VINDICUE GLOLOGICE;
OR THE
CONNEXION OF GEOLOGY WITH RELIGION
EXPLAINED,
IN
AN INAUGURAL LECTURE
DELIVERED
BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, MAY 15, 1819,
ON THE
ENDOWMENT OF A READERSHIP IN GEOLOGY
BY
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE REGENT.
BY THE
REV. WILLIAM BUCKLAND, B.D. F.R.S. M.G.S.
FELLOW OF THE IMPERIAL SOCIETIES OF MINERALOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY AT
PETERSBURG AND MOSCOW, FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD,
AND READER IN MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY IN THE SAME UNIVERSITY.
Tantum abest, ut cans® physic® homines a Deo et providentia abducant, ut contra potius philosophi illi qni in
iisdem eruendis occupati fuerunt, nullum exitum rei reperiant, nisi postremo ad Deum et providentiam confu-
giant. Bac. de Augm. Scient. iii. 5.
OXFORD,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE AUTHOR ;
SOLD BY R. BLISS, OXFORD; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN;
AND MESSRS. WHITTAKERS, LONDON.
1820.
,'V - •» ' ’
https://archive.org/details/b22393304
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
WILLIAM WYNDHAM, BARON GRENVILLE,
F. R. S.
CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,
ETC. ETC. ETC.
FROM A FIRM CONVICTION OF HIS SINCERE REGARD FOR THE
INSEPARABEE INTERESTS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION ;
AND FROM FEELINGS OF
GRATITUDE AND HIGH PERSONAL RESPECT ;
THIS ATTEMPT TO SHEW THAT THE STUDY OF GEOLOGY
HAS A TENDENCY TO CONFIRM THE EVIDENCES OF
NATURAL RELIGION ;
AND
THAT THE FACTS DEVELOPED BY' IT ARE CONSISTENT WITH
THE ACCOUNTS OF THE CREATION AND DELUGE
RECORDED IN
THE MOSAIC WRITINGS,
IS,
WITH PERMISSION, HUMBLY’ DEDICATED
BY HIS LORDSHIP’S
MOST OBEDIENT AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
WILLIAM BUCKLAND
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PREFACE.
If it should appear that, in the present Lecture, reference is
made to many facts and phenomena of Geology which presuppose
a knowledge of this subject; it may be sufficient to state, that
although this inaugural Lecture was delivered subsequently to the
endowment of the office of Reader in Geology in 1819, yet that
Lectures had been annually given on this subject since the year
1814 by myself, and, prior to that period, by my friend and pre-
decessor in the office of Reader in Mineralogy, Dr. Kidd, a
gentleman whose scientific and classical labours in these sub-
jects have been long known to the public through the medium
of his works, and to whom we owe the foundation of that valu-
able collection of specimens in Geology which the University now
possesses.
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.
VINDICIiE GEOLOGICAL;
OR
THE CONNEXION OF GEOLOGY WITH RELIGION
EXPLAINED.
Having recently received from the hands of the Vice-Chan-
cellor an appointment to the office of Reader in Geology in this
University, I should consider myself deficient in one of my first
duties, were I to enter on the present Lecture without a public ac-
knowledgment of that gracious encouragement which His Royal
Highness the Prince Regent has been pleased to extend to this
infant establishment in our University, by the grant of a stipend
from His Majesty’s Treasury, for the delivery of an annual Course
of Lectures in Geology : or were I to forget, that the office of
Reader in its kindred science, Mineralogy, had, on my appointment
to it five years since, been favoured with a similar exercise of Regal
Munificence, demonstrative on these, as on all other occasions, of
the enlightened regard entertained by His Royal Highness for
the interests of our Academical Institutions.
Nor should I do justice to my own feelings, were I to omit to
mention the ardent zeal with which my applications to the Crown
on both these occasions were furthered and supported by the
Chancellor of the University, a Nobleman whose paternal soli-
B
2
citude for the interests of every species of good learning in this
place, it is impossible for us too highly to appreciate, and to whose
active exertions in advancing the cause of science, the metropolis
owes one of its most useful and splendid establishments a.
Of the kind and flattering approbation also with which my re-
cent proposals for establishing a Lecture in Geology were received
by the highest authorities in this place, it is impossible for me to
speak with too much gratitude and respect.
Under such auspices have the foundations of geological know-
ledge been laid in Oxford ; and from the general favour and ap-
probation with which it is now regarded, from its intimate alliance
with Physical Geography, and its national importance as con-
nected with Statistics and Political Economy, we may hencefor-
ward consider Geology as . exalted to the rank of sciences, the
teaching of which forms a part of our established system of educa-
tion.
This ingrafting (if I may so call it) of the study of the new and
curious sciences of Geology and Mineralogy, on that ancient and
venerable stock of classical literature from which the English sys-
tem of education has imparted to its followers a refinement of
a Whilst Lord Grenville was placed at the head of His Majesty’s government in the
year 1806, he procured from Parliament a grant of money for building the Museum of
the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which, by its rich collections in
Human and Comparative Anatomy, has contributed largely to advance the study of these
subjects in our own country, and to raise the character and reputation of the nation in
the eyes of men of science over the continent: it has also assisted in promoting the
science of Geology, not only by its collection of Extraneous Fossils, but by the facilities
it affords of comparing the structure of the Organic Remains of a former world with that
of its present inhabitants ; and of which I cannot quote a more convincing example
than that of the highly interesting papers on the Fossil Remains of extinct animals lately
published in the Philosophical Transactions, by my friend Sir Everard Home.
3
taste peculiarly their own, has obviously resulted from the rapid
improvements in Physics, that during the last half century have
dignified with the name Sciences many subjects, which had per-
haps too long been considered only as Experimental Arts : and
information on these and similar sciences of modern growth, that
are intimately connected with them, has been now so generally
diffused, even amongst the imperfectly educated classes of society,
that if they had not been for their own sakes deserving our atten-
tion, it might to a certain degree have been imperative on us to
admit them to a place in our Academical Establishments, in de-
ference to the general feeling in their favour that now prevails,
and to that knowledge of them which is so very rapidly diffusing
itself through the scientific world.
For some years past, these newly created sciences have formed a
leading subject of education in most Universities on the continent,
and a competent knowledge of them is now possessed by the ma-
jority of intelligent persons in our own country ; and though it
might on no account be desirable to surrender a single particle of
our own peculiar, and, as we think, better system of Classical Edu-
cation, there seems to be no necessity for making that system an
exclusive one ; nor can any evil be anticipated from their being
admitted to serve at least a subordinate ministry in the temple of
our Academical Institutions.
Of the many subjects to which the attention of Modern Philo-
sophy has been directed, Geology is perhaps the last which has
been advanced to that perfection, which may entitle it to be called
a Science : its elements have indeed been long accumulating, and
in the accurate but limited observations of a few strong-minded
individuals its seeds have been scattered irregularly on the field of
knowledge ; but it is not till lately that the germ has quickened,
and begun to advance towards maturity : nor can its full develope-
b 2
4
ment be traced back to a later period than that at which it first
received its name.
The establishment in the Metropolis of a distinct society, the
object of whose labours is exclusively directed to its advancement,
affords an important era in the history of Geology, and has diffused
a general taste and communication of knowledge on subjects con-
nected with it, equal at least to what has yet been accomplished in
any other country. The Trustees also of that magnificent public
repository the British Museum have shewn themselves anxious to
keep pace with the progressive improvements that have been made
in this science, and have added an extensive series of Rock Speci-
mens and Fossil Organic Remains to their inestimable collection of
Simple Minerals. County collections are forming and private ca-
binets accumulating by the zeal and industry of individuals in all
parts of the country, whence a mass of valuable information has
been brought together into a grand and useful common stock of
national knowledge. Accurate physical maps have been con-
structed, expressing the nature and extent of the different strata
of which our island is composed, and illustrating the history of
many of its most important repositories of mineral treasure : Eng-
land is considered as classic ground by the best Geologists of the
continent, and the transactions of the Geological Society of Lon-
don are quoted as standard authority, wherever this science has
been admitted.
