THE KNOWN LAWS OF NATURE

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marine bed, or by the sudden depression of all the dry land until submerged, and then it is calculated that a rise in the marine level of only two hundred and fifty feet would take place. The fall of the whole fluid that the atmosphere could contain is equally insufficient, for it would only extend to a depth of seven inches. And it is a fact, that no less than eight times the absolute quantity contained in all the seas and oceans together, would be required to produce such an effect as the submerging mountains of such immense altitude as those of the Himalayan chain. But, that a considerable territory may have been inundated, is a proposition to which we have no difficulty in assenting. We know that the bursting of a great inland lake or sea, would overwhelm for a considerable time a neighbouring territory. Or the great volcanic agencies which we still find in active operation, and which have permanently raised whole coasts and territories, and depressed others far beneath the waves, may have produced great local effects; but these agencies are totally insufficient to support a universal deluge, at one time upon the earth and its high mountains. If ever the ocean completely prevailed upon and enveloped the globe, it was before the agencies of central fire had raised its mountain masses, and indeed before that remote and mysterious period of primeval time, when "the waters were gathered together into one place," and the dry land appeared. Such

198

BY GEOLOGICAL APPEARANCES

may have been the condition of the earth before the commencement of the first of "the days" of Creation; when in order to the gathering together of the waters, some great convulsion must have transpired.

Fourth, It has been already shewn that the changes which have occurred on the earth's surface, have not been produced by one event, or at one time. Many of the changes which the theory I have mentioned ascribes to the Deluge, probably occurred during the periods of indeterminate duration, which are thought to have elapsed before, or during, the "six days" of Creation. Many others have been the results of successive deluges, changes, and revolutions, and cannot be referred to one era. And the many phenomena of similar kind, and attributable to diluvian action, which are found in different parts of the globe, are satisfactorily referred to local causes and not a general event. Thus the newest drift has not been deposited by transient waters; and the continuance of the drift beds of the Silurian system in their ancient state, which could not be the case had diluvian waters overspread this country, is a further argument in support of the same general result.

Fifth, In Africa and in the Southern parts of North America, trees of magnificent growth are yet flourishing, which we know by certain evidence to have been standing before the Deluge, even carrying back the period of that event to the remotest era

BY AGED TREES AND VOLCANIC PRODUCTS.

199

assigned by learned chronologists. This fact seems to be of itself a sufficient argument against the assumed universality of the Noachian flood, for those trees must have been destroyed, had they been covered for nine or ten months with sea water.

Sixth, The existence of vast quantities of light and loose volcanic products, on the cones of some volcanoes that probably ceased to burn before the era of the Deluge, and which products, at all events were deposited before that era, also tends to negative the assumption of geographical universality for the Deluge.

Let us then consider whether the doctrine of the universality of the Mosaic flood, is not one arising solely from our construction of the text; and if it can be shewn that for sufficient reasons our construction may be made conformable to the language of nature, without in the slightest degree affecting the veracity of the sacred record, we ought to feel no hesitation in abandoning its generally received interpretation. In addition to the reasons mentioned at p. 195 ante, we have reason to believe that the expression in the Mosaic narrative," the whole earth" was not intended to bear the extensive meaning which has been attached to it. For in that early period of human society, the geographical knowledge of mankind was probably limited by their senses, or actual experience. In comparatively modern periods, the globe was thought to consist

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THE DELUGE NOT UNIVERSAL.

of one continent bounded by the ocean; and it is difficult to see upon what ground we can attribute a greater or more correct amount of geographical knowledge to the age when the Mosaic history was composed. We are perfectly justified in concluding that the particular continent occupied by Noah and his cotemporary inhabitants on the earth, and beyond which, probably, mankind had not at the period in question far, if at all, spread, was considered to constitute" the earth." The territory referred to was, perhaps, the whole of the terrestrial surface then inhabited. And, when we reflect that the Deluge mentioned in Scripture, had for its object the destruction of the human race, "then in all probability," says Mr. Lyell, "confined to a limited space," we naturally inquire, may not the inhabited parts alone have been submerged by that Deluge? And we have seen that several reasons would support the conclusion that the deluged earth was a particular locality.

It must, however, be acknowledged, that a difficulty does seem to attach to this hypothesis, inasmuch as the gradual rise of the waters must have afforded to the objects of the punishment, an ample opportunity for escape to a territory to which the visitation did not extend, and we must remember the reasonings which have been adduced by no less an authority than the illustrious Cuvier, in illustration of the actual occurrence of such an escape, I mean the facts first above mentioned

TRADITIONARY EVIDENCE UNAVAILING.

201

as opposing the geographical universality of the Deluge. The same explaining principle, however, applies.

It is a most extravagant proposition that human traditions, even though perpetuated in the sacred volume, are to direct our views as to the physical mutations of the globe, in periods long antecedent to the existence of any traditions, or even of the human race. But notwithstanding this inconsistency the learned work of the Rev. Mr. Harcourt, already referred to, is chiefly devoted to the investigation of the mythological systems of the most ancient nations, of whom any memorials have been handed down, and to that of the traditions and traditional observances which have been, or are yet, extant among their posterity, on any part of the globe, this investigation having been undertaken with a view of deducing from all of them, arguments in corroboration of the literal interpretation placed on the passages in question. But how can a corroboration derived from any such sources countervail, or even in the least degree weigh against the clear language of nature? The existence of the traditions may, it is said, be taken to evidence the foundation in fact, of the event to which they refer-an event which different nations have invested with features very different from each other. The concurrence of the traditions cannot prove anything more, if those among whom they are yet extant, emanated from a common stock, or modelled their belief on the