draw correct geological conclusions. We are informed, however, that the life of man extended to a period of tenfold greater duration than it does at present, which indicates a much greater salubrity of the atmosphere; and it is remarkable, that the organic remains of that first period of the human history, correspond with this indication. The state of the air and of the seasons, which was so healthful for man, may readily be supposed to have been equally favorable to the nourishment of other organized existences; and if we are to look for proofs from geology, to confirm the assertion of the sacred volume on this point, we must seek for it in a greater luxuriance in the growth of plants and animals. Man, himself, who seems not to have arrived at the period of puberty before sixty or seventy years of age, was probably of superior stature,—a conjecture which is confirmed by the existence of giants, as we are expressly assured, both before the flood, and for some time after it. However this may be, it is remarkable, that we have undoubted proofs, from antediluvian remains, that many of the organized existences of that period were of much greater dimensions than are now to be found, either in the vegetable or animal kingdoms. Tropical plants seem to have spread over our temperate regions in great luxuriance of vegetation, and among animals there are found, in these regions, some of immense proportions, whose species are now extinct, or, if still existing, as in the case of the tapir, are greatly diminished in size. From these facts, we have evidence that the antediluvian climate was peculiarly genial, and therefore we need not be surprised to find that it was far more favorable to human life, than the atmosphere in which we at present exist.*

* In this view of the superior salubrity of the antediluvian climate, the author is directly opposed to the speculations of Bishop Sherlock, who imagines that the curse pronounced on the ground rested upon it, "in all its rigor, only till the flood, up to which period it rendered the work and toil necessary to raise from the ground a sufficient support for life, a grievous and irksome burden ;" but that, after this catastrophe, that part of the curse which referred to the soil was removed, and the world was, in this respect, restored to its primeval beauty and fertility. This strange notion rests for its support on two texts of Scrip

In another respect, too, the aspect of the antediluvian world must have been considerably different from its present state. Since that early period, a deluge has swept over its surface with tremendous force, levelling hills, filling up valleys, scooping out ravines, altering the bed of the ocean, and blotting out, perhaps, whole continents from the map of the world, while it raised others in their place. By the action of this great catastrophe, very large additions must have been made to the productive soil of the earth, from the effects of detrition; but even then the soil appears to have been abundant, at least in many and extensive portions of the globe; and, whatever changes have been made, of which we shall speak more particularly in another paper, the general character of the terraqueous globe, and its inhabitants, must have been, with the exceptions already hinted at, ture, the first of which is the reason given by Lamech for naming his firstborn son Noah, which means comfort, viz. "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed," (Gen. v. 29.) Those who have noted the custom which prevailed from the earliest times, of recording a reason for the naming of children at or soon after their birth, will scarcely see in this passage any thing more than the delight and pious gratitude of a father, for the gift of a son who should assist him in his agricultural labors. The Bible is full of similar birthday sayings; thus Eve called her firstborn son Cain, which signifies gotten, for she said, "I have gotten a man from the Lord ;" and when, after the murder of Abel, she had another son, she called him Seth, which signifies appointed. "For God," said she, "hath appointed me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." Many other instances might be mentioned.

The other text, on which Sherlock builds his theory, can scarcely be considered of greater weight. It is the promise contained in the two last verses of the eighth chapter of Genesis. "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, neither will I again smite any more every thing living as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." The Bishop argues that these words intimate the removal of the curse, and the restoration of a greater stability of the seasons; but surely this is an unwarranted stretch of the meaning of a text which simply declares that no such calamity as the flood shall ever again visit the earth. The vigor of the human constitution in the antediluvian ages, which is distinctly asserted, is alone sufficient to overturn the Bishop's theory; and the same thing seems to follow from the fact, that the gift of animal food was not added to that of vegetables, till after the flood,-an indication of the superior fertility and abundance, in the earliest ages, of plants fit for human subsistence.

nearly the same as at present. There was not only an abundant vegetation on its surface, but there were metals (brass and iron) which the labor of man could reach, and his ingenuity could convert to his use. Fire must have been employed in smelting and manufacturing these metals; and, from the slight hints which the sacred historian affords, it would appear, that the domestic arrangements of families could not have greatly differed from our own.

This may suffice as a rapid introduction to the changes which I shall next have occasion to notice-those which were occasioned by the universal Deluge. Meanwhile, what a wonderful period have we been surveying !—a new world of organized beings has been created, and has perished. It came fair and perfect from the hands of its Creator. Throughout its whole bounds, there was no evil, no deformity, no death. The eye of the Almighty, as He beheld His work, "saw that it was good." But the adversary and destroyer came. By a mysterious providence, he was permitted to prevail. Moral evil was introduced into the rational creation, and a new order of things arose. Man waxed more and more rebellious, till the whole world was filled with violence, and the measure of his iniquity being full, the sentence came forth from the Creator,-" Behold! I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die." How mysterious was the forbearance which permitted the rebellion, but how just was the judgement which punished it!

31*

THIRTEENTH WEEK-THURSDAY.

V. GEOLOGY.-INDICATIONS OF THE ACTION OF THE DELUGE AT THE PERIOD ASSIGNED TO IT IN SCRIPTURE.

I AM now to consider the geological indications of that universal Deluge, by which a new epoch was formed in the history of the world, and by which, while the increasing wickedness of the human race, then existing, was visited by the Divine Governor with a signal display of His displeasure, a new order of things was prepared.

The account which the sacred historian gives of this awful event, is, that "the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days." It appears further from the Divine record, that in the sixth month from the commencement of the catastrophe, the waters began to subside; and that, at the end of a year, the seas were collected, or rapidly collecting, into their present channels, and the earth had become so dry, at least in the higher grounds, as to be again fit for the habitation of living creatures.

It has been too justly alleged, that there is a tendency to skepticism in the minds of scientific men; that, whether it be from a pride of understanding, which induces them to look down with contempt on the opinions of the vulgar, or from a consciousness of enlarged ideas, which

inclines them to distrust, as contracted or superstitious, the views they have acquired in the nursery and in their elementary schools of instruction, they frequently feel a pleasure in adopting views, and maintaining principles, at variance with revealed truth. At all events, the Mosaic account of the deluge, as well as of the creation, was certainly received with incredulity by those individuals who, about the beginning of the present century, took the lead in geological investigations; and I am by no means sure, that this reproach does not still attach to many who affect the name of philosophical inquirers. Brydone endeavored to throw doubt on the Scriptural account, by an allegation, (which was completely overturned, however, by subsequent discoveries,) regarding the time requisite for converting lava into vegetable soil, which would have given an antiquity to the earth's present surface, far beyond the period of the flood; and Bailly used, for the same purpose, and with similar success, the false and vainglorious chronology of the Hindoos.

Happily, however, a philosopher of a different stamp has arisen, who, rigidly questioning Nature, without reference to any preconceived opinion, and without regard, I believe, even to the authority of Scripture, has come to the conclusion, that the appearances on the surface of the earth, indicate the origin of its present state, as having taken its date at a period corresponding, with wonderful exactness, to the Mosaic account. The words in which M. Cuvier states this satisfactory opinion, are sufficiently pointed and precise. "I conclude," he observes, with MM. Deluc and Dolomieu, that, if there be any fact well established in geology, it is this, that the surface of our globe has suffered a great and sudden revolution, the period of which cannot be dated further back than five thousand or six thousand years. This revolution has, on the one hand, engulphed, and caused to disappear, the countries formerly inhabited by men, and the animal species at present best known; and, on the other, has laid bare the bottom of the last ocean, thus converting its channel into the now habitable earth."*

* That the Supreme Being, not only in the ordinary course of His