But notwithstanding this general expression of public opinion,
it may be fairly demanded of the advocate for the admission of
Geology to a place in our academical studies, what are its preten-
sions to this honor, and what its utility.
Now if by utility is meant subserviency to the common purposes
of life, (though it may easily be shewn that Geology need shrink
5
from a comparison with few other sciences even in this respect,)
yet such views should be altogether objected to in limine as un-
worthy and unphilosophical. The claims of Geology may be made
to rest on a much higher basis. The utility of science is founded
upon other and nobler views than those of mere pecuniary profit
and tangible advantage. The human mind has an appetite for
truth of every kind, Physical as well as Moral; and the real utility
of Science is to afford gratification to this appetite. The real
question then, more especially in this place, ought surely to be,
how far the objects of Geology are of sufficient interest and im-
portance to be worthy of this large and rational species of curio-
sity, and how far its investigations are calculated to call into action
the higher powers of the mind.
Now when it is recollected that the field of the Geologist’s in-
quiry is the Globe itself, that it is his study to decipher the monu-
ments of the mighty revolutions and convulsions it has suffered,
convulsions of which the most terrible catastrophes presented by
the actual state of things (Earthquakes, Tempests, and Volcanos)
afford only a faint image, (the last expiring efforts of those mighty
disturbing forces which once operated ;) these surely will be ad-
mitted to be objects of sufficient magnitude and grandeur, to
create an adequate interest to engage us in their investigation.
Nor can it be considered as a slight recommendation to these
pursuits, that they necessarily lead us abroad amidst the most sub-
lime scenery of nature, and that they lend even to that scenery an
additional source of sublimity in the magnificence of the specula-
tions which they associate with it. It is surely gratifying to be-
hold Science, compelling the primeval mountains of the Globe to
unfold the hidden records of their origin ; and it has been well de-
scribed by one of the most enlightened Philosophers, and the
greatest Anatomist of this or any other age, to be a rational ob-
6
ject of ambition in the mind of man, “ to whom only a short
“ space of time is allotted upon earth, to have the glory of restor-
“ ing the history of thousands of ages which preceded the exist-
“ ence of his race, and of thousands of animals that never were
“ contemporaneous with his species b.”
The human mind has a natural tendency to explore what has
passed in distant ages in scenes with which it is familiar : hence
the taste for National and Local Antiquities. Geology gratifies a
larger taste of this kind ; it inquires into what may appropriately
be termed the Antiquities of the Globe itself, and collects and de-
ciphers what may be considered as the monuments and medals
of its remoter eras.
There are few exercises of our reason more interesting than
the examination of those cases, which, at their first view present-
ing to us the appearance only of disorder and confusion, terminate
at length by the aid of scientific inquiry in a conspicuous display
of the order and harmony of nature.
Now Geology abounds with, or rather is entirely composed of
cases of this kind : it sets out with placing before us a certain
order and arrangement in the disposition of the mineral masses
forming the earth’s surface, which at first appear to be huddled
together in inexplicable confusion ; and it constantly presents to
us examples of regularity developed in the midst of all this
seeming irregularity, of complicated phenomena reduced by the
application of a few principles to a simple solution, of analogies
unexpectedly extended, and of generalizations happily and suc-
cessfully pursued. Now it is evident that a science of such a
character is capable of affording employment to faculties of mind
b Conclusion of Cuvier’s Essay on the Theory of the Earth.
7
of no mean order; it calls forth habits of minute and patient
investigation in the collection of the phenomena on which it de-
pends, and it requires the large grasp and the embodying powers
of comprehensive genius to combine and generalize the details
thus obtained.
Geology holds the keys of one of the kingdoms of nature; and
it cannot be said that a science which extends our Knowledge, and
by consequence our Power, over a third part of nature, holds a low
place among intellectual employments.
And not only has it an entire kingdom of nature to itself, but it
also furnishes what must be considered as necessary appendices to
the knowledge of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, from the
various species originally belonging to these kingdoms, which by
inhumation have passed over to the mineral world, particularly
Animal Remains. As these fossil species often differ entirely from
any now known to exist, and are in many cases highly important
and curious in their structure, the sciences relating to them must
be considered as imperfect until this deficiency can be supplied :
and it is quite obvious that a knowledge of these species is only
attainable through the medium of geological researches. The
following summary of the results of the labours of a single indi-
vidual in that branch of this subject, which relates only to the
fossil remains of quadrupeds, will give some idea of the importance
of Geology to the science of Anatomy.
“ In this manner,” says Cuvier, “ we have ascertained and
“ classified the fossil remains of seventy-eight different quadru-
“ peds. Of these, forty-nine are distinct species, hitherto entirely
“ unknown. Eleven or twelve others have such entire resemblance
“ to species already known, as to leave no doubts whatever of their
“ identity; and the remaining sixteen or eighteen have consider-
8
i( able traits of resemblance to known species. Of the forty-nine
“ new or hitherto unknown species, twenty-seven are necessarily
iC referable to seven new genera; while the other twenty-two new
“ species belong to sixteen genera or sub-genera already known.
“ The whole number of genera and sub-genera to which the fossil
“ remains of quadrupeds hitherto investigated are referable, are
“ thirty-six V’
If we add to these the multitudes of fossil shells, zoophytes,
and vegetables, which are sometimes accumulated in such quan-
tities as to form entire mountains composed almost wholly of the
organic remains of a former system, we see before us a vast field of
inquiry, the limits of which are as yet wholly unexplored. But of
its nature and contents we know enough to pronounce the sciences
of Zoology and Botany to be wholly incomplete, till they shall
have arranged and classified all the varieties of organized matter
which Geology submits to their investigation, and shall have
extracted from them all those useful illustrations and generaliza-
tions, which are the never-failing result of a combined and com-
prehensive view of the subordinate parts of every kingdom of
nature.
Again, the botanical character of a country is in no small de-
gree dependent on the nature of the strata of which it is com-
posed, and a change in the species of plants that occupy the sur-
face, and in its capacity for the important purposes of agriculture,
is the constant result of any decided alteration in the ingredients of
the substratum. The sterile heath is no less frequent an attendant
on strata of siliceous barren sand, than a luxurious growth of fern
and furze is indicative of a mould adapted for corn. The meagre
and delicate herbage of the downs of chalk announces with no less
Cuvier’s Theory of the Earth, sect, xxviii. p. 103. First edit.
9
certainty the poverty of the soil it covers, than the rank luxuriance
of the widely different plants which occupy the marsh lands of al-
luvial districts bespeaks the richness of the matrix in which their
roots are fixed. A change also of the subjacent strata from arid
lime-stone to tenacious clay is no less strongly marked by the dis-
tribution of the native vegetables on each.
Geology is likewise inseparably allied to an extensive branch of
Chemistry, inasmuch as the latter science derives exclusively from
the mineral kingdom no small proportion of the materials which
form the basis of its experiments : and on the other hand, it is
itself so largely indebted to the results of chemical analysis, that
without them its fundamental science Mineralogy could scarcely
ever have existed. So close indeed is the alliance between them,
that it may be fairly stated, that no person can understand the
elements of Mineralogy without a knowledge of Chemistry at least
more than superficial ; nor can any man be considered a philo-
sophical chemist who does not possess a certain acquaintance with
Mineralogy.
