disorganization of the whole fabric. Nay, even in the starry firmament, there are symptoms of instability; and a mortal whose life is but a mere span, may sometimes catch a glimpse of systems changing, or a bright world, it may be, extinguished.*

* Such sudden appearance and disappearance of the stars are familiar to astronomers. It was the sudden appearance of a new star of uncommon brilliancy that first incited Tycho Brahè to the study of astronomy. The inferences in the following passage of Professor Playfair's "Illustrations," tend, however, to a somewhat different conclusion from the above. "How often the vicissitudes of decay and renovation have been repeated, it is not for us to determine; they constitute a series of which we neither see the beginning nor the end,-a circumstance that accords with what is known concerning other parts of the economy of the world. In the planetary motions, where geometry has carried the eye so far both into the future and the past, we discover no mark either of the commencement or the termination of the present order. It is unreasonable, indeed, to suppose, that such marks should any where exist. The Author of Nature has not given laws to the universe, which, like the institutions of men, carry in themselves the elements of their own destruction; he has not permitted in his works any symptom of infancy or of old age, or any sign by which we may estimate either their future or their past duration. He may put an end—as he, no doubt, gave a beginning—to the present system at some determinate period; but we may safely conclude, that this great catastrophe will not be brought about by any of the laws now existing, and that it is not indicated by any thing which we perceive."

PART II.

GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA COMPARED WITH THE

MOSAICAL RECORD.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, 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. 1, 2.

In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.-Exod. xx. 11.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them; and on the seventh day God ended his work.-Gen. ii. 1, 2.

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of heaven.-Gen. vii. 11, 19, 23.

71

SECTION I.

THE MOSAICAL AND GEOLOGICAL VIEWS OF

CREATION.

Ir a stranger were to visit, for the first time, the ruins of Pompeii, without any knowledge of its previous history, he would view with interest the numerous fragments of most elaborate architecture strewed in ruins, and, struck with the still and silent antiquity of the scene before him, compared to the lively and luxuriant country around, his first impulse would be to inquire whether any tradition of this catastrophe existed. And thus it is, that the geologist turns from the contemplation of vast creative power, and of destruction and desolation every where around him, to ask of history, if it can throw any gleam of light on his perplexing meditations.

With the exception of national traditions and legends, which are all traceable to one common source, the Book of Genesis contains the only record of creation given to man. We do not deem

it necessary here to enter into any proof of the authenticity of the Mosaical history; but assume the fact as granted, that this account, brief as it is, is a genuine detail of the creation of the world.*

Unlike every other part of Sacred Scripture, which is entirely of a moral tendency, this is strictly a description of physical nature, and seems appropriately to have been given preparatory to a detail of the moral destinies of the human race; and though brief, is precise, as to the manner in which the world and all things it contains were created by the special operations of a great First Cause. This seemed necessary, lest notions, such as were broached among the ancient philosophers, of the fortuitous production of the world, from a chaos of atoms existing from all eternity, should gain general credence among the human race.

*

On entering on this subject, we must notice an

Conjectures have been formed whether Moses delivered his history of the creation from immediate inspiration, or whether he derived his knowledge of the facts from the Egyptians, who again had the tradition delivered through the Chaldæans, from the offspring of Noah. We have no means of stating any thing but conjectures on this subject, nor is the decision of the question of material moment. Our faith in the genuineness of the narrative is corroborated by its recognition by every subsequent inspired writer, and by the great founder of Christianity.

The Passover of the Jews has been instanced as a test of Moses's

veracity as a historian, the observance of this event through subsequent ages being an indubitable proof of the actual occurrence which gave rise to it.