sin V
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 291
1. The matter of fact must be ascertained. Is there evidence,
such as cannot be set aside, of such facts as the following 1 That the
state of the surface of our globe has been changed by submersion un-
der oceanic or lake water, and frequent elevation and drying, a great
number of times, (say 30 to 40 ;) that each of those successive states
continued during a vast period, which it would be presumptuous to
conjecture, but which might very moderately be taken at many thou-
sands of years ; that, in every one of those states, (till in the descend-
ing order, we arrive at the very early strata,) we find the unques-
tionable remains of animals, or their shelly habitations; that these
are not huddled together, as if drifted on by a torrent, or thrown into
a hole, but are disposed in horizontal, or what was once horizon-
tal, order, spread over large surfaces, often of the same family or
tribe, in all stages of their growth, preserving the most delicate parts
of their form, and thus showing that there they had quietly lived and
died; that of these humble beings, many are shown, by the structure
of the shell, to have been carnivorous^ that, in some far more recent*
members of the secondary class of strata, are found the skeletons of
gigantic lizard-formed animals, with their stomachs remaining under
their ribs, and those stomachs still retaining the more solid relics of
their food, among which are fish-scales, and bits of bone; and that
every stratum has its own characteristic animal and vegetable remains,
the differing natures of which indicate great and progressive altera-
tions in temperature and other circumstances. All these are familiar
facts to the geologist. He sees those remains in the midst of hard
rocks, yea, often composing the chief substance of those rocks; he
digs them out; he sends them to the British and other Museums,
or to be preserved in private collections ; and there the delicate inhab-
itants of cities may see them without pains or peril.
We cannot argue against facts. Let us seek the solution of diffi-
culties in the best way that we can ; but let us proceed with modesty
and humility, ever ready to confess our weakness and ignorance;
thankful for what we may know, submissive in what we cannot know,
and confidently relying on the glorious perfections of God, where we
cannot follow their unfolding. Are there not. ought there not to be,
many things in nature, as well as in providence and grace, of which
it is our privilege to say, " Such knowledge is too wonderful for me:
it is high; I cannot attain unto it ! His judgments area great deep :
—unsearchable ;— past finding out !"
* Rectnt, in a geological sense; but if compared with our common
measures of time, we confess ourselves unable to give an equation. Un-
told thousands of years before the adjustment of the earth for the human
race, would be no extravagant expression.
292 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
2. It has pleased the Adorable Supreme to give existence to a de-
pendent world, in part spiritual, and in part material. Of the mate-
rial part of the universe, one great division is insensitive, and con-
sists, so far as we know, of only aggregated and crystallized matter :
the other is sensitive and its structure is organized ; that is, it is com-
posed of a system, arranged by divine skill, of tubes or cells, in which
fluids circulate, the more solid parts being perpetually in motion of
receiving and giving, each particle passing on in a course of change,
the whole endowed with the mysterious property, or functional pos-
session, called life, and distributed into a classification of kinds, de-
scending from larger to smaller groups, till we arrive at an individ-
ual. The individuals reproduce similar ones : each individual is
born, grows, becomes mature, decays, dies; and the dead organic
matter is seized upon by appropriated agents ; some of which effect a
recombination of certain portions with the mineral kingdom ; others,
being themselves organic and living, both vegetable and animal, take
and recombine withtheir own structure, certain other portions. Thus
all living organized beings are maintained in life by the assimilation
into themselves of portions of dead organized beings : and this is the
universal circle of process in all material nature that is endowed with
life, vegetable and animal.
3. The law of dissolution, that is death, is therefore necessary to
organic life. Each individual has its term ; then it dies, and enables
others to live. Through a vast period, the species continues ; it at
last ceases, but other species of the same genus appear, and enjoy their
time of duration. Mightier cycles revolve, during which great
changes take place in the temperature and the strata of the globe, and
whole genera live no more. The life of man, however, does not ex-
tend to witness the commencement and the extinction of a single spe-
cies : yet the period of the human race upon earth has outlived several
species, some of which obscurely appear in the traditionary history
of nations, and one (the dodo) has become extinct within the last two
hundred years : and finally, we have not the slightest reason to think
that any genus has ceased, " since the day that God created man upon
the earth."
4. A system of nature, according to which organized creatures
should not die, would be totally incompatible with the plan which the
Creator has been pleased to establish in this department of his works.
But let us try some hypotheses.
(1.) Put the case, that there be no death. Upon this supposition,
two or three modes are conceivable :
a. Life prolonged without food. But this would be irreconcilable
with a system of successive production, nutrition, assimilation, and
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 293
growth. Such beings would be perpetual possessors of the earth and
the waters, in their own persons, without any progeny. Only ima-
gine such a world ! Shall we say one, or some number, of each spe-
cies 1 Quadruped, bird, reptile, fish, mollusc, zoophyte, insect of
every kind, including all those invisible without microscopic aid:
each immortal.
b. Life prolonged by vegetable food alone. But this would re-
quire a differently constituted vegetable world: for there is no plant
on the land or in the sea, which does not nourish myriads of minute
insects, which are destroyed in the eating of the plants.
c. Must there be any multiplication by progeny, upon any scheme 1
Then, either the whole number must be always extremely small ; or
be kept down in some inconceivable way; or would, after a time,
multiply to that degree that there would not be room for them. The
land and the waters would be over-filled !
(2.) Let the supposition be, that death lake place, but only in the
way of natural decay and old age; not by violence, as in becoming
the prey of other animals. This seems to be the hypothesis of T. K.
or that for which he wishes. But he certainly has not reflected upon
the working out of this notion. The debility and decay of age require
the nursing and soothing attentions of other individuals of the same
species. But, except very imperfectly in a few instances of quadru-
mana and some domesticated animals, nothing appears in the brute
creation analogous to the care and tenderness of man for man, in
nursing and tending the sick or feeble. Even in the human species,
unless where religion breathes its vital influence, that class of duties
is miserably attended to. Let your worthy correspondent ask the
aid of some judicious physiologist, to assist him in weighing the op-
posite amounts of suffering, the one by natural and untended decay,
the other by an almost instantaneous act of violence by another crea-
ture, in the full health and vigour of the devoured animal. He will
find the very reverse of the estimation which he appears to have
made. Besides, there is some reason to think that the first surprise
produces a paralysis, by which the sense of pain is diminished, or
wholly extinguished. I am not writing ludicrously; but seriously,
as the subject requires.
But Geology furnishes cases of animal life extinguished upon a
scale immensely large, by other processes than being devoted to fur-
nish nutriment for other living creatures. The polishing stone
called tripoli was till lately thought to be asiliceo-argillaceous rock ;
but it is now ascertained to be a congeries of microscopic many-
chambered shells : and there are rocks of nummulitic limestone, and
vast heaps of the shell miliola compressed into solid masses. The
25*
294< SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
able and indefatigable Curator to the Geological Society, Mr. Lons-
dale, has discovered microscopic shells in chalk, unutterably numer-
ous. In all these cases, the densely associated and countless millions
of once living beings, which inhabited those shells, must have died
by the upheaving, out of the sea, of ihe compact masses consisting of
them, and being thus left dry. Was not that as painful a death as if
they had supplied food to larger cephalopods ] It was probably much
slower, and consequently involving more protracted distress. Some
approach may be made to an idea of the number of animals thus be-
come the prey of death, by considering the fact that, in a cube of tri-
poli rock of but one-tenth of an inch, 500 millions of those shells are
contained, each one an exquisitely formed dwelling, comprising
several cells, most beautiful in material, and in general structure
resembling the existing genus nautilus. We might in like manner
argue from the mountain limestone, in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, on
the banks of the Wye, and in innumerable other places, many miles
in extent and hundreds of feet in thickness; and which, without a
microscope, any man may see to consist of sea-rcely any thing besides
the skeletons of the many-fingered crinoideal families, and the occa-
sional beds of bivalve and some univalve shells, evidently not
brought together by any moving body of water, which would have
broken their tender carved-work, and have left them a huddled mass ;
but, on the contrary, lying together, orderly, and in all ages and de-
grees of growth.
It is a common supposition that, in the interval between their
creation and the fall of man, all animals were gentle, and feu solely
upon vegetable productions. Some have proposed the hypothesis
that the carnivorous tribes were not created till after the fall, or even
after the deluge. This hypothesis seems to lessen the difficulty, but
it overlooks the fact that the grasses, leaves, seeds, and fruits, which
are the food of the herbivorous races, swarm with insect life. The
supposition that the carnivorous animals could at any time have fed
upon vegetables, cannot be entertained for a moment, except it were
by a person quite ignorant of the anatomical structure of those ani-
mals. Their bones and muscles, their teeth, claws, stomachs, and
intestines, demonstrate that they were created to be nourished solely
by animal food. Let it also be considered, that the tribes of Jish,
great and small, with very inconsiderable exceptions, so immensely
filling rivers, lakes, and the ocean, are formed by the all-wise Cre-
ator, to be carnivorous. I have formerly thought that our first pa-
rents had never witnessed death, till they beheld with agony the first
sacrifice, offered up by divine prescription. But I do not now see
the necessity or the probability of such a state of things. Rather, the
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 295
denunciation in Gen. ii. 17, would seem to imply that they under-
stood what the penalty was, in consequence of their having witnessed
the pangs of death, in the inferior animals.
5. What, then, is the meaning of Rom. viii. 20 — " The creation
(ver. 22, all the creation) has been made subject to vanity," &c. 1 I
reply, that here the word (which is used in different senses and under
great limitations, as in Col. i.23; 1 Pet. ii. 13) denotes the part of
the created universe which is immediately related to man, or comes
under his influence ; and that "vanity" denotes the frustration of
high and holy purposes to which that part of the universe is subjected
by the wickedness of mankind, ungratefully towards God and cruelly
towards sentient animals, abusing the gifts of Providence.
6. Still, the question will be proposed, Are we compelled to ac-
quiesce in these conclusions'? Might not the deposition of all the
strata, their superposition, the imbedding in them of vegetable and
animal remains, and their elevation so as to form our present con-
tinents and islands, all have taken place in the 1656 years from the
fall to the deluge, completed by the powerful action of the diluvial
waters'?
This is the question of questions in relation to Geology. To dis-
cuss it fully would require a volume: yet, long as this paper has
become, I must offer a few words. There are two classes of men,
each of which gives its reply.
The first class consists of those who have heard the word Geology,
but have been told (often by truly excellent men) that it is a danger-
ous study, that it impugns the truth of the Scripture records, and that
it seeks to betray the unwary into infidelity. Of this class, some have
read a little about geological subjects, have heard say a little more,
and have eked out the rest by their own conjecture and imagination:
and they answer this question in the affirmative.
The second class of persons comprises those who have spent thirty,
forty, even fifty years in laborious investigation ; many of them, hav-
ing set out with the opinion of the former class ; who have personally
explored all the most important districts in the British isles, in
France, in the Alpine countries, in Germany, and in Eastern and
Northern Europe; also, in Asia, North and South America, and
many parts of Africa and Australasia ; who have endured herculean
toils in the field of personal labour ; expending large sums of money
in their travels for this very object; who have come to geological in-
vestigations well prepared by mathematical and chemical science;
who have pursued those investigations with untiring perseverance,
and with the severest jealousy against precipitate conclusions : and
296 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
what answer do they give % "With one mouth they say, No ; it is
impossible.
There are thirty, or rather more, well denned beds, layers, or
strata, of different* mineral masses, lying upon each other so as to
form the surface of the globe on which we dwell. These combine
themselves, by natural characters, into three or four grand groups.
Compare them to a set of books, in 30 or 40 volumes, piled up on
their flat sides. No where, indeed, can the whole set of the earth's
strata be displayed, lying each upon the other, for reasons which will
presently appear ; and, if it were so at any spot, all the power and art
of men could never penetrate through more than one, two, or three of
the layers. They are placed one over the other, in a sure and known
order of succession; that is, though in no locality are all to be found,
or (which is saying the same thing conversely) in every locality some
are wanting, the order of position is never violated. Let the letters
of the alphabet represent the strata, thus ; the Tertiary, a, b, c, d, e ;
the Secondary, i. e. all from the chalk to the old red sandstone, inclu-
sive, / to z -, the Primary, aa, bb, &c. to jj: then observe that any
member or several members of the series may be absent, for example,
d or/, or I or p ; but b is never above a, nor m above k, nor s above q.
When this fact is rightly conceived of, let it be further observed, that
the strata do not lie over each other in continuous concentric spheroids,
like the coats of an onion ; but may rather be compared to a vast
number of wafers, of irregular forms, laid on a globe, and patched
upon each other in different sets as to thickness, and variously under-
passing, out-cropping, and over-lapping. Now, let the mind imagine
mighty forces from below, acting upon certain points and along cer-
tain lines: then the wafer-patches will be raised to all angles, bent,
broken, their edges often turned up, so that the edges of lower strata
stand in some places over the higher ones which had been thus shat-
tered. Further, let the mind conceive, of a mass of melted matter,
suppose pitch, having lain for some time quietly underneath the low-
est of the wafer-patches ; then boiling up, bursting forth, and in many
places raising the wafers, piercing them, passing through them, and
finally hardening in fantastic shapes, and towering over the up-
heaved and fractured outside. This little play of imagination will
present a pretty fair idea of the real stratification of the earth's sur-
face, the eruption of the non- stratified (granitic and similar) rocks
* Different in mineral composition : for it must be observed, that many
a homogeneous stratum of great thickness is itself laminated or stratified,
like the leaves of a book or a number of pasteboards closely pressed
together.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 297
which have boiled up, elevating linear ridges (mountain-ranges,)
when they could not pierce through, but actually piercing through
where their force could overcome the resistance, and, when cooled,
remaining the magnificent crags and summits of the loftiest moun-
tains. It must also be understood, as a matter of the clearest sensible
demonstration, that these processes have occurred several times, at
various and distant intervals ; producing among the strata many va-
rieties of direction, inclination, contortion, cleavage, conformity, and
nonconformity in reference to each other. If all the strata could be
placed, or, for illustration sake we may say replaced, upon each other,
to what thickness or depth would they amount 1 It is commonly said
five miles: Dr. Buckland, who is so eminently qualified to make an
estimate, gives his authority to the supposition of ten miles. With
respect to the actual surface of the earth, the greatest height from the
lowest valley-bottom to the top of the highest mountain, may be taken
at five miles. This height, compared to the diameter of the earth,
may be fairly represented by the thickness of a fine thread laid upon
the surface of a twelve-inch globe.
All these things being considered, the inquirer may be able to con-
ceive the appearance of the accessible end. or denuded cross-cut, of
a stratum or several strata. The observer sees that the whole has
been deposited from water, either as a mere precipitate from a mix-
ture, or as separated from chemical solution. Hence, the variety of
rocks, siliceous, clayey, limestone, marly, and all these in various
compounds. The eye also perceives, in many cases, the lower por-
tion of a stratum to contain pebbles, the water-worn fragments of the
older rocks to which they can be traced ; higher up, the coarser
sandstone; and towards the top, the finer sediment. Moreover, the
separations of the distinct strata are often presented to view; the
bounding surfaces of the formations.
Now we want ^measure for the rate of deposition. A perfect rule
for this is beyond the present reach of science ; but there is an ample
sufficiency of ascertained facts, to prove that the whole series of depos-
its has occupied untold ages. This letter has grown to so alarming a
length, that I can only hint at the phenomena which furnish the
grounds for this approximative estimate. They are observations
upon the rates of deposit, in all kinds and in all circumstances, as it
is continually going on in ponds, lakes, river-beds, estuaries, deltas,
flat shores, siliceous and limestone springs of water, and conclusions
analogical but most powerfully supported, concerning the deposits in
the depths of the ocean.
This may give some idea of the processes of observation and rea-
soning by which we are brought to the conclusion which I have men-
298 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
tioned ; that the whole series of stratifications, which lie upon the
non- stratified masses of rock, must have taken a period of time im-
measureable by mortals, but which is but a point in comparison with
the eternity of the CREATOR. — It may be proper also to observe
that it is only in the newest and latest kinds of formation that any re-
mains of man and his contemporary animals are to be found.
7. By this long, but necessary circuit, we are brought to the ques-
tion of your correspondent. "We cannot resist the evidence of facts
perceived by ocular demonstration, and every other kind of sensible
evidence : and that evidence tells us that the system of organized life
which the Creator has established, is a cycle of production, growth,
decay, and death.
It is easy to show that this plan of vegetable and animal existence
provides for an amount of creatures and their enjoyment, unuttera-
bly greater than any scheme imaginable by us, and which should ex-
clude death by carnivorous violence. "We ought not to smile at
this ; nor to affect horror at it : let us examine thoroughly and judge
fairly.
8. But, if even we decline to press this reasonable argument, we
have a last resort ; " Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God 1
Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast thou
made me thusl"
9. "We may now ask, What is the just interpretation of Rom. v.
12, " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by bin V*
We reply that it refers to the access and dominion of death over
man, involving the presupposition that, had not our first parents sin-
ned, they would, on the expiration of their probationary state, have
undergone a physical change different from dying, which would have
translated them into a higher condition of happy existence. This
glorious prospect they forfeited, and, as the just penalty of their
transgression, sunk down into the condition of the inferior animals,
in becoming the prey of temporal or corporal death : but, in relation
to their higher capacities, they plunged themselves into the gulf of
death in senses infinitely more awful. Thus to Adam and all his
natural descendants, " the sling [that which constitutes it a real evil]
of death is sin :" but to the irrational creation this does not apply.
They are incapable of moral obedience or disobedience towards God,
(though they have resemblances of both with respect to man, who is
to them in the place of God, Gen. i. 26,) and therefore death is not
a sting to them, in a spiritual sense, or in any sense inconsistent
with the equity, goodness, and wisdom of the divine government.
As your inquiring correspondent calls himself " a beginner in
Geological Researches," he will not deem me presuming or rude if
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 299
I offer a few words of humble advice : and, for brevity sake, I will
suppose myself to be addressing a young friend.
1. Do not suppose that a satisfactory knowledge of Geology
can be obtained in a short time, or by skimming over a book or
two.
2. Necessary prerequisites are a knowledge of chemistry, mine-
ralogy, and natural history, particularly comparative anatomy, con-
chology, and botany, according not only to the Linnaean artificial
system, but to the natural arrangement of Dr. Lindley, or some other
recent and eminent botanist. A profound intimacy with any one of
these branches of science is indeed a work for a man's life ; but
where there is such a minute acquaintance with any one, a masterly
knowledge of the others is easily and delightfully acquired, provided
the due appropriation be made of time and diligence. But a general
knowledge of essential principles, taking care that it be accurate so
far as it goes, may be acquired by pains-taking in the few inestimable
years which usually follow a good school education.
3. Go into the field of actual search and observation : sea-cliffs,
steep ravine sides, quarries, cuttings through hills for highways, ca-
nals, rail-roads, and well-diggings, or any accessible exhibitions of
the faces of rocks, The great gravelly plain of London is destitute
of good localities of this kind: yet the sand-pits of Woolwich yield
a very good lesson. But the West of England, Wales, and the
North, are the grand academy for these studies. A person who has
made himself familiar with a few good instances, will be able, with
the aid of books, maps, views, and sections, to form a mental idea of
others ; which will be in its measure just, though of course far infe-
rior to the impression of the actual objects. Mr. De la Beche's How
to Observe, in Geology, will be found of great use.
4. Hand-specimens of rocks must be studied. There are many
fine collections throughout the kingdom. I may mention Bath, Bris-
tol, Brighton, Norwich, York, Scarborough, Leeds, Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, Liverpool, and many other places.
5. For books, without involving the least prejudice against other
valuable works, I take the liberty of recommending the following
short list.
Prof. John Phillips's Guide to Geology ; 12mo. 1836, and his
Treatise on Geology in the seventh edition of the Encyclopedia Bri-
tannica, and published separately ; Edinb. 1837. The latter work
forms an excellent illustration of the preceding.
Mr. Lyell's Principles of Geology ; 4 vols. 12mo. the fifth edit.
1837. An admirable collection of facts, and which carefully sepa-
300 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
rates facts from hypotheses. Mr. L. makes you acquainted with the
former, without urging your assent to the latter.*
Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales ; by the Rev. W.
D. Conybeare, and the late Mr. W. Phillips ; Vol. I. 1822. Unhap-
pily the second volume has never been published : but I have reason
to hope that Mr. Conybeare will favour the world with a new work,
incorporating, condensing, and completing the volume just mention-
ed, which is now far behind the actual state of geological science,
bat it can never lose its value for local descriptions.
De la Beche's Geological Manual, 8vo. 1833. Phillips's Guide
should precede this.
The same author's Tablet of Ike Tertiary and Secondary Rocks.
