And

that interpretation had been formed by man. independently of the impossibility of an ingenuous mind submitting to retain a contradiction, and to allow the sanctities of religious faith to be perilled by even a semblance of conflict with scientific truth, it is extraordinary that the supporters of the hitherto received interpretation have not reflected, that in the one case, viz. by the received interpretation of the text, they confine the Divine system of creation, and the operations of the Creator, within a very limited, because a very artificial range. That the supporters of that interpretation are thereby taught to regard the globe, with all its different mineralogical characters, and the varied systems of animated nature, by which Geology proves it to have been, and observation sees it to be, adorned, as the sudden result of His creative power, and as having had existence for a limited period only, a period of six thousand years; to regard the existing system of animated nature as the only system commemorative of His power, His wisdom, and His goodness; and, by attributing all the varied monuments of the globe to the rapid formation of a few hours, to trace but one exercise of stupendous power, but one testimony of benevolent adaptation. Nay more, they are by that interpretation called on to reject the evidence of the human senses, to deny the inevitable results of all past experience, and to violate all principles established in physical science. By that interpretation they are in fact called on to believe an

absolute, an unquestionable impossibility, viz. that the varied strata of the globe, enclosing, be it remembered, the fossil remains of successive creations, and unquestionably recording the lapse of vast periods of time, were of cotemporaneous formation. They are thereby yet further called upon to "set limits to the power of God" in a most presumptuous manner, and to a degree, the consideration of which ought alone to determine the rejection of such an interpretation of the text. They are by that interpretation called on to believe that the great and super-human work of creation proceeded upon the principles, and with the incidents of human workmanship. By the doctrine of the six succeeding and cotemporaneous days, they are taught to believe that the Almighty Architect of the globe "rested" not only "the seventh day," but, the "evening and the morning" which is stated to have intervened between each new or succeeding effort of His power, when we know that He had but to command, and "it was so," to will, and "it was done." They are yet further called on by such an interpretation, to believe that the Divine Author of all wisdom, benevolence, and designed adaptation, created animated beings when the earth was not adapted for their habitation, and incapable to afford them support; and, by associating the creation of animals and plants with the period of the original creation of the world, the literal interpreters of the text are unavoidably condemned to believe an impossibility,

and the great improbability also, that the beneficent Creator made animals and plants when they could not have existed on the earth. The received interpretation not only "sets" these impious "limits to the Almighty power, "* the wisdom and goodness of GOD, but is contradicted by the evidences of nature to the fact that animated beings were not of contemporaneous origin, that all their four great divisions even, did not co-exist upon the globe, and that certain orders and genera characterized distinct periods, extending over a vast duration of time.

In the other case, viz. by the splendid truths of the everlasting and unsophisticated monuments of nature, man, to whom, to whose very race, a brief period of existence is allotted on the globe, is enabled to contemplate the operations and results of creative design, benevolence, and power, in the memorials of periods, in comparison with whose duration that of received cosmogony dwindles to a day. He is, too, inevitably assured that all things had their "beginning" in the fiat of Omnipotence. He is equally convinced that, "in the beginning GOD created the earth," that "without Him, was not any thing made that was made." Instead of one exertion of Almighty power,

* The language of an anti-geological writer, who insists that the researches of Geology "set bounds" to that Almighty power, the manifestation of which, they on the contrary, prove to have been without limit.

he is enabled to contemplate the memorials of its continued exertion; instead of a six thousandyears' experience of the superintending government of GOD, he is enabled to trace it through periods, the duration of which was too vast for the human mind to estimate; he is conducted to the archives of a primeval world, to the monuments of systems of nature, the existence of which no other means short of revelation could have announced, monuments of which revelation is not only wholly silent, but could not have been designed to speak; and the actual features, the exalting and instructive character, the deep and paramount interest, the resplendent grandeur, of which, none but Geology could exhibit or announce. Instead of a belief that animated beings were created in conditions of the globe when it was impossible they could have existed, the conviction is impressed that a benevolent adaptation of organic life to the particular conditions of the globe, prevailed throughout all its incalculably lengthened periods.

With justice, therefore, may it be affirmed, that Geology has opened to our contemplation, views of the Creator and His works far more noble, consistent, and exalted, than those artificial doctrines which they have proudly and resistlessly superseded, and compelled to yield to more noble views; and that it is as unreasonable to question the conclusions of geological science, because they are opposed to those favourite and long received doctrines, as it

would be to abandon the present acquisitions of science and of reason in Astronomy, Chemistry, or any other branch of natural philosophy, because they surpass the knowledge attained, or vary the theories taught by earlier philosophers.

Since geological researches can boast results and objects so magnificent and so exalted, we must, indeed, not only wonder, but must feel the deepest concern when we reflect, that notwithstanding the surpassing merits of Geology, the perverseness and the obstinacy of human prejudice is such, that even this splendid and important branch of natural philosophy, this fertile tributary to the evidences of natural theology, is regarded by persons unwisely prejudiced in favour of their own interpretations of Scripture, as being inimical to religion, as subversive of revelation, and consequently as a "dangerous" and unworthy object of pursuit. The claims of geological inquiry are, indeed, so firmly established, and so well appreciated wherever they are known, that Geology is not called upon to vindicate its claim to the regard and the distinctions it commands, nor have the interests of geological science, the slightest reason to dread the combined efforts of the unhappy prejudice, and in some cases obstinate fanaticism, which, under the banner of Scripture, are presumptuously, but vainly opposed to its conclusions.

The mistaken writers who array their own favorite interpretations of Scripture, and their own incompe