Of the application of Pure Mathematics to this same science, it
is impossible to quote a more convincing example than the Abbe
Haiiy’s arrangement of minerals founded on the principles of
Crystallography. From this it appears, that the results of the most
accurate abstract reasonings are completely verified by the absolute
identity in the form and measure of the minutest angles of every
variety of crystallized mineral with those which had been obtained
from the most exact mathematical calculations.
The consideration of the important phenomena of rivers, lakes,
and seas, which continually requires the aid of Hydrostatics, esta-
blishes an intimate connexion between Geology and that branch
of science; whilst the regard it pays to the distribution of land
c
10
and water over the surface of the earth, and to the form, extent,
elevation, and depression of mountains, plains, and valleys, makes
it nearly coextensive with Physical Geography.
And by its connexion with such subjects as the origin of Aero-
lites, calculations on the depth of the sea and mean density of the
earth, and the investigation of the second causes that were em-
ployed in the gradual arrangement of the matter of which our
planet is composed, and in producing the overwhelming con-
vulsions that appear at distant intervals to have affected it,
Geology becomes associated with Astronomical speculations. So
that while she herself receives assistance from many sciences, she
on the other hand imparts her light to others ; and by means of
this constant and extensive reciprocation becomes intimately con-
nected with them all.
But it is now admitted on all hands, that no man can be qualified
to enter any of the highest walks of science, who is acquainted only
with one branch of natural knowledge ; and the mutual depen-
dence of them all is now so positively demonstrated, that the philo-
sopher of our days can no longer be allowed to remain satisfied
with those inquiries which belong exclusively to any single branch,
but must extend his investigations over the whole range of sci-
ences, and illuminate his path by the varied combinations of them
all. Newton was perhaps the first who carried his eye over this
extensive and almost unbounded prospect : he has been since fol-
lowed by D’Alembert, La Place, Biot, Playfair, Leslie, Brewster,
and Wollaston. Of whom it may be said, that they have added to
the highest attainments in Pure Mathematics such an extensive
knowledge of the whole circle of the sister arts and sciences, as has
led to the most important practical advantages to mankind.
But I pass on from these more general observations to the im-
11
mediate subject of this Lecture. In this place it belongs pecu-
liarly to the excellent course of studies which we pursue, to unite
the highest attainments of abstract science and literature with the
much more important purposes of Religious Truth. And as any
investigation of Natural Philosophy which shall not terminate in
the Great First Cause will be justly deemed unsatisfactory, I feel no
apology to be necessary for opening these Lectures with an illus-
tration of the religious application of Geological science. “ Hsec,”
says the immortal Newton, “ Hsec de Deo; de quo utique ex phe-
“ nomenis disserere ad Philosophiam Naturalem pertinet.”
In being introduced then to a new kingdom of nature, we can
scarce fail to inquire, whether we shall here also find the same
proofs of subserviency to final causes, which are so strikingly exhi-
bited in the animal and vegetable creation. And the answer will be
found in the affirmative. Such proofs, though, from the nature of
the subject, less obvious than in the two former instances, are
nevertheless plainly discernible and capable of demonstration. To
enter at large into these proofs would require more ample space
than can now be devoted to it, and presupposes a knowledge of
the subject of which we are but beginning to treat; but some few
may be briefly alluded to.
A great majority of the strata having been formed under water,
and from materials evidently in such a state as to subject their
arrangement to the operation of the laws of gravitation ; had no
disturbing forces interposed, they must have formed layers almost
regularly horizontal, and therefore investing in concentric coats
the nucleus of the earth. But the actual position of these beds is
generally more or less inclined to the horizontal plane, though often
under an angle almost imperceptible. By this arrangement many
strata affording numerous varieties of mineral productions are
made to emerge in succession on the surface of the earth ; whereas
c 2
12
the inferior must have been buried for ever beneath the highest,
had their position been strictly horizontal ; and in such case we
should have wanted that variety of useful minerals almost indis-
pensable to the existence of man in a state of civil society, which
this succession of different strata now presents to us.
Moreover, in the original formation and dispersion of the reposi-
tories of these minerals, and the relative quantities in which they
are distributed; in the provisions that are made to render them
accessible at a certain expense of human skill and industry, and at
the same time secure from wanton destruction or natural decay;
in the more general dispersion of those metals which are most im-
portant, and the comparatively rare occurrence of others which are
less so ; and still further in affording the means whereby their
compound ores may be reduced to a state of purity; in the bene-
volent provision of almost inexhaustible stores of salt and fuel to
supply the wants and reward the industry of man in these latter
ages of the world ; and in causing the vast repositories of coal to
be accumulated from the wreck and ruins of disturbances that
affected our planet long before the existence of the human race ;
in creating also a large proportion of the most valuable metallic
ores at periods coeval with the most ancient revolutions that have
affected the surface of the globe : in all these and a thousand
other examples that might be specified of design and benevolent
contrivance, we trace the finger of an Omnipotent Architect
providing for the daily wants of its rational inhabitants, not only
at the moment in which he laid the first foundations of the earth,
but also through the long series of shocks and destructive con-
vulsions which he has caused subsequently to pass over it.
In the whole machinery also of springs and rivers, and the
apparatus that is kept in action for their duration, through the
instrumentality of a system of curiously constructed hills and val-
13
leys, receiving their supply occasionally from the rains of heaven,
and treasuring it up in their everlasting storehouses to be dispensed
perpetually by thousands of never-failing fountains ; we see a pro-
vision not less striking or less important. So also in the adjust-
ment of the relative quantities of sea and land in such due pro-
portions as to supply the earth by constant evaporation, without
diminishing the waters of the ocean ; and in the appointment of the
atmosphere to be the vehicle of this wonderful and unceasing cir-
culation ; in thus separating these waters from their native salt,
(which, though of the highest utility to preserve the purity of the
sea, renders them unfit for the support of terrestrial animals or
vegetables,) and transmitting them in genial showers to scatter
fertility over the earth, and maintain the never-failing reservoirs of
those springs and rivers, by which it is again returned to mix with
its parent ocean : in all these we find such undeniable proofs of a
nicely balanced adaptation of means to ends, of wise foresight and
benevolent intention and infinite power, that he must be blind
indeed, who refuses to recognize in them proofs of the most exalted
attributes of the Creator d.
Nor is the unity of the Great First Cause less demonstrable from
the structure of the earth, than the wisdom, power, and goodness
of the Deity. That identity of design which has regulated the or-
ganization of animals and vegetables, and established in each link
of the boundless chain of living beings a system of delicately pro-
portioned laws of coexistence pervading its minutest parts, is
equally discernible in the subserviency of the earth’s structure to
the necessities and comforts of the various millions of inhabitants
which the Creator has placed upon it. It is the same hand-writing
d For a good account of the mechanical structure employed by nature in the pro-
duction and supply of springs in those portions of the earth’s strata which are called
secondary, I beg to refer to the chapter on springs, in the late Mr. Townsend’s History
of Moses.
14
that we read, the same system and contrivance that we trace, the
same unity of object, and relation to final causes, which we see
maintained throughout, and constantly proclaiming the Unity of
the great divine Original.