Viquier and Collon's Tablet, drawn from Alex. Brongniart's
Tableau des Terrains. Paris.
These two are single sheets of paper upon a synoptic plan, and
comprising the essence of many volumes: and the same praise is
due to the Tablet which forms the first plate in Dr. Buckiand's
Bridgewater Treatise ; 2 vols. 8vo. 1836. That work is of the rich-
est interest for Palaeontology, the study of organic remains ; but a
previous acquaintance with the mineralogical branch is absolutely
necessary, and it did not belong to Dr. Buckiand's design and plan to
supply that.
A series of exceedingly good systematical papers on Geology and
the Minerals, are in the Penny Magazine, chiefly during the year
1833 ; but many since. No. 51, Jan. 19, 1833, contains a little Tablet
admirably drawn up, perhaps in imitation of Mr. De la Beche's.
Also, in the Saturday Magazine for the present year 1837, a series
has commenced of Familiar Illustrations of Geology. Two articles
have appeared, viz. in Nos. 329 and 344; and they well answer to
their title.
A System of Geology, with a Theory of the Earth, and an Expla-
nation of its Connexion vnth the Sacred Records. By John Maccul-
loch, M. D.,F. R. S. 2 vols. 8vo. 1831. This is a work which, for
illustration and amplifying comment, should be read both after, and,
a second and third time, concurrently with any of the preceding.
Indeed I would say, that Professor Phillips's Guide and this work
would admirably constitute the initial course. Dr. Macculloch was
a geologist of a very high order, though he strangely neglected the
* The Elements of Geology, published by Mr. Lyell, in 1838, is a
Eingle volume, and should be studied before, and then in collation with
the Principles.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 301
Pala?ontological branch, indefatigable in the arduous toils of personal
examination in the most interesting regions of Great Britain, an
independent thinker, and yet a man who delighted to do homage to
the government and the word of God. The work was written in
1821, and therefore some modifications and corrections will accrue,
by comparing it seriatim with Mr. John Phillips's books. Yet we
must confess that it has serious faults of style and manner. It ought
also to receive, as a most important supplement or companion, the
following posthumous work of the same author; which is indeed a
little too prolix, and its arrangement might admit of much improve-
ment, had not death put upon it the sacred seal of inviolability.
Proofs and Illustrations of the Attributes of Gov, from the Facts and
Laws of the Physical Universe ; being the Foundation of Natural and
Revealed Religion. 3 vols. 1837.
Finally, let me entreat the student to be on his guard against ex-
pecting, that a few months of light reading will make him a geolo-
gist. The study is indeed one for life ; and that general acquaint-
ance with it which a person of liberal education ought to possess,
must be acquired with long-continued diligence and care to be mi-
nutely accurate, or it will be liable to fall into perpetual and most
serious errors. " Those who have taken a narrow view of this
great and growing branch of human knowledge, who have satisfied
themselves with collecting a few fossil shells, naming a few com-
pound rocks, and constructing a few sections and maps, may possibly
be startled at the mighty circle of perpetual research in which they are
unconsciously engaged." Phillips's Treatise, p. 4.
Homerton, Nov. 10, 1837. J. P. S.
Aug. 1839. I cannot resist the transcribing of some paragraphs
from an unknown writer in the Christian Observer.
" As one who — has taken great interest in Geology, though no
geologist, I beg to offer a few observations upon the idea that the
inferior animals were not subject to death before the fall Perhaps,
the remarks of a mere Christian observer might, so far as they are of
value, be received with less suspicion than those of a professedly
scientific man. 1 was accustomed to entertain the idea of death
having passed generally upon the whole creation, at the fall of man.
But, when I heard of the discoveries of geologists. I was led to ex-
amine into the foundation of this opinion. I referred to Scripture ;
but upon examination I found no passage which supports such a
notion. Not finding it declared in Scripture, 1 began to consider
26
302 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
what reason there might be for supposing it ; and I was led to the
conclusion that there was none. For, (setting aside the discoveries
of geologists,) which is the most difficult to believe, that the inferior
animals had only a limited existence, or that they were created im-
mortal 1 Immortal ! From the iguanodon or mammoth, to the
fluttering butterfly or invisible animacule 1 A notion which involves
a belief of the eternal duration of the earth ; unless we are to suppose
a series of transmigrations from world to world, as each dissolved.
The belief that death was in the world previous to the fall of
Adam, I am aware, seems at first, to a Christian mind, to destroy the
idea of death as a penal consequence of sin. But this difficulty soon
vanishes : for, when man saw that he was placed above the inferior
animals, not merely in the possession of intellect, but in being hon-
oured with immortality while they were subject to death, he would
not only understand u-hat was meant by the threatened consequences
of sin, but surely would feel the curse as denouncing a deep degra-
dation, to be sunk to the level of that creation over which he was
made lord. ' The wages of sin' were ' death ;' a curse indeed, since
it made him like the beasts that perish in this world, at the same
time that it could not deliver the immortal spirit from the eternal
wrath of its offended Maker." J A. W. in Christian Obs. July,
1839 ; p. 405.
[B.]
Referring to Prop. XVII. page 60 and to page 61.
ON THE NUMBER OF SPECIES IN THE EARLIER FOSSILIFEROUS ROCKS.
The XVIIth proposition of the second lecture expresses the doc-
trine, which till lately was received among geologists, that the orga-
nic remains found in the earliest rocks possessing any such remains
at all, are " the fewest" in proportionate numbers. But the recent
herculean toils of Mr. Murchison have opened new fields of view
upon this interesting subject. The proposition should be modified,
and understood in accordance with this important observation of that
distinguished geologist; " Another remarkable fact illustrating this
point of inquiry is, that, although the older fossiliferous strata often
contain vast quantities of organic remains, the number of species is
much smaller than in more recent deposits." Silur. Syst. p. 583.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 303
It is interesting to observe the careful and cautious progress of
Geology, as in other respects, so in this. Seven years before the pub-
lication of Mr. Murchison's work, Mr. De la Beche had treated this
subject with his characteristic judgment and sagacity. I will cite a
few paragraphs, as specimens of the penetration and anticipations of
his geological mind, while the facts of the case were not as yet
brought clearly to light ; and with a wish also to excite my readers to
peruse the whole passage. It must be premised that the German
term grauicacke, now generally disused, must be understood as the
same with, or including, the Silurian System.
"Although, when we regard the mass of the grauwacke rocks,
we are struck with the minute proportion that organic remains bear
to the whole, we must still perceive that the atmosphere was capable
of supporting vegetation ; and the seas of sustaining zoophytes, cri-
noidea, annulata, conchifera, mollusca, Crustacea, and fish. What
other creatures existed, we are unable, from the absence of their re-
mains, to judge : it may however be by no means unphilosophical to
conclude that vegetation did not exist alone on dry land, but that,
consistently with the general harmony of nature, it afforded food to
terrestrial creatures suited to the circumstances under which they
were placed." [Yet no vestiges of such creatures have been found.]
" Whatever the kind of animal life may have been which first
appeared on the surface of our planet, we may be certain that it was
consistent with the wisdom and design which has always prevailed
throughout nature ; and that each creature was peculiarly adapted
to that situation designed to be occupied by it." Geological Manual ;
third ed. pp. 428, 429 ; 1833.
I hope I shall not give pain to a very kind friend whose qualifica-
tions make him one of the safest authorities, by transcribing a part
of a letter with which he has favoured me. The certainty and accu-
racy of the remarks may be fully relied upon, and their application
is extensively important.
" In the older fossiliferous rocks, animal life appears in as full a
development with respect to size, as in the existing analogous ani-
mals. The zoophagous cephalopods were also of gigantic growth.
It does not appear that animal life, at that period, was limited with
respect to number. The lowest Silurian rocks are crowded, in some
localities, with organic bodies ; and their absence over extensive dis-
tricts is only a condition in the distribution of testacea, &c, which
prevails in our seas. There are many coasts from which a reasoner,
who had visited no other, might infer that marine animals are now
few and small-sized; and, if he were a geologist, he might say, Life
is on the decrease!" William Lonsdale, Esq. Sept. 7, 1839.
304 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
Shortly after the sheet containing page 61 had been printed, I
learned from the public papers that Dr. W. Smith died [at Scarbor-
ough'?] on Aug. 28, in his 71st year.
[C]
Referred to in page 138.
The longevity of trees is a subject of great interest. There are
species which, in this respect, strongly attract our attention. The
tree, called in our version an oak, but we have reason to believe that
it was the terebinth,* under which Joshua deposited the ratification
of the covenant made by his countrymen, was probably the very tree
made memorable by events in the life of Abraham and that of Jacob.
Our English oak attains to the age of a thousand years, and instances
have been ascertained of one thousand five hundred. t To the yew
more than two thousand, even above three thousand years are on
good grounds attributed.:}: But there are other trees possessing a
higher longevity, and individuals of which have been ascertained to
go back from our times to dates long prior to the Noachian deluge.
Of the Baobab (Adansonia digitala,) a tree of stupendous magnitudes
growing in Senegal and other parts of Africa within the tropics, one
specimen has been subjected to the process which scientific men of
the first ability have invented, and the age has been brought out to be
5232 years, and there is every reason to expect many centuries of
* Pistacia terebinthus ; vj^ unhappily rendered plain in Gen. xii. 6,
and other places.
t Prof. Henslow's Princip. of Descr. and Physiol. Botany ; p. 249 :
1835.
t lb. p. 245 ; and Mr. Bowman's papers on the Yew, in Mr. Charles-
worth's Magazine for 1837 ; in which the admirable methods of obtain-
ing sections for determining the age of trees, without injuring them ma-
terially, are clearly described.
§ Called by Dr. Lindley, " the largest tree in the world ; the trunk
has been found with a diameter of 30 feet." Nat. Syst. Bot. sec. ed. p.
94. The traveller M. Russeger. in the interior of Africa, as far as 10 N.
L., saw "Adansonias measuring 56 feet in circumference, exciting
the astonishment of the beholder." Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist.
Feb. 1838, p. 108.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 305
farther life to this tree and its congenerates. A still higher antiquity-
is claimed for the Taxodium (Cyprcssus disticha,) an American tree,
which attains the height of seventy feet and a circumference of thirty.
It is stated by Professor Henslow, to possess a longevity of4000 to about
6000 years. One now growing in the churchyard of Santa Maria de
Tesla, near Oaxaca in Mexico, and which was observed as a tree of
wondrous magnitude by the Spanish conquerors of that country, is
affirmed by M. de Candolle to "go back certainly to the origin of the
present slate of the world ; an epoch," he says, " of which it is the
most indisputable monument."* With regard to the period that has
flowed since the creation of man, the Christian world generally con-
sents to use Archbishop Usher's system.because to depart from it would
perplex us in our ordinary reading; yet most educated men are aware
that the evidence runs in favour of a longer period. Perhaps no man
has laboured on this subject with greater assiduity than the late Dr.
Wm. Hales, in his Analysis of Ancient Chronology. According to
him, we are now in the 7250th year from the creation ; and the 4994th
from the deluge.
Now the physical argument is, that the flood could not be univer-
sal, because these trees exhibit an age which, for the Boabab, goes
upon the common chronology to 1045 years before the date of the
deluge; and, according to Hales, to 238 years: and, for the Taxo-
dium, each of these numbers is increased by some centuries.
Will it be contended that these trees might live, submersed in
water for near 300 days 1 Certainly it is impossible to try the experi-
ment ; but all analogy, all physiological reasoning from the functions
of vegetable life, decide in the negative, and determine that elephants
and oxen and men might live so long under water, almost as well
as dicotyledonous trees.
Mr. Rhind attempts to meet the argument by denying its premises.
He affirms that, " in tropical regions, some dicotyledonous plants ne-
ver show indications of annular circles at all, while many have them
very irregular ; while it is far from improbable but that some species
may produce more than one woody circle in a year."r These asser-
* c< II remonte eertainement a l'origine du monde actuel. C'est le
monument le plus irrecusable d'une epoque sur laquelle i'opinion des
savans n'est pas entierement fixee." Bibliotheque Universelle ; Scien-
ces ; vol. XL VI. p. 393 ; 1331. He probably alludes to the difficulties of
Chronology, arising from the discrepancies of the Hebrew text, the Sa-
maritan, the Septuagint, Jos3phus, &c.
t Age of the Earth ; p. 120. I assure the reader that there is no mis.
take in transcribing this paragraph !
26*
306 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
tions astonish me. I must respectfully suppose that Physiological
Botany has not been one of the author's studies. His second asser-
tion, upon irregularity, is indeed true; but in such a manner as to
bear strongly against him; for, when irregularity exists, it is in the
way of weakness and deficiency. In a feeble tree or an unfavorable
season, a layer may be unusually thin and even with difficulty dis-
cernible ; so that, in careful counting, a ring or two might be omit*
ted, diminishing the estimate by so many years. As for his first and
third assertions, they are almost equivalent to saying that trees are
not trees; they imply a denial of the very nature and the first laws
of exogenous vegetation.
Mr. de Candolle, whom all revere as one of the princes of Botan-
ical science, has expressed himself upon this point in the clearest
and strongest manner. He shows at considerable length that there is
not a lav/ of nature on whose invariable validity we may with greater
confidence rely, than in this instance. All that is wanted is ability
and care in making the observation. Any variations that may oc-
cur, are in the earliest stages of growth : afterwards the greatest reg-
ularity is established: and, though in young trees the liability to er-
ror leans to an excess of calculation, the tendency is the reverse in
the more advanced stages of growth.*
[PC]
Referring to pages 126 — 131.
PROGRESS OP CHRISTIAN PIETY IN THE VOLCANIC DISTRICT OF THE PUY
DE DOME.
As the design of these lectures is to serve the highest interests of
mankind, I need no apology for introducing some parts of a letter,
which has appeared in some of the public papers of London and Paris.
The writer is a clergyman of the English church, well known and
highly respected. His veracity is unquestionable, and his narrative
cannot fail to give pleasure to those who are the best friends of man-
kind and sincere disciples of Christ.
* Biblioth. Univ. Sciences ; vol. XL VII. p. 49, &c. 1831. Mr. Darwin
records his own observation confirmatory of this fact : Voyages of the
Adventure and Beagle, vol. III. p. 157. Mr. Babbage has also given us
an instructive example of reasoning upon our very subject, from this law
of the vegetable economy, in his Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, p. 256—264.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 307
11 Amongst the hills of Auvergne and in the Department of the
Puy de Dome, is situated the town of Thiers. It is celebrated for its
picturesque position, being planted on the steep declivities of rocks
and mountains, which are adorned with chestnut-trees, walnuts, oaks,
and other striking ornaments of the forest. In front, and at no great
distance, is the pyramidal Puy de Dome, with the whole chain of
mountains of Mont d'Or and the Cantal ; beneath them is the beau-
tiful plain of Clermont, with the silver stream of the Dore winding
its way through the midst, and all around the rugged peaks and deep
dark mountain ravines stand in striking contrast with sloping hills
clothed with vines and corn-fields. The population of this town,
computed at 15,000, is almost entirely employed in the manufacture
of cutlery. One universal sound, the hammer clinking on the anvil,
and the file rasping on the vice, continually strikes the ear in every
street, and no other noise has disturbed, from time immemorial, the
dull uniformity of Thiers. During the terrible convulsions of the
Revolution and the Empire, this place, indeed, as all others in France,
had to deplore its youth sacrificed in foreign fields; and the monoto-
ny of human life was then arrested by the news of some falling by the
lake of Mantua, others at the walls of Saragossa, and others on the
plains of Germany. * But the regrets of such calamities have long
since ceased to agitate the hearts of survivors, and nothing seems to
occupy attention but to partake of food, to labour for its acquisition,
and to die. About two years ago, however, the quiet of the scene
was disturbed by a most novel occurrence. The report was circu-
lated, 'There are Protestants arrived at Thiers; they are selling
Bibles ; they are praying, reading, conversing at the Boullet.' This
intelligence acted like an electric shock on the somnolent population.
Out rushed no less, it is asserted, than 2,000 persons towards the
place, where one of the colporteurs of the Geneva Society was ex-
plaining in his simple manner the great truths of the Gospel. So fu-
rious was the mob, such their threats, their gesticulations, and their
spirit, that the most serious consequences were apprehended. Not
only had the colporteur to escape with the utmost haste by a way re-
moved from the tumult, but even the commissaire de police and the
gens d'armes had to interfere most promptly to prevent evil. The
riot of this day will ever be a memorable fact in the history of
Thiers !
" It might have been supposed that truth, meeting with such oppo-
sition on its first arrival, would have retired in dismay from the
whole region ; but such an opinion would have been most erroneous.
* It is positively asserted, that no less than 150 young men, belonging
to a single and small quarter of the town, perished in ten or fifteen years.
308 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
It has pleased the God of mercy to pour out his Holy Spirit so re-
markably on this place, that a considerable number of persons are
not only reading with attention the Holy Scriptures, and affording
good hopes of eventual conversion, but an infant Church of Protest-
ant Christians has been already formed ; and at the first sacrament,
no less than twenty-seven persons, all of them, in the judgment of
charity, sincerely seeking eternal salvation, were partakers.
" I have been residing in the midst of this little flock about a
fortnight, and I am deeply affected with admiration at the work of
divine grace which is here exhibited. Eighteen months ago the very
name of Protestant was scarcely known in the neighbourhood, no
right views of Christ and his salvation were in existence, the grossest
superstitions of popery, and the most reckless infidelity divided the
territory between them; in short, a moral midnight brooded over the
whole population : now a religious impression has been produced of
the most extensive character ; not a family, perhaps, can be found,
which has not conversed, and thought, and felt, either favourably or
unfavourably, on this great subject. Up to this hour the Protestant
labours are the theme of universal and perpetual conversation. To my
own observation the twenty-seven communicants above-mentioned,
and several others, have been ' brought from darkness to light, and
from the power of Satan unto God ;' and it is known to God alone
how far eventually the blessings of the gospel will be diffused in
this region.
" It is most interesting to mark the new converts, to observe their
diligent study of the Bible, some of them even in old age beginning
to read, that they may peruse the sacred pages; to listen to them
singing delightfully the praises of God, in the beautiful hymns and
tunes of our Geneva brethren ; to hear with what simplicity and
unction they lead the prayers of the congregation when invited to do
so ; and, above all, to notice that { where sin abounded, grace doth
much more abound.' The habitual deportment of the converts is
highly consistent ; the world cannot reproach them with ill-conduct j
some of their number, who had been notorious for drunkenness and
other sins, are now eminent examples of temperance and holiness,
and « the peace of God which passeth all understanding,' reigns over
the whole Church. I was exceedingly struck with the expression of
countenance of many persons amongst them. There is a calm, solid
happiness portrayed on their features, which no principle, no ideas,
no events, however prosperous in life, nothing but the assurance of
eternal glory, through the sacrifice of Christ our Redeemer, could
ever produce. " John Hartley."
" Thiers, Puy de Dome, August 5th, 1839."
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 309
[DJ
Referred to at page 188.
UPON DR. YOUNG'S SCRIPTURAL GEOLOGY.
In perusi ng this book, I have been not a little grieved at the sight
which it presents of a pious and amiable man, struggling to give
credit and currency to opinions which, to my full conviction, cannot
be supported by evidence; but the advocacy of which is likely to
mislead some, and to confirm the skeptical prejudices of others. It
appears a duty to offer a few observations ; but to go over the whole
ground which he has opened, would require a treatise of considerable
length. Erroneous statements and fallacious arguments can seldom
be duly examined and refuted satisfactorily, without much expendi-
ture of time and labour. I shall select what appear the principal
parts of the argument.
A layer of oyster-shells, with the valves separated, and exhibiting
other marks of water transport, is found in the Whitby lias, extend-
ing for many miles along the coast, and ten or twelve into the inte-
rior; and Dr. Y. lays this instance as a principal foundation for the
inference of a diluvial origin to shelly beds generally; and he ex-
tends his conclusion to vertebrated animals, (p. 15.) Yet he says
not a word upon a fact, of which he seems to have had a glimpse a
dozen years ago,* that beds of a very peculiar and interesting bivalve,
which all confess to be a stranger to the present condition of the
seas, Gryphcea incurva, presenting the clearest evidence that the
shells had never been drifted, and that the countless individuals lie,
as family groups, in their native seats; — and that these beds maybe
traced, in the same geological position, from Whitby northward to
the mouth of the Tees, and southward to the lias of Dorsetshire, and
further appearing on the western coasts of Scotland, and again ex-
tensively in Germany and in France. If the worthy author could
make so much of his seam of disparted oyster-shells, washed over a
small piece of land, what ought he not to have concluded from the
case of the opposite character, and covering an area a thousand
times more extensive 1
In like manner, because it is probable that some, or let us say even
a large proportion, of the coal-beds, and their sandy and shaly ac-
* Geol. Survey of the Yorkshire Coast, p. 212. After briefly describing
the species, Dr. Y. says, "Numbers are often found clustering together.
