LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 275 



Indeed, if works of this stamp are not liberally encouraged, how can it 

 be expected that a taste for the fine arts can flourish — without the aid of 

 liberal patronage, of what avail are the toils of the artist and the life- 

 destroying intensity of the lettered ? Of the three plates in this number 

 we scarcely know to which the preference is due, they are all so inimit- 

 ably finished. The descriptive part of the work, too, we perceive, 

 maintains its high reputation — and it is, altogether, one of the very rare 

 productions on which the asperities of criticism cannot justly alight. 



LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 



WORCESTERSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



On Tuesday, the 31st of March, Mr. B. Maund, F. L. S., delivered a Lecture « On 

 Geology corroborative of the Mosaic Writings," to a very crowded assemblage of 

 the Members of this Society, at the Guildhall. 



In reference to ihe relation between the modern science of geology and the 

 Mosaic writings, the Lecturer observed " The subject has been embarrassed by the 

 misconceptions, as well of the friends as of the opponents of Revelation. If sceptics 

 have presumed to argue without a sufficient acquaintance with the facts of science, it 

 is not less true that those of established religious principles have injured the cause of 

 revealed religion by a similar defect of information. Some, too, may have done the 

 same by an unphilosophical timidity in approaching the subject. Some well-mean- 

 ing, but weak-minded persons are afraid of discussion on such subjects, lest some- 

 tliing should be found in the page of nature subversive of their established faith. 

 This, however, is paying a very poor compliment to Revelation. This weakness of 

 mind (although it may be an amiable one) is inconsistent with a sincere and 

 enlightened love of truth. Let Revelation and Science be brought fearlessly into 

 opposition. Let facts supersede surmises, and Revelation will trample on Scepti- 

 cism." 



The Lecturer then explained in a very clear and lucid manner the rapidity with 

 which the secondary strata are sometimes deposited ; and remarked, — " We have 

 satisfactory evidence not only of the mutability of rocks, but also of the rapidity of 

 their soUdification. In a chalk formation in Ireland, where convulsions have rent 

 the strata asunder, and protruded from beneath into the chasm, or dyke, a quantity 

 of basalt in a state of fusion, its great heat combined with the superincumbent pres- 

 sure, has, for several feet from the dyke, converted the chalk into granular marble. 

 Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh, has, in like manner, been divided, and the injection 

 of greenstone, in a melted state, has converted the sandstone near it into a compact 

 jasper-like rock. Red sandstone, under similar circumstances, has been converted 

 into hornstone — slate clay into flinty slate — sandstone, of the Isle of Skye, into solid 

 quartz ; — and in Anglesea an instance is noticed, by Professor Henslow, where 

 common shale became highly indurated, and was found to contain garnets, the result 

 of its change of character." 



These and other evidences were adduced by the Lecturer to shew that rocks may 

 be rapidly formed, and also solidified, and that the extravagant theories adopted by 

 some geologists are not founded on that basis of inductive truth which should be 

 the guide of all scientific inquiry. These arguments were not advanced to confine 

 the geologist to a consideration of the present order of things belonging to our 

 planet, for Mr. M., like most other geologists of the new school, admits that its 

 surface may have undergone many successive changes, and have been inhabited by 

 many races of living beings, each being adapted to the state of the globe during the 

 period of its existence. 



After some explanatory remarks and evidences of the Deluge, its effects, &c., 

 the Lecturer thus concluded : — 



" These evidences have been summed up in so masterly a manner by Dr. Buck- 

 land, that I cannot do better than quote the words of that eminent geologist. 



*' * The proofs of an universal deluge are to be found in the following facts :— 