It is thus that Newton in his celebrated Scholium at the end of
the Principia infers, from his researches into the regions of bound-
less space, similar proofs of the Wisdom, Power, and Unity of the
great Creator: 44 Elegantissima hsecce Solis, Planetarum, et Co-
44 metarum compages non nisi consilio et dominio Entis intelli-
44 gentis et potentis oriri potuit — et si Stellse fixae sint centra simi-
44 lium systematum, haec omnia simili consilio constructa suberunt
44 unius dominio/’
And in a similar tone of spontaneous and heartfelt piety, the
acute and learned Paley sums up in the following beautiful and
energetic language the results of the minute and elegant investiga-
tions pursued in his invaluable volume on Natural Theology :
44 If one train of thinking be more desirable than another, it is that
44 which regards the phenomena of nature with a constant refe-
44 rence to a supreme intelligent Author. To have made this the
44 ruling, the habitual feeling of our mind, is to have laid the
44 foundation of every thing which is religious : the world thence-
44 forth becomes a temple, and life itself one continued act of
44 adoration. The change is no less than this, that whereas formerly
44 God was seldom in our thoughts, we can now scarcely look
44 upon any thing without perceiving its relation to him. Of the
44 vast scale of operation through which our discoveries carry us,
44 at one end we see an intelligent power arranging planetary sys-
44 terns, fixing for instance the trajectory of Saturn, or construct-
44 ing a ring of two hundred thousand miles diameter to surround
44 his body, and be suspended like a magnificent arch over the
44 heads of his inhabitants; and at the other bending a hooked
15
44 tooth, concerting and providing appropriate mechanism for the
44 clasping and reclasping of the filaments of the feathers of the
44 humming bird. We have proof not only of both these works
44 proceeding from an intelligent agent, but of their proceeding
44 from the same agent ; for in the first place we can trace an iden-
44 tity of plan, a connexion of system from Saturn to our own
44 Globe ; and when arrived upon our Globe, we can in the second
44 place pursue the connexion through all the organized, espe-
44 cially the animated bodies which it supports: we can observe
44 marks of a common relation as well to one another as to the
44 elements of which their habitation is composed : therefore one
44 Mind hath planned, or at least hath prescribed a general plan
44 for all these productions; one Being hath been concerned in
44 all.”
Similar proofs in support of Natural Theology derived from a
review of the physical structure of the earth, were not unobserved
by the learned physician and naturalist, Dr. Woodward, more
than a hundred years ago ; whose conviction of the high import-
ance of the study of Geology induced him to establish a professor-
ship for teaching it in our sister University, and who thus piously
expresses the result of his own observations on the phenomena
which it developes, and the origin of which he erroneously at-
tributes to the exclusive operations of the Mosaic Deluge.
44 Though the whole series of this extraordinary catastrophe
44 may seem at first view to exhibit nothing but tumult and dis-
44 order, and nothing but hurry, jarring, and distraction of things ;
44 yet if we draw somewhat nearer, and take a closer prospect ot it,
44 if we look into its retired movements and latent springs, we may
44 there trace out a steady hand producing good out of evil, the
44 most consummate order and beauty out of confusion and de-
44 formity, acting with the most excellent contrivance and wisdom
16
“ throughout the whole course of this grand affair, and directing all
“ the several steps and periods to an end, and that a most noble
“ and excellent one, no less than the happiness of the whole race
“ of mankind ; the benefit and universal good of all the many
“ generations of men which were to come after; which were to
“ inhabit this earth, thus modelled anew, thus suited to their pre-
“ sent condition and necessities.” Woodward' s Nat. Hist, of the
Earth , p. 95. 3d edit, part 2.
Mr. De Luc also in his recent admirable work on the passage of
Hannibal over the Alps, in which he has completely settled the
long disputed question on this subject, concludes his examination
of those mountains with observations on the escape of many rivers
in Switzerland from their native valleys by vast chasms or gorges,
the production of which is not referable to any causes now in ac-
tion, and which indicate a series of different operations conducted
at an ancient period of time, with a view to the welfare of the pre-
sent inhabitants of the earth. He specifies cases of many consi-
derable Alpine valleys ; the valley of Geneva also ; the great basin
of Bohemia; and that of the Diarbekir, from which proceed the
upper branches of the Tigris : in all of which the waters escape
from fertile regions, that would inevitably have been buried under
extensive lakes, but for the operation of forces which have ceased
to exist since the earth received its last touch from the moulding
finger of its Creator. Many of these valleys and basins are drained
by chasms and precipitous gorges of enormous depth, which could
not have been produced by the most violent torrents that now
flow through them, but must be referred to the disruption of
mountain masses at the epoch of ancient revolutions that have
overturned the globe, not to establish thereon the kingdom of dis-
order and confusion, but to produce that variety of surface which
should be most pleasant to the eye, and best adapted to the sup-
port of animal and vegetable life, and that disposition which is best
17
calculated to supply the various wants of those multitudes of be-
ings that were destined to become its future inhabitants. He con-
cludes his considerations on these striking marks of design and be-
nevolence in the structure of the earth, with the following appro-
priate reflections.
44 Qui ne voit ici la main de Dieu, preparant d’avance, dans le
<c sein de la mer, les nouvelles habitations des hommes? Sa toute-
44 prevoyance n’attendit pas que les torrens eussent creuse les
44 vallees, que les fleuves eussent creuse leurs lits; mais il tra$a
44 a chacun d’eux la route qu’il devoit suivre dans ses moindres
44 detours. 11 dit au Rhin, il dit au Danube, 4 Yoila les contrees
44 que tu arroseras de tes eaux, et auquelles tu serviras de limites.
44 Voila les montagnes oil tu prendras tes sources, et les valle'es qui
44 te fourneront des eaux abondantes. Le canal qui doit les rece-
44 voir et les conduire a la mer, est prepare : tu n’auras qu’a le
44 suivre/ 4 Les montagnes se dresserent,’ dit le prophete David6,
44 et les vallees s’abaisserent au meme lieu que l’Eternel leur avoit
44 etabli. C’est l’Eternel qui conduit les fontaines par les vallees:
44 c’est par lui qu’elles se promenent entre les monts.”
Another valuable contrivance in the structure ol the globe is,
that nearly all its materials are such as to afford by their decom-
position a soil fit for the support of vegetable life ; and that they
are calculated to undergo and have undergone a superficial de-
composition. Here is an instance of relation between the vegetable
and mineral kingdoms, and of the adaptation of one to the other,
which always implies design in the surest manner : for had not the
surface of the earth been thus prepared for their reception, where
would have been the use of all that admirable system of organi-
zation bestowed upon vegetables? And it is no small proof of
0
e Pseaume civ. 8, 10.
18
design in the arrangement of the materials that compose the sur-
face of our earth, that whereas the primitive and granitic rocks are
least calculated to afford a fertile soil, they are for the most part
made to constitute the mountain districts of the world, which, from
their elevation and irregularities, would otherwise be but ill adapted
for human habitation ; whilst the lower and more temperate regions
are usually composed of derivative or secondary strata, in which
the compound nature of their ingredients qualifies them to be of the
greatest utility to mankind by their subserviency to the purposes of
luxuriant vegetation.