This I call a glimpse of the truth. It deserved to have been followed out."
310 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
companiments have been the results of transportation, he reasons as
if aZZ the coal had been formed in this manner, (pp. 10, 14.) But
there are eminent geologists, who attribute only the smaller propor-
tion of coal formations to this mode of origin; and conceive that the
greater masses have been" derived from trees of vast size and close
contiguity, submerged in their native seats, without being removed
from their place of growth, and marking their scarcely disturbed
prostration by the well-known impressions, on the shale-roofs and
bottoms, of their most delicate parts, which would have been greatly
defaced or quite obliterated by even a little tossing and drifting.
Detached pieces of trunks do indeed occur, whose denuded and bro-
ken state suggests a derivation from neighbouring high land, and
whose forms and position prove them to have been accidental intru-
ders ; but the idea of masses of such vegetation as composes the coal-
beds having floated from different quarters, and then, which must
have been of necessity, irregularly and confusedly heaped together^
appears to be absolutely irreconcilable with the facts exhibited in the
impressions of the plants upon the shale, just now mentioned. My
kind readers will give themselves pleasure and do justice to the aigu-
ment by consulting the specimens of this kind in most of the Muse-
ums of Natural History, which happily are multiplied in our coun-
try. An excellent suite is in the Adelaide Gallery, presented by my
young friend, Mr. Edward Charlesworth, a gentleman whose devot-
edness to Natural History from his very childhood has produced im-
portant results, and promises more. For this purpose, I cannot but
also wish that studious attention were given to the accurate and beau-
tiful figures in the Fossil Flora of Great Britain, by Dr. Lindley and
Mr. William Hutton ; and in Mr. Artis's Antediluvian Physiology.
11 That any considerable part of the plants which formed the beds of
coal were drifted at all, appears— to be highly improbable : that they
should have been brought by equatorial currents from the regions of
the tropics, is perfectly chimerical."' Fossil Flora, vol. II. Pref. p.
xxi. In the same splendid work, an accumulation of facts is brought
in proof of this doctrine ; and to illustrate the alternations of material
in the coal measures, a circumstance on which Dr. Y. lays great
stress, (p. 11,) but which those eminent naturalists account for in a
way which his objections do not touch. Foss. Flor. vol. Ill, pp. 28
—35. On the other hand, Prof. Phillips deems it " the most probable
view, that the plants forming coal were, with the arenaceous and ar-
gillaceous substances, swept into the sea by inundations from the land,
and subsided into strata on the bed of the sea." Treatise in Lardner's
Cyclop., vol. I. p. 160. But it is important to consider that this must
have been from neighbouring land, probably clusters of islands over-
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 311
grown by succulent trees of exceedingly great magnitude, resembling
families chiefly cryptogamic, which now exist in only small species,
except in hot climates, and which we have great reason to think must
have flourished in an atmosphere essentially different from that which
is necessary to animal life, under the existing system of creation ; all
of which conditions will agree with Mr. Phillip's hypothesis, under-
standing a very small distance of removal by the flooding off. On
the contrary, Dr. Y.'s object is to establish that all this vegetation had
.grown in the sixteen or seventeen centuries before the deluge, and
that the coal-beds are due to being floated away and deposited by the
diluvial Maters; and his whole reasoning seems to imply the trans-
port from considerable distances. This is the object for which he
proposes his theory. But apart from all the reasons furnished by the
phenomena of stratification and animal remains, those naturalists
whom all reason binds us to regard as the best qualified to form a
correct judgment, draw the opposite conclusion. " That the face of
the globe has successively undergone total changes, at different remote
epochs, is now a fact beyond all dispute ; as also that, long anterior
to the creation of man, this world was inhabited by races of animals
to which no parallels are now to be found ; and those animals them-
selves made their appearance, after the lapse of ages, during which
no warm-blooded creatures had an existence. It has been further
remarked by zoologists, that the animals which first appeared in
these latitudes were analogous to such as now inhabit tropical cli-
mates exclusively ; and that it was only at a period immediately an-
tecedent to the creation of the human race, that species similar to
those of the existing era began to appear in northern latitudes. Sim-
ilar peculiarities have been also found to mark the vegetation of cor-
respondent periods." — Foss. Flor. I. ix. x.
I annex a passage from a high American authority: — " Coal,
being peculiarly limited in its local relations, a\nd often contained in
basins, it seems probable that it generally arose from local circum-
stances, with all its attendant and alternating strata of shales, sand-
stones, limestones, clays, iron ores, puddingstones, &c, and, as these
depositions are often repeated several times in the same coal-basin,
and the mines are occasionally worked to a great depth, (even to
1,200 feet, in some places in England), it is plain that no sudden
and transient event, like the deluge, could have produced such
deposits, although it might bury wood and trees, which, in the
course of time, might approximate to the condition of lignite, or
bituminized, or partially mineralized, wood, which is often found
under circumstances indicating a diluvial origin." Prof. Silliman's
Outline of Geology, p. 122.
312 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
The phenomena of the coal-formations have been ably argued by-
Mr. Murchison, in a series of considerations, which prove both the
intensity of action and the long succession of periods that are marked
in the structure and alterations of the crust of the earth. " How
have the coal-fields been rendered accessible to man's use 1 Have
we not shown that many have been forced to the surface by volcanic
action ; and that some have assumed a basin shape, in consequence
of their margins having been thrown into that form by a number of
violent upcasts of the subjacent solid masses, which, wrenched from
their original position, now converge towards a common centre 1"
Silur. Syst. I. 574.
Our respected author appears not seldom to fall into the besetting
error of controversialists, misapprehension of the opinions which he
opposes, or of some part of their relations. For example ; he seems
to think it a fatal objection to the doctrines generally held by geolo-
gists, that the Tertiary Strata " occupy but a small space in the
crust of the earth, yet three of four ages have been assigned to
them;" that "the whole Tertiary Strata cover but a small portion of
the face of our globe, and each of the four sections" [the Eocene, the
Miocene, the older Pliocene, and the more recent Pliocene] " can
claim but a few patches; yet to these patches a whole age is as-
signed !" (pp. 19, 20.) On the scale of reason, this is much the kind
of argument which infidels employ, when they object to Christianity
that it is not universal. Does our objector suppose that topographi-
cal extent is a measure of duration 1 Is it not of the very essence
of the case, that these " patches" (which, be it remarked, cover thou-
sands of square miles in Europe and North America) should occupy
the situations which, by the laws of nature, belong to them'? They
consist of the wearings away and washings down of older rocks,
derived from the elevations and projections of innumerable eras ; and
they must of necessity have been received and retained in the inter-
vening hollows. This is one of the striking instances of the Creator's
wisdom and goodness ; that, by a series of slow operations, effected
according to the known laws and methods of physical action, diver-
sified results are brought to pass which are in the highest degree
beneficial to the animated tribes, and pre-eminently to the race of man.
The very processes are marked with the indications of very long
periods of time, which (if I may express my humble opinion) our
imaginations are more in danger of unduly contracting than of im-
moderately extending.
Yet, after all, Dr. Young makes a surrender of the chief position ;
and therefore all the other parts of the field are fairly debateable
without mutual prejudice, however, we may feel convinced that he
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 313
has unhappily undertaken the defence of posts which cannot be
maintained. He says, " Many are of opinion, that as, without con-
tradicting Scripture, we may believe in the existence of numerous
planetary worlds, all furnished with their respective inhabitants ; so
also we may be allowed to think that numerous creations might exist
on our globe, long before the creation recorded by Moses ; the sacred
pages making no mention of the one, any more than of the other.
To a certain extent, this may be conceded. I agree with my learned
friend Dr. Buckland, that the narrative of Moses does not necessarily
preclude the supposition, that the materials of our globe might pre-
exist under another form, and that this world may have been con-
structed out of the wreck and ruins of a former creation." (Pp.40, 41.)
Yet, under the reservation clause " to a certain extent," he attempts
to render this concession of little value. He is willing to admit of a
previous condition of the earth, provided it may be a state of dark-
ness and confusion, devoid of life and beauty. He thinks that, how
the supposition of " a goodly world can be reconciled with the
Scripture narrative, it is difficult to conceive." May we not reason-
ably ask, Why should this be difficult'? The Scripture narrative
relates (according to our views of its meaning) an adjustment of a
suitable district of our globe for the reception of a new order of
creation; and, to make this known in the manner best adapted to
the comprehension of the early ages of mankind and to the religious
benefit of all generations, was the gracious intention of that page in
the records of revelation. I am unable to perceive any inconsistency
in this with the belief that the bountiful Creator had before made
ample use of this part of his works, to be one of innumerable other
seats of life, intelligence, and happiness. Rather should I think
that we might regard this arrangement as a case included under the
grand proposition, " By faith we understand that the worlds were
arranged [xampTiadai tovs autvas, which might be rendered, the vast
periods adjusted,] by the word of God, to the effect that the objects
seen [ra fiXernixevu] did not come into existence out of those which
are manifested."*
Dr. Young's mode of reasoning about stratification appears to me
surprising. From a partial, trivial, and much exaggerated case
which he alleges, of the action of the waves on a soft sea-beach, he
draws conclusions extravagantly large. A few feet or yards of sand
and marl may be washed down by a flood, or torn off by a storm ;
and almost immediately afterwards redeposited in sorted forms: and
this occurrence which, in the very conditions of the case, can take
* Heb. xi. 3. I have ventured to give the closest translation.
27
314 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
place only on a small scale, he applies unlimitedly by simple multi-
plication, and infers thirty feet of strata in a day, and nine hundred
in a month. But he takes no notice of the extremely slow rate of de-
posit, in those circumstances which constitute the general cou;se of
nature ; and which is demonstrated by facts innumerable in estuaries,
in deltas, or in fresh-water lakes.
He exhibits the crude impertinence of a few foreign sophists,
whose day in this respect is past, representing the succession of or-
ganized beings as becoming gradually more complete and perfect,
so as to indicate an improvement by practice in the Creator's skill;
and he notices not the fact that all the great geologists repudiate such
a notion with abhorrence, and give physical evidence of its false-
hood.
Wiih respect to this subject, it should not be forgotten that, on
account of the perishable substance of their structure, many species
of both animal and vegetable creatures must have failed to perpetuate
any memorials of themselves, in all the periods of the earth's anti-
quity. The more profoundly anatomical investigations are carried
on, the more abundantly is it evinced that, within the range of the
animal remains presented even in the earliest fossiliferous strata, the
remark will hold, as a general truth, which has been made by emi-
nently qualified judges, in relation to the vegetable kingdom : — " The
result of this investigation is well worthy of attention. It shows
that, so far from ' a gradual perfection of organization having been
going on from the remotest period, till the latest geological epoch,'
[the words of an able adverse writer,] some of the most perfect forms
of each of the three great classes of the vegetable kingdom were
among the very first created ; and that, either the more simple plants
of each class did not appear till our own era, or that no trace of them
at an earlier period has been preserved." Lindley and Hutton's
Fossil Flora ; vol. I. pref. p. xix.
It would appear almost incredible that Dr. Y. should say, " Fishes,
zoophytes, ammonites, belemnites, terebratulae, &c. occur in almost
every portion of them [the secondary strata] ; but those in the inferior
strata have as much similarity to the living races as those in the
superior." P. 9. An assertion full of extreme inaccuracies ! Can
he, for example, push out of sight a most remarkable circumstance
in the caudal prolongation of the back-bone, which distinguishes all
the fish of the Magnesian Limestone and the earlier formations, from
the subsequent; and from almost all existing species'? This, and
many other striking peculiarities in the fossil ichthyology, were dis-
covered by the distinguished investigator, M. Agassiz. See Lyell's
Elements, p. 417.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 315
I thankfully avail myself of the authority (— ean there be a high-
er ?—) and testimony of Mr. Murchison. "—The fossils of the Silu-
rian System here represented, and amounting in all to about 350 spe-
cies, are, with the exception of a very few (chiefly doubtful casts,)
essentially distinct from any of the numerous and well-defined fossils
of the Carboniferous System; and further, that the Old Red Sand-
stone which separates these two systems is also characterized by fos-
sils peculiar to it.— Having for a series of years collected fossils from
every stratum of the Silurian rocks, throughout a large region, in
which the stratigraphical order is clear, I now present the results.
Professor Phillips had previously completed a valuable monograph
of the organic remains of the Carboniferous System ; [in his Illus-
trations of the Geology of Yorkshire; vol. II. 1836.] If the natu-
ralist will compare the figures in these, the only two works yet pub-
lished upon the older fossiliferous rocks, which combine geological
description with zoological proofs, he will at once see the truth of my
position.
" Beginning with the verlebrata ; Are not the fishes of the Old
Red Sandstone as distinct from the Carboniferous System on the one
hand, as from those of the Silurian on the other'? M. Agassiz has
pronounced that they are so.
" Are any of the crustaceans, so numerous and well-defined
throughout the Silurian rocks, found also in the Carboniferous
strata 1 I venture to reply, not one.
" Are not the remarkable cephalopodous mollusca, the Phragmo-
ceras, and certain forms of Lituites, peculiar to the older system 1
" Is there one species of the Crinoidea figured in this work,
known in the Carboniferous strata 1
" Has the Serpuloides longissimum, or have those singular bodies
the Graptolites, or in short any zoophytes of the Silurian System,
been detected in the well-examined Carboniferous rocks 1
"And, in regard to the corals, which are so abundant that they
absolutely form large reefs, is not Mr. Lonsdale, who has assiduously
compared multitudes of specimens from both systems, of opinion that
there is not more than one species common to the two epochs'? —
" Such evidences are — additional supports of the important truth
which Geology has already established ; that each great period of
change, during which the surface of the planet was essentially modi fied,
was also marked by the successive production and obliteration of cer-
tain races.'" Silur. Syst. pp. 581, 582.
With astonishment I read in Dr. Y., " The general conformity of
the strata and their undisturbed succession, indicate that they must
have been deposited about the same era." P. 23. He admits indeed
316 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
of some exceptions, but he confines them to the elevating force of
" volcanic agency." One might almost fancy that the worthy author
had never fixed his eyes upon any rocks but those of his own York-
shire coast, and that he had explored even them but cursorily. That
all strata were at their origin deposited horizontally or nearly so, is
not the question. But, is it possible for him to be ignorant of the in-
stances innumerable, in almost all parts of the world, where the for-
mations of the secondary series, and many even of the third, follow
with most remarkable disconformity 1 How often a deposit has been
laid, long after the underlying one has been raised and bent and bro-
ken 1 The Sections published in the Geological Society's Transac-
tions, and innumerable other works of unquestionable authority, fur-
nish the most ample proofs of the contrary to Dr. Y.'s assertion.
If possible, I am still more surprised to read, "The breaks, or
faults, in the strata affect the whole mass of rocks, in almost every
instance where they occur; instead of being limited by the bounda-
ries of particular formations." P. 24. So far as, in a subject inclu-
ding many and various conditions, one can lay down general posi-
tions, I must say that what he affirms is not the fact, and what he de-
nies, and builds largely upon his denial, is the fact.
It is painful to me to remark thus upon the writing of a very esti-
mable friend ; and to be obliged to acknowledge that to me his book
appears to abound in misconceptions of the sentiments of others and
wrong imputations to them, in assertions positively made, but often
hazardous or decidedly erroneous, in narrow investigation and de-
fective induction, and in too rapid conclusions from imperfect prem-
ises. 1 should not however have brought forwards these observa-
tions, which might be considerably extended, but for this reason ; Dr.
Young's character as a Christian and a minister of the gospel, gives
weight and currency to his opinions, and some persons have not
failed to display his authority as if it were a sufficient refutation of
the doctrines commonly maintained by geologists.
[E.]
Referred to at pages 74 {where by error it is called B) and 197.
ON THE REASONS FOR ASSIGNING A VERY HIGH ANTIQUITY TO THE EARTH.
The evidence of geological phenomena constrains us to the belief
that our earth has existed, has been the seat of life, and has under-
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 317
gone many changes of its surface, through periods of time utterly be-
yond human power to assign. That evidence is of distinct and inde-
pendent kinds, chiefly derived from the appearances of stratification
and the remains of animal and vegetable life: and, to at least the
most of those who have taken pains to become competently acquaint-
ed with its nature and variety, it produces the effect of an overpower-
ing ocular and tangible demonstration. At the same time, there is
extreme difficulty in communicating such a knowledge of the facts,
to persons who have not the sensible perceptions upon which it rests.
I have therefore felt it to be necessary, in the preceding lectures, to
rest my repeated assertions in reference to this subject upon authori-
ty ; pleading that the authority is of a kind sufficient to be the ground
of certainty, on account of the moral and intellectual character of
the witnesses, their scientific qualifications, their opportunities for
investigation upon the largest scale, their original prepossessions
against this conclusion, and finally their number and diversity as to
country, party, religious denomination, and other circumstances
which are rational gurantees against prejudice. But this is not suf-
ficient to satisfy all. Some of our friends persist in rejecting the
conclusion, resting chiefly upon the fact of its denial by persons, who,
though a very few in number, possess some geological knowledge
and opportunities for personal observation. The difficulty is perhaps
increased, and advantage is given to the objector, from the fact that
our most distinguished philosophers avowedly, and much to their
honour, decline the task of laying down any common measure be-
tween geological time and our ordinary enumerations of years and
centuries. The best writers abound in general expressions ; such
as, " immense periods of time, — undefined— yet countless — ages,— a
duration to which we dare not assign a boundary,— a work infinitely
slow, a space of time from the contemplation of which the mind
shrinks;— a long succession of monuments, each of which may have
required a thousand ages for its elaboration ;— successions of events,
where the language of nature signifies millions of years:— it is evi-
dent that no greater folly can be committed, than to think to serve the
cause of truth by contracting the long periods of Geology into the
compass of a few thousand years.''*
Opponents have not been backward to take notice of this style of
expression, and to make use of it for their own purposes. In so doing,
* Mantell's Wonders of Geology, i. p. 6, ii. 247. Macculloch's Geol.
i. 455, 473. Sedgwick on the Studies of Cambridge, p. 26. Lytll's
Principles, i. 116. Phillips's Treatise in the Encycl. Erit. 293. Similar
passages might be quoted indefinitely.
27*
318 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
they act a very uncandid and unreasonable part : but we can admin-
ister no remedy to them, so long as they persist in refusing to provide
themselves with the requisite preliminary knowledge, and to exam-
ine the question with far more diligence and patience, and I may
add Christian honour too, than they appear to have yet exercised.
We readily acknowledge that the problem, to represent geological
by astronomical time, is of the greatest difficulty ; perhaps it is utterly
beyond human power to resolve, in the present state of our being,*
Some approximation is all that we venture to hope for. It is self-
evident that the application of any continuous measure of time, anal-
ogous to our common periods of multiples and products, is utterly out
of the question. It would be the height of absurdity to imagine it for
each one of the phenomena whose aggregate forms the whole case, must
have occupied its own particular portion of time destitute of any rule of
conformity toothers. In the formation of strata, each process (trans-
portation, deposition, consolidation, elevation and subsidence ; to be
followed by a renewal of similar actions under new conditions; and
that probably several times repeated) might occupy a duration dif-
ferent from that of the corresponding process in every other stratum
or system of strata. Yet this does not set aside the reality of a pre-
vailing analogy ; nor does it destroy the evidence of a general con-
clusion from a multitude of particular facts, each one of which must
have required, for its consummation, a very long period; we may in
most cases say, immensely long. This will appear, if we consider a
few of those facts.
