CHAP. III. vert, or, at least, to twist and bend to their own PART III. fancies, the Mosaical statement of the creation. They appear to have thought, that the concession of the former was a full discharge from the necessity of submitting their judgments to the authority of the latter; and that nothing but theological bigotry and intolerance, could impose such a restraint upon their speculations. But, sound philosophy, learning, and criticism, unite to restrict the naturalist, equally in his speculations on the creation as on the deluge; and to demand the assent of his reason, in both, to the precise statements of the Mosaical record. CHAPTER IV. PART III. BUT, if this was truly the case; if the earth which we now inhabit, is not that same "dry CHAP. IV. land" which was first brought out of the waters, after their incumbency for only two days; but, another, and a different earth, brought out of the waters after their incumbency for 1656 years; which new earth, during all that long period, constituted the SEA-BED formed by that universal process of disruption and depression which we traced and contemplated in the events of the third day of creation; if this was truly the case, we shall reasonably look, and it will be our bounden duty diligently and industriously to search for, evidences testifying to so amazing a fact. And, in such research, we shall naturally, First, take a general view around us of the earth, as it lies exposed to our common observation and experience; and we shall inquire; Whether it bears, universally, any appearance of having been, at any period, subjected, for so long an interval of time as more than a millenary and a half of ages, to the presence and perpetual occu CHAP. IV. pancy of the SEA; and therefore, of having been, PART III. during all that time, the dwelling of the marine portion of the creation? And, if it should bear such appearance, we shall then further inquire; Whether it offers any evidence, that the removal of those waters was effected no longer ago, than the period assigned by the record for its removal? We shall reasonably insist upon these testimonies; which must necessarily exist, if the fact averred in the record be really and historically true. We commit this research altogether to the mineral geology; and are content to abide by its decision. And, in truth, it thus reports: "It " is unnecessary to stop to prove that our con"tinents have formed the bed of the sea; there is "no longer any division of opinion among "naturalists upon this point1." "In fact, "philosophers are only agreed in this one point, "that the sea has changed its bed."—" In ex"amining the mineral masses of the earth, 66 every thing concurs to indicate, that this our habitation has undergone great changes and "great revolutions; the sea-shells, incrusted in "the masses of mountains, present irrefutable testimony to our eyes, that the sea anciently "subsisted upon our present continents; and, 66 DE Luc, Lett. Géol. p. 301. 'CUVIER, Th. of the Earth, § 23. p. 70. PART III." that animals inhabited those shells before the "mineral masses, in which they are imbedded, CHAP. IV. 66 were formed: it will be manifest to our eyes, "that those masses could not always have been solid'.-Every thing also concurs to indicate, "that the plains of the earth, such as those of Alsace, Holland, Lombardy, &c. were not deposited by the present rivers, but in the "bosom, or bed, of a or bed, of a tranquil water; that "the actual order of the earth dates only from "the retreat of that water; and, that the date is "" NOT VERY ANCIENT." " "The lowest and most level parts of the "earth, when penetrated to a very great depth, exhibit nothing but horizontal strata, composed of various substances, and containing, almost all of them, innumerable ma"rine productions. Similar strata, with the same kind of productions, compose the hills, even to a great height. Sometimes the shells are so numerous as to constitute the entire body of the stratum. They are almost 66 66 66 every where in such a state of preservation, "that even the smallest of them retain their "most delicate parts, their sharpest edges, "and their finest and tenderest processes. 66 66 CHAP. IV. "They are found in elevations far above the PART III. "level of every part of the ocean, and in places "to which the sea could not be conveyed by any existing cause. They are not only en"closed in loose sand, but often incrusted and penetrated on all sides by the hardest stones. Every part of the earth, every hemisphere, every continent, every island of any size, "exhibits the same phænomena. - They have, therefore, once lived in the sea, and have been deposited by it; the sea, consequently, must have "rested in the places where the deposit has taken place. We are, therefore, forcibly led to 66 66 believe, not only that the sea has at one period "covered all our plains, but that it must have re"mained there for a long time, and in a state of "tranquillity; which circumstance was neces 66 sary for the formation of deposits so exten sive, so thick, in part so solid, and containing "exuvia so perfectly preserved.-Hence, it is 66 evident, that the basin, or reservoir containing "the sea, has undergone some change, at least, "either in extent, or in situation, or in both. "Such is the result of the very first search, and "of the most superficial examination1 " Thus the mineral geology reports, in an 'CUVIER, Theory of the Earth, § 4. p. 31, 32. |