Thus Geology contributes proofs to Natural Theology strictly in
harmony with those derived from other branches of natural his-
tory ; and if it be allowed, on the one hand, that these proofs are
in this science less numerous and obvious, it may be contended, on
the other, that they are calculated to lead us a step farther in our
inferences. The evidences afforded by the sister sciences exhibit
indeed the most admirable proofs of design and intelligence ori-
ginally exerted at the Creation : but many who admit these proofs
still doubt the continued superintendance of that intelligence,
maintaining that the system of the Universe is carried on by the
force of the laws originally impressed on matter, without the neces-
sity of fresh interference or continued supervision on the part of
the Creator. Such an opinion is indeed founded only on a ver-
bal fallacy; for “laws impressed on matter” is an expression,
which can only denote the continued exertion of the will of the
Lawgiver, the prime Agent, the first Mover : still however the
opinion has been entertained, and perhaps it nowhere meets with
a more direct and palpable refutation, than is afforded by the sub-
serviency of the present structure of the earth’s surface to final
causes ; for that structure is evidently the result of many and vio-
lent convulsions subsequent to its original formation. When there-
fore we perceive that the secondary causes producing these con-
19
vulsions have operated at successive periods, not blindly and at
random, but with a direction to beneficial ends, we see at once the
proofs of an overruling Intelligence continuing to superintend, di-
rect, modify, and control the operations of the agents, which he
originally ordained f.
f Examples of this kind are perhaps nowhere more strikingly afforded than in the in-
stance of those fractures or disturbances called faults , which occur in the alternating
beds of coal, slaty clay, and sand stone, which are usually associated under the name of
Coal Measures.
The occurrence of such faults, and the inclined ‘position in which the strata com-
posing the coal measures are usually laid out, are facts of the highest importance as
connected with the accessibility of their mineral contents. From their inclined position
the thin strata of coal are worked with greater facility than if they had been horizontal ;
but as this inclination has a tendency to plunge their lower extremities to a depth that
would be inaccessible, a series of faults, or traps, is interposed, by which the com-
ponent portions of the same formation are arranged in a series of successive tables, or
stages, rising one behind another, and elevated continually upwards towards the surface
from their lowest points of depression. A similar effect is often produced by undula-
tions of the strata, which give the united advantage of inclined position and of keeping
them near the surface. The basin-shaped structure, which so frequently occurs in coal
fields, has a similar tendency to produce the same beneficial effect.
But a still more important benefit results from the occurrence of faults , or fractures,
without which the contents of no deep coal mine would be accessible. Had the strata of
shale and grit stone that alternate with the beds of coal been continuously united without
fracture, the quantity of water that would have penetrated from the surrounding country
into any considerable excavations that might have been made in the porous grit beds,
would have been insuperable by the powers of the most improved machinery: whereas
by the simple arrangement of a system of faults, the water is admitted only in such
quantities as are within control. Thus the component strata of a coal field are divided
into numberless insulated masses, or sheets of rock of irregular form and area, not one of
which is continuous in the same plane over any very large district, but each is separated
from its next adjacent mass, or sheet, by a dam of clay impenetrable to water, and fill-
ing the narrow cavity produced by the fracture which caused the fault.
If we suppose a thick sheet of ice to be broken into fragments of irregular area,
and these fragments again united after receiving a slight degree of irregular inclination
to the plane of the original sheet, the reunited fragments of ice will represent the ap-
pearance of the component portions of the broken masses, or sheets, of coal measures we
are describing, whilst those intervening portions of more recent ice by which they are
D 2
20
The consideration also of the evidences afforded by Geological
phenomena may enable us to lay more securely the very founda-
tions of Natural Theology, inasmuch as they clearly point out to
held together represent the clay and rubbish that fill the faults, and form the partition
walls that insulate these adjacent portions of strata, which were originally formed like
the sheet of ice in one continuous plane. Thus each sheet or inclined table of coal
measures is inclosed by a system of more or less vertical walls of broken clay, derivative
from its argillaceous shale beds at the moment in which the fracture and dislocation
took place; and hence have resulted those joints and separations, which, though they oc-
casionally interrupt at inconvenient positions, and cut off suddenly the progress of the
collier, and often shatter those portions of the strata that are in immediate contact with
them, yet are in the main his greatest safeguard, and indeed essential to his operations.
These same faults also, whilst they prevent the water from flowing in excessive quan-
tities in situations where it would be detrimental, are at the same time of the greatest
service in converting it to purposes of utility, by creating on the surface a series of
springs along the line of fault, which often give notice of the fracture that has taken
place beneath.
A similar interruption of continuity in the masses of the primitive rocks, and rocks of
intermediate age between these and the coal formation, is found to occur extensively in
the working of metallic veins. The vein is often cut off suddenly by a fault or fracture
crossing it transversely, and its once continuous portions are thrown to a considerable
distance from each other. This line of fracture is usually marked by a wall of clay con-
sisting of the abraded fragments of the rock, whose adjacent portions have been thus dis-
located. Such faults are universally known in the mines of Cornwall by the term jluhan ,
and they produce a similar advantage to those that traverse the coal measures in
guarding the miner from inundation, by a series of natural dams traversing the rocks in
various directions, and intercepting all communication between that mass in which he is
conducting his operations, and the adjacent masses on the other side of the flukan
or dam.
It is probable that the greater number of springs, that issue from those rocks which
are unstratified, are kept in action through the instrumentality of the faults by which
they are intersected.
It may be added also, that the faults of a coal field, by interrupting the continuity of
the respective beds of coal, and causing their truncated edges to abut against those of
uninflammable strata of shale or grit, afford a preservative which prevents the ravages
of accidental fire from extending beyond the area of that sheet in which it may take its
beginning, but which, without the intervention of such a provision, might lead to the
destruction of entire coal fields. It
21
us a period antecedent to the habitable state of the earth, and
consequently antecedent to the existence of its inhabitants. When
our minds become thus familiarized with the idea of a beginning
and first creation of the beings we see around us, the proofs of de-
sign, which the structure of those beings affords, carry with them a
more forcible conviction of an intelligent Creator, and the hypo-
thesis of an eternal succession of causes is thus at once removed.
We argue thus-— it is demonstrable from Geology that there was a
period when no organic beings had existence : these organic be-
ings must therefore have had a beginning subsequently to this pe-
riod ; and where is that beginning to be found, but in the will and
fiat of an intelligent and all-wise Creator ?
With what acuteness of argument, and what obstinacy of perse-
verance, the extraordinary notion of an eternal succession was
maintained in ancient times, even by some of the greatest philoso-
phers, it is quite unnecessary here to state : and if some writers
on Geology in later times have professed to see in the earth no-
thing but the marks of an infinite series of revolutions, without the
It is impossible to contemplate a disposition of things so well accommodated, and in-
deed so essential to the various uses which the materials of the earth are calculated to
afford to the industry of its inhabitants, and even to the supply of some of their first
wants, and entirely to attribute such a system to the blind operation of fortuitous causes.
Although it be indeed dangerous hastily to introduce final causes, yet since it is evident
that in many branches of physical knowledge, more especially those which relate to all
organized matter, the final causes of the subjects with which they are conversant form
perhaps that part of them which lies most obviously open to our cognizance, it would
surely be as unphilosophical to scruple at the admission of these causes when the gene-
ral tenor and evidence of the phenomena naturally suggest them, as it would be to in-
troduce them gratuitously unsupported by such evidence. We may surely therefore
feel ourselves authorized to view, in the Geological arrangement above described, a
system of wise and benevolent contrivances prospectively subsidiary to the wants and
comforts of the future inhabitants of the globe, and extending itself onwards, from its
first formation through all the subsequent revolutions and convulsions that have affected
the surface of our planet.
22
traces of a beginning ; it will be quite sufficient to answer, that
such views are confined to those writers who have presumed to
compose theories of the earth, in the infancy of the science, before
a sufficient number of facts had been collected ; and that, if pos-
sible, they are still more at variance with the conclusions of Geo-
logy, (as a science founded on observation,) than they are with
those of Theology.
Let us now proceed to the second part of our inquiry, and exa-
mine in what degree the results of Geological investigations appear
to have affected the evidences of revelation, by bringing to notice
acts, which may seem at first sight to be inconsistent with the
literal interpretation of the Mosaic records.