1. The remains of human beings and of any vestiges of the arts
and operations of man, are discovered only upon or in those surfaces
and earthy masses which are demonstrably posterior to all regular
geological deposits; and under circumstances indicating the human
species to have been among the most recent products of the Creator's
power. Disinterments of human bones have often occurred, with
articles characteristic of an age, one third, and in the Egyptian relics
one half, of the period since the creation of man ; but these are all in
* In 1834, the Council of the Royal Society announced the prize of
o?e of the Royal Medals, the gift of the Sovereign, to the author of the
best paper, to be entitled "Contributions towards a System of Geologi-
cal Chronology, founded on the Examination of Fossil Remains and their
attendant phenomena." The period for such communication was fixed
to expire in June 1837. It did so expire, without producing the result de-
sired. " The Geologists of England," remarks Prof. Phillips, "gave a
fair proof that hypotheses were out of fashion, when they declined to
compete for the medal." Treat, on Geol. (in Lardn. Cyclop.) vol I. p. 245.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 319
the superficial soil, or in situations accessible from it. In peat pro-
duced by the growth of mosses, and in the areas of felled or sub-
merged forests, the bones and utensils of men are found; and the re-
mains of recent animals. The limestones which are continually
formed by the deposition of the fine particles previously dissolved iji
water, coral formations close to sea-shores, and sand and mud drifted
into hollows, would readily involve human remains ; so that it is
rather a subject of surprise that instances like that of the Guadaloupe
skeleton, and fragments of pottery in travertin, are not abundant. It
seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that such would have been
the case, if human beings had existed in any of the geological forma-
tions, previous to the most recent surface. In clefts and cavities of
the older rocks,*which have been upheaved and subsequently shat-
tered and laid bare, men have taken refuge, or their bones have been
buried ; but the access to those hollow places, and the various mat-
ters which have fallen or been carried into them, are always of a re-
cent character. In some countries, vast quantities of mud brought
down by mighty rivers and occasional floods, have buried the persons
and habitations of men ; and the same result has been produced by
terrible and sudden subsidences of land, and slips on mountain-
sides. The strata of mud and sand which have necessarily been
forming in the waters, ever since the present distribution of sea
and land was arranged by the power and wisdom of the Most
High, have been receiving, for at least three thousand years, the
bodies and the property of men, in wrecks without number ; and
many of the substances so sunk in the deep, when encased as they
sooner or later must be, are indestructible till the internal fires shall
prey upon them. Consequently, if ever those strata be upheaved,
and come to be quarried by the men of a future age, what astonishing
disclosures will be laid open to their view !
But nothing of this kind is brought to light in the stratification of
the earth, below the habitable surface, or that which it is demonstra-
ble has been recently detached from it: while those strata contain the
most astonishing multitudes of animal populations ; not excluding
the order (duadrumana) which approaches nearest to the human
form, for fossil bones of at least two large species of the monkey
tribe were discovered in 1836, in the lower part of the Himalayan
mountains. Other remains of that order have recently been found
in France, in Brazil, and but this summer (1839) in an apparently
London-clay formation near Woodbridge. Yet in no formation that
can be called stratified, even of the newest Tertiary beds, has any
thing human been discovered. Not in the mass of fine loam which
covers 3000 square miles of surface in the valley of the Rhine, and
320 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
it is often more than 200 feet in thickness ; nor in the Norfolk crag,
nor in our own London clay, often far more than 300 feet in depth ;
nor in the alternations of fresh-water and sea-water beds down to the
chalk; nor in the chalk itself or any earlier formation. This is
surely going low enough : and it demands to be considered, on the
one hand, that the formations above the chalk occupy a small propor-
tion of distance which would be perpendicular, if all the strata could
be restored to strict horizontality ; in comparison with the total
amount of the lower stratified rocks, scarcely one thirtieth part ; and,
on the other, that Mr. Babbage, referring probably to these Tertiary
or supracretaceous beds, but certainly never intending to go farther,
regards it as a truth supported by irresistible evidence, " that the
formation even of those strata which are nearest the surface, must
have occupied vast periods, probably millions of years."*
I am sensible of the delicacy and danger of venturing upon this
ground ; but I will do no more than touch it. It will be going as far
as in reason we can be desired to do, if we take the general surface
with the drifts of sand and gravel, and whatever masses of clay or
loam may be fairly deemed of equal age with those drifts, and to re-
gard them as representing the period from the creation of man.
That period, according to the usually received chronology, is a little
more than 5840 years ; according to the late Dr. Hales's system, it
is about 7250. Now the average thickness of this superficial accre-
tion is perfectly inconsiderable, compared with the formations com-
posing what is commonly called the Tertiary series. If we were to
say that each of those formations in number six or seven, should be
considered as requiring for its production some such term as we
have mentioned, we should be presuming upon a really contracted
scale. The probability is that several of those formations, if not
each one, must have singly required a length of time equal at least
to our present period : consequently the product would be from forty
to fifty thousand years. But the whole bearing of the evidence, upon
considering its component parts, goes to mark that conclusion as not
furnishing a period sufficiently long for a probable computation of
the processes which it involves. Each stratum and each group of
strata has its limits in extent; each was deposited and otherwise
affected under its own special circumstances ; to each, correspondents
or equivalents are generally found upon other areas ; in each case,
the mechanical and chemical circumstances of production and alter-
ation, recognizable in their results, carry plain evidences of very great
periods of time for their action : but one formation cannot give law
* Ninth Bridgewater Treatise; p. 79.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 321
or precedent to another, and to reduce those periods, or any one of
them, to the ordinary measures of time, is beyond our reach, simply
because the duration of human experience and observation is too
short to furnish a standard.
2. The whole series of strata, from the earliest of them to the
present surface of the globe, exhibits a body of evidence in favour of
our doctrine. Every stratum consists of a mass of earthy matters
which once formed the substance of rocks on elevated land ; partially
excepting the limestones, for a reason to be presently mentioned.
Those portions of the rocks have been separated from their parent
masses, worn down, comminuted, transported often to great distances
by the force of water, deposited, consolidated, elevated, and hardened.
Operations of this kind have been repeated many times, homogene-
ously and heterogeneously as to the mineralogical constitution of the
masses: but the thickness, the lamination, the joints and cleavage,
and the imbedded remains of animal and vegetable beings, cannot be
contemplated with due attention, without producing a conviction
stronger than words can express, of periods of time amazing and
overwhelming to the mind. The most prominent instances may be
mentioned, and we will begin with the earliest.
The first appearance of stratification is in the rock called Gneiss.
This is composed of the same materials as Granite, on the irregular
outline of which it rests. But, whereas in Granite the component in-
gredients are not only distinct but preserve their crystalline figure,
in Gneiss they are indeed perfectly distinguishable, but their edges
and corners are rounded off, and their disposition with regard to each
other may be called an arrangement lengthwise and leaf-like. Now,
this is precisely that state which would be produced by an action
upon the granite surface, whether unaltered or somewhat disinte-
grated, of wearing-off, removal, rolling about, diffusion in water,
subsiding by its own weight, settlement at the bottom, and finally
disposition by the straight direction of a current: in a word, it is that
state which those materials would necessarily acquire, in the way of
being worn and arranged by water working upon them, through a
long space of time ; also being further acted upon by the heat trans-
mitted from below. But, how long was that portion of time, it would
be too daring to conjecture. We know, from the ordinary way of
such a process, which, in many cases can be observed and watched,
that it would be extremely slow. The trituration, depositing, and
permanent fixation of a very few inches, would be a liberal allowance
for a hundred years. What then is the average thickness of the
gneissic rocks, in Scotland, Ireland, and other countries where they
have been brought up to view 1 On account of the intervention of
322 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
other rocks, they cannot be sufficiently explored, and therefore sur-
veys fall short of the full amount as to magnitude ; but enough is ex-
posed to demonstrate an exceedingly great thickness. Professor
Phillips, one of the most cautious of geologists, says, " We may be-
lieve it to exceed many thousand yards."*
Over the Gneiss, come the beds of Mica Schist, and Slates, to a
great amount as to number, and whose thickness is unknown from
the causes mentioned, but certainly very great. If we should venture
to estimate the united thickness of this class, added to the gneissic,
at three or even four miles, we could not be charged with exaggera-
tion. These are the Cumbrian and Cambrian series; and their
mode of formation is proved, by the most striking characters, to have
been the same as that of the Gneiss, modified by the increase and
progressive composition of the materials. The number of strata and
their subdivisions is very great. Consequently, the periods of alter-
nating action and comparative repose must have been numerous.
Could the reader with his own eyes contemplate the finest exhibi-
tions of them in the precipices of Scotland, Cumberland, and Wales,
he would be convinced of the imperfection and poverty of verbal
description ; and he could scarcely fail to receive the sensible demon-
stration of indescribable time, as necessary for these mighty opera-
tions of the omnipresent Deity. He would see a new beauty in the
words of inspired devotion, " Great is the Lord, and greatly to be
praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. I will speak of the
glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works ; — the
might of thy terrible acts."*
Upon this class of rocks, an author distinguished for the extent of
his labours in actual examination, the late Dr. Macculloch, remarks :
" The thickness of these strata we know to be enormous. — These
depths are discovered by geological observations and inferences :
that they extend to many miles was also proved. We have every
reason to know, from what is now taking place on our own earth,
that the accumulation of materials at the bottom of the ocean, is a
work infinitely slow. We are sure that such an accumulation as
should produce the primary strata, as we now see them, must
have occupied a space, from the contemplation of which the mind
shrinks. ''t
It would be with a continued application of similar observations,
if we were to pursue our upward course through the numerous beds
of siliceous, slaty, and limestone aggregates to which the name
* Treatise (Lardn. Cyclop.) vol. I. p. 117.
t Ps. cxlv. t Syst. Geol. vol. I. pp. 472, 473.
STPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 323
Silurian System is given by the distinguished geologist who has
devoted seven years of toil and study, with unsparing expense, to
their investigation. He has thus supplied some connecting links,
the absence of which had created difficulties and perplexing inqui-
ries, between the primary strata and the old red sandstone, now
better called the Devonian System; and has poured a stream of
light generally upon British, or justly speaking European, and still
more extensive, stratification. Their united thickness is about a
miie and a half; but the numeration of all the beds, between which
a boundary of separation is discernible, would probably exceed
human power: who, then, can calculate the periods of their deriva-
tion from the older formations, their deposition, their elevations and
distortions; their convulsions, penetrations, and alterations of the
adjoining rocks, by frequent out-bursts from the fiery liquid below,
and other movements, till they were brought to their existing con-
dition 1* It would seem perfectly impossible for any person, but
moderately acquainted with the visible phenomena of volcanic
regions, to escape the impression that myriads of ages must have been
occupied in the production of these formations, before the creation of
man and the adaptation of the earth's surface for his abode. In
short, the Silurian System of formations contains within itself a
compendious body of instruction, examples, and demonstrations of
Geological truths. t
* Let the impartial inquirer study Murchison's Silurian System ; par-
ticularly chapters xvi. xix. xl. xlii.
+ Will my reader accept of a little specimen? — "Coupling the prece-
ding observations with what has been said concerning the Trap rocks,
and the dislocations of Coalbrook Dale and the Clee Hills, it may be
affirmed that this district in Shropshire furnishes proofs of the alternate
play and repose of volcanic action during very long periods. These evi-
dences demonstrate,
"1. That Volcanic Grits were formed during the deposition of the
Lower Silurian strata.
"2 That the Upper Silurian rocks and Old Red Sandstone were accu-
mulated tranquilly, without a trace of contemporaneous eruptions.
" 3. That, after their consolidation, the last-mentioned deposits were
dismembered, and set upon their edges, by vast out-bursts of intrusive
Trap.
"4. That the Carboniferous System was deposited after the older
strata had been upheaved.
" 6. That subsequent dislocations, including some of the most violent
with which we are acquainted, took place after the accumulation of the
Coal Measures and the Lower New Red Sandstone." Murchison, vol. 1.
p. 235.
324 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
Evidence to the same effect would accumulate upon us to a vast
amount, in examining the Old Red Sandstone, a remarkable deposit,
several thousand feet in thickness, found in some parts of Great Brit-
ain, more abundantly in Ireland, and either in resemblance or in
equivalence in many foreign regions. Next we come to the Moun-
tain Limestone, consisting almost entirely of the shells and coralline
productions of sea animals, often a thousand and more feet in thick-
ness. In this and other Limestone the imbedding part is not, as in
other strata, a sediment from mere watery mixture, but the deposit
from solution of Carbonate of Lime in water. This formation is
frequently more or less interposed among the beds of coal, composed
of compressed vegetable matter, underlaid and overlaid with shales
and sandstones in every variety ; often effecting a thickness of three
thousand feet. The New Red Sandstone, comprising many most in-
teresting varieties of strata, each involving great changes of condi-
tion in the modes of formation, advances us about another thousand
feet.
Other changes, implying probably some alteration in the disposi-
tion and consequently the action of the fiery gulf below,* marked
the next great system, or series of rocks, to which, by a convenient
extension of meaning, the term Oolitic has been given. Its general
thickness can be little less than half a mile. It is filled with the most
convincing proofs of deposition from sea-water, both shallow and
deep, 'the mingled waters of river-mouths, and perhaps even fresh
water of rivers and lakes ; affording indications that the depositions,
in many varieties, both contemporaneous and successive, were car-
ried on through a very long period.
We arrive, in ascending, at the great masses of chalk, and its ac-
companiments of peculiar clays and sands; to the thickness of a
thousand feet or more. Though the lines of stratification are not
here so visible as in the underlying formations, the evidence of depo-
sition from watery mixture, and of very interesting effects from
molecular and chemical attractions, is so clear as to be irresistible.
In our country, and in some others, the Chalk formation, like the Old
* "We have recently seen two of our first philosophers (Babbage and
Herschel) maintaining that, a central heat being granted, the necessary
result of the increment of fresh matter in one part and its abstraction in
another (as is now taking place), must produce such variations in the
conducting media, that the result would be the gradual elevation of some
parts of the earth's surface, and the depression of others." Murchison,
1. 576. The statements referred to are letters of Sir John Herschel to
Mr. Lyell, in the Proceedings of the Geological Society, May 17, 1S37,
and Jan. 31, 1838 ; and the Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 225—247.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 325
Red Sandstone at the other end of an immense series, may have been
thought to form a kind of resting-place, a term to mark the total ces-
sation of one order of things and the commencement of another upon
a different plan ; but it would be a fallacy to suppose so. No forma-
tion of stratified material is continuous over the whole globe. Both
the Old Red and the Chalk are of limited extent; and, where they
do exist, there is not always an abruptness in the succession, below
or above. In the Eastern Alps, Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Mur-
chison have demonstrated a large series of a peculiar Limestone and
other formations, making, in part at least, a transition from the high-
est chalk-beds to the commencement of the Tertiary series;* accor-
ding to the usual and convenient nomenclature. Also beds occur near
Maestricht, which hold the same intermediate position. But whether
or not these fill up the interval between the Secondary and Tertiary
Series of formations, (for it is a mere dispute of words, to which of
the two they should be assigned,) does not affect the argument re-
specting time. If geologists have not yet arrived at a complete ac-
quaintance with the formations that effect the passage from the Chalk
to the Sands and Clays commonly esteemed the lowest of the Tertia-
ries - r if, from well-ascertained discoveries in countries not yet ex-
plored, it should turn out that some bed or beds of distinct character
are to be intercalated; it will be so much of addition to the time ne-
cessary for these formations, — their being deposited at the bottom of
great waters, obtaining their fossil inhabitants, being raised up, dried,
hardened; and these processes being probably several times repeated.
The whole lapse of time, for so small a part of stratification as this,
is astonishing; to our faculties, in the present state, it is immense.
Our last stage of ascent comprehends that Tertiary Series ; a suc-
cession of beds, Clays, Sands, and Limes, variously intermixed, oc-
cupying a thickness of some six or eight hundred feet, and reaching
up to the ground which we tread in our London basin ; but in neigh-
bouring districts, there are two or three later formations. Stratifica-
tion, generally undisturbed, though in some places strikingly other-
wise, as in the Isle of Wight, is here marked in characters impossi-
ble to be mistaken. When we have mounted to the most recent of
those later formations, immediately below the soil on which we tread,
we find enormous masses of gravel and other transported materials
demonstrated by their position to have been rolled along by mighty
currents, subsequently to all the lower formations. They are some-
times spread out upon extensive horizontal areas ; but sometimes,
from local causes, heaped tumultuously together. If the reader will
* Trans. Geol. Soc. Second Series, vol. III. pp. 301—420.
28
326 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
refer to what was advanced in Lect. V. upon the distribution of Drift,
he will perhaps see reason to conclude that this operation cannot be
assigned to an epoch later than what I venture to call the Adamic
Creation; but, as it was of different ages, much of it must, in all prob-
ability, have preceded that date.
Let me entreat a thoughtful person to meditate on the succession,
which we have thus rapidly and imperfectly reviewed. Let him
represent to himself a series of earthy materials, for the most part
dried and consolidated into hard rock, proved by the plainest evi-
dence of the senses to have been sediments from mixture in water;
carrying in their texture and accompaniments the equally manifest
proofs of quiet, gradual, and slow deposition; altered at different
and long distant times, by forces urging from below, often and per-
haps usually of very slow and gradual action, but frequently by the
intrusion of melted rock driven up with tremendous violence; and
that the united thickness of the whole cannot be less than five miles,
but certainly, in extensive ranges, approaching to the double of that
estimate. Let him ask, in each case, whence were those earthy ma-
terials derived % He will find, that they have been worn away from
the surfaces of antecedent and now underlying rocks and dry .land.
Let him then reflect upon the time requisite for this repetition of op-
erations so prodigious, producing a series of many terms, requiring
intervals of both repose and action, to which it is difficult for the ima-
gination to soar. And let him consider, whether he can conceive
the possibility of those results having been effected, in less periods of
duration than such as bid defiance to our poor chronology.
But, still it may be asked, Can you give no sensible idea what-
ever, to assist our conceptions 1 Is there nothing in nature that may
serve as a standard of approximation? Is this vague language of
magnitude and duration all that you can afford 1 Why then may we
not compress the whole succession of stratifications, into a space of
six or seven thousand years 1 At least you are bound to demonstrate
that the lower numbers are inapplicable; that the position of the
ordinary chronology is undoubtedly too short. Is there no plain fact
that may measure some defined part of the series ; and set at rest this
part of the question, the negation of short time 1
I will derive an answer from an assiduous, sagacious, and emi-
nently qualified observer ; a most extensive labourer in the field of
practical Geology ; and a zealous friend of revealed religion.
" Let us contemplate Time as it relates to the Creator, not to
ourselves : and we shall be no longer alarmed at that which the his-
tory of the earth demands. Every stratum of rock is the work of
time, often of far more than we choose to contemplate ; while, from
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 327
what we see, we can approximate to that which we know not how to
measure. He who can measure and number the strata from the
first to the last, is prepared to solve this question as it relates to the
intervals of repose ; but of those only: not to those of the revolu-
tions. Let him ascertain the time required to produce a stratum of
a given depth ; let him seek it in the increase of colonies of shell-
fishes, in deposits of peat, and in the earthy deposits of seas and
lakes: and he has found a multiplier, not to disclose" [i e. entirely
and precisely] "the truth, but to aid his imagination. Who indeed
can sum this scries ? The data are not in our power; yet we can
aid conjectures.
" The great tract of peat, near Stirling, has demanded two thou-
sand years;* for its registry is preserved by the Roman works below
it. It is but a single bed of coal: — shall we multiply it by 100? —
— We shall not exceed,— far from it, — did we allow 200,000 years
for the production of the coal-series of Newcastle, with all its rocky
strata.t A Scottish lake does not shoal" [i. e. deposit mud or marl
to remain at the bottom] " at the rate of half a foot in a century ; and
that country presents a vertical depth of far more than 3000 feet, in
the single series of the oldest sandstone. No sound geologist will
accuse a computer of exceeding, if he allows 600,000 years for the
production of this series alone. And yet, what are the coal depo-
sits, and what the oldest sandstone, compared to the entire mass of
the strata?
" If these views of the powers and the results of geological inves-
tigation are alarming to feeble minds, they tend to exalt that science
in the estimation of those who neither fear to seek Truth, nor dread
it when found."*
I do not take upon me to affirm that these numbers are incontro-
vertibly correct ; but let it not be forgotten that they proceed from
one of the most experienced and indefatigable of studious observers
and practical labourers in this field, besides that he was an avowed
and warm friend of revelation. If my advice should have the effect
of inducing any of my young friends to read his Description of the
Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, in four volumes ; his Ge-
ological Classification of Rocks, (though the classification, in the
* He puts a round number. It is 1760 years since the Romans inva-
ded Scotland. But the difference is inconsiderable in this argument.
t The reader will observe that, the author is speaking of the Newcas-
tle coal strata alone ; not including the subsequent formations, up to the
present condition of the earth,
t Macculloch's System of Geology ; vol. I. pp. 506, 507.
328 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
present advancement of discovery, requires considerable correction,)
and his posthumous three volumes on the Attributes of God, as
proved and illustrated by the Physical Universe ; — I am sure that
they will not blame me. Yet it must not be forgotten that he did not
live to acquire a proper knowledge of Palaeontology.
3. There is a fact which may be made intelligible to an un-
instructed person, or even to a child. In those stratified rocks
which are of a sandy constitution, it is common to find pebbles, from
the size of coriander-seeds to that of birds' eggs, and much larger.
