positions take place,) have been thought to indicate more time than can be accounted for by the common understanding of the scriptures.

Fourth. Allowing that every kind of limestone has been formed of shells, how is it possible, inquires another, that at their present rate of increase, such immense mountains of this rock could have been formed within the period of 6000 years?

Fifth. The coal formations, being supposed of vegetable origin, seem to prove that plants were in existence at a period vastly more remote than their creation, according to the Mosaic history.

Lastly. The fossil remains of various animals, the species of which, are now supposed to be extinct, and which appear to have been in existence before the creation of man, are thought to show that more time elapsed, before, or during the progress of the creation, than is indicated by the vulgar understanding of Genesis.

These, and a great variety of other circumstances and appearances, have been declared by some naturalists, to be entirely inconsistent with the supposition that organized beings were only brought into existence within the recent period of 6000 years.

The reader will observe, that the evidence, if so it may be called, in all these cases, is merely circumstantial, and entirely dependant on the opinions of the observers; and that hence, while some could see nothing in the facts, which might not be accounted for within the period of a few thousand years, others would see appearances, which could be reconciled only with the lapse of ages.

In

Our ignorance concerning the formation of strata. reasoning on the facts which the strata of the earth present, we are under the necessity of bringing them to the test of some hypothesis which we may adopt, and which we believe most likely to account satisfactorily for them, by considering the circumstances under which they appear to exist. For, having never witnessed the formation of such rocks, we are obliged to reason entirely from analogy, and to draw our conclusions from such parallel

facts, as our own experience or that of others, may happen to furnish us.

Of the actual circumstances under which these strata were formed, or the time necessary for this purpose, we are entirely ignorant, and this is acknowledged by the most experienced geologists.

On this subject, Daubuisson speaks as follows: "The nature of this cause and the manner in which it acted, are most likely removed forever from our knowledge; no effect of the same kind is ever now produced. All the circumstances of the divisions of the mineral masses into strata, both in the primitive and actual states, are very far from being known to us; and we are constrained to say, that to determine respecting stratification, its circumstances and its laws, still remains a problem to be resolved, and is, perhaps, the most important one in geology.*

"We are," says Baron Cuvier, "in the most absolute ignorance, respecting the causes which have occasioned the diversity in the substances of which strata are composed. We are unacquainted even with the agents, which may have held some of them in solution; and it is still disputed respecting several of them, whether they owe their origin to the agency of fire or water."†

De Luc speaks to the same effect. "These strata,” says he, "the formation of which has entirely ceased, must have been the effects of primordal causes which no longer subsist."

Notwithstanding such opinions, and sounder ones do not exist on this subject, still there are those, who, not contented with knowing the facts as they are, begin to conjecture concerning the manner in which these formations were deposited, and bringing every thing down to the test of their own knowledge, wisdom, and experience, come forth with a body of facts which show most clearly that the common understanding of some parts of the sacred writings must be entirely changed, to accord with these discoveries, otherwise the whole Christian code will be in jeopardy. Thus declaring that the Creator, in the formation of this world, could not have subjected matter to natural laws which men cannot now explain, without

* Daubuisson, Book 1, p. 352.

*De Lac, Lett. Geol. p. 72.

t. Prelim. Disc. p. 27.

jeopardizing the whole moral code which, in mercy, he has given us.

"It is revolting to reason," says Mr. Granville Penn, "and, therefore, to true philosophy, to observe how strenuously physical science, though expatiating on the wonders of creation, has labored to exclude the Creator from the details of His own works, straining every nerve of ingenuity to ascribe them all to secondary causes; and with what undisguised relief of thought, it exchanges the idea of God for that of nature."*

So far as we know, all writers who have brought geological phenomena to contradict the common reading of the scriptures, have reasoned on general circumstances and appearances, rather than on particular facts. Wheth

er this has arisen from a tenderness towards the scriptures, connected with a desire to keep such glaring facts as exist, from the knowledge of the world, for its moral good, we do not pretend to know. But we do not hesitate to believe, that no one has yet published a single geological fact, which, when fairly and candidly examined, would in the opinion of sound judgment and discretion, be found to stand in the light of such proof, against the common reading of Genesis, as would be required to invalidate the foundation of any well grounded opinion, commonly received among men.

