432 Bibliographical Notices. 



He meets the difficulty respecting the antiquity of the earth by 

 supposing that all the geological formations discovered by modern 

 science were deposited after the original creation of matter asserted 

 in the first verse of Genesis, but before the particular series of events 

 narrated in the rest of the chapter. These vast geological periods, 

 being unconnected with human history, are wholly omitted by Moses, 

 ^rhe narrative which follows he supposes to refer, not to the whole 

 earth, but to a particular region, probably in Central Asia, which he 

 considers to have been reduced by volcanic or other agencies to the 

 state of darkness and desolation described in the second verse. The 

 rest of the chapter relates, in the most simple and condescending 

 language, the gradual restoration of this region to a state of fertility, 

 and the consummation of the six days' work by the creation of Man. 

 This hypothesis is perfectly consistent with geological facts, and may 

 surely be considered as being calculated to give satisfaction to the 

 mind of the Christian philosopher. 



The question as to the existence of death before the fall of Adam 

 is easily disposed of. When we are told that " by man sin entered into 

 the world, and death by sin," it is evident from the whole context 

 that it is only the death of man, not that of the inferior animals, 

 which is spoken of. The testimony of geology as to the existence 

 of animal death from the earliest times is corroborated by the voice 

 of comparative anatomy no less than of common sense. 



Dr. Pye Smith proceeds to show, that the objections which have 

 been raised on geological grounds to the supposed universality of 

 the deluge may be set at rest by assuming the Noachic flood, like the 

 Adamic creation, to have been confined to a limited district. He 

 quotes many texts in which the phrase "all the earth" is used figu- 

 ratively for a particular region, and hence it is easy to suppose, that 

 in the case of the deluge the same expression may have a similarly re- 

 stricted meaning. And it is a remarkable fact that there is a vast re- 

 gion on the shores of the Caspian which is at least 100 feet below 

 the level of the sea, an irruption of which would at this day inun- 

 date many thousand square miles and destroy millions of Uves. 



Dr. Pye Smith conjectures, that by volcanic disturbances the Indian 

 Ocean gained access to this depressed region, where, aided by vast 

 torrents of rain, a deluge was produced sufficient to destroy the 

 human race of that period. The ark, containing a few favoured sur- 

 vivors, might thus easily be drifted, not indeed to the frozen sum- 

 mit* of the Armenian Ararat according to the common tradition, but 

 to some of the lower ranges of hills connected with that mountain. 

 This hypothesis of our author has certainly great plausibility, and 

 we will only suggest as an amendment, that the tract in question was 

 more likely to have been inundated from the Euxine than from the 

 Indian Ocean. The Euxine and Caspian Seas are separated by a 

 very low tract of land in South Russia, and if the Bosphorus were 

 now to be blocked up by a volcanic eruption, the waters of the 

 Euxine would rise to the height of 576 feet, and those of the Cas- 



* Mr. Beke, liowever, contends that it must have been upon the highest 

 point: see his ' Origines Biblieae,' 1834. 