These bear demonstrative evidence of having been derived from
more ancient rocks, by fracture and detachment, long rolling on a
hard bottom under water, dispersed through the loose sand of a
deposit, subsiding to the lower part if a tolerably free motion were
permitted, and then consolidated. To this portion of a sandy form-
ation, whose parts are thus agglutinated, the appropriate term con-
glomerate is given. Let the Old Red Sandstone be our example. —
In many places the upper part of this vast formation is of a closer
grain, showing that it was produced by the last and finest deposits
of clayey and sandy mud, tinged, as the whole is, with oxides and
carbonates of iron, usually red but often of other hues. But fre-
quently the lower portions, sometimes dispersed heaps, and sometimes
the entire formation, consists of vast masses of conglomerate, the
pebbles being composed of quartz, granite, or some other of the ear-
liest kinds; and thus showing the previous rocks, from whose
destruction they have been composed. Let any person first acquire
a conception of the extent of this formation, and of its depth, often
many hundreds and sometimes two or three thousand feet ; (but
such a conception can scarcely be formed without actual inspec-
tion ;*) then let him attempt to follow out the processes which the
clearest evidences of our senses show to have taken place : and, let
him be reluctant and skeptical to the utmost that he can, he can-
not avoid the impression that ages innumerable must have rolled
over the world, in the making of this single formation.
4. In the texture of the early stratified rocks, to which the abund-
ant evidence leads us to ascribe a vast antiquity, pieces of granitic
rocks are often found, of such forms as show that the}' had been
broken off from the crystallized formations: for, if they had come
from the injection of newly-formed granite, the marks of elevation
and intrusion in a fused state would not have been wanting. Hence,
it is plain that the parent rock, in any case, existed before the form-
ation of the derivative.
* The most convenient localities for us are in Herefordshire and Mon-
mouthshire.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 329
5. The earliest slate rocks, like all other strata, must have been
originally deposited in a position horizontal or nearly so. By sub-
sequent movements, not one but evidently many, they have been
raised to all elevations and bent to the utmost extent of contortion:
as is shown by the lines of stratification. But there is another kind
of division, first brought to light by Professor Sedgwick ; that of lines
of cleavage and intersecting joints, or called by a general term,
structural or divisional planes. These are productive of signal bene-
fit to the arts and convenience of men: but they involve profound
geological and mathematical researches, and their causes can be ex-
plored only by going into the deepest night of terrestrial antiquity.
Those who are the best qualified to form an opinion, impute this
structure to an agency ( — call it electric, galvanic, magnetic, or
chemical, — ) connected with the grand and mysterious operations of
the terrestrial magnetism, operating upon a scale which we cannot
graduate of magnitude and distance, and requiring a proportionate
vastness of time for its taking effect; probably the same agency that
reigns in the wonderful processes of crystallization, from points of
invisible minuteness to formations of indefinable greatness: — or
some parts of these phenomena may be imputed to the slow action
of the heat from below, producing a general and regular contraction
of the argillaceous formations: — or the cause may be sought in the
change of cohesion in masses becoming solid from a state of fluidity.
The contraction mentioned is founded upon a known property of
argillaceous earth: all these causes act quite independently of the
stratification : the jointed structure is found to affect the crystalline
rocks also: the stratification contains in itself the evidence of having
required periods, impossible indeed to be determined by any assign-
ment of figures, but to which, judging from all approximating evi-
dence, our cycles of time afford none but a totally defective measure
of comparison. This branch of investigation is indeed one of extreme
difficulty; and with which I acknowledge myself to possess but a
very imperfect acquaintance. The expectation is with good reason
indulged that both the learned Professor just mentioned, and another
ornament of the same University, Mr. Hopkins, who has long
employed his rare mathematical powers upon the class of problems to
which this belongs, will confer upon the whole subject important
elucidations, and openits further connexions with the most recondite
parts of geological science.*— But the impression which the general
* See Prof. Sedgwick's Remarks on the Structure of large Mineral
Masses, in the Trans. Geol. Soc. Second Ser. vol. III. p. 4G1. Mr. Hop-
kins's Mem. in the Trans. Philos. Soc. Cambr. vol. VI. and the brief
28*
330 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
view of the phenomena makes upon me, is that of an unspeakable
addition to the reasons for Mr. Scrope's exclamation, — " Time!
Time!— Geology compels us to make unlimited drafts upon
antiquity !"
It is established by such evidence as places the fact beyond contra-
diction, that by far the larger part, more probably the whole, of the
dry land, not excepting the highest mountains, has been raised out of
the bed of the sea. There is also evidence that the process of eleva-
tion is extremely slow. The general proof accrues from the ancient
beaches, now far above the highest sea-level, which abound on almost
all bold coasts. But a favourable concurrence of circumstances has
brought the elevation of an extensive portion of the Scandinavian
peninsula, within the range of measurement; and three feet in a cen-
tury have been well established. Now there are successions of such
ancient sea-beaches, in several of the glens of Scotland, at heights of
eight, ten, twelve hundred feet, and more, above the present sea-
level. Mr. Darwin has shown by a series of very probable argu-
ments, that these have been all produced by the regular action of the
ocean-waters upon rocky shores, and the no less regular rising of the
land, in its bodily mass, over large areas, and with that extreme
slowness of which we have so many proofs. Applying then the ex-
ample of Sweden to the case before us, we bring out a period of thirty
thousand years, from the lowest and of course latest elevation to the
formation of the present shore ; and from the time of the highest ele-
vation, the period is more than eighty thousand years. But a period
remains to be added to this, for the interval before that highest beach
was raised and while the upper part of the mountains was slowly
rising out of the waters: for this prior period, no rule or approxi-
mation of estimate is known.*
I must cease ; or I had intended to push my argument farther, and
to ask some reflection to be bestowed upon the crystalline rocks. —
Can any man imagine that granite was created in its characteristic
state, a composition of visibly and palpably distinct materials, scarce-
ly mixed, only put loosely together 1 It would be almost as rea-
sonable to affirm that the stomachs of the first animals were created
Sketch of his communication to the Geol. Section of the British Assoc.
at Bristol, in the Report for 1836 ; Trans. Sect. p. 78. Prof. Whewell's
brief but most interesting summary of the problems which Mr. Hopkins
has proposed, and the results to which he has already arrived, in his Pre-
sidential Address to the Geological Society, Feb. 15, 1339; p. 40.
* See Mr. Maclaren's paper on the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy ; in
Prof. Jameson's Philos. Journ. Edinb. Oct. 1839, p. 395.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 331
with bitten and masticated fragments of the appropriate food in them.
Whence came the quartz, the mica, and the felspar; each a rock
of separate existence! — Whence, the schorl, the augite, the steatite,
and other interminglings'? Must we not pursue them to their
chemical decomposition'? Can we stop short of believing that the
original act of creation produced the few primordial elements by the
combinations of which all mineral and all organized matters have
been formed 1 — Then we have gone back to the fathomless abyss of
ages of ages. — But this unutterable period !— Compared with the in-
finite existence, with the eternity of GOD, it sinks to a mo-
ment.
" Combining in our survey, then, the whole range of deposits,
from the most recent to the most ancient group, how striking a suc-
cession do they present ! — So various, yet so uniform ; so vast, yet so
connected ! In thus tracing back to the most remote periods in the
physical history of our continents, one system of operations, as the
means by which [so] many complex formations have been succes-
sively produced, the mind becomes impressed with the singleness of
nature's laws ; and, in this respect at least, Geology is hardly inferior
in simplicity to Astronomy. Need we recapitulate those curious
changes in the lithological character of the deposits affected by igne-
ous action 1 Or endeavour to rouse the mind to a sense of the great-
ness of those powers, whatever they may have been, which produced
the symmetrical jointed structure of mountains, and carried countless
lines of parallel cleavage throughout regions of slaty rocks, in spite
as it were of the original forms of the strata T'*
Thus far I have endeavoured to reason from the mineralogical
character of stratified masses, not so much from their constitution or
composition individually, as from their position above and below
each other. I have continually endeavoured to leave out the consid-
eration of Organic Remains, though it was impossible to do so entire-
ly. But it appeared probable that, for general readers, the method of
surveying the two lines of evidence apart, might be the more favour-
able to a correct apprehension of the whole. We must, therefore,
now direct our attention to the attractive department of Geology, to
which the name of Palaeontology has been appropriated.
In all the terrene formations till we reach the very early ones, we
are met by the remains of creatures which once had life, and were
furnished by their Creator with the means of performing functions
and enjoying life to the extent of their capacities. In some of the
strata, the number is comparatively small j but in the greater part it
is very considerable.
* Murchison; Silur. Syst. I. 574.
332 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
The first systems of stratification, gneiss, mica schist, and so on
to the lower part of the Cambrian beds, supply no vestiges of vegeta-
ble or animal life. But it would be unwarrantable to affirm abso-
lutely that living creatures had no place in the waters which once
covered those rocks, and from which they were deposited ; for the
heat propagated from below, through the substance of the granitic
masses, and which has given a partially fused and crystalline char-
acter to the gneissic, would be effectual to dissipate all organized
matter, had such existed before the high temperature was produced.
In a citation before given from Professor Phillips* we have con-
templated a sketch of the forms of organic life from the earliest ap-
pearance in the slate-mountains of North Wales and Cornwall to
those of the present creation. To have the mind duly impressed by
a view at all approaching to completeness of the little that is known,
the study of many geological works, a familiar acquaintance with
collections, and an actual inspection of the rocks themselves, are, if
not necessary, yet highly desirable. The first and second of these
means are all that many studious persons can command ; but for
them let us be thankful, and by the use of ihem we may acquire
the qualifications which are indispensable for enjoying the survey
of nature upon a grand scale, whenever it may be put into our
power.
The earliest appearances of life are two or three species of zoo-
phytes, and casts (that is, impressions in mineral matter remaining
after the organized substance has been dissolved and washed away)
of several species of shells which have been discoveredt in the slate-
rocks just mentioned. The structure of those shells shows that iheir
inhabitants stood higher in the scale of organization than our cockles
and oysters. But we should not be warranted in supposing that these,
should we call them twenty or thirty species, were the whole amount
of the kinds of living creatures at that remote era. It is a wonder
that any have escaped total obliteration. Besides these few corallines
and hard shells, there might be many species of many animal orders,
the remains of which have been entirely decomposed and absorbed.
The fossils referred to are arranged along the surfaces of deposit, in
such positions and regularity as show that the animals lived and died
on the spots which have preserved their remains. An indication is
thus afforded of the lapse of time, which is very impressive. An
area of soft clay at the bottom of a primeval ocean was deposited, and
* Pages 75—78.
t By the late Rev. John Josias Conybeare, the Rev, Prof. Sedgwick,
and Prof. Phillips,
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 333
received its living tenants with their shelly habitations; from their
first creation growing up to the preservation of individual life, in-
creasing and multiplying iheir kinds, and generation succeeding gen-
eration till the species becomes extinct. Though perfect knowledge
is not possessed, yet there are reasons for believing that the duration
of life to testacean individuals of the present races is several years.
But who can state the proportion which the average length of life to
the individual mollusc or conchifer, bears to the duration appointed
by the Creator to the species ?— Take any one of the six or seven
thousand known recent species. Let it be a Buccinum, of which 120
species are ascertained, (one of which is the commonly known
whelk ;) or a Cypraea. comprising about as many, (a well-known spe-
cies is on almost every mantel-piece, the tiger-cowry ;) or an Ostrea,
(oyster,) of which 130 species are described. We have reason to
think that the individuals have a natural life of at least six or seven
years : but we have no reason to suppose that any one species has died
out, since the Adamic creation. May we then, for the sake of an illus-
trative argument, take the duration of testacean species, one with anoth-
er, at 1000 times the life of the individual"? May we say, 6000 years 1
— We are dealing very liberally with our opponents. Yet, in exam-
ining the vertical evidences of the cessations of the fossil species, marks
are found of an entire change in the forms of animal life ; we find
such cessations and changes to have occurred many times, in the thick-
ness of but a few hundred feet of these slate-rocks. But the homoge-
neous or nearly homogeneous deposit consists of many thousand
feet ; and it is only one of several, perhaps four, great formations
which constitute this early system.
But when we rise to the Silurian formations, we find a long suc-
cession of strata, many thousand feet in thickness, and imbedding
not fewer than 375 species belonging to the animal kingdom ; — coral-
lines, encrinites, analogues of crab and lobster, bivalve and univalve
shells, and the skeletons and detached bones offish.
The Old Red Sandstone, now called by a preferable name, the
Devonian system, had been thought to be almost destitute of organic
remains ; but recent researches, particularly in Scotland, have
brought to light numerous and highly interesting bones and skeletons
of fishes: but none of them are such as belong to the present order
of creation. They are all of species, and even genera, not now exist-
ing: and the same observation is to be made with respect to the fishes
which occur more abundantly in a very thick and extensive forma-
tion which comes much later in the geological series, the New Red
Sandstone, and especially that which is usually considered as one of
its subordinate parts, the Magnesian Limestone.
334? SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
Between these two great yet very distinct and distant Red Sand-
stone formations, there is, in many parts of Wales, England, and
Scotland, the Mountain Limestone, usually 800 and more feet in
thickness, and which consists of nothing else than the remains of
coralline and testaceous animals, compressed into masses hundreds
of feet in thick stone, and often many miles in length and breadth.
Over that, and in many of the same localities, we have the coal-strata,
consisting entirely of compressed plants, with their sandstones, shales,
and ironstones, full of land vegetables and presenting some fresh-
water shells and fishes.
Above these, we are in the New Red just mentioned; 2000 feet of
marl, clay, sand-rock, conglomerates, sulphate of lime, rock-salt, and
magnesian limestone ; red of all hues, white, and variegated : much
less, in our country, replenished with the vestiges of living creatures,
than the preceding or the succeeding formations ; yet not destitute of
them. In the equivalent rocks of Germany and France, organic
remains are more frequent.
In one of the members of this formation, the first known appear-
ance of reptile life presents itself, in several species of lizard-like
animals. But in the beds which come next in the ascending order,
the Lias, we are met by other and very different species, of the same
family, of appalling size, power, and armature,* besides other orders ;
and through all the Oolitic strata, we find remains, in great variety
and abundance ; above fifty of plants ; but of the animal classes a
number of species and forms of organization, which may well fill us
with astonishment, from the zoophytes upwards, but as yet (so far as
is known) only, as it were, just touching upon the mammifers.
Neither, amidst the crowds of other animals, till we have risen over
all the sandy, clayey, and chalk formations, do we find any further
appearances of that class. The thousands of species, through whose
periods we have thus in idea been passing, are all different from any
in the now existing creation, though possessing generic and family
analogies: and yet (with the remarkable and contestedt exception
* The reader should not fail, if he can, to inspect the specimens which
are in the Long Gallery of the British Museum : the figures, by Mr.
Hawkins, who collected the most of those specimens and chisseled them
out of the rock, engraven upon a grand scale in his work, Memoirs of the
Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, 1834 : and those reduced in Dr. Buckland's
Bridgewater Treatise, with his admirable enucleations of the structure
and habits of the animals.
t Some eminent anatomists are of opinion that the few bones in ques-
tion (only two or three broken jaws, upon which the greatest men in this
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 335
just hinted at, the Stonesfield Oolite, and see p. 76,) no mammiferous
animals. When we have risen above the chalk, we discover in the
shell -fish a small beginning of existing species ; and, in the subsequent
formations, the proportion increases till all the older species have
successively become extinct, and the land, the fresh waters, and the
ocean, come to be occupied by the present edition of creation. But
many deposits and very long periods, from the chalk upwards, have
existed, till mammiferous animals are found (the various theria of
several regions); and they are all exceedingly different from living
species or even genera. Finally, in the formations immediately pre-
ceding our own, we find animals falling into existing genera, but spe-
cifically different; and, as they gradually cease, our present species
succeed to their places.
This sketch, hasty and imperfect as it is, demonstrates a series of
changes in organic nature, adapted to the variations in temperature,
atmospheric constitution, and mineral composition, which, upon inde-
pendent grounds, we have reason to believe did take place. The per-
fections of the Creator are conspicuous in all this wondrous course of
change. We see unity of purpose, harmony of means and adapta-
tions, and infinite variety in modes of development. " O Lord, how
manifold are thy works ! In wisdom hast thou made them all. The
earth is full of thy riches : so is this great and wide sea." (Ps.
civ. 24.)
Upon this argument one might expatiate without limit; but I
leave it to my studious and impartial readers, persuaded that, in pro-
portion to their mental cultivation and their assiduity in pursuing
these interesting objects of research, will be their conviction of the
immeasurable antiquity of our earth and the whole created system —
immeasurable, indeed, but only so to our feeble faculties: compared
with the prior eternity of Jehovah, it sinks into a short period. —
Eternity ! — How awakening is the thought, that each of us is born
for a duration to which that word can be applied ; and that it depends
upon ourselves, in the present stage of our existence, whether it shall
be an eternity of dignity and happiness unspeakable, or of the most
appalling degradation, and misery, and despair.
There is one class to which, in this argument, the appeal may be
made with peculiar force of evidence; the students of Conchology.
Their elegant science makes them familiar with probably seven thou-
department have put forth their utmost powers of discrimination) be-
longed not to a mammal, but to a small reptile, of the lizard or iguana
family, and to which those naturalists give the generic name of amphi-
therium.
336 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
sand species of creatures, the inhabitants chiefly of the waters, in
whose forms and organic provisions, and in their shelly habitations,
the wisdom and goodness of the Creator are displayed with striking
beauty. Of those species, the conchologist finds not one in the former
strata of the earth's crust, except, with a rapidly decreasing propor-
tion, in the most recent formations:* — he finds not one living species
in the chalk and the older systems. Yet he perceives identities of
genera, yet decreasing; and, where the genera are different, there is
the relation of analogy ; all exhibiting the presiding energy of the
one mind, with the admirable adaptations of every circumstance in
the organization to conditions of temperature and the gaseous com-
position of the atmosphere. The fossil conchologist finds above four
thousand kinds, which have had their respective periods of exist-
ence; I speak not of the individuals, but of the species or races, to
each of which, from the analogy of living nature, we must assign
some thousands of years. He sees those species at length ceasing ;
even whole genera going out of existence ; and others occupying the
vacancies, always adapted to altered conditions of the earth and the
waters. " This fact has now been verified, in almost all parts of the
globe; and has led to a conviction, that at successive periods of the
past, the same area of land and water has been inhabited by species
of animals and plants as distinct as those which now people the anti-
podes, or which now coexist in the arctic, temperate, and tropical
zones. It appears, that from the remotest periods there has been ever
a coming in of new organic forms, and an extinction of those which
pre-existed on the earth; some species having endured for a longer,
others for a shorter time; but none having ever reappeared, after
once dying out." (Lyell's Elements, p. 275.) " General and partic-
ular results all agree in demonstrating that the physical conditions
of the ancient ocean must have been very different, in some respects,
from what obtain at present ; and that these conditions were subject
to great variation during the very long periods which elapsed in the
* In the newest strata of our country, certain parts of Norfolk and
Suffolk, and the basin of the Thames, Mr. Lyell has determined the exis-
tence of 90 to 95 in the hundred of such species as now live ; the same
proportion as in the most recent beds of Sicily. (Charlesworth's Mag.
Nat. Hist. July 1839, p. 327. Lyell's Princ. iii. 369, 370, 373 ; fifth ed.
his Elements, p. 284 — 290. In the nearest older formations, the propor-
tion of number runs from 70 to 40 ; the Norfolk Crag, Red, 30; Coralline,
19 ; and in older beds diminishing to 26, 17, and finally about 3 ; till, in
the Chalk, crowded with conchological as well as other remains, all ex-
isting species are found to have ceased.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 337
formation of the crust of the earth. In the course of these changes,
whole groups of animals perished ; others were created, to perish in
their turn ; and these operations were many times repeated, not only
before the present races of animals were formed, but even before the
relative numbers in the leading groups approximated to the propor-
tions which appear in the actual sea." (Phillips's Geol. in Lard-
ner's Cyclop, vol I. p. 84.)
Other distinct arguments might be adduced in support of our po-
sition, the immense antiquity of the earth; but they Will present
themselves frequently and powerfully to the attentive student, in his
patient explorings for geological truth. This note is loo long al-
ready. Yet I thankfully avail myself of support to its design from
the eloquent address of the Rev. William Vernon Harcourt. as
President of the British Association, at the meeting of this year at
Birmingham.
