178 FOSSILS. 



drawing general conclusions from partial and limited 

 evidence. Thus, one man, by an inconsistent leaning 

 to a favorite object, or bias in his reasoning powers, 

 might draw out a scheme of the great deluge, and 

 thence of the whole series of geological catas- 

 trophes, from the circumstances of the celebrated 

 Kirkdale Cave ; — another might derive great part 

 of his geognostic information from an acquaintance 

 with the "Crag" deposit; — whilst a third, reposing 

 unbounded confidence in the Mosaic accounts of the 

 creation and deluge, might advocate their supremacy 

 not only over every other account, but also the inu- 

 tility of reference to the evidence afforded us in nature. 

 I say it is possible for the mind to be thus partial 

 and contracted in its view s ; at all events, whether 

 authors have been thus guilty or not, it is evident 

 that such a course is incorrect, and that we ought 

 rather to deduce our conclusions from the entire mass 

 of evidence, after endeavouring to reconcile legiti- 

 mately the discrepancies which here exist^ when each 

 portion is separately considered. Cuvier, in his 

 "Theory of the Earth," makes, I see, a somewhat 

 similar remark on the " contrariety in the solutions 

 of the same problem :" he thinks this is occasioned 

 by " all the conditions of the problem never having 

 been taken into consideration at once." 



With regard to the Mosaic account of the crea- 

 tion and deluge, I must make a few remarks before 

 proceeding further ; because, considering that too 

 much weight has been generally allowed it, I 

 am anxious to explain in what light I hold it, 

 and to induce others to investigate the subject of 

 geology (of which the study of fossils forms a part) 

 unshackled by that record. Now without entering 

 into the details of that account, or indulging in argu- 

 ment at this time, I content myself by stating that 

 it presents nothing but a confused and highly am- 

 biguous relation of events, and we ought to bear in 

 mind that it was not written to satisfy the enquiries 

 of modern naturalists but was intended solely to 



