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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 favourable to human life, than the mingled and polluted atmosphere in which we at present exist.

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

* Dr Buckland doubts whether the evidence which certainly exists of a flood of immense force sweeping over the surface of the earth, refers to the Mosaic deluge, or to that which submerged the world immediately before the creation of man. "It has been justly argued," says he, "against the attempt to identify these two great historical and natural phenomena, that, as the rise and fall of the waters of the Mosaic deluge are described to have been gradual, and of short duration, they would have produced compara

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, 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 labour 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.

tively little change on the surface of the country they overflowed. The large preponderance of extinct species among the animals we find in caves, and in superficial deposits of diluvium, and the non-discovery of human bones along with them, afford strong reason for referring these species to a period anterior to the creation of man. This important point, however, cannot be considered as completely settled till more detailed investigation of the newest members of the Pliocene, and of the diluvial and alluvial formations shall have taken place." It is well to speak with caution when a sufficient number of facts have not been collected; but for my own part, I see little force in the objections here stated. No deluge, which rose in a few weeks over the tops of the highest mountains, and enveloped the whole habitable globe, could possibly be tranquil. The discovery of extinct species may be accounted for by the extermination of such animals as the Creator saw would no longer be suitable to the new condition of the earth when it emerged from the waters; and the non-discovery of human bones in the places yet examined, by no means precludes the probability of finding them in the extensive regions of the East, yet unexplored, where it is universally believed the human race had their origin. Geologists jump too quickly to conclusions. How small a tract of the crust of the earth has yet been examined, and even that small tract how imperfectly!

If it should appear, however, that the organized existences of what Mr Lyell calls the Pliocene period of the tertiary formation, are sometimes, or even frequently, mingled with those which were destroyed and submerged at the Deluge, this is just what might be expected, on the supposition that the Pliocene period ended in a similar catastrophe. These existences, both animal and vegetable, would, of course, be mingled with the diluvium which formed the surface of the new earth, and when the fountains of the great deep were again broken up, that diluvium would be disturbed, overturned, and mixed, so as to inclose the remains of antediluvian organization in the the same masses with those of the latest period of the immediately preceding formation.

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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." It was created for the happiness of every living creature, and it completely answered the end. Every thing in the complicated machinery of Nature was, with the nicest skill, adjusted to all the rest, so that there was no jarring—no interference. All was peace, and harmony, and joy. 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. A state of universal blessedness was converted into a state of human discipline. New adjustments became necessary, and were accomplished. The animal and vegetable world, the earth, the sea, and the air, were all accommodated to this wonderful revolution. Wintry storms desolated the land, and chafed the raging sea; earthquakes shook the solid globe; volcanoes poured forth their liquid fire; lightnings flashed, and thunder rent the sky;-decomposition, decay, and death, became the common law of organized existences;—while man, the guilty author of all this disorder, refusing to learn under the rod, waxed only 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 the heavens; 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!

TWELFTH WEEK-SATURDAY.

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 which 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 farther 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 scepticism 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 incredibility 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, taking his argument from an Italian monk, endeavoured to throw doubt on the Scriptural account, by an allegation 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, by 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 farther back than 5000 or 6000 years. *This revolution has, on the one hand, engulphed, and caused to disappear, the

* It will be seen, in a future quotation, that Cuvier fixes still more precisely the geological appearances, as corresponding to the period of the deluge.

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