11 No one, I think, can doubt that those who condemned the Coper-
nican system were justified in conceiving that the Scriptures speak
of the earth as fixed, and the sun as the moving body. Every one
will allow also that this language is ill adapted to the scientific truths
of Astronomy. We see the folly of any attempt, on this point, to in-
terpret the laws of nature by the expressions of Scripture ; and, what
is the ground of our judgment 1 We are not all competent to judge
between the theory of Copernicus and those which preceded it; but
we determine against the seeming evidence of our senses, and against
the letter of Scripture ; because we know that competent persons
have examined and decided the physical question. Now, gentlemen, in
Geology we are arrived at the self-same point: that is to say, a vast
body of the best informed naturalists have examined, by all the vari-
ous lights of science, and by undeniable methods of investigation,
the structure of the earth : and, however they may differ on less
certain points, they will agree in this: that the earth exhibits a suc-
cession of stratification, and a series of imbedded fossils, which cannot
be supposed to have been so stratified and so imbedded in six days, in a
year, or in Ivjo thousand years, without supposing also such numerous,
such confused and promiscuous violations of the laws and analogies
of the universe, as would confound, not the science of Geology alone,
but all the principles of Natural Theology. Here then is another
point of discordance ; and in this case [also] the discordance lies be-
tween the language of Scripture and the truths of science. —
— <: Who then would expect to find in Genesis the chronology or
sequence of creation 1 Who can think that he upholds the authority
of Scripture by literal constructions of such a history 1 — As Astro-
nomy shows the unity of the Creator through the immensity of space,
29
338 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
so does Geology, along the track of unnumbered ages, and through
the successive births of beings ; still finding in all, the uniform de-
sign of the same almighty power, and the varied fruits of the same
unexhausted goodness. " From the Report in the Athenoeum,
Aug. 31, 1839.
Upon this noble generalization, I cannot refuse to cite one pas-
sage more from the Christian philosopher of New England, so fre-
quently mentioned with respect in the preceding pages.
" Nor ought it to be forgotten, that these very principles and de-
ductions of Geology, that have excited so much of alarm and oppo-
sition among some friends of religion, and so much of premature and
groundless exultation among its enemies, have nevertheless, when
taken in connection with astronomy, developed and established a
law of God's natural government of the universe, grand beyond all
others known to man, and undiscovered or only dimly seen by the
great minds of other generations. I refer to the fact, that perpetual
change is made the grand conservative and controlling principle of the
universe. Men have always seen and felt this instability in respect
to every thing on earth ; and they have regarded it as a defect, rather
than as a wise law of the natural world. But they now find it to be
equally true of suns and planets as of plants and animals. ' Perpe-
tual change, perpetual progression, increase, and diminution, appear
to be the rules of the material world, and to prevail without excep-
tion.' (Prof. Whewell's Bridgewater Treat, p. 158.) And this very
instability is the great secret of the permanence and constancy of na-
ture's operations, and of the adaptation of the external world to the
wants and happiness of organized beings. It is ' a principle superior
to those grand rules which we have been accustomed to regard as
constituting exclusively the laws of nature ; from the security, which
we see in it, beyond the longest and apparently most perfect period-
ical movements of our solar system.' (Cordier, sur la Temp, de
l'lnterieure de la Terre ; p. 84.) In fine, it is probably the most
splendid display of the divine skill which the universe can furnish."
Hitchcock's Geol. of Massachusetts; p. 251.
The importance of the subject of the preceding note supersedes
any apology for its length. But, in relation to that subject, I am un-
der an obligation, the feeling of which is a pleasure: and thus is ren-
dered more incumbent the duty of acknowledging it, The Rev.
Professor Sedgwick, whose liberality of mind and heart is the fit ac-
companiment of his scientific eminence, has favoured me with com-
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 339
munications on this vital point, and with permission to use them as I
might think fit. Bat 1 cannot adorn myself with another's robe ; I
cannot incorporate his matter into my own, without a sense of doing
wrong. Yet to deprive the reader of the satisfaction to be derived
from the information and reasoning of so high an authority,* I should
feel to be an inexcusable offence. It is also proper to mention that
the Professor's letter was written by him in haste, under the urgency
of University engagements, and when setting out on his geological
tour this summer in France, Belgium, and other countries.
" The fossils demonstrate the time to have been long, though
we cannot say how long. Thus we have generation after generation
of shell-fish, that have lived and died on the spots where we find
them; very often demonstrating the lapse of many years for a few
perpendicular inches of deposit. In some beds, we have large cold-
blooded reptiles, creatures of long life. In others, we have traces of
ancient forests, and enormous fossil trees, with concentric rings of
structure marking the years of growth. Phenomena of this kind are
repeated again and again : so that we have three or four distinct sys-
tems of deposit, each formed at a distinct period of time, and each
characterized by its peculiar fossils. Coeval with the Tertiary
masses, we have enormous lacustrine deposits ; sometimes made up of
very fine thin laminae, marking slow tranquil deposits. Among those
laminae, we can find sometimes the leaf-sheddings, and the insects, of
successive seasons. Among them also we find almost mountain-
masses of the Indusice titbv.latal and other sheddings of insects, year
* To geologists it is unnecessary ; but to many otherwise well-in-
formed persons, it will be gratifying to know the terms in which Prof.
Whewell has adverted to the merits of his friend and colleague. "The
classification of the rocks of this portion of our island [the Cambrian] to
which Prof. Sedgwick has been led, is the fruit of the vigorous and
obstinate struggles of many years, to mould into system a portion of
Geology which appeared almost too refractory for the philosopher's hand ;
and which Prof. Sedgwick grappled with the more resolutely, in propor-
tion as others shrank away from the task, perplexed and wearied .A
series of formations distinguished and reduced to order by [his] indefati-
gable exertions and wide views. It has been necessary to employ and
improve all the best methods of geological investigation. "He has
traced " the geographical continuity of the strata, almost mile by mile
from Cape Wrath to the Land's End." Presid. Addr. Geol. Soc. 1839
p. 25.
t These are cylindrical cases formed for its habitation by a six-legged
inaect-larva, which inhabits ponds and small streams, creeping at the bot-
tom. The cases are constructed of small portions of leaves and stalks
340 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
after year. Again, streams of ancient lava alternate with some of
these lacustrine Tertiary deposits.
" In Central France, a great stream of lava caps the lacustrine
limestone. At a subsequent period, the waters have excavated deep
valleys, cutting down into the lacustrine rock marble, many hundred
feet: and at a newer epoch, anterior to the authentic history of
Europe, new craters have opened, and fresh streams of lava have
run down the existing valleys. Even in the Tertiary period, we
have thus a series of demonstrative proofs of a long succession of
physical events, each of which required a long lapse of ages for its
elaboration.
" Again ; as we pass downwards from the bottom Tertiary beds
to the Chalk, we instantly find new types of organic life. The old
species, which exist in millions of individuals in the upper beds, dis-
appear : and new species are found in the Chalk immediately below.
This fact indicates a long lapse of time. Had the Chalk and upper
beds been formed simultaneously at the same period," [as the sup-
porters of the diluvial theory represent,] " their organic remains
must have been more or less mixed : but they are not. Again ; at
the base of the Tertiary deposits resting on the Chalk, we often find
great masses of conglomerate, or shingle, made up of Chalk-flints
rolled by water. These separate the chalk from the overlying beds ;
and many of the rolled flints contain certain petrified Chrtk-£ossi\s.
Now every such fossil proves the following points:
" 1. There was a time when the organic body was alive, at the
bottom of the sea.
laid and finely joined together, agglutinated by a secretion of the insect,
lined with a silky fibrous matter, and defended on the outside by small
substances of a harder texture made to adhere by the insect's gluten, such
as minute bits of wood or bark, grains of sand, and very small shells.
When it quits the larva state, it comes out a brownish, four- winged moth-
like insect. Reaumur calls them butterfly-Jlies. They are seen in clouds
about ponds on summer evenings. The generic name is Phryganea, but
there are many species in England and other countries. An excellent
figure of the Phryganea rhombica, a common English species, (which
the author has forgotten to say is the size of life,) is in Lyell, vol. IV. p #
153. In that place, Mr. L. has given an account of one instance of the
rocky limestone-masses here alluded to by Prof. Sedgwick, with beautiful
figures. The cases are studded over with small water-snail-shells, like
those of Paludinos or Linnaeus's viviparce. Often ten or twelve of these
well-loaded cases are packed up, as it were, yet not broken, within the
compass of a cubic inch.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 341
11 2. It was afterwards imbedded in the cretaceous deposit.
"3. It became petrified : a very slow process.
"4. The Chalk was, by some change of marine currents, washed
away, or degraded," [i. e. worn away under the. atmosphere by the
weather and casualties, a process slow almost beyond description,]
11 and the solid flints and fossils" [thus detached from their imbed-
dings] " were rolled into shingles.
" 5. Afterwards, these shingles were covered up, and buried
under Tertiary deposits.
"In this way of interpretation, a section of a few perpendicular
feet indicates a long lapse of time ; and the coordinate fact of the
entire change of organic types between the beds above and those
below, falls in with the preceding inference, and shows the lapse of
time to have been very long. [ — But who can say, how long 1 Many
thousands of years sink into a trifling period, for the passing through
of these processes. ]
" If I travel in Greece, I may find monuments of ancient art per-
haps under the foundations of a Turkish house. If I compared these
works of art with those of the present day, I should be convinced at
once (quite independently of history) that they belonged to a differ-
ent epoch in the annals of the human race. These changes are part-
ly due to the progress of civilization, the caprice of man's will, and
other moral causes; still, however, subordinate to certain laws. In
the geological case, the total change in organic forms has been brought
about by the slow operation of physical causes, not under the control
of man. But he can observe them ; and, because they are laws, that
is. have the impress p/mind upon them, he can interpret them. Those
who argue against you as some of your opponents do, not only de-
prive man of his intellectual privilege, but strip the God of nature of
his honour."
See pp. 328 and 333. " The Old Red Sandstone often appears as
a new conglomerate, of great thickness, separating the old slate-rocks
from the Mountain Limestone. But, even in this form and without
fossils, it demonstrates that the older strata were solid and perfected
before the existence of the Mountain Limestone.
" Again ; there was a total change in the inhabitants of the sea,
between the Limestone-beds and Coral-reefs of the Silurian and Cam-
brian periods, and the time when the Mountain Limestone was de-
posited. Hence, we should conclude that there was a very long lapse
of time, between the period of the highest Silurian beds and the peri-
od of the Mountain Limestone. This inference is confirmed by very
29*
3*12 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
modern discoveries. In Scotland, in the country examined by Mr.
Murchison, [the Silurian region,] and above all in North and South
Devon, the Old Red Sandstone contains innumerable regular beds,
with fossils which have lived and died where we find them ; that is,
in the same relative situation, as of course they [with the entire sea-
bottom mass in which had been their habitation] hadbeen lifted
bodily out of the sea by elevatory forces. Subordinate to it are lines
upon lines of old Coral-reefs and other calcareous masses, full of or-
ganic structures, and indicating most emphatically long periods of
time. The organic types [in this Old Red] are of an intermediate
character, between the types of the Silurian and Cambrian and the
types of the Mountain Limestone.
" Every thing indicates a very long and very slow progression: —
one creation flourishing and performing its part, and gradually dying
off as it has so performed its part ; and another actual creation of new
beings, not derived as progeny from the former, gradually taking its
place; and again this new creation succeeded by a third. Nothing
per saltum ; all according to law and order; all bearing the impress
of mind, a great dominant will, at the bidding of which all parts of
nature have their peculiar movements, their periods of revolution,
their rise and fall."
" These alternations of Limestone beds [see above, page 321,] full
of fossils (shells and zoophytes) prove the slow progression of the
series. Each Limestone bed must have taken a long lime for its for-
mation, yet many of them alternate with beds of Coal. There are reg-
ular shell-beds in the Coal-strata, stretching scores of miles. These
shells often have both valves united, like common living muscles on
the sea-shore ; and [thus it is shown that they] have not been trans-
ported. They prove that a few inches of strata required a time equal
to the lives of several generations of these muscles. Many of the
fossil-plants appear not to have drifted from the spots where they
grew; and we have enormous trees, with rings of growth marking
their great age : all in the Coal-fields. Yet all the plants are abso-
lutely of extinct species, though of a structure that allows a botanist
to reason on their habits. The God of nature is ' without variableness
or shadow of turning.' Different species were created to suit different
conditions of the earth, air, and sea: but the organs of life were the
same; and of their modes of growth, nutrition, reproduction, &c.
&c., animal or vegetable, we can reason as well as if we saw them.
For there are great dominant laws of organic life which mark one
mind ; the very Mind that made us, and has given us eyes to see, and
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 343
souls in part able to comprehend, the great Master-Mind himself, and
his ways of working out his will. To deny us the power of drawing
inferences from God's laws, is to strip us of the best thing left us in
our fallen state, and all creation of its glory.
" In passing through the New Red Sandstone to the Oolitic series
of formations, again there is a complete change in all the forms of
organic life ; and there is the same proof of a very long lapse of
time, that we have in descending from the Tertiary to the Chalk,
or in passing [by ascending] from the Silurian to the Carboniferous
epoch.''
" In the superficial gravel containing rolled blocks of stone,
coming from vast distances, we find bones of elephant, rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, &c. &c. of extinct species, mingled with bones of
mammals of known species; but not a single fragment of a human
bone, or a single trace of any human work. Some have referred
this gravel to the Noachian Deluge. It cannot be of any newer
date: but the safest way is to draw no conclusions not founded on
physical evidence ; and, as different regions have been elevated at
different periods, it seems probable that there must have been many
periods for the formation of gravel, some, at least, long anterior to
that last act of creation by which, a fit habitation being at length
prepared for him, man and a new creation of beings were called into
existence by that Hand which had ordained and regulated all the
previous movements."
The inquirer will do well to study Dr. Grant's (Prof. Compar.
Anat. Univ. Coll. Lond.) General View of the Characters and the
Distribution of the Extinct Animals, in the British Scientific Annual,
edited by Dr. Thomson, for 1839, pp. 222-281. I cite the con-
cluding paragraph.
' ; The unity of the plan of organization, and the regular succes-
sion of animal forms, point out a beginning of this great kingdom on
the surface of our globe, although the earliest stages of its develop-
ment may now be effaced; and the continuity of the series through
all geological epochs, and the gradual transitions which connect
the species of one formation with those of the next in succession,
distinctly indicate that they form the parts of one creation, and not
the heterogeneous remnants of successive kingdoms begun and de-
stroyed : so that while they present the best records of the changes
which the surface of the globe has undergone, they likewise afford
344< SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
the best testimony of the recent origin of the present crust of our
planet, and of all its organic inhabitants."
The observant reader will perceive that, in Dr. Grant's application
of the word creation, he differs in phrase only, not in doctirne, from
Mr. Sedgwick and Mr. John Phillips.
(F-)
Referred to at page 226.
The following extracts are valuable and interesting, as they show
the impression made upon the mind of an able Bible critic, the elder
Rosenmiiller, at a time when geological researches were little
known, and when Werner, at the age of 25, was but just beginning
his career. He was far from the opinion which his son promulgated,
fifteen years after, treading in the steps of Simplicius (in the sixth
century) and Hetzel, Hase, and others in our own times, that Moses
derived his history of the creation from the Egyptians. The resem-
blance is indeed remarkable : but I think it is much more rationally
accounted for by supposing that the Egyptian and Phenician tra-
ditions had flowed from a common source, the family of Noah ; and
that Moses, under the direction of divine inspiration, placed at the
commencement of his great work the very written documents of
primeval men which had descended in the Abrahamic line, and
which were the genuine records whence the other traditions had been
derived.
" The enemies of religion act a very inequitable part when they
require of us such explications of all chronological and historical
difficulties, as should leave no portion of doubt remaining. Can it
surprise any man that, in the most ancient of all writings, many
things should be obscure to us, who live in times so extremely re-
mote ? In consequence of the great advances which have been
made in modern times, in Hebrew and Greek philology and the
languages and antiquities of the east, no small number of dark and
difficult passages have been satisfactorily elucidated, so as to make
it perfectly clear that most objections have been engendered by ig-
norance. Every good writer must be presumed to speak according
to the custom of the men among whom he lived, and their common
use of language. 1 shall not meddle with the question, whether
the contents of the beginning of Genesis were by God revealed im-
mediately to Moses ; or that he derived them from more ancient re-
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 345
cords. The style, and the entire manner of the description, involve
evidence of the highest antiquity. At every step we perceive proofs
of that extreme simplicity which must have been the character of our
race in its very infancy. With respect to divine subjects, in particular,
the first step of human knowledge must undoubtedly have consisted
in conceptions of God derived from our own nature; ascribing to
the Deity the same properties and perfections which men perceived
in themselves, but in modes and degrees infinitely more perfect.
Upon this principle are founded the representations of God which
are given in the books of Moses, and many other parts of the Old
Testament. Indeed this is, in my judgment, a very plain argument,
not only of the genuineness and truth of those books, but of their
divine origin : seeing that they present to us a method of description
concerning God and divine things, perfectly suited to the capacity of
men in the earliest limes, and yet the most sublime, and, when fairly
and candidly interpreted, in perfect accordance with spiritual truth.
The scoffers at revealed religion, philosophers as they please to call
themselves, betray an almost unpardonable ignorance, when they
make stumbling-blocks out of those constantly occurring expressions
of the Old Testament which speak of the Deity [antkropopathicis
locutionibus] in language borrowed from human properties and ac-
tions. What can be a grosser absurdity, and even folly, than to re-
quire that Moses and the prophets should have spoken of divine
truths, in the very infancy of the human race, according to the philo-
sophy of Descartes, Newton, or Wolf? ;
" In the beginning God created this universe ; the heavens and
the earth. But, with respect to this earthly globe, it was not at once
the abode of men and animals, as it is now : but there was a period
during which it was utterly destitute of such a furniture of things as
it now possesses, it did not enjoy the light of the sun, and it was
completely covered with water. Whether, at its first being brought
into being, it possessed a constitution like that of comets,* being con-
sequently uninhabitable; or whether it was reduced into its actual
state, after a vast space of time, by some kind of universal inunda-
tion of water, with the concurrence of other causes both natural and
extraordinary ; cannot be with certainty determined from the Mosaic
narrative. But this detracts nothing from the truth and dignity of
the narrative. It never was in the mind or intention of Moses, to
unfold physical causes, of which he was most probably ignorant, and
* One cannot but observe here the working of a sagacious mind, and
the approach which it makes, though on principles purely conjectural, to
the Nebular Hypothesis.
346 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
which it was no part or object of his divine commission to make
known. Nor could the Israelites, for whose immediate benefit this
history was intended, have comprehended such matters: for who can
suppose that they knew any thing of the nature of comets, or the
planetary constitution of the earth V J. G. Rosenmiilleri Antiquis-
sima Telluris Historia, a Mose Gen. i°. descripta; Ulm, 1776; pp.
6, 10, 11, 12,71.
It is with peculiar pleasure that I copy the following passages of
the learned and pious Bishop of Chester; and they are the more es-
timable as they were written before 1814, at a time when geological
facts and doctrines were less accurately known than they are at
present.
" — Any curious information as tothe'structure of the earth ought
still less to be expected, by any one acquainted with the general char-
acter of the Mosaic records. There is nothing in them, either to
gratify the curiosity or repress the researches of mankind, when
brought, in the progress of cultivation, to calculate the motions of
the heavenly bodies or speculate on the formation of the globe. The
expressions of Moses are evidently accommodated to the first and
familiar notions derived from the sensible appearances of the earth
and heavens : and the absurdity of supposing that the literal inter-
pretation of terms in Scripture ought to interfere with the advancement
of philosophical inquiry, would have been as generally forgotten as
renounced, if the oppressors of Galileo had not found a place in his-
tory. No rational naturalist would attempt to describe, either
from the brief description in Genesis or otherwise, the process by
which our system was brought from confusion into a regular and
habitable state. No rational theologian will direct his hostility
against any theory which, acknowledging the agency of the Creator,
only attempts to point out the secondary instruments he has em-
ployed." Dr. Bird Sumner on the Records of Creation ; vol. I. p.
270, 283.
Let us hear another distinguished clergyman.
11 As to the first point [the antiquity of the earth,]— not the mere
theoretical views of geologists alone, but the conclusions which ap-
pear, by the most cogent logical necessity, to result from the phenom-
ena of the structure of the earth's surface, and the variety and order of
the very numerous successive series of organic remains imbedded in
the strata, do undoubtedly appear to require periods of very considerable
duration ; and to indicate that very many ages had elapsed before
(— " the diapason closing full in man,"—) a new exertion of the Crea-
tive Energy made, in its own image, a being of higher intellectual and
moral capacities, as the head of its other terrestrial works. Now,
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 347
the evidence of geological phenomena most satisfactorily agrees with
the scriptural record, in assigning to this last great event a very
recent epoch : and it is surely very valuable as an independent testi-
mony to this most important fact, which clearly involves the neces-
sary admission of an interference with the previous order of nature,
by a new and direct exertion of creative power, and therefore strikes
at once at the root of every skeptical argument against Miracles.
