2 PETER II. 5.

LECTURE V.

God spared not the old world,―bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly.

In this sentence of the holy apostle, it is manifestly declared, that the design of the deluge was to inflict a deserved punishment upon that generation of men, whose awful impiety had defied the power of the Most High, and scorned his mercy. This defining of the object warrants the conclusion, that whatever amount and extent of the diluvial waters would suffice to execute the sentence of excision, would also be adequate to fulfil the moral purpose of the Righteous Judge in ordaining this infliction. If the universality of the flood extended to the human race, the world of the ungodly," it is all that was requisite to satisfy the purpose of the visitation.

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In the last lecture, we had set before us some account of the mistaken views which had been extensively entertained concerning the effects of the deluge, as supposed to have left their permanent impressions upon the surface of our globe and we listened to the opinions of some of the most illustrious naturalists and geologists in favour of that hypothesis, under different modifications.

But the lapse of not more than ten years has brought a vast collection of observations to bear upon this interesting subject: and I conceive it may, with the strictest truth, be said that the annals of science, or of literature, or of theology, do not present a nobler instance of fairness and mental integrity, than was shewn by the most perfect geologists that our country, or any other, can boast, in yielding up a favourite and long cherished opinion, to which they had committed themselves in the most public manner, and for which they had been hailed with flattering applause; knowing also, by a very sure anticipation, that the concession to the power of evidence, the avowal of honest conviction, would expose them to the censures of some, who "understand neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm," though they speak and write with a confidence in the direct proportion of their incompetency to say or affirm upon good grounds.

The observations which, in their legitimate deductions, have produced this remarkable result, have been made by many persons, and those the best qualified, from their high attainments in all science, and the skill for making observations which long practice alone can give they have been made in many countries, near and far distant; and they have been made with a circumspection, an exactitude, and an anxious watchfulness against the causes of mistake, which ought to command our admiration and gratitude.

Those laborious researches were chiefly directed

to the drift of which we have been speaking, and to which was commonly assigned the name of diluvium. This is found to spread widely over the surface in many countries, either visibly covering the ground, or barely concealed by the turf and cultivable soil. During the more early period of geological progress, this diversified mass was, implicitly, and rather hastily though the error was natural, regarded as of one formation; and thence it was an easy step of advance, in drawing the conclusion that a universal flood was the active and immediate cause of the whole, that this flood was among the most recent events affecting the exterior crust of the earth, and that it must have been identical with the great deluge of universal tradition and of sacred history. But the need was felt of closer examination, minutely distinguishing, and carefully classifying. The constitution, mineralogical or lithological (for we cannot altogether avoid using the technical terms,) of the small grains of sand, the pebbles, the bowlders, and the masses of all sizes, which compose the so-called diluvium, was scrutinized, and compared with the character of rocks at every point on the lines of distance, till the parent rocks were demonstrated from which the fragments had been broken or rubbed off. The mineralogical constitution thus traced up to a commencing point, gave a sure indication of the extent of each kind of drift; and a measure of the varying water-power, by which the detached bodies of stony matter had been moved onwards. Hence were perceived the different

degrees of force and velocity which characterised the streams as they flowed; the earlier or later dropping of the mud, sand, pebbles, and larger pieces, on their course; the greater or less rolling at the bottom before a resting-place was obtained; the extent of the deposit in breadth, and where it terminated by the moving power being exhausted, or being checked by some obstacle; and the deductions which could be drawn, as to the time requisite, under different degrees of water-power, for wearing the rough and sharp fragments of rocks of various hardness and tenacity, till they could be brought into rounded forms with smooth surfaces.

To any mind not practised in such inquiries, it is not easy to conceive what a wide field this was for investigation and it could not be occupied by studies only in the closet: it required painful and patient toil in flood and field, over wide plains, in river-beds, on the sea-coasts, in the windings of large and small valleys, and up the mountain-sides; and all this to be effected over many miles of surface, and in different and distant regions of the earth. No one person could be competent to more than a limited share in this field; though we cannot but be astonished at the extensive portions of it which have been individually explored by distinguished geologists: but they are men in whose circumstances have been combined eminent science, disengagement from other occupations, health, bodily strength, ample fortune, and such attachment to these pursuits as made them shrink from no labour. It is not given

to every man to be a De la Beche, a Buckland, or a Griffith; a Murchison, a Phillips, or a Sedgwick. The investigations however have been carried on, over the larger part of Europe, and a great breadth and length in North America; and the observations made by individuals have been brought together, rigorously sifted, mutually compared, and their combined results wrought into an harmonious whole. Yet the class of men of whom I am speaking have not sat down satisfied with even the best proved inferences. They have continued their efforts; and their instructions and example have excited others. Many parts of Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America, have been explored by experienced geologists and their Reports, not seldom brought by themselves and subjected to searching criticism in assemblies of able and acute examiners, have thus been added to the common treasury.

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One of the first results established was that the outspread masses of which we are treating, sands, gravel, and bowlders, were not of one formation, nor of one age. The separate divisions into which they had been traced, put upon each a sort of historical mark. Some were found to belong to origins almost on their own spot, that is, the rocks of the locality within but a few miles; others were traced to a considerable distance, yet in the same country. Others were shewn to have been derived from mountains in remote lands, from which they are now divided by lofty ridges or by seas, which are thus proved not to have existed when the passage was free. The order