Inferences from organic strata. Concerning the strata containing shells, although their appearance proves nothing with respect to the period at which they were formed, (any further than that this must have been since the creation of the living remains which they contain,) or the time occupied in their formations; still, from certain circumstances, we may fairly draw several conclusions concerning them. Thus, the fact that they contain shells, shows that they were formed under water; and since one series of strata rest upon another, this proves that the lowest series were formed first. The shells, and the stratified structure of these rocks, also indicate that the matter of which they are composed was deposited from water.

As a matter of hypothesis, we may infer also, that the lower strata of these rocks were formed during the time when the earth was passing from a state of chaos, to that more perfect condition which it assumed, during, and

* Comparative Estimate, vol. i. p. 117.

after the creation of animals; for, at that period, there is reason to believe that the agitation of the waters consequent upon the changes which took place, would cause them to transport and deposit large quantities of loose matter from one place to another. Meantime the rapidly multiplying creatures of the water, which undoubtedly were originally created in all parts of the sea, might be supposed to have been swept along with the turbid waters, and fallen to the bottom with their deposites. Nearly all parts of the earth show that the present dry land has been thrown up from the bottom of the sea; but evidently not at the same time, and the fact that these elevated strata contain shells, shows that this land was under water at the time, and perhaps long after the creation of animals. The convulsions by which these strata were elevated, may be well supposed to have occasioned movements in the water, by which depositions of great depth, containing shells, might have been made in a short period.

No geologist can prove at what epoch these elevations of land took place. Some have supposed, indeed, that the shells they contain were formed while "darkness was upon the face of the deep," and before "the waters were gathered together into one place." But this, as we have shown, supposes a creation anterior to that detailed in Genesis; and, therefore, as the strata themselves contain nothing which contradicts the hypothesis, that they were formed after the creation of animals, it is most reasonable to believe that this was the case.

With respect to the great number of different strata which some formations present, no practical geologist of the present day, would ever propose to offer them as indications of absolute time. Dr. Macculloch, in his account of the "Western Isles," has described a tract of country, which, says he, " may be considered as exceeding twenty miles, on a line taken transversely to the bearings of the strata; and throughout this space, computing from enumerations taken at different places, there are probably not less than 40,000 strata." This great number is owing entirely to displacements occasioned, probably, by subterranean convulsions. "It is probable," says the author, "that this tract consisted once of a series of horizontal strata, of perhaps, four substances only; and that, in consequence of numerous displacements, they have assumed the complicated and deceptive appearances which they

now present."* These four substances are quartz rock, mica-slate, chlorite-slate, and hornblende slate.

In another part of his work, the same author says, “Geologists have endeavored to compute the antiquity [that is of the earth] by various means, often by very childish chronometers,' when deposites of peat, and accumulations of stalactites, have been adduced as measurers of time. Thus also, by measuring the annual depth of earth depos ited in the valley of Egypt, it has been attempted to fix the period at which the Nile begun to flow. But this is equally vain; since the multitude of modifying causes must render all such deposites useless, even as the means of an approximation, independently of the fact that all are not the produce of rivers."t

This is considered a sufficient reply with respect to computing time by the number of strata.

Limestone formations. But if, as many have supposed, limestone is an animal product, the vast masses of this rock, which occur in most countries, are much the strongest proofs which the earth exhibits of her antiquity. The oldest limestone, however, exhibits no marks of organic origin, but is arranged among primitive rocks, as may be seen by the tabular arrangement in the preceding volume. It is the secondary limestone only which contains shells, and it cannot be denied, that, in some instances, considerable beds of this species, appear to be almost entirely composed of these remains. But there is much difference in this respect, in different formations which are considered of the same age. In the oolitic group of Western Erope, shells are very abundant, while in the Italian, Alpine, and Grecian limestones, which represent the same series, very few organic remains are found. It may be difficult to account satisfactorily for this disparity, if these rocks were formed at the same time and of the same materials.

Possibly, however, the Italian limestones were formed at the mouths of ancient rivers, whose waters passing through primitive limestone countries, brought down calcareous matter, which being deposited in a shallow sea, might embrace the shells there growing. At the same

*System of Geology, vol. i. p. 93, * De la Beche, Man. Geol, p.. 323.

+ Vol. ii. p. 60..