It is surely nowise inconsistent with the fullest reception of revela-
tion, to maintain that it professedly confines itself to the exposition
of the dispensations of the great Creator, as they concern his final
intellectual creation ; that, in a word, the Bible is exclusively the
history of the dealings of God towards men." The Rev. "VV. D.
Conybeare; in the Chr. Obs. May, 1834, p. 308.
[FF.]
Referred to at page 231, by error there called G.
<{ The modern geologist must and gladly will acknowledge the
accuracy of the statement, that, after all things were made, the earth
must have been in a state of chaotic confusion; in other words, that
the elements, which later were to combine in the present arrangement
of the globe, must have been totally disturbed and probably in a stale
of conflicting action. What the duration of this anarchy was, what
peculiar features it presented, whether it was one course of unmodi-
fied disorder, or was interrupted by intervals of peace and quiet, of
vegetable and animal existence, the Scripture has concealed from our
knowledge ; while it has said nothing to discourage such investiga-
tion as may lead us to any specific hypothesis regarding it. Nay;
it would seem as though that indefinite period had been purposely
mentioned, to leave scope for the meditation and the imagination of
man." Principal Wiseman's Connexion of Science and Rev. Relig.
vol. I. p. 295.
" So far then from finding, in the facts and conclusions of Geology,
any objections to the Mosaic records, I find in them a striking evi-
dence of the benevolence of the Deity. For, during the long period
above spoken of, the globe was evidently preparing for the residence
of Man and the other animals that now inhabit it. Before their crea-
tion, its temperature was too high, and its surface too liable to be
broken up by volcanoes, and drenched by deluges, to be a secure and
happy abode for the more perfect races of animals that now inhabit
348 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
it. But it was adapted to the nature and habits of such animals and
vegetables as we now find entombed in the rocks. The overflowing
benevolence of the Deity, therefore, led him to place such beings
upon it; and thus to communicate a vastamount of happiness, which
seems to be a grand object in all his plans and operations. The veg-
etables that existed in those early periods have been converted, in the
course of time, into the various species of coal now dug from the
bowels of the earth ; while the remains of the animals of those times
have become changed into limestone. Even those violent volcanic
agencies, by which the successive races of plants and animals have
been suddenly destroyed, have probably introduced into the upper
part of the earth's crust, various metallic veins very important to hu-
man happiness. And in all this, we see indications of that same be-
nevolent foresight and care for supplying the wants of his creatures,
to which our daily — experience of God's goodness testifies." Hitch-
cock's Geol. of Massachusetts; p. 250.
Prof. Hitchcock having adduced strong evidence to prove that an
extensive denudation has, at some time, taken place in the New Red
Sandstone on the Connecticut river, proceeds to say : " The immense
period requisite to wear away such a mass of rock as this theory sup-
poses to have once occupied the whole valley of the Connecticut, will
seem to most minds the strongest objection against its adoption: I
mean, supposing it to have been effected by such causes as are operat-
ing at present. Eut this is not a solitary example, in which geolog-
ical phenomena indicate the operation of existing causes, through
periods of duration inconceivably long. We may, in this case indeed,
as I have already shown, suppose the occurrenceof numerous deluges
in the earlier periods of our globe. Still, even with the aid of such
catastrophes, the work must have been immensely protracted. And
why should we hesitate to admit the existence of our globe through
periods as long as geological researches require; since the sacred
record does not declare the time of its original creation ; and since
such a view of its antiquity enlarges our ideas of the operations of
the Deity in respect to duration, as much as Astronomy does in re-
gard to space 1 Instead of bringing us into collision wiih Moses, it
seems to me that Geology furnishes us with some of the grandest
conceptions of the Divine attributes and plans to be found in the whole
circle of human knowledge." lb. p. 226.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 349
[G.]
Referred to at page 235.
The following letter was courteously admitted into the Magazine
of Popular Science, more than three years ago. It was intended to
obviate .some remarks, in a Review of Dr. Buckland's Treatise, which
the writer thought to be of an unhappy tendency. It is republished
here, in the hope of its being useful partly as giving a short view of
some principal sentiments maintained in this volume, partly for the
sake of iepresenting the importance of the discussion, and partly also
to call attention to the interpretation of Gen. i. 2. which is maintained
in these lectures, and for the suggestion of which I am under obliga-
tion to the Rev. Baden Powell.
Sir, — With cordial approbation of the design and the general exe-
cution of your article, in the last month, upon Dr. Buckland's
Bridgewater Treatise, I request your candid indulgence of some
brief remarks.
[Some of your] observations appear to me capable of being mis-
understood, or of being construed injuriously in various ways to the
interests of both science and religion. The tendency of those obser-
vations appears to be, First, to assume (or at least to warrant the
assumption) that the Holy Scriptures contain allegations and impli-
cations with respect to the natural history of our earth, which are
contradicted and disaproved by the demonstrations of modern Geo-
logy; and, Secondly, that it is the duty of a philosopher to abstain
from any discussion of this discrepancy, and from any inquiry whether
it be real or only apparent ; as if it were said, Let these two branches
of knowledge be kept far away from each other : let philosophers and
geologists pursue their own course, and let theology and religion
practise their own duties, and watch over their own interests ; bat
let neither interfere with the other; let no inquiry ever be made
whether they are in accordance or in opposition.
This short way of dismissing the matter has, indeed, been adopted
by some eminent men; but I appeal, Sir, to your impartial reflec-
tion, whether it is not absurd and impracticable.
1. It is absurd. Truth throughout her whole domain, illimi-
table as is its extent, is one in principle, and harmonious in details.
It is no other than the having our conceptions in accordance with the
reality of things. And Truth in expression (— veracity) is the
adapting of our language, written or spoken, to the honest utterance
of our conceptions. A mere child, if he will reflect a moment, per-
30
350 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
ceives that a proposition cannot be true and false, under the same cir-
cumstances ; unless there be some artifice practised in the use of
terms. An assertion cannot be true in theology, and false in geology,
or any department whatever of sientific knowledge ; nor inversely.
It really is an insult to men's understandings, to admit indirectly,
that there are affirmations or doctrines in the records of revealed
religion, which arc disapproved by the clearest evidence of science ;
and then to proscribe investigation, with a solemn pretence of mys-
teries not to be inquired into, an hypocritical tone of reverence for
sacred things. The veil is transparent; no man can be deceived by
it : but it is lamentable that any should attempt to deceive by it.
We greatly wrong the interests of knowledge, and prejudice our own
improvement, when we but seem to admit that theology is an insu-
lated portion of science, which may be safely pursued by itself, and
which yields no advantages to other departments. True theology,
on the contrary, attracts to itself, illustrates, and harmonizes all other
knowledge. It is the science which relates to the Author and Pre-
server of the whole dependent universe ; whatever may be known
Concerning him, for the noblest purposes of intellectual improvement,
of personal virtue, and of diffusive happiness. It is formed by strict
induction from the works and the word of God; natural notices, and
positive revelation. It is the friend of all science; it appropriates
all truth ; it holds fellowship with no error.
2. It is impracticable. This kind of ban upon a reasonable, an
inevitable query, is never submitted to by any person of sound under-
standing. Either he receives the assumption, — and, as its conse-
quence, he rejects covertly or openly the truth and authority of the
Bible; or he searches out the matter fairly and fully, and then he
learns that the assumption is false.
Is it then the fact, that such fair and impartial inquiry will bring
out this result? Is it, after all, an erroneous assumption, that the
declarations of Scripture and the sensible demonstrations of geologi-
cal science, pointedly contradict each other 1 Does not the Bible
teach that the moment of the Supreme Being's first putting forth
his creating power, was only about six thousand years ago'? And
do not the undeniable phenomena of stratification, and other facts,
demonstrate that our globe (to say nothing of the rest of the solar
system, and the astral universe,) has existed, has passed through
countless changes, such as a re continually in progress, and others of
a more intense character, which rational estimation must suppose to
have required a period for their production so vast as to fill us with
astonishment, — which no calculator ventures to lay down, — which
probably amounts to millions and millions of years'?
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 351
Fully admitting the assumptions in the last query, I deny that of
the preceding one.
- It is to be lamented that the common habits of expression nourish
the opinion, that the authority of Scripture maintains the commence-
ment of dependent nature to have been as has been staled : and it is
scarcely less to be lamented that theories have been propounded for
conciliating the facts of nature and the Scripture narrative, which
rest upon either a defective acquaintance with those facts, or a disre-
gard to the plain use of language in that narrative. Of the former
kind are the schemes for finding the time requisite for the terrene
formations, in the period from the creation of the first man, to the
Noachian Deluge; of the latter, those which interpret the days of
successive operation, laid down in the primeval record, as if they
were indefinite periods.
It will appear evident to any one who will reflect upon the case,
that the records of revelation must have been written in the phrase-
ology and idioms of the people and the age to which they were giv-
en; or they would havebeen unintelligible. Upon this principle we
account for the manner in which natural phenomena are currently
described ; and for the expressions which impute to the Infinite Spirit
the form, the organs, and the mental affections of a human being;
and various other characteristics of the parabolic style of the Hebrew
Scriptures. Such language was a condescension to the infirmities of
mortals, and best adapted to the instruction of the general mass of
mankind : but it is self-evident that it must be interpreted in a manner
congruous with the perfect attributes of the Deity, and the reality of
things.
A philological survey of the initial section of the Bible (Gen. i. 1,
to ii. 3,) brings out the result: —
i. That the first sentence is a simple, independent, all-comprehend-
ing, axiom, to this effect — that mailer, elementary or combined, ag-
gregated only or organized, and dependent sentient and intellectual
beings, have not existed from eternity, either in self-continuity or
succession, but had a beginning ; that their beginning took place by
the all-powerful will of One Being, the Self-existent, Independent,
and Infinite in all perfections; and that the date of that beginning is
not made known.
ii. That, at a recent epoch, our planet was brought into a state of
disorganization, detritus, or ruin, (perhaps we have no perfectly ap-
propriate term,) from a former condition."
* I beg that this position may be understood in the way which the
preceding lectures explain. Prof. Powell's volume awakened my closer
352 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
iii. That it pleased the Almighty, Wise, and Benevolent Supreme,
out of that state of ruin, to adjust the surface of the earth to its now
existing condition ; partly by the operation of the mechanical and
chemical causes (what we usually call Laws of Nature,) which Him-
self had established; and partly, that is, whenever it was necessary,
by His own creative power, or other immediate intervention; the
whole extending through the period of six natural days.
It has been indeed maintained, that the conjunction and, with
which the next sentence begins, connects the succeeding matter with
the preceding, so as to forbid the intercalating of any considerable
space of time. To this we reply, that the Hebrew conjunction, agree-
ably to the simplicity of ancient languages, expresses an annexation
of subject or a continuation of speech, in any mode whatever, remote
as well as proximate. For denoting such different modes of annexa-
tion, the Greek and other languages have a variety of particles ; but
their use is in Hebrew compensated by the shades of meaning which
the tone in oral speech, and the connexion in writing, could supply.
To go no further than the first two leaves of the Hebrew Bible, we
find this copula rendered in our authorized version, by thus, but,
now, and also.
This interpretation is what I have been labouring to diffuse for
more than thirty years, in private and in public, by preaching, by
academical lecturing, and by printing. But it is not my interpreta-
tion, though I believe that I originally derived it from the sole study
of the Bible-text. Clemens of Alexandria, Origen, Basil, Chrysos-
torn, and Augustine, among the fathers, (though not in a truly philo-
sophical way, which was not to be expected,) departed from the vulgar
notion : and some judicious interpreters of the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries have done the same, in particular, Bishop Patrick
and Dr. David Jennings. Of modern Scripture critics I say nothing ;
for prejudice, justly or unjustly, may lie against them. Not that the
question is to be settled by human authority. Our only appeal for
attention and directed my mind to what I regard as the more accurate in-
terpretation of this verse, and which is therefore maintained in these lec-
tures. Referring to the preceding paper, of which he speaks in kind and
courteous terms, he has represented me as conceiving "that the begin-
ning means an indefinitely long period, during which the successive for-
mations recognised by Geology may have taken place." Connex. of Nat.
and Div. Truth ; p. 297. I venture to believe that this representation
arose from oversight. My intention was to apply that word, not to a
period, but to the Jirst term of a period, the commencement of a series of
operations ; and that therefore the verb created is to be understood sensu
prcegnanti, as the Hebrew grammarians say.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 353
decision is lo the Bible itself, fairly interpreted. But the mention of
venerable names may be useful, to allay the apprehensions of some
good persons, who only hear obscurely of these subjects, and have
not the means of forming an independent judgment on solid grounds.
I, therefore, with many, feel greatly obliged to Dr. Buckland for
having come in aid of ihis, which I believe to be, the true sense and
meaning of the sacred writers. I am framing no hypotheses in Ge-
ology ; I only plead that the ground is clear, and that the dictates of
Scripture interpose no bar to observations and reasonings upon the
mineralogical constitution of the earth, and the remains of organized
creatures which its strata disclose. If those investigations should
lead us to attribute to the earth, and to the other planetary and astral
spheres, an antiquity which millions or ten thousand millions of years
might fail to represent, the divine records forbid not their deduction.
Let but the geologist maintain what his science so loudly proclaims,
that the universe around us has been formed, at whatever epoch, or
through whatever succession of epochs, lo us unknown, by the power
and wisdom of an Almighty First Cause. Let him but reject the
absurdities of pre-existent matter, of an eternal succession of finite
beings, of formations without a former, laws without a lawgiver, and
nature without a God. Let him but admit that man is but of yester-
day, and that the design of revelation is to train him to the noblest
purity and happiness in the immortal enjoyment of his Creator's
beneficence ; and he will find the doctrines of the Bible not an impedi-
ment, but his aid and his joy.
I have written much more than I anticipated, and I will tax your
indulgence no longer ; otherwise, confirmation and illustration might
be brought from various passages of Scripture, and it would plainly
appear that a just interpretation of the idioms of the Hebrew lan-
guage, marked with archaic simplicity, would show them to be sus-
ceptible of an unforced accommodation to philosophical truth; just
as, in every modern language, phrases of current parlance, which,
literally taken, would be absurd, are continually used by the masters
of science as well as by common men. In such cases, error is nei-
ther given nor taken, and to affect philosophical precision would be
miserable pedantry. This general principle may, I humbly think,
be satisfactorily applied lo the account of the Noachian Deluge, and
to the obviating of some of its difficulties, though others will probably
remain as a proper test of our disposition to rely implicitly on the
infinite wisdom, goodness, and power of the glorious Author and
Preserver of all things; "in whose hand are the d?ep places of the
earth, and the strength of the hills is His also," J. P. S.
Dec. 10, 1836.
30*
354 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
[GG.]
Referring to page 253.
M. Eugene Bork was sent by the French Academy of Inscrip-
tions and Belles Lettres, on an oriental expedition for literary and
scientific purposes. He has lately sent home from Persia a Report
upon Chaldaea and its ancient and modern inhabitants. It has been
published in the Revue Francaise, vol. XII. ; and a large extract is
given in the Semeur of Oct. 2, 1839. From this article, which con-
tains much philological and historical information, I extract a few-
sentences, tending to support the idea that the resting-place of the
ark was in some less elevated part of the great mountain region to
which the name of Ararat was anciently given.
" The Chaldeans inhabited the mountains whose extended chain
over Moussoul, Diarbekir, Van, and Suleimania, covers the country
with its innumerable ramifications. Secluded there and intrenched
as in an impregnable fortress, they have constantly maintained them-
selves in their independence and wild liberty, which they have ever
prized above every other enjoyment. Those mountains anciently
bore the names of the Gorduian [Gordyreanl] Carduian, or Cardou.
The Syriac Version of the Old Testament does not say that the
ark rested upon Mount Ararat, but on the top of Mount Cardou.*
On the place here pointed out by tradition, the early Christians built
the edifice which they called the Monastery of the Ark; in which
they kept up an annual commemoration of the patriarch with his
family coming out of the ark. The Mohammedan dervishes to the
present day maintain in this place a perpetually burning lamp, in an
oratory. The mountains Cardou, Macis as called by the Arme-
nians, and Ararat, are only links of the immense chain of the
Taurus."
* The Syriac has Cardu, the Arabic Carda ; but the difference is not
essential, as every one acquainted with the Shemitic languages must
know. The bearing of this evidence is to support the opinions, that the
name Ararat in the Hebrew text was intended to comprehend the whole
mountainous district ; and that the ark. rested in some part of the lower,
but yet hilly, region which lies eastward, and is called in Arrowsmith's
maps, Karadaugh. The Latin Vulgate renders Ararat by Armenia.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 355
[H.]
Referred to at f age 285.
In a recent publication, " The Stranger's Intellectual Guide to
London, for 1839—10," by Mr. A. Booth, an account is given of the
Geological Society ; and in it occurs the following passage.
" The meetings of the Geological Society are perhaps the most
popularly interesting to their attendants of any in town, and each
member having the opportunity of admitting two visiters, the capa-
cious meeting-room is generally well filled. The principal interest
of these meetings is however derived from the discussions which
arise after ihe papers are read, and which sometimes do not assume
a very scientific character. Geology is not generally popular with
the public, and has not as yet sufficient claims to make it so, the opin-
ions of its advocates being split into party theories, and the papers
that are read before the Society giving rise to discussion neither the
most rational nor acceptable. What is wanted in the reason is made
up for in the jocularity of the discussions, and sallies of wit usurp the
place of the grave deliberations of science; what is wanted in argu-
ment made up from deductions from close investigation, is met with
in the sophistry of the forum or debating-room. Sometimes it is to
be lamented that these discussions take a different character, being
directed against tne fundamentals of revealed religion, and have a
tendency to subvert those doctrines which are the basis of our mod-
ern civilization. From these circumstances the Society takes espe-
cial care that their proceedings shall not be reported : the attendance
of every person from whom these might emanate being carefully ex-
cluded from the meetings. Their own reports indeed appear care-
fully worded, and supplied by their own secretaries, in the Literary
Gazette and the Athenaeum, but in these accounts all allusion to theii
discussions is avoided. In these respects the Geological Society
does not court the freedom of public discussion, which, through the
medium of the press, is allowed by every other Society in the metro
polis."— Pp. 77, 78.
It may be requisite to assure the reader, that this paragraph is
copied with literal accuracy. The writer's representation of the
general character of Geology may be very safely left to itself, as an
instance of the ancient practice not yet become uncommon, that per-
sons " speak evil of the things which they understand not." But it
contains insinuations and assertions which call for attention: and 1
should think myself wanting in the observance of moral duty, were
356 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
I to neglect the opportunity afforded by the publication of this vol-
ume, of bearing testimony to truth, and so of counteracting injurious
representations. To any candid thinker it must appear an unrea-
sonable expectation, that any person that pleases should be allowed
to take notes of the papers, conversations, and discussions of any sci-
entific or literary institution, and to publish them. No Society of
respectability and honour would submit to such an intrusion. Be-
sides other obvious objections, this one immediately presents itself;
the contingency, not to call it a certainty, that mistakes and misrep-
resentations would be committed, and those often of the most serious
import, even by well-intentioned reporters.
The impropriety of this complaint is however a small thing, in
comparison with other parts of the passage. The writer does not
say that some instances may have occurred, or even more than one,
in which a speaker had uttered sentiments irreconcilable to reason
or piety. The reflection would then have arisen, that no society to
whose objects unreserved discussion is essential, could prevent such
an occurrence, or ought to be held answerable for it, unless it had
manifested approbation, or at least connivance. I do not say this as
an apology for any known fact, for I have never heard of such an
occurrence. But the writer evidently strives to produce the impres-
sion that scientific investigation is not the chief object of the Society's
meetings, that it is made only a mask for the effecting of other pur-
poses, that the most momentous truths of religion are assailed with
scoffs in the guise of witticism and sophistry as the substitute for ar-
gument, that infidel and immoral principles are bandied about, and
that the Society gives encouragement and protection to such a course
of proceeding.
I feel it my duty to declare that, to the best and utmost of my
knowledge, these accusations are contrary to truth and exceedingly
unjust. My great affliction, extreme deafness, restricts my advan-
tage, in attending the meetings of the Geological Society, almost en-
tirely to the inspection of the specimens, sections, and figures. Yet
I am a constant attendant: and, if infidel or otherwise irreligious
and immoral sentiments were propounded by any of the speakers, I
am not unprovided with the means of receiving information ; and
those means would not have been ineffectual. I am well assured
that, even if in any long past time it may have happened that opin-
ions or insinuations have been broached, of the character which this
author alleges, the blame has rested on the offending person, and
could, upon no principle of equity, have been imputed to the Society :
and, from my own knowledge, I am persuaded that, were such a
thing to occur, it would be met by a strong expression of disapprc-
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
357
bation from the chair and by the general sense of the meeting. But
I can go farther. I have sought information from some of the oldest,
most active, and most influential Fellows of the Society: and upon
good authority I am enabled to say that the accusations are not true.