Unfortunately for the interests of philosophy, it has happened
that a minute examination of the structure and composition of the
earth has given rise to a difficulty from an apparent nonconformity
of certain Geological phenomena with the literal and popular ac-
count of the creation, as it is presented to us in the book of Gene-
sis, and in which the truth of that record seems at first sight to be
implicated.
If the fact I now allude to were not so generally notorious, that
a recent Author g in one of our northern Universities has thought
the subject of sufficient importance to devote a chapter of his
work on the Evidences of Christianity to what he calls the scepti-
cism of Geologists ; it might have been superfluous to introduce
the mention of this subject before those who know the strength of
the irrefragable moral evidence, on which the general authority of
the sacred writings is established, and which cannot be invalidated
by occasional differences touching minute details of historical
s The Rev. Dr. Chalmers.
23
events, or by objections on grounds so hypothetical and uncertain,
as those afforded by the yet imperfect science of Geology. But to
many who have not examined the detail of these evidences, and
who look only to natural phenomena, an apparent inconsistency
of tangible facts with the popular and literal interpretation of
Scripture history presents difficulties, which have been supposed,
however inconsiderately, to invalidate the truth of the Mosaic re-
cords.
Though it cannot be denied that some slight difficulties may
exist, it is satisfactory to find that the evidence of facts unequivo-
cally confirms the statement of these records in all points of most
essential importance ; and that our science stands on the same
ground which astronomy occupied on the first publication of the
system of Copernicus. It has added largely to the evidences of
natural religion in that kingdom of nature, where proofs of design
and order are most obscurely developed to the ordinary observer,
and have been most frequently overlooked, and even denied ; and
with respect to those points, on which the declaration of Scripture
is positive and decisive, as, for instance, in asserting the low an-
tiquity of the human race ; the evidence of all facts that have yet
been established in Geology coincides with the records of Sacred
History and Profane Tradition to confirm the conclusion, that the
existence of mankind can on no account be supposed to have taken
its beginning before that time which is assigned to it in the Mosaic
writings.
Again, the grand fact of an universal deluge at no very remote
period is proved on grounds so decisive and incontrovertible, that,
had we never heard of such an event from Scripture, or any other
authority, Geology of itself must have called in the assistance of
some such catastrophe, to explain the phenomena of diluviaia action
24
which are universally presented to us, and which are unintelligible
without recourse to a deluge exerting its ravages at a period not
more ancient than that announced in the Book of Genesis.
It is highly satisfactory to find the following strong statement on
this subject, published by one who deservedly ranks in the very first
class of natural observers, and in the very centre of continental
philosophy. “ It may be seen,” says Cuvier, “ that nature every
“ where distinctly informs us that the commencement of the present
“ order of things cannot he dated at a very remote period ; and it is
“ remarkable that mankind every where speak the same language
“ with nature.” And in another place he adds, “ I am of opinion
“ with M. Deluc and M. Dolomieu, that if there is any circum-
“ stance thoroughly established in Geology, it is that the crust of
“ our globe has been subjected to a great and sudden revolution,
“ the epoch of which cannot be dated much farther back than five
“ or six thousand years ago; and that this revolution had buried all
“ the countries which were before inhabited by men and by the other
“ animals that are notv best known” Theory of the Earth, §. 34.
The two great points then of the low antiquity of the human
race, and the universality of a recent deluge, are most satisfactorily
confirmed by every thing that has yet been brought to light by
Geological investigations; and as far as it goes, the Mosaic account
is in perfect harmony with the discoveries of modern science. If
Geology goes further, and shews that the present system of this
planet is built on the wreck and ruins of one more ancient, there
is nothing in this inconsistent with the Mosaic declaration, that
the whole material universe was created in the beginning by the
Almighty : and though Moses confines the detail of his history to
4he preparation of this globe for the reception of the human race,
he does not deny the prior existence of another system of things,
25
of which it was quite foreign to his purpose to make mention, as
having no reference to the destiny or to the moral conduct of
created man.
The true state of the question respecting the difficulties that
arise from the periods of time in which the creation is said to have
taken place, has been set forth with much ability and fairness by
Mr. Sumner, a divine whose rational and sober piety no person
will venture to dispute, and whose admirable work on the Records
of Creation, from its originality of sentiment, accuracy of argu-
ment, and elegance of writing, ranks amongst the most able pro-
ductions of the present day.
“ Any curious information as to the structure of the earth
“ ought not,” he says, “ to be expected by any one acquainted
“ with the general character of the Mosaic records. There is no-
“ thing in them to gratify the curiosity or repress the researches
“ of mankind, when brought in the progress of cultivation to cal-
“ culate the motions of the heavenly bodies, or speculate on the
“ formation of the globe. The expressions of Moses are evidently
“ accommodated to the first and familiar notions derived from the
“ sensible appearances of the earth and heavens; and the absurdity
“ of supposing that the literal interpretation of terms in Scripture
“ ought to interfere with philosophical inquiry would have been as
“ generally forgotten as renounced, if the oppressors of Galileo
“ had not found a place in history. The concessions, if they may
“ be so called, of believers in Revelation on this point have been
“ amply remunerated by the sublime discoveries as to the pro-
“ spective wisdom of the Creator, which have been gradually
“ unfolded by the progressive improvements in astronomical
“ knowledge. We may trust with the same confidence as to any
“ future results from Geologjq if this science should ever find its
“ Newton, and break through the various obstacles peculiar to
E
26
<f that study, which have hitherto precluded any general solution
“ of its numerous and opposite phenomena.”
After following up these general remarks with a more detailed
exposition of the harmony which subsists between the facts ob-
servable in the structure of the earth, and a fair and liberal inter-
pretation of the Mosaic account of the creation, Mr. Sumner con-
cludes his statement with the following satisfactory result of his in-
vestigations.
“ All that I am concerned to establish is the unreasonableness
“ of supposing that Geological discoveries, as far as they have
“ hitherto proceeded, are hostile to the Mosaic account of the
“ creation. No rational naturalist would attempt to describe, either
“ from the brief narration in Genesis or otherwise, the process by
“ which our system was brought from confusion into a regular
“ and habitable state. No rational theologian will direct his hos-
“ tility against any theory, which, acknowledging the agency of
“ the Creator, only attempts to point out the secondary instru-
“ ments he has employed. It may be safely affirmed, that no
“ Geological theory has yet been proposed, which is not less re-
“ concileable to ascertained facts and conflicting phenomena, than
“ to the Mosaic history.
“ According to that history, we are bound to admit, that only
“ one general destruction or revolution of the globe has taken
“ place since the period of that creation which Moses records,
“ and of which Adam and Eve were the first inhabitants. The
“ certainty of one event of that kind would appear from the dis-
“ coveries of geologers, even if it were not declared by the sacred
“ historian. But we are not called upon to deny the possible ex-
“ is fence of previous worlds , from the wreck of which our globe
“ was organized, and the ruins of which are now f urnishing matter
27
“ to our curiosity. The belief of their existence is indeed con-
“ sistent with rational probability, and somewhat confirmed by
“ the discoveries of Astronomy, as to the plurality of worlds h.”
A similar exposition of the acceptation in which we ought to re-
ceive the opinions expressed or implied in the sacred writings on
subjects connected with the discoveries of modern Physics, has
been still more strongly given by the illustrious Bishop Hors-
ley in many of his sermons, and more especially in that preached
before the Humane Society
Buffon also, in the results which were continually arising from
his endless investigations into natural history, declares that he
discovered no inconsistency between these phenomena and the
statements of the Mosaic records k.
