PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 305 



perceptions of our own limited and imperfect faculties, and relin- 

 quish a science the results of which must be regretted by every 

 friend of social order, moral excellence, and religious truth." The 

 difficulties to which the lecturer refers arise from the disclosures 

 made by Geology respecting the lapse of very long periods of time 

 before the six days creation, as recorded by Moses. After express- 

 ing his conviction that the word and works of God must, in all es- 

 sentials, point in the same direction and lead to similar conclusions, 

 the lecturer thus states his opinion that the object of the Mosaic 

 narration was strictly religious and in no degree scientific. " Let 

 us, for a moment, reflect : if it had pleased God to lay open the 

 whole field of Nature and science to the view of the inspired histo- 

 rian, for the sake of its farther promulgation, it would have been 

 also necessary to have imparted a similar knowledge to his hearers, 

 or their minds would have been involved in useless speculations and 

 scientific technicalities, instead of anxiously intent on the far more 

 important information which the narrative conveys. We should 

 ever bear in memory this important fact, that it was not the inten- 

 tion to inform mankind how the world was made, but by whom — 

 not in what manner it pleased the Almighty to call creation into 

 existence, but that he commanded and it was done." The lecturer 

 then goes on to state the views taken by those who consider the ma- 

 terial substance of our globe to be of no older date than, at first 

 sight, the Mosaic account may imply. The first view — that the 

 various geological phenomena may be accounted for by the convul- 

 sions that have taken place since the creation of man, and princi- 

 pally by the Mosaic deluge — he considers to be refuted by the vast 

 thickness and innumerable sub-divisions of the stratified rocks, and 

 by the numerous successions they contain of the remains of animals 

 and vegetables ; those in what may be termed the transition rocks, 

 where organic remains are first found belonging to extinct species. 

 It is still a matter of doubt whether a really fossil skeleton of 

 man has ever been discovered, and certain it is that none has 

 ever been found in any of the lower strata ; consequently many 

 successions of animals must have existed before man was first cre- 

 ated." We are obliged to abridge the discussion upon this interest- 

 ing question. The next view alluded to is entertained by those 

 who may be said to hold a middle course upon this subject. They 

 consider that no system existed })revious to the first day of the Mo- 

 saic account, and that all difficulties may be overcome by extending 

 the word "day" to an indefinite period, instead of a single revolu- 

 tion of the earth. In the opinion of the lecturer, there exist strong 

 scientific, theological, and critical objections to this view. It ap- 

 pears that the remains of the most ancient marine animals occur in 

 the same strata with the earliest remains of vegetables ; so the ori- 

 gin of animals and plants must have been nearly cotemporaneous. 

 The length of each day is distinctly marked by the emphatic men- 

 tion of the evening and the morning as its boundaries. It is also 

 most improbable that the sun should not have been created or made 



VOL. VI. NO. XX. QQ 