One of those gentlemen, whose means of knowledge are ample to a
degree that few men can obtain, has written to me; "lean fully
bear testimony to the entire correctness of what is stated in your
Note, in contradiction of the calumnious assertions with regard to the
discussions at the Geological Society. — I can truly say that no dis-
cussions or observations hostile to Revealed Religion, or treating it
with levity, have ever been heard by me at the Society's meetings;
nor do I believe that in so large and respectable an assembly, gen-
erally attended and often presided over by Ministers of religion, any
such would be for a moment attempted or permitted."
The abstracts of papers read in the Society are printed for the use
of its members, under the title of Proceedings ; and brief statements,
with the approbation of the Society, are sent to the two journals men-
tioned, by a gentleman in whose ability and accuracy the fullest con-
fidence may be placed. By this method, the public is furnished with
correct information, instead of being left to the reports of incompe-
tent persons, which could scarcely be any other than defective and
misrepresenting.
INDEX
Animals ; what kinds, provided for
in the ark, 135.
Annihilation of any thing, an un-
founded opinion, 190.,
Antediluvian hypothesis, 175. Ob-
jections to it, 176.
Ararat, Mount, 252, 354.
Auvergne, vulcanic region of, 126, —
129, 340. Christian piety in that
district, 306.
Babbage, Charles, Esq. ; on the
supposed contradiction of Geol-
ogy and the Bible, 22. On the
antiquity of the earth, 73, 320.
On the Mosaic account of the
creation, 163. On the responsi-
bility of man, 276. On the rings
of growth in fossil-trees, 306. —
On the mechanical effect of the
central heat, 324.
Baxter, Richard; on the possibility
of an antecedent world, 269.
Biblicus Delvinus, an anonymous
writer on Geology, 186.
Blumenbach, John Fred. Prof. Phy-
siol. Gotting. ; his belief of the
unity of the human species, 63.
Bore, Eugene ; on the Chaldeans,
and Mount Ararat, 354.
Botany, recommended as the begin-
ning of studies in Natural His-
tory, 265.
Bowman, J. E., Esq.; his paper on
the longevity of trees, referred to,
304.
Brown, Rev. J. Mellor ; his stric-
tures on the author of this book,
21. His charges against Geol-
ogy, 157—162. His fallacious
and pernicious reasoning?, 163.
Buekland, Rev. William, D. D. and
Prof. ; on ihe connexion of scien-
ces, 16. His Bridge water Trea-
tise recommended, 43, 300, 334.
On valleys of denudation, 105.
On diluvial formations, 119. On
supposed concessions, 143. On
" the Sentence of Death," 242.
Burnet, Dr. Thomas ; his Theory
of the Earth, 45.
Calvin ; on the right and duty of
examination, 142. On Genesis i.,
154. On Rom. viii., 21, 191.
Carnivorous animals ; their use, 87.
Their existence in all periods of
life upon the earth, 292.
Cause, the Supreme ; 42, 232, 341,
342.
Chalk formation, 325, 341.
Chalmers, Rev. Dr.; on the anti-
quity of the earth, 39.
Change, perpetual, in the universe,
41, 280.
Chaos, universal, not admitted, 74,
233.
Characterism of rocks and organic
remains, 60.
Charlejsworth, Edw., Esq. ; his Ma-
gazine of Natural History, on the
early merits of William Smith,
61. On the longevity and magni-
tude of trees, 304. His merits as
a naturalist, 310.
Christian Observer ; on the futility
of anti-geoloeical objections. 159,
177, 187, 197. On the duty of
studying the great questions in
Geology, 270. On the law of
death, 301.
Chronology; systems of Usher and
Hales, 305.
Cleavage and joints, 329, 331.
Coat-formations, 309, 312, 327.
Cockburn, Dr. Wm. Dean of York ;
his Letter to Dr. Buekland, 184.
Cole, Rev. Henry ; his writings
against Geology, 146.
Conchology ; its peculiar interest,
and relation to Geology, 335.
Conybeare, late Rev. John Josias ;
his discovery of the Snowdon
early fossil-casts, 332.
, Rev. William Daniel ;
on ascertained geological facts,
34. His and Mr. William Phil-
lips's Outlines of English Geol-
360
INDEX.
ogy, recommended, 300. On the
moral tendency of Geology, 346.
Copernican system ; opposed by
divines, both Roman Catholic
and Protestant, 219, 337.
Creation ; not universal at any one
point of time, 68. The Mosaic
account, 71, 171, 227, 232, 353
Not proceeding from any single
centre, 83. The Adamic; con-
ceived to relate only to one region
of the earth, 233. Successive
operations, 233, 234. The heav-
enly bodies, 236 The animal
structure, 233. The human fe-
male, 238. Vegetable life, 234.—
Animals, 235. Statement in the
fourth commandment, 228. No
intrinsic reason for supposing the
recent commencement of crea-
tion, 268.
Cumbrian and Cambrian rocks, 322.
Cuvier, Baron George ; hint of his
geological views, 39. On the De-
luge, 99. His sagacity and anti-
cipations in relation to Geology,
103. On Dr. Buckland's resear-
ches in bone-caves, 105. His
geological character, 101. His
death, and general character, 102.
Darwin, Charles, Esq. ; on the
South American shingle forma-
tion, 111, 126. On the longevity
of trees, 306. On elevations of
land, 330.
Death: necessary in a system of
organic life, 85, 241, 242. De-
- monstraled geologically, 87, 301.
Attaching to the infra-human ani-
mals, while man remained inno-
cent, 239, 291, 2S8. How man
before the fall was exempted from
death, 242.
De Candolle, Augustin Pyramus,
Prof. Genev. ; on vegetable re-
gions, 68. On the longevity of
trees, 305, 306.
De la Beche, Henry Thomas, Esq.;
his works recommended, 43, —
where add his " Collections of
Sections and views illustrative of
Geological Phenomena," in quar-
to. On drift in Jamaica, 125.
On the organic remains in the
earlier fossiliferous rocks, 303.
Deluge ; its moral reason. 89, 107.
Scripture narrative, 90, 133, 134.
The fact evinced by history and
national traditions, 92. Its rela-
tion to geological considerations,
93, 97, 108, 120, 122, 123. Not
extending over the whole globe,
131,139. Summary of arguments
against the common opinion, 243.
Examination of the terms in
which it is described, 247. De-
nudation, 58. An instructive in-
stance, 348.
Devonian system of formations,
(0:d Ued Sandstone,) 323, 328,
333, 341.
Didelphys Bucklandi, 76. Contro-
versy upon, 76, 334.
Drift, or diluvium ; 109, 343. Ex-
tensive, 109. Of different ages,
110, 343. Silurian, 112. North
British, 113. Eastern, 114. N.
European, 116. North American,
116. In Jamaica, 125. Patago-
nian, 125. Extensively produced
by currents at the bottom of the
ocean, 126.
Earths ; importance of its Natural
History, 43. Extent of our ac-
quaintance with its structure, 44.
Elevation and fracturing, 45, 55.
Advantages of such dislocations,
45. Interior constitution, 48, 160,
278. Primary condition, 229.—
Meanings of the term in the He-
brew Scriptures, 231. Its im-
mense antiquity, 71, 74, 105, 159,
197, 289, 297, 316-343.
Edinburgh Review ; on successions
of animated creatures, 104. Its
excellent articles on James Hut-
ton, Buckland, and Lyell, 52, 54.
Elevation of land, 55, 278, 296, 324,
326, 330, S43.
Entomostraca, microscopic, 88, 271.
Erratic blocks ; see Drift.
Evidence, sensible, 23. Moral, 28.
To be faithfully followed, 29, 275.
Fairholme, George, Esq.; his writ-
ings on Geology, 179.
Fathers; the early christian writers:
upon the interpretation of Gene-
sis i. 153, 352.
Faults in the courses of strata ; Dr.
George Young upon, 315.
FichterJohn Gott!. ; on the first
human beings, 206.
Fitton, William Henry, M. D. ; his
"Geology of Hastings," recom-
mended, 44.
Fleming, Rtv. Dr. John; on the
speedy obliteration of traces of
the Deluge, 98.
INDEX.
361
Galileo ; observations upon his case,
217. Mr. Harcourt's allusion to
it, 337.
Genesis, the sacred book; compri-
ses several distinct compositions,
172. Illustrations of its com-
mencing portion, 227, 351.
Geological Society, vindicated from
misrepresentation, 353.
Geologists, distinguished; instan-
ces of their fidelity to evidence,
107. Charges against them re-
pelled, 143,157, 163, 356.
Geology ; its nature as a study,
and its objects, 13. Intention
and value, 15, 21, 266, 275. Pre-
requisites for the study, 17. Ob-
jections against, 15. Apparent
discrepance with the Scriptures,
20, 70, 142, 295, 351. Wrongful-
ness and injurious effect of such
an opinion, 19, 22, 153, 349. Vin-
dicated against ignorant and as-
suming misrepresentation, 147,
159, 197, 272. Especial impor-
tance of this study to Christian
ministers, 274. Recommenda-
tions with respect to it, 43, 299.
Its moral tendency, 13, 14, 341,
348.
Gifts, extraordinary ; in the Apos-
tolic Churches, 141.
Gisborne, Rev. Thomas, Preb. Dur-
ham ; his " Considerations on
Modern Theories of Geology,"
183-
Gneissic rocks, 321.
God ; his necessary perfections, 32,
331. To be acknowledged in all
scientific pursuits, 95, 283, 342.
Our knowledge of the Deity rests
upon analogy, 201. That anal-
ogy is in various forms, 203,
203.
Granitic rocks, 49, 330.
Grant, Rob. E. M. D. Prof. ; on the
plan of creation, 343.
Greenough, George B. Esq. ; his
change of sentiment with regard
to the Deluge, 124.
Harcourt, Rev. William Vernon ;
his vindication of Geology, 239,
337.
Hartley, Rev. John ; on the moral
state of Thiers, in the Puy de
Dome, 306.
Hawkins, Thomas, Esq. ; on the
Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, 334.
Hebrew language ; well understood,
167. Its conjunctive prefix, 231.
Henslow, Rev. Prof. ; on vegetable
regions, 68. On the longevity of
trees, 3U4, 305.
Herschel, Sir John Win. Fred. ; on
L yell's "Princip'es of Geology,"
196. On the necessity of Mathe-
matics to Natural Philosophy,
263. On the working of the
earth's internal heat, 324.
Hitchcock, Edw. Esq. Prof.; on
the ignorance and unfairness of
distinguished opponents of Geol-
ogy, 36. His judgment of Fair-
holine, Kirby, and Granville
Penn, 36, 181. On deluges and
drift, li6. On the grand law of
the world, 333. On the relation
of Geology to the Divine Gov-
ernment, 343.
Hopkins, William, Esq.; his appli-
cation of the highest mathemat-
ics to geological investigation 329.
Hutton, James, M. D. ; his merits
in Geology, 54.
, William, Esq. of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne ; joint author with
Prof. Lindley of the " Fossil
Flora," 310.
Iceland ; the seat of tremendous
volcanic action, 279.
Induction ; cautious, at length suc-
cessful, 57.
Jameson, Robert, Esq. Prof. ; on
the non-existence of vestiges of
the Deluge, 98.
Java ; volcanic eruptions of awful
violence in that island, 280.
Jennings, Rev. Dr. David ; on the
Mosaic description of the Crea-
tion, 155.
Judea ; its advantages as a coun-
try, 41.
Knowledge, human ; its imperfec-
tion, 262.
Leibnitz ; his scientific anticipa-
tions, 96.
Light, before the Adamic Creation.
78.
Lightfoot, Dr. ; on 2 Pet. iii. 192.
Lindley, Dr. and Prof. ; his recom-
mendation of botanical studies,
and works to promote them, 265.
His and Mr. W. Hutton's "Fos-
sil Flora," 310. On the forma-
tion of Coal, 310. On the Adan-
sonia digitata (Baobab,) 304.
31
362
INDEX.
On the relative antiquity of or-
ganic remains, 311, 3 L4.
Lonsdale, William, Esq. ; his dis-
coveries of Entomostraca, 294.
On the number and magnitude
of the early fossils, 303.
Luther; on the right and duty of
independent inquiry, 141. His
exposition of the Mosaic narrative
of the Creation, 150. His sound
judgment and moderation, 150.
Lyell, Charles, Jun. Esq. ; his
works recommended, 43, 299 On
the deposit of the Ganges, 64.
Remarks on his "Principles of
Geology," 195. On the propor-
tions of fossil and recent shells,
335. On successions of species,
336.
Macculloch, John, M. D. ; his
works recommended, 300, 327.
On the early strata, 322. On the
immensity of the geological pe-
riods, 327.
Maclaren, Charles, Esq.; his Geol-
ogy of Fifeshire and the Lothians,
74, 189. On the ancient beaches
of Glen Roy, 330.
Man ; only one species, 68. Be-
longs to the most recent epoch of
creation, 318, 343, 347.
Man tell, Gideon, Esq. L. L. D. ;
his geological works recommen-
ded, 44.
Microscopic fossil animalcula, 293.
Mines ; the deepest, 44.
Miracles; not to be rashly assumed,
79, 81, 136. Their nature, 79.
Their design, 80. Their propriety
and importance, 81. Supported
by argument fiom Geology, 347.
Moses ; his fidelity and divine mis-
sion, 170, 172, 258.
Motion; constant, 41, 280. Regu-
lated, 42.
Mountains ; the highest, 44.
Murchison, Roderick Impey, Esq ;
his works recommended, A.
His eulogium on Cuvier, 142.
On the organic remains of the
early fossiliferous systems, 303.
On the moral impression from
geological phenomena, 232, 331.
On the succession of fossils,
315. His " Silurian System,"
323.
Neander, Aug. Prof. Berl. ; on the
errors of anthropomorphism, 214.
Nebular hypothesis ; Prof. Nichol
upon, 229.
Obligation, moral, 32, 276.
Oolitic formations, 334, 339.
Organic remains in the strata of
the earth, 59-64, 290, 293, 303,
315, 323, 332-337, 339-343.
Owen, Dr. John ; on 2 Pet. hi. 192.
Patrick, Bishop; on Genesis i. 154.
Penn, Granville, Esq. ; his theories,
179.
Phillips, Prof. ; his works recom-
mended, 43, 52, 299. On the un-
broken series of creations, 75—78.
On the Coal-beds, 309. On the
Gneiss, 322. On changes of spe-
cies, 336.
Philosophy; ignorant declamation
against, 150.
Phryganeae; their habits, 339.
Poole, the commentator ; on the
Deluge, 254.
Population, antediluvian; not great,
250. Its seat, 252.
Powell, Rev. Prof. ; his belief of a
religious spirit in philosophers, 54.
His hypothesis on the Mosaic
earliest records, 165. His valua-
ble contributions to Theology,
166. His remonstrance to objec-
tors against the long periods es-
tablished by Geology, 271. His
protest against formal and tradi-
tionary religion, 286. The au-
thor's obligation to him, 349, 351.
Prichard. James Cowles. M. D. ; on
animal regions, 07. On the unity
of the human species, 69. His
inclination of opinion on the De-
luge, 255
Prideaux, Bishop; on 2 Pet. iii. 192.
Quadrumanous fossil remains, 319.
Quarterly Review, on the volcanic
region of Auvergne, 128.
Red Sandstone, Old ; see Devonian.
Red Sandstone, New, 324, 333.
Redemption ; its importance and
glory, 82. . ,
Redford, Kev. Dr.; on the antiquity
of creation, 156.
Regions of animal and vegetable
nature; fossil, 63. Recent, 66,
84
Religion ; its necessary connexion
with Theology, 23. The dignity
and happiness of man, 140, 260.
Its pure nature, 273. Its attrac-
tions, 284.
INDEX.
363
Responsibility, 276, 278.
Revelation ; its evidence, 24. Its
necessity, 32. Harmonious with
science, 25, 142, 1G4, 259 Its
style and illustrations adapted to
the capacities of men, 204. Its
employment of imagery, 205,
207. Utility of this method, 212.
Finally completed by Christiani-
ty, 226. Necessity of studying,
with serious application, 271.
Rhind, Mr. William ; on the age of
the earth, 133. His opinion upon
vegetable structure, 305.
Rocks ; pyrogenous, 49, 331. Stra-
tified, 50, 139 : see Stratification.
Romaine, Rev. W.; on the manner
in which the Deity is revealed,
257.
Rosenmuller, the elder ; on the Mo-
saic records, 344.
Russeger, on the Baobab, 304.
Science ; duty of cultivating, 261 ;
bv personal effort, 264. Its ben-
efits, 274. Its tendency to reli-
gion, 335.
Scientific men i their advantages
and responsibility, 232. Their high
motives to piety, 234.
Scripture; the genuine sense to be
sought, 33, 200, 213, 257 Disso-
nance with Geology, only in su-
perficial appearance, 70, 142, 258,
333. Not designed to convey philo-
sophical knowledge, 169, 345. Its
certain truth, 199. Its style with
regard to natural objects, 214, 221,
225,237, 351. Its manner and style
in describing the Deity, 208, 256,
257. Injurious effects of not just-
ly interpreting its figurative lan-
guage, 272, 344.
Scrope, C. Poulett, Esq.; on the
geological phenomena of Central
France, 129.
Sea ■ depth of, 44.
Sea-beaches, Hi, 330.
Sedgwick, Rev. Prof.; on the oppo-
nents of Geology, 37, 333. On
its general character and interest,
37, -66. On diluvium and delu-
ges, 121, 344. On Mr. Ly ell's
principal work, 196. On the mis-
understanding of the figurative
language of Scripture, 225. On
symmetrical divisions of early
rock?, 331. Observations in the
Alps, 325. The author s obliga-
tions to him, 339. On the evi-
dence of the earth's antiquity,
339—343.
Sediment, deposited by water, 64,
312, 321, 324, 326, 327.
Silliman, Prof. Yale College ; on
the duty of Christian ministers to
become acquainted with Geology,
274. On Coal-formation?, 311.
Silurian Syitem of rocks, 323, 333.
Smith, William ; his services to
Geology, 61, 290. His death, 304.
Species of animal remains ; their
ran^e. 62. Number and propor-
tion, 60, 6?, 303. Different re-
gions, 63, 66. Vertical penetra-
tion, 63. Position, 64.
Stilhngfleet, Bishop; on the Del-
uge, 253.
Stonesfield fossil, 76, 335.
Strabo's opinions on some
ical phenomena, 94.
Stratification ; 46, 51, 56, 296, 321,
322, 324, 325, 326, 328, 339.
Order, 46. 61. Disposition, 51.
Texture, 52. Influenced by heat,
53. Erroneous reasoning upon,
313, 315.
Subsidence, 55, 56.
Sumner, Or. John Bird, Bishop of
Chester ; on concessions mutually
of Geology and Biblical Science,
144. On the relation of the Mosaic
records to Geology, 346.
Swainson, William, Esq.; on ani-
mal regions, 67.
Tertiary strata ; their constitution
and extent, 3J2, 325. Their or-
ganic remains, 339.
Thtology ; its alliances with all
knowledge, and its harmony with
sound philosophy, 349.
Time ; its reference to Geology, 71,
73, 197, 318, 325, 326, 329. 333, 343.
Truth ; scientific and religious, con-
sistent, 25, 27, 349. Its nature
and various aspects, 26 — S5.
Turner, Edward, M. D.; his merits
in geological and other science ;
his character, and his death, 286,
237.
■ , Sharon, Esq.; his observa-
tions on geological subjects, 184.
Universal formations; not admit-
ted, 65, 296.
Universe; dependent, 31. Distinc-
tion from tho Independent
Cause, 31.
364
INDEX.
Vegetation,, primitive distiibution,
c 234.
Volcanic action, 45, 48, 49, 280.
Von Schouw ; on vegetable regions,
Wardlaw, Rev. Dr.; on the antiqui-
ty of Creation, 156.
Watson, Rev. Richard ; on the Mo-
saic descriptions, 256.
Whewell, Rev. Prof. ; his general
character of Geology, 267. On
the law of change throughout
the dependent universe, 339! On
the labours and merits of Profes-
sor Sedgwick, 339.
Wilks, Rev. Samuel Charles ; on
geological doctrines, 177 His
poem, "The Fossil Shell," 187-
add, republished in the volume of
poems, "Rescued Rose-Buds."
Wiseman, Rev. Principal ; on the
opinions of the Fathers upon
Genesis i. 154. On geological
doctrines generally, 193. On the
previous condition of the earth
347. '
Young, Rev. Dr. George ; his geo-
logical opinions, 187. On univer-
sal expressions, 249. Observa-
tions on his book, " Scriptural
Geology," 309.
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