It cannot however be denied, that examples of its abuse have for
a long time caused the study of the Physical sciences, and in later
days more particularly the pursuit of inquiries into Geology, to lie
under the imputation of being dangerous to Religion.
When it was attempted to explain every thing by the sole
agency of second causes, without any reference whatever to the
first ; when nature was set up as an original source of being, dis-
tinct and independent of the Almighty ; when it was taught that
matter possessed an existence which he never gave it, and that the
elements had differences and qualities independent of him : these
surely were grounds sufficient to excite alarm in all persons who
were zealous for the cause of religion, and the preservation of the
h Vid. Records of Creation, vol. 2. p. 356.
' Horsley’s Sermons, 8vo. 1816, vol. 3. Serm. 39-
k Histoire Naturelle, tom. 12. Des Epoques de la Nature.
E 2
28
best interests of mankind. But the doctrines which gave Philo-
sophy its formidable aspect have now been almost utterly aban-
doned : and if we will calmly allow reason to subdue the first
alarm which excessive zeal excites in good and pious minds, it will
teach us, that nothing can be more unjust than the apprehension
lest the study of nature, when rightly pursued, or in other
words, the contemplation of the attributes of the Creator, as they
are displayed through the medium of his works, should in any
way be destructive of the credibility of those things, which he has
disclosed to us in the revelation of his will.
The existence of this feeling of unnecessary alarm, and the in-
justice and unreasonableness of entertaining it, have been admir-
ably marked out by the great master of modern science, where he
is describing the obstacles which in his time were opposed to its
advancement, and shewing the absurdity, if not impiety of dissolv-
ing that union, by which Philosophy becomes associated in its na-
tural and just office, as the faithful auxiliary and handmaid of Reli-
gion. “ Naturalem enim Philosophiam, (post verbum Dei cer-
“ tissimam superstitionis medicinam,) eandem probatissimum fidei
“ alimentum esse. Itaque merito religioni, tanquam fidissimam
“ et acceptissimam ancillam, attribui, cum altera voluntatem Dei
“ altera potestatem manifestet.”
It was seen distinctly, and felt experimentally by that great Phi-
losopher whose words I have now quoted, that the illustration of
the divine attributes, and the advancement of Religion, are the
great objects which stamp value upon natural knowledge, and that
it is something very different from fair investigation that will con-
duct its followers to infidelity ; and I cannot better conclude this
part of my subject, than in his own impressive words : “ Let no
“ man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or ill applied moderation
<f think or maintain that a man can search too far, or be too well
29
“ studied 4 in the Book of God’s Word/ or the ‘Book of God’s
“ Works but rather let men endeavour an endless progress
“ and proficiency in both : only let them beware that they apply
“ both to charity, and not to swelling; to use, and not to ostenta-
“ tion ; and again, that they do not unwisely mingle or confound
“ these learnings together1.”
Having premised thus much as to the general state of the ques-
tion, let us proceed to view the case before us, and examine how
far the phenomena developed by Geological investigations can be
shewn to be in no way inconsistent with the true spirit of the Mo-
saic cosmogony.
We find the primitive rocks on the greater portion of the
earth’s surface, (i. e. rocks which contain no remains of animal
or vegetable life, or fragments of other rocks,) covered by an
accumulation of derivative or secondary strata, the greatest per-
pendicular thickness of which cannot be estimated at less than
two miles.
These strata do not appear to have been deposited hastily and
suddenly ; on the contrary, the phenomena attendant on them are
such as prove that their formation was slow and gradual, going on
during successive periods of tranquillity and great disturbance; and
being in some cases entirely produced from the destruction of
more ancient rocks, which had been consolidated, and again
broken up by violent convulsions antecedent to the deposition of
those more modern or secondary strata which are sometimes in
great measure derivative from their exuviae.
The differences also of the organic remains both of animals and
1 Advancement of Learning, lib. 1.
30
vegetables, contained in the different strata successively deposited
upon each other, and again their non-agreement with now exist-
ing species, seem to indicate that great changes have taken place
in animated nature, and that new races of organized beings have
successively arisen and become extinct during the periods at which
these strata were formed ; and thus to point out a series of revolu-
tions, to the last of which the present system of the earth and its
inhabitants belongs m.
It seems therefore impossible to ascribe the formation of these
strata to a period so short as the single year occupied by the Mo-
saic deluge ; which was an opinion at first naturally adopted by
those who observed the occurrence of marine shells in inland
countries at great elevations above the present ocean, but who
were ignorant of the enormous masses, and subdivisions of distinct
secondary strata, above alluded to, and of the facts which prove
their slow, gradual, and successive deposition. The deluge has
indeed left traces of its operation deeply sculptured on every stra-
tum of the earth, but they are such as differ most essentially from
those we are now considering ; and prove the deposition of these
strata to have been antecedent to that catastrophe ; which as it is
recorded in Scripture merely as a work of destruction, so has it left
behind it undeniable evidences that its tendency was only to de-
stroy. But the strata we have been considering, although they
bear on their surface unequivocal marks of the agency of that con-
vulsion, were evidently not produced, but partially destroyed by it,
and must be referred for their origin to periods of much higher
antiquity.
m For a concise and able statement of the leading phenomena as yet observed, which
prove that numerous revolutions have affected the surface of the earth, both before
and since the creation of living beings ; and of the successive changes that have taken
place in animal nature, during the progress of these revolutions ; see Cuvier’s admirable
Essay on the Theory of the Earth.
31
It has been supposed therefore by others, with greater plausi-
bility, that these strata have been formed at the bottom of the ante-
diluvian ocean during the interval between the Mosaic Creation
and the Deluge; and that, at the time of that deluge, portions of
the globe, which had been previously elevated above the level of
the sea, and formed the antediluvian continents, were suddenly
submerged with their inhabitants, while the ancient bed of the
ocean rose to supply their place. This hypothesis, it has been
said, has the advantage of explaining the cause why the remains
imbedded in the strata are principally those of marine animals :
but it labours under considerable objections. It should rather ap-
pear from the little that is said in Scripture, that the antediluvian
continents were the same with the present : and a similar con-
clusion is to be derived from the universal diffusion of the bones
of land animals in those superficial depositions of gravel, which
seem to have resulted from the deluge, in almost every valley of
the earth that has been made the subject of geological investi-
gations. As these bones are remarkably perfect, and seldom have
signs of having been much rolled, or transported from a distance,
they appear to have belonged to animals that lived and died
near the spots where they are now found : those places conse-
quently must have formed parts not of the ocean of the antedilu-
vian world, but of its continents.
A third hypothesis may be suggested, which supposes the word
“ beginning” as applied by Moses in the first verse of the Book
of Genesis, to express an undefined period of time which was
antecedent to the last great change that affected the surface of the
earth, and to the creation of its present animal and vegetable in-
habitants ; during which period a long series of operations and
revolutions may have been going on, which, as they are wholly
unconnected with the history of the human race, are passed over
in silence by the sacred historian, whose only concern with them
32
was barely to state, that the matter of the universe is not eternal
and self-existent, but was originally created by the power of the
Almighty.
A fourth hypothesis is that which follows the opinion previously
adopted by many learned and pious men, on grounds very different
from those of Geology, that the days of the Mosaic creation are
not to be strictly construed as implying the same length of time
which is at present occupied by a single revolution of our globe,
but Periods of a much longer extent. And Bishop Horsley, while
he insists that the day in the Mosaic account could only signify a
revolution of the earth round its axis, still adds these remarkable
words, which do, in fact, admit the whole of this hypothesis; “That
“ this revolution was performed in the same space of time in the
“ beginning of the world and now, I could not over-confidently
“ affirm n.”
