A

COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE, &c.

PART III.

OF THE MODE OF THE CHANGES OR REVOLUTIONS OF THE EARTH, ACCORDING TO THE MINERAL AND MOSAICAL GEOLOGIES, RESPECTIVELY,

CHAPTER I.

It is now finally decided, on a comparison of the two geologies with the philosophy of Bacon and Newton, respecting the FIRST great object of our inquiry, viz. The MODE of all First Formations; that philosophy and truth lie exclusively with the Mosaical. It remains for us, to institute a similar comparison with respect to the SECOND great object; viz. the MODE of the universal Changes or Revolutions, which the mineral substances of the earth manifest themselves to have since undergone.

But, a question here arises, with respect to the course by which this ulterior object ought to be pursued. In the former part of this disquisition, we began our investigation by examining the

pretensions of the Mineral geology; in order to bring it into a comparison with the Mosaical, and to try the validity of each by a common test. This object we have fully accomplished, with respect to the first question; and the result has been, a clear demonstration of the validity of the latter geology by the rule of that test, and of the invalidity of the former. This issue of our examination, appears to render it reasonable that we should now alter our course; and that, continuing to pursue the thread of the Record thus far confirmed, we should apply our close attention to what it relates concerning Changes or Revolutions, effected in the substance of this globe by the intervention of the same Power who alone acted in the work of Creation: carefully examining, at the same time, whether" the phenomena harmonise with the history;" whether the evidences of revolution which the earth reveals, correspond with the statements of the record and are sufficiently accounted for by it; or, whether the mineral geology has discovered the evidence and the statements to be at variance, or has found any evidences of revolution which are not reducible to those stated in the record; for, if they are all so reducible, if the conditions, required by actual observations of the earth, are all thoroughly satisfied by the record, then it will be equally contrary to philosophy and common reason, to assume any other revolutions upon a ground of mere gratuitous conjecture.

But, there is another reason, why this course is to be preferred for this last part of our inquiry, besides the superiority which the record has already acquired from the decision of the test in the first question; which is this: physical philosophy, for a long time past, had taken upon itself to deny the truth of the Mosaical statements, and often with much sarcasm, because it assigned a date of not more than about four thousand years ago, for the period of a Revolution which was able to cause marine substances to be imbedded in all parts of this inhabited earth; even in places the most remote from the sea, and in elevations very considerably above its present level. But, the progress of physical research during the last few years, conducted by naturalists of acute and honest minds, has at last terminated in so signal a concession to the testimony of the Mosaical record in this particular; that, added to the authority of Bacon's and Newton's philosophy, it renders that testimony paramount, as the rule by which all inquiries concerning revolutions general to the globe ought henceforth to be conducted. For, the mineral geology has been brought at length, by physical phenomena alone, to these conclusions; "that the soils of all the plains were deposited in "the bosom of a tranquil water; that their actual "order is only to be dated from the period of the "retreat of that water; that the date of that period is "not very ancient1; and, that it cannot be carried

'D'AUBUISSON, i. 252.

"back above five or six thousand years1." Dolomieu, Saussure, Pallas, De Luc, Cuvier, D'Aubuisson, and the most distinguished naturalists of the age, have coincided in these conclusions; to which they have been led by the evidence of various monuments and natural chronometers which the earth exhibits, and, which remain perpetual vouchers for the veracity of the Mosaical chronology, with respect to the epocha of the revolution which the Mosaical History relates'. "This, "then, (exclaims Pallas,) will be that Deluge, "of which almost all the ancient nations of Asia, "the Chaldeans, the Persians, the Indians, the "Tibetians, and the Chinese, have preserved the

memory; and fix the time nearly to the period "of the Mosaic Deluge"." Let us, therefore, pursue the thread of the history, until it brings us to the relation of the Catastrophe or Revolution in question.

CUVIER, Disc. Prél. p. 134.-Th. § 34.

2 M. de la Métherie, the celebrated physiologist who thinks he has at length ascertained that the earth was made of air and infinity, according to the oracular opinion of Anarimenes; (see above, vol. i. p. 10, note,) thus complacently soliloquises, in opposition to all these testimonies "no fact " proves that any general catastrophes have ever taken place in the surface "of the globe-aucun fait ne prouve, qu'il y ait eu à la surface du globe "des catastrophes générales." Journal de Physique, tom. lxxx. p. 46.

3. Observ. sur la Form. des Montagnes, p. 47.

CHAPTER II.

THE first act of Almighty God after the work of Creation was completed, and when, by the formation of a female, He had provided for the perpetuation of the race of man under the sacred bond of matrimonial union, was to prescribe a moral rule to those highly favoured beings whom His goodness had called to a happy existence; and, to whom He had granted the "DOMINION" DOMINION" over His earthly system, in subordination only to HIS OWN SUPREMACY. For that purpose, and in perpetual evidence of that subordination, He reserved, and prohibited, one and only one object out of the universal grant; the reservation and prohibition of which, though trivial in itself, was amply sufficient for the end designed, which was, to prove whether the moral being, thus bountifully endowed, acted with a due sense of his subjection, or whether he aimed to act in chief, and without respect to his divine Sovereign and Benefactor. That slight and solitary privation, was imposed on the declared principle of divine judgment—“ He who is faithful "in that which is LEAST, is faithful also in much; "and he who is unjust in the LEAST, is unjust also "in much'." Under that trial, MAN failed; he

1 Luke, xvi. 10.-" Primordialis ler est data Adæ et Evæ in paradiso, quasi matrix omnium præceptorum Dei." TERTULLIAN, adv. Judæos, cap. ii.