S34 REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



siliceous, argillaceous, or calcareous, and containing some organic remains. — 

 Lastly, the uppermost layer is formed of the tertiary and supratertiary 

 deposits, in which the vast mass of fossil remains occur. Whether the duration 

 of time occupied by the formation of these various strata will ever be ascertained, 

 remains doubtful ; but at present we have no means of successfully comparing 

 geological and historical periods. Nor can the various orders of strata be accu- 

 rately defined. In Nature's plans we find no abrupt terminations : every thing 

 is so blended as to form one beautiful and harmonious whole. Our division of 

 the crust of the globe is as artificial as the disposition of the animal and vegetable 

 kingdoms into orders, tribes, genera, &c, and serves the same purpose, viz., that 

 of assisting our minds to seize and recollect the endless varieties of form and 

 structure occurring in the strata. We commonly find that strata lie parallel to 

 each other, but remarkable exceptions occur, in their meeting at various angles 

 of incidence, or even crossing each other. Thus much, however, is known, 

 namely, that the formation of the strata by sediment from water must have 

 occupied countless ages — a period before which the few thousands of years con- 

 stituting the history of Man fall into perfect insignificance. 



Since we discover no organic remains in the primary strata — and of course 

 none occur in the granitic formation on which they lie — and, as compared with 

 the tertiary, but few in the secondary, those few being, moreover, among the 

 lowest marine plants, and animals, as Conchifera, Mollusca, zoophytes, &c, 

 it follows, as an incontrovertible position, not only that the world existed a fear- 

 ful time without the presence of anything containing the " breath of life," but that 

 long ages rolled along between the period when the lowest vegetables and animals ', 

 opened their existence and the time when Man first entered the world. Taking 

 the subaqueous origin of stratified rocks for our basis, this admits of no doubt. 

 Thus, the Snowdon Rocks of the primary strata are 3,000 feet thick in Cumber- 

 land. The deposition of that single formation, it is certain, must have occupied 

 a number of ages which it requires powerful nerves to contemplate. But before 

 this the granitic rocks below the primary strata had to be formed, and subse- 

 quently the massy depositions lying above and below the Snowdon Rocks, to 

 which we have alluded by way of example. All this time not a creature 

 breathed, not a footstep ever disturbed the formations, and when at length low 

 forms of animal and vegetable life existed, it is certain that the lapse of ages was 

 again necessary before the world, by a series of slow and gradual changes, was 

 fitted for the reception of the " lords of the creation," the highest of God's mighty 

 works. 



Having now brought the reader to the desired point, let us briefly advert to the 

 account of the creation contained in the first chapter of Genesis. 



" In the beginning," we learn, " God created the heaven and the earth." When 

 this " beginning" was, does not transpire : probably it was a few hours previous 