To the first and second of these solutions there seem to be, as
I have already stated, some considerable objections.
The first is both at variance with the Sacred Records, and still
more inconsistent with the phenomena of Nature.
The second, and I say it with diffidence, as it has received the
countenance of very high authority, while it derives assuredly no
support from the Sacred Records, is also, on the side of natural
appearances, liable to objections not yet sufficiently removed.
And if, by the assistance of either of the two last, (and perhaps
more particularly of the third,) we may be enabled to remove the
leading difficulties which the infant state of Geology as yet can-
n Vol. ii. Serin. 23. On the Sabbath.
33
not but present to us ; if from these conjectures no detriment can
be shewn to arise to the faith of the most pious individual ; if they
have, in fact, been maintained by some of the ablest divines and
writers of the English Church, men uninterested in Geology, but
interested in Religion ; no danger surely can be apprehended
from their admission : nor shall we think it necessary to discard
them, until some stronger reason shall be brought for their rejec-
tion, or until some happier Genius shall have arisen to shed new
light upon our inquiries.
Difficulties indeed will still present themselves, but difficulties
by which neither will the ardor of science be discouraged, nor the
full confidence of religious faith be shaken ; difficulties such as
those of which the whole moral and material world is full, and
without the existence of which, in the opinion of the celebrated
Pascal, it were not easy to believe that this world which we inhabit
is the production of that mysterious Being, “ whose ways are
“ unsearchable, and his works past finding out.”
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APPENDIX,
Containing a brief Summary of the Proofs afforded by Geology , of
the Mosaic Deluge.
I HAVE been induced to draw up the following Appendix in consequence
of an article which appeared in the Quarterly Review of May I8I9, on
Mr. Gisborne’s Testimony of Natural Theology to Christianity.
With the learned writer of this Review I fully coincide in every senti-
ment of the highest respect for the character of Mr. Gisborne, and in every
opinion which he has expressed with so much ability on the Geological
errors which his work contains.
There is, however, one point of vital importance, on which it is suf-
ficiently apparent, from the preceding Lecture, that I entirely differ from
the writer of this Review, namely, in the belief he entertains, on the autho-
rity of Linnaeus, that Geology affords no proofs of the Mosaic Deluge : and
this difference may be the more securely stated, as the general attachment
of the Quarterly Review to the cause of Revelation is so decided ; and as the
very paper in question contains the strongest assertions of the truth of the
Mosaic History: it is simply therefore a matter of science, on which our
opinions are at variance.
That Linnaeus himself should have held such opinions at a period when
Geology was in its first infancy, and many of its most important pheno-
mena were totally unknown ; and when it was impossible for him to
distinguish those effects which are attributable simply to the action of the
Mosaic Deluge, from the more numerous cases of analogous disturbances
f 2
36
which the earth appears to have undergone before the creation of man ; is
a circumstance which can excite in us no surprise. But I am at a loss to
conceive how any person who has evidently read the works of Cuvier with
so much attention as the writer of this Review, and who reproaches Mr.
Gisborne for want of knowledge of this author, could have been induced to
revert to the premature opinion of so infantine a Geologist as Linnaeus,
and have overlooked that most important conclusion which I have before
quoted, in which Cuvier himself sums up the results of his own valuable
observations a.
In every thing that I have been able to observe myself, or to collect from
others whose opinions on such subjects I most highly respect, I find a
series of numerous and widely varied facts ; a certain class of which bears as
unequivocal evidence to the existence of a Deluge, at or near the period
assigned to it by Moses ; as the phenomena of stratification afford, on the
other hand, of a succession of different and more ancient revolutions affect-
ing our planet before the existence of the human race. And it is from want
of accuracy in distinguishing between these facts, that errors have prevailed,
such as those into which Linnaeus fell.
On the detail of those evidences of a recent diluvian action which are
afforded in the neighbourhood of Oxford, and in some of the central parts
of England, I have recently spoken more at large in another place, to which
it seems more peculiarly adapted b. It may be sufficient here to state very
summarily the main reasons which confirm me in the opinion which I have
always entertained.
The proofs then of the Mosaic Deluge presented by natural phenomena
are in my opinion these.
a See p. 24. of the above Lecture, and Sect. 34. of Jameson’s translations of Cuvier’s Theory
of the Earth.
b See paper on the evidences of a recent Deluge afforded by the gravel beds and state of the
plains and valleys of the central parts of England, presented to the Geological Society by myself
in November 1819 ; and also another memoir laid before the same Society by the Rev. W. D.
Conybeare and myself, on the coal districts of Somerset and S. Gloucestershire, in which the
decisive evidences of diluvian action presented in those counties are given in considerable detail.
37
1. The general shape and position of hills and valleys; the former having
their sides and surfaces universally modified by the action of violent waters,
and presenting often the same alternation of salient and retiring angles that
mark the course of a common river. And the latter, in those cases, which
are called valleys of denudation, being attended with such phenomena as
shew them to owe their existence entirely to excavation under the action of
a retiring flood of waters.
2. The almost universal confluence and successive inosculations of minor
valleys with each other, and final termination of them all in some main
trunk which conducts them to the sea ; and the rare interruption of their
courses by transverse barriers producing lakes.
3. The occurrence of detached insulated masses of horizontal strata called
outliers, at considerable distances from the beds of which they once evi-
dently formed a continuous part, and from which they have been at a recent
period separated by deep and precipitous valleys of denudation.
4. The immense deposits of gravel that occur occasionally on the sum-
mits of hills, and almost universally in valleys over the whole world; in si-
tuations to which no torrents or rivers such as are now in action could ever
have drifted them.
5. The nature of this gravel, being in part composed of the wreck of the
neighbouring hills, and partly of fragments and blocks that have been trans-
ported from very distant regions.
6. The nature and condition of the organic remains deposited in this gra-
vel, many, though not all of them, being identical with species that now
exist, and very few having undergone the smallest process of mineralization.
Their condition resembles rather that of common grave bones, than of those
fossil bones which are found imbedded in the regular strata, being in so
recent a state, and having undergone so little decay, that if the records of
history, and the circumstances that attend them, did not absolutely forbid
such a supposition, we should be inclined to attribute them even to a much
later period than the Mosaic Deluge: and certainly there is, in my opinion,
1
38
no single fact connected with them, that should lead us to date their origin
from any more ancient era.
7. The total impossibility of referring any one of these appearances to the
action of ancient or modern rivers, or any other causes, that are now, or
appear ever to have been in action since the last retreat of the diluvian
waters.
8. The analogous occurrence of similar phenomena in almost all the re-
gions of the world, that have hitherto been scientifically investigated, pre-
senting a series of facts that are uniformly consistent with the hypothesis of
a contemporaneous and diluvian origin.
9. The perfect harmony and consistency in the circumstances of those
few changes that now go on, (e. g. the formation of ravines and gravel by
mountain torrents; the depth and continual growth of peat bogs; the form-
ation of tufa, sand-banks, and deltas ; and the filling up of lakes, estuaries,
and marshes,) with the hypothesis which dates the commencement of all
such operations at a period not more ancient than the Mosaic Deluge.
All these, whether considered collectively or separately, present such a
general conformity of facts, tending to establish the universality of a recent
Deluge, as no difficulties or objections that have hitherto arisen are in any
way sufficient to overrule.
In the full confidence that these difficulties will at length be removed,
however slowly, by the gradual progress and extension of science, we may
for the present rest satisfied with the argument, that numberless phenomena
have been already ascertained, which, without the admission of a recent and
universal Deluge, it seems not easy, nay, utterly impossible to explain.
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