heat upon this elastic fluid: and when we consider that the mineral surface of the earth is constantly and violently acted upon by the circulation thus kept up by means of the atmosphere, we can have no difficulty in understanding how materially it must effect geological secondary formations.

Amongst the latest discoveries of science connected with the phenomena of this vital element, is the very intimate connexion now found to exist between magnetism and electricity. There is, perhaps, nothing in the whole range of natural phenomena which has excited more the admiration of mankind, and, at the same time, been obscured with more complete darkness than the principle of magnetism; and it may be considered as a distinct proof of the difficulty of the subject, to observe, that few have even been the theories produced in order to account for it. A ray of light has now, however, been shed upon the subject, by the discovery of a few remarkable facts; and it is probable that in a few years more the active mind of man may overcome this hitherto insuperable problem.*

On the second day, then, of the creation, this most vital part of the earth's system was ordained, and submitted to those laws which have ever since continued in action. The moisture exhaled from the newly created waters, by the newly created sun, was elevated from the surface of the globe, still hid under its watery covering, and was suspended in the

* A most remarkable accident, which occurred on the 13th of April, 1832, has served to throw some light on the intimate connexion between electricity and magnetism. A gentleman and lady, whilst travelling in Worcestershire, on the hind box of their own carriage, were overtaken by a violent thunder-storm, and both were struck by the electric fluid so violently, that their lives were in great danger for some weeks afterwards. A minute and most interesting account of this accident and its effects, is given in the "London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine," for September, 1832. It is only necessary here to allude to these effects on the steel and iron work through which the electric fluid had passed in its course. It was found to have communicated a highly magnetic power to all these articles. The balance-wheel of the gentleman's watch was, amongst others, so highly magnetized, that it has since been mounted

as a compass.

In further illustation of this most interesting subject, it has lately been discovered that a vivid spark of fire is produced on the sudden removal of a steel point from a powerful magnet. This effect is now exhibited in London, in the National Gallery of Science in the Strand.

higher regions of the firmament, to descend upon the future dry land in fruitful showers.

The sun itself, however, was not yet made to appear through the clouds, although its light again produced a second morning, which, with its preceding evening, formed "the second day."

CHAPTER III.

The gathering together of the Waters.-The Sublimity of this Fiat of the Creator not sufficiently understood.—The Transition Rocks.

We now come to the consideration of the events which took place on the third day of the creation, viz. "the gathering together of the waters unto one place," and the consequent appearance of the "dry land."

"And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it

was so.

And this great fiat of the Almighty was to produce the first great geological secondary formations which we find upon the earth's surface; and as the laws which were, in the course of time, to give rise to all the other secondary formations, were from this time forth to come into action, it will be necessary for us to give our utmost attention to the consideration of this great change upon the surface of the earth.

We have before remarked, that, during the first and second days of the creation, the earth must have presented to the view (had any human eye existed to look upon it,) a solid globe of spheroidal form, covered with a thin coat of aqueous fluid, and already revolving on its axis as a member of the solar system. We are fully authorized in coming to this latter conclusion, from the distinct mention made in the record, of the days, comprising, like our present days, the evening and the morning, with the darkness and the light following each other in regular succession. The sun, it is true, had not yet been made visibly to appear, or to shine through the, as yet, cloudy atmosphere; nor had the moon yet become visible, from an additional, and yet more interest

ing and remarkable reason, which of itself, ought to be looked upon as confirmative of this view; and that is, that supposing her to have been placed on the first day of the creation, (when we are to conclude that the whole solar system started into being,) in the relative situation as to the sun and the earth, which she has ever since held at that period of her course when we give her the title of a NEW moon, it was not possible she could have been seen from the earth "until the third evening of her revolution, according to our computation, which exactly answers to the fourth evening of the Mosaical days; our computation connecting the evening with the preceding day-light, but the Mosaical computation with the succeeding day-light:" :”* and on this very day, accordingly, and not till then, she was made to appear at sun-set, to rule, or lead on the night, as the sun was ordained to rule and conduct the day.

It was now the will of the Creator that the earth should no longer be "invisible" under its watery covering; and, accordingly, the command was given, that “the waters should be gathered together unto one place," that the "dry land" might appear. In considering this great event, it becomes a natural and fair question, as it has been left open to us by the record, as to the mode or means by which it must have taken place. The well-poised earth had already begun to revolve upon its axis; and the laws of gravitation and of fluids had consequently began to act in our system. By these laws, it was impossible that the waters could have been gathered together by accumulation, or above the general level, as the solids of the earth might have been. We can, there

fore, come to no other conclusion than that to which we are also led by various parts of the inspired writings, viz. that God did "rend the depths by his intelligence," and formed a depression, or hollow, on a part of the solid globe, within which, by the appointed laws of fluids, the "depths" were "gathered together."

And here we should naturally feel disposed, if the inquiry could be expected to lead to any satisfactory result, to inquire how a hollow could be formed in so solid a mass as we must conceive the primitive earth to have been. But, in this inquiry, we should be adopting that very hypothetical reasoning which has so often led to error, and which we have already

found such reason to condemn. The record is distinct; the fact of water requiring a hollow bed is undeniable. The means of forming that bed, we may safely refer to the hands of him who could create the ocean himself which it was to contain.* It were equally vain and futile to enter here upon the disputed points respecting the solidity or the hollow nature of the globe; because, when we apply to this bed of the ocean the true and proper scale by which we have already examined other parts of the earth's surface, we shall find the depression necessary for containing the whole waters of the earth, so very trifling compared with the globe itself, as not in any way to be affected by either side of such arguments; for we have found reason to conclude that the very deepest abysses of the ocean are not more than from four to five miles below the level of its surface; and that the mean depth over the whole sea cannot be considered more than from a few hundred feet to half a mile. In considering, then, such comparatively diminutive depressions upon the earth's surface, it is by no means necessary either to imagine the "vast disruption and depression of the solid frame-work of the globe;" or to enter upon the question as to the solid or cavous state of the 7990 miles of its diameter, which must for ever remain concealed from our view.'

The following beautiful reflections on this part of our subject are from the enlightened mind of Mr. Granville Penn, who may, indeed, be called the first great advocate for the Mosaic Geology, amongst the men of science of our day. "The briefness of this clause (Genesis i. 9,) and the nature of the subject, have caused it to be little contemplated in proportion to its importance, and to the fulness of the instruction which it conveys; and, therefore, it has not been observed that the same sublimity which is universally perceived in the clause, Let there be light, and there was light,' subsists equally in this clause; 'Let the waters be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land be seen, and it was so.' The sentiment of sublimity in the former clause, results from the contemplation of an instantaneous transition of the universe from the profoundest darkness to the most splendid

"He spake the word, and they were made: He commanded, and they were created.

"He hath made them fast for ever and ever: He hath given them a law which shall not be broken."-Psalm cxlviii.

+ See chap. i. p. 42.