TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS. 87 



stated (p. 376) : — " Scripture draws practically a broad line between the 

 two modes ; and while it tells man all that is necessary to his wants and 

 welfare as a religious creature, it does not communicate to him a single 

 scientific fact which he is competent to find out for himself." 



Owing to the disjointed nature of the contents of this volume, already 

 indicated, we feel it impossible to give an accurately analytical survey of 

 the subjects handled. Among these, however, two stand out most 

 prominently, both on account of their inherent interest and the manner 

 in which we find them here dealt with. These are, "the Noachian Deluge ," 

 treated of in two Lectures, the 7th and 8th, and the much debated question 

 of our planet's antiquity. As introductory to our author's discussion of 

 the theories held respecting both these questions, a highly interesting 

 Lecture, the fourth, is taken up with an investigation of the modus in 

 which the inspired historian of creation received his impressions and 

 knowledge of the facts recorded by him. This the author, following in 

 the wake of some continental writers, especially Dr. J. H. Kurtz, Pro- 

 fessor of Theology at Dorpat, as well as of some of his countrymen, 

 believes to have been by a vision, actually presented to Moses, in which 

 the scenes of creation, progressively, from its chaotic to its perfect con- 

 dition, passed before him, in a species of dramatic form. If such a 

 question be ranked by some among the curious, we see nothing in Mr. 

 Miller's determination of it to which, on the score of theological sound- 

 ness, objection can reasonably be made. 



At page 258, and the following ones, the reader will find a singularly 

 striking exemplification of the versatility of talent which existed in the 

 mental constitution of the departed writer. He sketches out, with great 

 vigour and boldness of conception, what he terms " a possible poem" on 

 creation, wherein all the phases of that glorious work, as he supposes 

 them to have appeared to the inspired vision of Moses, are made to pass 

 before the reader's imagination. This sketch, in some of its details, recalls 

 to mind the lovely poem, on a kindred subject, of James Montgomery, 

 " The Pelican Island ;" but as beyond our province, we merely note this 

 very splendid and sparkling interlude, in a volume more strictly designed 

 to illustrate a scientific subject, as worthy of a passing comment. 



As regards the extent of the Noachian Deluge, Mr. Miller takes the 

 view previously adopted and maintained by the able and pious American 

 writer, Hitchcock, namely, that its range was limited to the then humanly 

 peopled portion of the earth. His reasoning is grounded on the admitted 

 facts of physical geography and geology, as well as the still existing 



