happy juncture turning up incidentally, might suspend events for millions of years ere a lucky hit obtained. Nor do we observe that unnecessary suspension employed in the fabrication of the earth, which philosophy is prone to assign. A regular series of incidents follow one another successively, as if the whole had been contemplated by Infinite wisdom. The subject so considered, the fair deduction is that the creation of the earth has been accomplished in a relatively short space of time.

Viewed in the early stages of creation, can we attribute order, harmony, and design to chance— the parent of dislocation, misshapen phenomena, and rude chaos? Or shall we compare it to the embryo in the womb, in unconscious repose, while progressing towards a future state of maturity? Or did the earth contain within itself a perfect system directed by foreknowledge and vitality nurturing its growing strength? No! No! These are idle and but philosophic dreams, in which fancy may indulge at the expense of sober truths. The hand of Infinite wisdom, holding the direction of proper instruments, and provided with a superabundance of the fittest materials, has fashioned out the universe, fabricated like a potter's vessel on a wheel, to be afterwards hardened and finished for its intended use. That Geology leads to a conclusion thus figuratively expressed, can scarcely be denied.

In tracing the construction of the earth from its

primitive skeleton to the perfections now shown, a constant tendency towards a more settled order of things may be distinctly observed, and its ruling principles becoming more organic and secure. Even social organization, as brought out of savage barbarity, seems to partake in a like course of events. At each movement the action of the earth has become more steady and harmonious. God has not doomed his creatures to meet higher and higher dangers; more and more impediments and deprivations; but multiplied and multiplying enjoyments and security. He could never designedly disfigure his works, and leave them a prey to augmented defects and disorders; and if we cling to consoling deductions, we believe them to be sustained by undeniable truths; and shall cordially pursue the thread of our narrative, under a conviction that "in God's hand are all the corners of the earth and THE STRENGTH of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands prepared the dry land." Geology leads to these inalienable acknowledgments, as well as that God's will is the most devotedly applied to purposes of universal benevolence. Hence we constantly observe in all that pertains to man, the mere selfishness of individual utilitarianism, put right and conservated, even according to its own assumed propensities, by that devotional goodness and sympathy of heart, which elevates man in the abstract as truly as it does him honour individually. Benighted philo

sophy may not accept such principles; but though man has a selfish disposition, he has also a candid and disinterested one, added to a love of order, harmony, and just government, opposed to destructive changes made on idle and defective principles.

We may here notice that the Isle of Wight along its centre, from west to east, and to the south thereof, is chiefly composed of the fourth series of rocks, deposited by a flux and reflux tide-wave along the northern shore of the British Channel, as shewn in the elaborate and beautifully constructed model of the under-cliff, by Mr. Ibbetson of Regent Street, London. Some may say that the stratification of the under-cliff has mostly a dip; and has therefore undergone disturbance subsequently to its original deposition. But as shores of the sea are commonly shelving, such a deduction would do any thing but prove volcanic force to have uplifted the whole of these beds equally; whilst the splendid model just named exhibits none of the strata in a state of disorder and dislocation. If this be granted, as the summit ranges of the under-cliff exceed an elevation of 800 feet above the level of the sea, a former tidal-wave surpassing that height follows as a consequence.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE DEPOSITION OF DILUVIAL BEDS AND

ALLUVIAL PLAINS.

THE fifth, or quintary formation, in the south-east section of England, is so distinctly an addition to our island, more recent than the cretaceous group to which it succeeds, as to leave no doubt where the diluvial beds begin, and where the fourth series end. While the fourth formation is projected forwards from Hartlepool; the fifth formation is similarly projected from Flamborough Head, comprising the diluvial beds and alluvial districts of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and the basin of London. Thus far we find a tolerably compact diluvial and alluvial Isle added to our eastern shores. Here no mistakes in classification can creep in. The Geology of England, and of the world at large, may be readily divided into five distinct orders of creation, ere man is found among the fair fruits of a Creator's handyworks. He appeared; and marked the sixth period of creation. The seventh is the age of Geological repose-rest. It is idle and futile in Geologists to either overlook or disregard lines so conspicuously drawn out; and liable to no doubts whatever.

An inspired author is correct in science and in theology; and we have but to follow the extended outline he has so ably described, to come at right deductions on what we shall add in detail.

To proceed, on the shores of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and the Isle of Wight on the north, we meet with diluvial beds which have been projected from Bridport by the tide-wave of the British Channel, on tidal laws similar to the projection of the Chesil Bank. Along the southern escarpment of the chalk range from Bridport to Brighton, have those sedimentary deposits accumulated which mark the limits of the fifth formation in this section of the kingdom. Perhaps having in this place marked out a free outline, it may be unnecessary to enter into details, which may be said to almost describe themselves; and we shall accordingly take a more detailed view of the diluvial beds which cover the plain of Wigton, in Cumberland.

An out-crop of red sandstone, commonly more elevated than the range of diluvial beds on the north thereof, is formed on a direct line from the parish church of Dalston to that of Cross Cannonby, the parish church of Maryport. On all points of this line the red sandstone is at short intervals exhibited to the day, and numerous quarries are worked along the entire line. If a parallel line be taken one mile more northwards, it passes through the town of Wigton, seven miles from Dalston, and 12 miles from Cross Cannonby. Along the course